I can’t comment on either of these two books, but I thought I’d add my own.

Cadillac Desert, by Marc Reisner
Fascinating look at “water politics” and the unscrupulous tactics used to secure SoCal’s water supply, plus lots of info on other places around the country. It’s basically a collection of interesting stories (espionage, sabotage, etc) showing how we got to where we are. The suburbia the in the two books beano mentions wouldn’t be possible (in SoCal) without us taking water from other areas. I thought this book fit semi-well with this suburbia thread, and it also ties into the “brown lawn syndrome” thread where people are discussing alternate landscaping. This will be the most eye opening and frightening book you’ve read in a while.