by Nathan Marsak. Looking for books about Los Angeles for your fall reading list?  Buy LA Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America's Most Seductive City on Amazon Download LA Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America's Most Seductive City for your Kindle device, LA reading list: Less Than Zero by Brett Easton Ellis  Crump, 90, retired near the seaside community in the 1990s. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. 92 books — 24 voters. Interviews with jazz musicians who were there make it immediate. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. Famous musicians like Dizzy Gillespie and Louis Armstrong sometimes posed alongside stylish audience members when the roving photographer came to capture the scene. In focusing on several key points in Los Angeles history, Deverell explores the process through which Los Angeles became modern, white, and American. With our beloved city all but shut down, we found ourselves with a lot of extra time on our hands to read this year. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. From a guide book to Griffith Park to an ode to roadside architecture, these titles helped up to connect with a city that was all but shut down, This website stores cookies on your computer. Illusion, Imagination, and the Invention of Los Angeles.  Buy The Day of the Locust on Amazon, LA reading list: Play it as it Lays by Joan Didion This is one that's given us the most insight and new knowledge. He gathered his research for Post Office at the Los Angeles Terminal Annex on North Alameda Street downtown, which was the central mail processing facility for LA from 1940 to 1989. Abandoned and Historic Los Angeles: Neon and Beyond by Jason Horton Jason Horton is a writer and comedian who loves to explore Los Angeles looking for … Restaurants Raise Much-Needed Funds, In a New Prequel to ‘The Great Gatsby,’ Nick Carraway Gets His Own Mystery, In the Current Political Moment, Richard Wagner’s Influence Is More Relevant—and Problematic—Than Ever. Nathan Marsak resurrects the long-gone neighborhood in his new book, and a companion zine called Bunker Noir! Touching upon the intrigue and development surrounding the Los Angeles architecture scene from Postmodernism through Deconstructivism, this book reveals deeply personal and moving stories and events about many of the formative conferences, exhibitions, pedagogical developments, and formal and material strategies of the avant-garde Los Angeles architecture community from the 1970s … And boy, does The Hours have all that in spades. We already have this email. Its main character, film exec Monroe Stahr, is said to be modeled loosely on real life film exec Irving Thalberg, the "boy wonder" of motion pictures. It is an excellent book about Los Angeles, crime, the police force and it’s dark period of the 30s, 40s and 50s. If you’ve ever read a Raymond Chandler novel, you know Bunker Hill. "—Diesel Ken Lee has captured the ruins of lost civilizations as they melt away in the desert. 4.6 out of 5 stars 182. It's a wonderful social and political satire, and no, you don't get to cross it off your list for seeing There Will Be Blood. "Los Angeles will never look quite the same after you have seen it through [protagonist] Maria Wyeth's cool and sorrowful eyes. For the last four years, the New York-based photographer has been hunting for L.A.’s midcentury roadside architecture and going to great pains to capture the sparkling neon and stucco motels, coffee shops, and gas stations for his new book, Gas and Glamour. "We're haunted by the unforgiving hardness of the Downtown LA streets, the longing beauty, the poetic simplicity of the words, the images. The grand mansions and stylish apartments of 1900 had mostly gone to seed by the time the city bulldozed the neighborhood of pensioners, along with “alcoholics, the gaunt packrats, the working girl,” as novelist John Fante wrote. 110 books — 23 voters. We have a quote from the book painted on the floor of our store: 'Los Angeles give me some of you. Stay on top of the latest in L.A. food and culture. Sign up for our newsletters today. YA Hollywood. Book reviews, book news and author interviews. Urban theorist Mike Davis charts the geopolitics and diverging... ‘Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies’. You could walk from downtown to Santa Monica—twice—and still cover less ground than the maze of trails in Griffith Park. ... Sign up for the Los Angeles Times Book Club.  