This is a wiki post. Anyone can edit to add in their own book suggestions.
Community building books that we’ve stumbled across, seen other people reading or have been recommended.
Community
- The Rise of Virtual Communities - Amber Atherton
- Get Together: How to Build a Community — Bailey Richardson, Kevin Huynh and Kai Elmer Sotto
- Community: The Structure of Belonging — Peter Block
- Building Brand Communities: How Organizations Succeed by Creating Belonging — Carrie Melissa Jones, Charles Vogl
- The Art of Community: Seven Principles for Belonging — Charles H. Vogl
- People Powered — Jono Bacon
- The Indispensable Community — Richard Millington
- Buzzing Communities — Richard Millington
- The Community Builder Guidebook — Julian Stodd
- Social Architecture: Building On-line Communities — Pieter Hintjens
- Unlonely Planet: How Healthy Congregations Can Change the World — Jillian Richardson
- Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us — Seth Godin
- The Business of Belonging — David Spinks
- The Need for Roots: Prelude to a Declaration of Duties towards Mankind — Simone Weil
- The Careless Society: Community And Its Counterfeits — John McKnight
- Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism — Benedict Anderson
- Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community — Robert D Putnam
- How a Hashtag Changed The World: Stories, Lessons and Reflections from the #LinkedInLocal Movement — Anna McAfee, Nicole Johnston
- Walk Out Walk On: A Learning Journey into Communities Daring to Live the Future Now — Deborah Frieze, Margaret J. Wheatley
- Hacking Communities — Laís de Oliveira
- Superfans: The Easy Way to Stand Out, Grow Your Tribe, and Build a Successful Business — Pat Flynn
- The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements — Eric Hoffer
- Community Builder — Lana Kristine Jelenjev
- Online Community Management — Stephanie Baiocchi
- Working in Public: The Making and Maintenance of Open Source Software — Nadia Eghbal
- Blueprint for Revolution: How to Use Rice Pudding, Lego Men, and Other Nonviolent Techniques to Galvanize Communities, Overthrow Dictators, or Simply Change the World — Matthew Miller, Srdja Popovic
- Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging —Sebastian Junger
- The Virtual Community — Howard Rheingold
- Online Community Management - How to create branded communities online and in social media — Stephanie Baiocchi
- The Open Source Way 2.0
- Community-Led Regeneration — Daniel Fitzpatrick, Pablo Sendra
- The Whuffie Factor: The 5 Keys for Maxing Social Capital and Winning with Online Communities — Tara Hunt
- Community Building on the Web : Secret Strategies for Successful Online Communities — Amy Jo Kim
- A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster — Rebecca Solnit
- Affinity Online: How Connection and Shared Interest Fuel Learning — Amanda Wortman, Crystle Martin, Katie Salen, Matthew H. Rafalow, Mizuko Ito, Rachel Cody Pfister
- New Power: Why outsiders are winning, institutions are failing, and how the rest of us can keep up in the age of mass participation — Henry Timms, Jeremy Haimans
- The Paradox of Internet Groups — Haim Weinberg
- Designing Online Communities: How Designers, Developers, Community Managers, and Software Structure Discourse and Knowledge Production on the Web — Trevor Owens
- Design to Thrive: Creating Social Networks and Online Communities that Last — Tharon Howard
- Online Community Management For Dummies — Deborah Ng
- Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies — Charlene Li, Josh Bernoff
- The Online Community Blueprint: A 9-Step Guide to Planning an Online Community for Your Customers — Joshua Paul, Katie Bapple, Katie Oakes
- Swarmwise — Rick Falkvinge
- Building Successful Online Communities: Evidence-Based Social Design — Paul Resnick, Robert E. Kraut
- Belong: Find Your People, Create Community, and Live a More Connected Life — Radha Agrawal
- More Together Than Alone — Mark Nepo
- Community-Powered Journalism: A Manual for Growth and Sustainability — Kevin Davis, Mark Lee Hunter
- Social Physics: How Social Networks Can Make Us Smarter — Alex Pentland
- The Wisdom of Crowds — James Surowiecki
- The Vanishing Neighbor: The Transformation of American Community — Marc J Dunkelman
- The Third Pillar: How Markets and the State Leave the Community Behind — Raghuram G. Rajan
- The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace — M Scott Peck
- Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope — Bell Hooks
- Against the Romance of Community — Miranda Joseph
- Developing B2B Social Communities: Keys to Growth, Innovation, and Customer Loyalty — Margaret Brooks, John Lovett, Sam Creek
- Fierce Loyalty — Sarah Robinson
- Organising Communities: Identifying, connecting and facilitating — Peter Staal, Kirsten Wagenaar
- Managing in Networks — Timo Järvensivu
