Anyone who has lived in Vancouver for any length of time has watched whole neighbourhoods of gleaming condominiums rise up; no one can quite remember what was there before. Lance Berelowitz, an urban planner, tackles this collective civic amnesia in Dream City: Vancouver and the Global Imagination (Douglas & McIntyre). He chronicles Vancouver’s urban environment, from colonial settlement in the wilderness to glass towers and sprawling suburbs, Expo 86 architectural cast-offs, red-hot real estate markets, beach culture and the search for meaningful public spaces. Bristling with sometimes overwhelming detail, this is a book for the true Vancouver geek. As a bonus, you will learn to use terms like “Vancouver Special,” “dingbats” and “swing zones.”