"Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer" by Novella Carpenter is a slight variation on the theme. Carpenter decides there is no way she’s leaving the city, but is determined to farm. She clears an enormous lot behind her house in industrial Oakland and sets to work growing vegetables and keeping her pigs from running out onto the interstate. This book is for the DIYer in you. It's idealistic, contemporary, and absolutely insane. (CSMonitor review, 6/20/09)