- Build Your Community: Turn your connections into a powerful — Richard Millington
- The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again — Robert Putnam, Shaylyn Romney Garrett
- Brothers in the Beloved Community: The Friendship of Thich Nhat Hanh and Martin Luther King Jr - Marc Andrus
- Living Together: Searching for Community in a Fractured World - Mim Skinner
- The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups - M Olson
Events, facilitation & experiences
- The Art of Facilitation — Dale Hunter
- The Art of Gathering — Priya Parker
- Patterns for Decentralised Organising — Richard D Bartlett
- Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rule-breakers, and Changemakers — Dave Gray, Sunni Brown, James Macanufo
- Community-In-a-Box: How to Build Event-Driven Professional Communities — Mark Birch
Helping
- Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success — Adam M Grant
Loneliness, Belonging & Inclusion
- True Inclusion: Creating Communities of Radical Embrace — Brandon Robertson
- How to Stay Sane in an Age of Division — Elif Shafak
- Disasters and Mental Health: Therapeutic Principles Drawn from Disaster — Charles Fritz
- Alienated America: Why Some Places Thrive While Others Collapse — Timothy P. Carney
- Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?: And Other Conversations About Race — Beverly Daniel Tatum
- The Lonely Century: How to Restore Human Connection in a World That’s Pulling Apart — Noreena Hertz
- The Anatomy of Loneliness: How to Find Your Way Back to Connection — Teal Swan
- Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection — John T. Cacioppo, William Patrick
- Lost Connections: Why You’re Depressed and How to Find Hope — Johann Hari
- Better Together: Restoring the American Community — Robert D Putnam
- Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Home — Toko-pa Turner
- Alone in America: The Stories That Matter — Robert A Ferguson
- The Network Self: Relation, Process, and Personal Identity — Kathleen Wallace
- The War for Kindness — Jamil Zaki
- Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World — Vivek Murphy
- The Lost Art of Connecting — Susan McPherson
- Design for Belonging: How to Build Inclusion and Collaboration into your Communities — Susie Wise
DevRel
- The Business Value of Developer Relations: How and Why Technical Communities Are Key To Your Success | Mary Thengvall
- Developer Marketing & Relations: The Essential Guide | Nicolas Sauvage, Andreas Constantinou, Caroline Lewko
- Getting Started in Developer Relations — Sam Julien
Reputation
- Building Web Reputation System — Bryce Glass, Randy Farmer
- The Reputation Society — Hassan Masum, Mark Tovey
Trust
Memberships
- The Forever Transaction: How to Build a Subscription Model So Compelling, Your Customers Will Never Want to Leave — Robbie Kellman Baxter
- Subscription Marketing — Anne Janzer
- From Impossible to Inevitable — Aaron Ross, Jason Lemkin
- Subscribed: Why the Subscription Model Will Be Your Company’s Future - and What to Do About It — Tien Tzuo
- The Membership Economy - Robbie Kellman Baxter
Strategy, marketing & growth
- The Power of Moments - Chip Heath & Dan Heath
- Invisible Influence - Jonah Berger
- One Million Followers - Brendan Kane
Business, Organizations & Economics
- The New Capitalist Manifesto: Building a Disruptively Better Business — Umair Haque
- Betterness: Economics for Humans — Umair Haque
- Things a Little Bird Told Me: Creative Secrets from the Co-Founder of Twitter —| Biz Stone
- Better Work Together — Anthony Cabraal, Susan Basterfield
- Online Community Handbook: Building your business and brand on the Web — Anna Buss, Nancy Strauss
- Practical Guide to Salesforce Communities: Building, Enhancing, and Managing an Online Community with Salesforce Community Cloud — Philip Weinmeister
- Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City — Brad Feld
- Unleashed: The Unapologetic Leader’s Guide to Empowering Everyone Around You — Anne Morriss, Frances Frei
- The Social Organization: Developing Employee Connections and Relationships for Improved Business Performance — Jon Ingham
- Building Social Business: The New Kind of Capitalism That Serves Humanity’s Most Pressing Needs — Muhammad Yunus
- Reinventing Organizations: An Illustrated Invitation to Join the Conversation on Next-Stage Organizations — Frederic Laloux
- Humanize: How People-Centric Organizations Succeed in a Social World — Jamie Notter , Maddie Grant
- Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States — Albert O. Hirschman
- The Rise and Decline of Nations: Economic Growth, Stagflation, and Social Rigidities - Mancur Olson
Communities of Practice
- Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge — Etienne Wenger, Richard A. McDermott, William Snyder
- Building Successful Communities of Practice — Emily Webber
