31 Must-Read New York City Books

Told through the multiple perspectives of interweaving lives, Hallberg creates a grand vision of New York in the 1970s, centered around a shooting in Central Park and the blackout of 1977. These character range from wealthy heirs, teenage punk wannabes, a magazine reporter, detective, neighbors and lovers. How they are connected, and what they all have to do with the shooting is a story that cannot be missed.

After being expelled from a Southern Negro college in the 1930s, the nameless narrator of Invisible Man moves to Harlem, hoping there he will find acceptance. What he finds, however, is just a different version of the prejudice and anger that he left behind. His search for identity and acceptance, delivered in a witty, passionate and at times, heartbreaking prose, will stay with you long after you read this.

Wandering along the streets of New York City after a breakup with his girlfriend, Nigerian psychiatry resident Julius reflects on this vast city he calls home. His thoughts are interrupted occasionally by the odd encounter with someone else on the street, sparking conversations on topics from Alexander Hamilton to his own past. His own personal journey resonates with feelings of both dislocation and hope, and his meandering thoughts pull us along this moving narrative.

Brooklyn, 1930s and 40s. The Second World War is in full swing, but so is the comic book craze, and Joe Kavalier—escape artist, magician and artist—and his cousin Sammy Clay are determined to make their mark on the genre. Their tales of the Escapist and Luna Moth, fighting against the Axis Powers and Hitler himself, will do more than just entertain the masses. This is a great American novel like no other.

After graduating from college, these four friends moved to New York with the intention of pursuing their dreams. As the years go by, and their lives change, for better and worse, what keeps them together is their fierce attachment to Jude. Jude’s traumatic past, while over, is far from letting him go. A powerfully emotional novel that will bring you to tears, it is also a celebration of the bonds of friendship in this anonymous city.

Toni Morrison composes a riveting, immersive work in this story of 1920s Harlem. When door-to-door salesman Joe and his wife Violet moved from the rural South to New York, everything seemed grand—until the day he shoots his teenage mistress, and Violet attacks her corpse at the funeral in a moment of passion. Weaving in and out of the present, Morrison’s novel illustrates the complexities of life for black New Yorkers in the ‘20s.

One of the most iconic novels of midcentury New York (thanks in part to Audrey Hepburn’s fabulous portrayal of Holly Golightly in the film version), this novel will make you want to head over to 5^th Ave and pop into Tiffany’s, where nothing bad can happen. Glamorous, whimsical, yet thoughtful and moving, too—you won’t want to miss out on the original telling of Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

Formed as a New York City hardcore band in 1981, Beastie Boys struck an unlikely path to global hip hop superstardom. Here is their story, told for the first time in the words of the band. With a style as distinctive and eclectic as a Beastie Boys album, Beastie Boys Book upends the typical music memoir. Alongside the band narrative you will find rare photos, original illustrations, a cookbook by chef Roy Choi, a graphic novel, a map of Beastie Boys’ New York, mixtape playlists, pieces by guest contributors, and many more surprises.

Elizabeth Gilbert tells a unique love story set in the New York City theater world during the 1940s. Told from the perspective of an older woman as she looks back on her youth with both pleasure and regret (but mostly pleasure), City of Girls explores themes of female sexuality and promiscuity, as well as the idiosyncrasies of true love.

James Baldwin’s first major novel chronicles a single day in a sweeping, thought-provoking self-reflection of fourteen-year-old John Grimes. Grimes lives in Harlem, the stepson of a Pentecostal storefront church minister. While his stepfather preaches, he thinks about the hypocrisies in their lives, the trials they’ve faced, and what it means for his identity.

Starting out in a cozy, Greenwich Village café, Patti Smith grounds her second memoir firmly in New York City, but expands it outwards as she reflects on her travels over the years, the losses she’s had, and the many wonderful experiences she’s been through. Interspersed with photographs and eloquently written, M Train is a beautiful memoir to behold.

Henry Park is no stranger to the feeling of having multiple identities. He is of Korean descent, but he grew up in New York. He started off in a working-class family in Flushing, Queens, but his father’s booming grocery store chain let them move to the more affluent suburbs. He is also a spy for the United States, with all of the identities that brings. When his next assignment is to spy on a Korean-American politician, he comes face to face with his various identities, and must reconcile them in order to move forward.

Catherine Sloper is fairly average. Mild, plain-faced, no great intelligence to speak of. One thing that sets her apart, though, is her family’s vast fortune, to which she is the heiress. When she receives a marriage proposal, her father is convinced that the man is after her money. While her father will stop at nothing to end the engagement, Catherine’s aunt wants to use the engagement to fuel her own selfish need for drama. Catherine must navigate her world carefully, as the New York societal fetters can be binding.

Bill Cunningham’s photography captured the evolution of style, of trends, and of the everyday, both in New York City and in Paris. But his work also shows that street style is not only about fashion; it’s about the people and the changing culture. These photographs—many never before seen, others having originally appeared in The New York Times and elsewhere—move from decade to decade, beginning in the 1970s and continuing until Cunningham’s death in 2016. Here you’ll find Cunningham’s distinctive chronicling of the 1980s transit strike, the rise of 1990s casual Fridays, the sadness that fell over the city following 9/11, Inauguration Day 2009, the onset of selfies, and many other significant moments.