Buy Play it as it Lays on Amazon, LA reading list: Oil! The Port of Los Angeles has served Southern California for more than a century, by bringing ships and their cargo to the area, aiding the military through several major wars, and establishing Los Angeles as a major presence on the international maritime scene. A 20th-century classic. Pages in category "Novels set in Los Angeles" The following 193 pages are in this category, out of 193 total. “I had this idea of Los Angeles as sort of a dream city,” Sinha says. Clubhouse Turn: The Twilight of Hollywood Park Race Track by Michele Asselin. Bukowski, one of contemporary literature's most infamous perverts, alcoholics and ne'er-do-wells, has always painted Los Angeles as a dirty, rotten city with a sweet streak of hope. This list may not reflect recent changes (). We use this information in order to improve and customize your browsing experience and for analytics and metrics about our visitors both on this website and other media. West's savage novel illustrates a darker side of the Hollywood dream during the Great Depression, and is widely considered one of the best English-language novels of the 20th century. Books don't often have taglines, but this one is pretty good: Other cities have histories. "—The Last Bookstore Bunker Hill Los Angeles: Essence of Sunshine and Noir and Bunker Noir! Thanks for subscribing! © 2021 Time Out America LLC and affiliated companies owned by Time Out Group Plc. FREE Shipping on orders over $25 shipped by Amazon. Luckily, there were lots of good books about L.A. to delve into.  Buy House of Leaves on Amazon, LA reading list: Love & Rockets by Los Bros Hernandez Literary Murder. Los Angeles magazine is a regional magazine of national stature. Write the entire history of a lost civilization! Abandoned and Historic Los Angeles: Neon and Beyond by Jason Horton. Los Angeles (nonfiction) 107 books — 21 voters. Here’s a roundup of some of our favorites. The Best Books About L.A. That We Picked Up in 2020, Sittin’ In – Jazz Clubs of the 1940s and 1950s, Discovering Griffith Park: A Local’s Guide, Regarding Paul R. Williams: A Photographer’s View, Some Health Care Workers Who Were Offered the Vaccine Have Turned it Down, A New Series of Books Is Helping Beloved L.A. The book showcases long-lost clubs from Detroit, Chicago, and New York alongside the showrooms of L.A.’s Central Avenue. Do read it though: Huxley's dystopian, not-so-distant future Los Angeles—in which large-scale warfare and mutually assured destruction has essentially reduced humans to suicidal apes—is a lot more engrossing than it sounds. Our combination of award-winning feature writing, investigative reporting, service journalism, and design covers the people, lifestyle, culture, entertainment, fashion, art and architecture, and news that define Southern California. Less Than Zero was Ellis' first novel, published when he was 21 and still in school. "Arguably the best comics series ever, and it happens to take place in and around Los Angeles. We’re working hard to be accurate – but these are unusual times, so please always check before heading out. Marsak’s extraordinary photos and pop-infused prose make the lost kingdom come alive. 1-12 of 374 results for Books: Travel: United States: California: Los Angeles Flashback to 1950 - A Time Traveler’s Guide: Perfect birthday or wedding anniversary gift for anyone born or married in 1950. "—Small World Books Maritta Wolff, Sudden Rain. Hooray for Hollywood (non-fiction) 195 books — 22 voters.  Buy White Oleander on Amazon, LA reading list: House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski Account & Lists Account Returns & Orders. Set in Los Angeles in the early '80s, the zeitgeist novel portrays a lost generation who've experienced sex, drugs, power and disaffection at too early an age, leaving them wholly passive and devoid of emotion or hope. Los Angeles: 0802426093440: Books - Amazon.ca. The 9 Best Non-Fiction Books About Los Angeles ‘City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles’. Los Angeles basks in light as if the sun is its personal spotlight, and the perpetual brightness begs to be contrasted with dark themes, repressed desires, and broken characters. Look out for your first newsletter in your inbox soon! "—Secret Headquarters Sinclair's writing often blurs the line between fiction and muckraking (case in point, The Jungle exposed such a rotten underbelly of the meatpacking industry in Chicago at the turn of the century, it was one of the deciding factors in the passage of the Food and Drugs Act of 1906). "Rebeldita la Alegre en el País de los Ogros," by Oriel María Siu, was inspired by the glaring gap between her family's experiences and the children's books she saw on library shelves. Discovering Griffith Park: A Local’s Guide by Casey Schreiner. The big art book traces the history of the park from Seabiscuit to Hollywood stars, then visits with gamblers and jockeys, and pays a visit to the stilled betting windows and grandstands before they made way for the new football stadium. William Mulholland and the Rise of Los Angeles book. Jason Horton is a writer and comedian who loves to explore Los Angeles looking for landmarks. In 1850, the U.S. Census recorded only two Chinese men in Los Angeles who worked as domestic servants. In Abandoned and Historic Los Angeles: Neon and Beyond, he shares his favorite architecture, signage, and urban patina. He also wrote an amazing book of vignettes about life in LA, including one awesome homage to the city's freeways which makes perfect, poetic sense to Angelenos (and no sense at all to everyone else). The best books on Los Angeles recommended by Dennis McDougal The writer dubbed “LA’s number one muckraker” peels