- Learning in Landscapes of Practice: Boundaries, identity, and knowledgeability in practice-based learning — Etienne Wenger-Trayner , Mark Fenton-O’Creevy, Steve Hutchinson, Chris Kubiak, Beverly Wenger-Trayner
Leadership, Work, Collaboration & Changemaking
- Peers Inc: How the Collaborative Economy is Creating Radical Prosperity — Robin Chase
- Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success — Adam Grant
- Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations — Clay Shirky
- The Surprising Power of Liberating Structures — Henri Lipmanowicz, Keith McCandless
- The Social Organization: Developing Employee Connections and Relationships for Improved Business Performance — Jon Ingham
- The Power of Onlyness: Make Your Wild Ideas Mighty Enough to Dent the World — Nilofer Merchant | Change, Ideas,
- The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations — Ori Brafman, Rod A. Beckstrom
- Purposeful: Are You a Manager … or a Movement Starter? — Jennifer Dulski
- Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds — Adrienne Maree Brown
- Virtual Teams That Work — Cristina B. Gibson, Susan G. Cohen
- Better Work Together — Alanna Irving, Anthony Cabraal, Chelsea Robinson, Damian Sligo-Green, Francesca Pick, Joshua Vial, Kate Beecroft, Richard Bartlett, Sandra Chemin, Silvia Zuur, Susan Basterfield
- Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization — Dave Logan , John King, Halee Fischer-Wright
- Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration — Keith Sawyer
- The Commoner’s Catalog for Changemaking — David Bollier
Rituals
- Rituals for Work — Kursat Ozenc, Margaret Hagan
- The Power of Ritual: How to Create Meaning and Connection in Everything You Do — Casper ter Kuile
Networks
- Impact Networks — David Ehrlichman
Habits
- The Power of Habit — Charles Duhigg
- Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything — BJ Fogg
- Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones — James Clear
Conversation, Friendship & Relationships
- Just Listen: Discover the Secret to Getting Through to Absolutely Anyone — Keith Ferrazzi, Mark Goulston
- Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age — Sherry Turkle
- How to have impossible conversations — Peter Boghossian & James Lindsay
- On Connection — Kae Tempest
- The Art of Loving — Erich Fromm
- The Art of Showing Up: How to Be There for Yourself and Your People — Rachel Wilkerson Miller
- We Should Get Together: The Secret to Cultivating Better Friendships — Kat Vellos
- Managing Differences: How to Build Better Relationships at Work and Home — Daniel Dana
- Games People Play — Eric Berne
- Good Talk — Daniel Stillman
- Shared Reality: What Makes Us Strong and Tears Us Apart — E. Tory Higgins
- Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don’t Know — Malcolm Gladwell
- Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close — Aminatou Sow, Ann Friedman
- The Village Effect: Why Face-to-Face Contact Is Good for Our Health, Happiness, Learning, and Longevity — Susan Pinker
- Conflicted: Why Arguments Are Tearing Us Apart and How They Can Bring Us Together — Ian Leslie
- When Strangers Meet — Kio Stark
- The Power of Strangers: The Benefits of Connecting in a Suspicious World — Joe Keohane
- Context Changes Everything: How Constraints Create Coherence — Alicia Juarrero
Product
- The Culting of Brands: Turn Your Customers into True Believers — Douglas Atkin
- Designing for the Social Web — Joshua Porter
Moderation, Social Justice, Division & Hate
- Cyber Racism and Community Resilience: Strategies for Combating Online Race Hate — Andrew Jakubowicz
- Custodians of the Internet: Platforms, Content Moderation, and the Hidden Decisions That Shape Social Media — Tarleton Gillespie
- Anti-Fandom — Dislike and Hate in the Digital Age — Melissa A. Click
- Design Justice — Sasha Costanza-Chock
Local Community & Architecture
- The Abundant Community: Awakening the Power of Families and Neighborhoods — John McKnight, Peter Block
- The Anatomy of the Creative City
- Building for Hope: Towards an Architecture of Belonging — Marwa al-Sabouni
- Palaces for the People: How To Build a More Equal and United Society - Eric Klinenberg
Culture
- Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living — Krista Tippett
- The Ambivalent Internet: Mischief, Oddity, and Antagonism Online — Ryan M. Milner, Whitney Phillips
- Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language — Gretchen McCulloch
- The Culture Code — Daniel Coyle
- The Ambivalent Internet: Mischief, Oddity, and Antagonism Online — Whitney Phillips, Ryan M. Milner
- Team Human — Douglas Rushkoff
Questions & Inquiry
Grassroots
- Organizing for Social Change: Midwest Academy Manual for Activists — Kimberley A. Bobo, Jackie Kendall, Steve Max
- Grassroots Innovation Movements — Adrian Smith, Juan Mariano Fressoli, Dinesh Abrol, Elisa Arond, Adrian Ely
Religion
Tech
- a tumblr book: platform and cultures — Allison McCracken, Alexander Cho, Louisa Stein, and Indira Neill Hoch