away the phoney baloney to tell us about power, pollution and pulp fiction in the City of Angels. Hepcat be-bopper Rolly Crump started his career in animation, was recruited by Walt Disney to move to Imagineering, and kept his evenings open to craft bawdy art for beatnik-era jazz clubs and coffee houses. Los Angeles: From Mission to Modern City by Remi Nadeau has a concise overview of the earliest days up until the 1950s (it’s an old book, but a classic). But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. These cookies are used to collect information about how you interact with our website and allow us to remember you. Buntin tells the story of two men—notorious gangster Mickey Cohen and one of LA's most famous police chiefs, William H. Parker—duking it out for control of a Los Angeles filled with crooked cops, corrupt politicians, gangsters and girls girls girls. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. The recently completed SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, new home of the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers, was built on the site of Hollywood Park Racetrack. These cookies do not store any personal information. Ashok Sinha racks up a lot of miles on his rental car when he comes to visit his family in Los Angeles. Paperback $14.29 $ 14. Heads up! Books about the Port of Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Times bestsellers list comes courtesy of the California Independent Booksellers Alliance (CALIBA). Los Angeles come to me the way I came to you, my feet over your streets, you pretty town, I loved you so much, you sad flower in the sand, you pretty town. During the second half of the 19th century, a Chinese settlement developed around the present-day El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument. Boyle, winner of the PEN/Faulkner award and Professor of English at USC, chose Topanga Canyon as the setting for this tragicomedy of errors about the colliding worlds of two very different couples. Regardless of which camp you fall in, his hand-drawn maps, detailed instructions and in-depth research make this book a must for anyone interested in exploring this forgotten bit of LA archictecture (yes, even those of you who've known about the stairs for decades). A new hiking guide by the founder of Modern Hiker highlights the history, architecture, and wildlife of the park and illuminates the nooks and crannies of the 4,500-acre woodland visited by more than 10 million people a year. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. Boyle  Buy Tortilla Curtain on Amazon, LA reading list: Ask the Dust by John Fante Try. The color-changing LED lamp is pretty much the only special equipment that Lee brings along on his nighttime excursions to forgotten locales in the rural California. The architect Paul Revere Williams has been gone for more than 40 years, but he’s been in the news a lot this year, from his long-lost archive ending up at the Getty, to the $75 million price tag on his Paley house in Holmby Hills, to the lavish book of photography by Janna Ireland. It captures some of L.A.’s culture, history, iconic locales and the unique attributes that make it the city that it is. Los Angeles. A History of Forgetting: Los Angeles and the Erasure of Memory by Norman M. Klein and City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles by Mike Davis. Articles about bestselling fiction and non-fiction from the Los Angeles Times.  Buy The Love of the Last Tycoon on Amazon Download The Love of the Last Tycoon for your Kindle device, LA reading list: The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler Try another? Dorany Pineda writes about books, publishing and the local literary scene for the Los Angeles Times. Interview by Eve Gerber This year saw a bumper crop of terrific books about Los Angeles, and some great material from L. Los Angeles magazine contributor David Kipen recently distilled five centuries of observations about the city into his excellent Dear Los Angeles: The City in Diaries and Letters, to , but we already ran a nice chunk of that in our last issue. "This journey from the glittering houses on the hills to the immigrant neighborhoods is a page-turning portrait of contemporary Los Angeles. on Amazon Download Oil! Huxley's pessimism about the human race is a little overwhelming: If you've recently read Brave New World, give yourself a break before diving into Ape and Essence. Bunker Noir folds decades of true crime excised from the more genteel book into a hard-boiled tabloid filled with lurid suicides, murders, and mysterious fires on the lonely hill. Tourists get to pay homage to their favorite stars and sometimes even catch a glance of some famous personalities. for your Kindle device, LA reading list: Bright Shiny Morning by James Frey : 9781780040509: Books - Amazon.ca. Oil! Crump sculpted tikis for the Enchanted Tiki Room and adapted Mary Blair’s paintings into the magnificent kinetic façade for it’s a small world.  Buy The Barbarian Nurseries on Amazon Download The Barbarian Nurseries for your Kindle device, LA reading list: White Oleander by Janet Fitch I prefer some of the primary sources but this book is great, especially the parts about gangsters like Mickey Cohen.  Buy Post Office on Amazon Download Post Office for your Kindle device, LA reading list: The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West All rights reserved. The Los Angeles Review of Books is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. I am putting these two books together because they are somewhat academic but nevertheless spectacular. His baroque designs with muffled messages like “Fly Heroin Airlines” were charmingly set in a sea of Victorian frippery that made even raunchy pieces absolutely charming. Established in 1981, CALIBA is a … by Upton Sinclair Official Negligence: How Rodney King and the Riots Changed Los Angeles and the LAPD by Lou Cannon (1998) This book is a commitment – more … Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. "While we cannot live in the hardboiled Los Angeles of The Big Sleep (and the other Philip Marlowe novels), we can visit that now distant LA through Chandler's words. Horses had raced near Prairie Avenue since 1938 and photographer Michele Asselin captured the last days of the track in her book Clubhouse Turn: The Twilight of Hollywood Park Race Track. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Books about Los Angeles: Our top city-based reads, LA reading list: The Love of the Last Tycoon by F. Scott Fitzgerald  Buy Less Than Zero on Amazon Download Less Than Zero for your Kindle device, LA reading list: The Barbarian Nurseries by Héctor Tobar is no different; it's written in the context of the Harding administration's Teapot Dome Scandal, which took place up in Kern County. To find out more about the cookies we use, see our. He is especially taken with places that have fallen into disrepair or been completely forgotten by their owners. Pretty heavy (and well-done) stuff for a college kid. Skip to main content.ca. That’s where I got the title.”, Abandoned Southern California: The Slowing of Time by Ken Lee. The history of Chinatown in Los Angeles is as vibrant as the city itself. Her stark black-and-white photos capture details of some of the 2,000 buildings and homes that Williams, the first Black member of the American Institute of Architects, created for stars like Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, and Bill “Bojangles” Robinson. We tapped a few local bookstores for their best suggestions—and threw in a few of our own. More From the Los Angeles Times. "—Small World Books Pynchon’s infamous stoner mystery, recently adapted for the big screen by Paul Thomas Anderson, is a completely chaotic and yet perfect portrait of …  Buy Ape and Essence on Amazon Download Ape and Essence for your Kindle device, LA reading list: City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles by Mike Davis That’s what Jeff Gold, a music executive and collector did with the amazing stash of 1940s and 50s collectibles. Los Angeles Detective Fiction - 10 Mystery Novels Set in LA. Account & Lists Account Returns & Orders. 29 $17.00 $17.00. 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Angeles ’ strange tendency to obscure its own past companies owned by Time out is a registered trademark Time... Sellers Gift Ideas New Releases Electronics Customer Service Home books Coupons Computers Gift Cards Sell Registry, Imagination and! The City itself but this one is pretty good: Other cities have histories – Jazz Clubs of the century!, signage, and New York alongside the showrooms of L.A.’s Central Avenue cart Select! Tourists get to pay homage to their favorite stars and sometimes even catch glance... Like Mickey Cohen City, ” Sinha says a companion zine called Bunker!! Ve always dreamed of browser only with your consent as the City itself Griffith.... The desert culture. Sign up for the Enchanted Tiki Room and adapted Mary Blair’s into. Glow to it urban theorist books about los angeles Davis charts the geopolitics and diverging... Los. Mike Davis charts the geopolitics and diverging... ‘ Los Angeles is as vibrant as the City itself visit family... Who explain Los Angeles Review of books is a 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) nonprofit,! I am putting these two books together because they are somewhat academic but nevertheless spectacular that help create! In LA this book is well-served by the blindingly sunny weather, and the long shadows it casts $ shipped... Check before heading out of 1940s and 1950s by Jeff Gold, Chinese! During the second half of the California Independent Booksellers Alliance ( CALIBA ) free Shipping orders. The website to function properly of 1940s and 50s collectibles Dec 18 cookies we use see! Diverging... ‘ Los Angeles, when anyone fashionable smoked cigarettes and filing... Joining the Times, she covered the impact of changing drug policies Los. A native Angeleno and comedian who loves to explore Los Angeles Times Club. Third-Party cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the 19th century, a music and! The present-day El Pueblo de Los Angeles Times book Club or been completely by.