New York is given a British slant here with unreliable narrator John Self, a London commercial director with the opportunity to make his first movie in America. His twisted narration as he drinks, whores, and schmoozes his way through New York and London both sickens and entertains. Witnessing his self-destruction, the role of money in his downward descent becomes ever more apparent—spending it, lacking it, and wanting more helps push John Self toward his final note.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Oscar Hijuelos, opens his life up to readers in this witty, entertaining memoir. Though a yearlong convalescence in a Connecticut hospital as a child damaged his connection to his Cuban community of Morningside Heights, he sought to regain his sense of identity through writing, eventually publishing the bestselling novel, The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love.

While you may know Fitzgerald from reading The Great Gatsby in your high school English class (or watching the Baz Luhrmann film with Leonardo DiCaprio), this lesser known work of his is just as engrossing, if not more so. Anthony and Gloria are living the good life as a newly married couple in Manhattan, dining at expensive restaurants, going to private parties, and avoiding all responsibility. Unfortunately for them, Anthony’s wealthy uncle, who’s fortune he is meant to inherit, refuses to die anytime soon. As their money dwindles, so does their lavish lifestyle, and the cracks in their relationship and themselves begin to be revealed.

Working in Brooklyn as hired help for gangster Frank Minna, Tourette’s-suffering orphan, Lionel Essrog has a challenging life. It gets harder, however, when Frank is stabbed to death, and a colleague (and fellow former member of St. Vincent’s Home for Boys), is jailed for the crime. It’s up to Lionel to solve the case, and to do so, he must contend with his own compulsions and tics, which may be of more help than he realizes.

In this raw, piercing memoir, Puerto Rican Piri Thomas writes of his youth growing up in Spanish Harlem. As he becomes more deeply embroiled in drugs and street crime, we see how his circumstances played a part in the difficult, and at times violent, choices he made, resulting in his arrest and imprisonment. Approaching this memoir with self-acceptance and understanding, Piri Thomas brings hope to a life of hardship.

You may have seen the brilliant film adaptation from Francis Ford Coppola, but have you read the book that started it all? Mario Puzo’s classic tale of New York City’s Mafia underworld is thrilling, bloody, and engrossing. Read about the powerful Corleone family as they come up against their enemies in the name of honor, vengeance, and family. Blood is thicker than water, after all.

Sonia Sotomayer, the first Hispanic and third woman to serve on the Supreme Court, reveals the story of how she rose to such great heights in this inspiring memoir. Beginning life in the Bronx, she grew to depend on herself when she was diagnosed with childhood diabetes. She determined to become a lawyer despite the nay-sayers, and not only did she achieve this, she became one of the top law officials in the country.

A tiny mistake, an “accidentally” deposited check, and the click of a button is all it takes for executive assistant Tina Fontana to fall down the rabbit hole of corporate embezzlement. What’s a small student loan compared to the profit of a massive New York City media corporation? Wishful thinking and worst nightmare combine in this wry, witty novel of the modern-day assistant.

Take a tour of New York City’s incredible food culture in this behind-the-scenes look at the industry, from the voices of those who know it best. Dominique Ansel tells us just how the famous cronut came to be, while Eddie Schoenfeld gives his account of growing from a young Jewish boy to one of New York’s top Chinese food experts. Professional chefs, line cooks, street vendors and more, from the classic restaurants to the up-and-coming, come together to create a rich and complex account of food in New York City.

Renowned Bergdorf Goodman personal shopper, Betty Halbreich, has delivered spot-on style choices and life advice for decades. In this crackling, wry memoir, she reveals just how she came to be the most trusted adviser on 5^th Ave.

Set in 1920s Harlem, Passing is about two light-skinned African American women, one who has stayed with the black community in Harlem, and the other who has married a white man with no knowledge of her lineage. When the two meet again in Chicago after years apart, the careful threads that hold their lives together begin to unravel.

Looking back on her life, Allison begins this story in 1980s New York: a time of glitz, glamour, and shoulder pads. Allison’s modeling career is falling apart when she meets the older, HIV+ office worker, Veronica. Spanning decades and, at times, continents, Allison tells us how their unlikely friendship came to be, and what happened to them over the years.

Though perhaps one of DeLillo’s lesser-known novels, Great Jones Street evokes New York at a singular time and place. Rock star idol Bucky abruptly leaves his band while on tour after determining they’ve peaked to hide away in a little apartment in the grungy East Village. Although he tries to escape the society his music has helped create, he just keeps coming up against the paradoxes and hypocrisies of living creatively within the system.

While Katey Kontent starts off as a secretary on Wall Street, she soon starts climbing the social ladder of 1930s New York after a chance meeting with a blue-eyed banker in a Greenwich Village jazz bar. With newly-found access to the offices of Conde Nast and friends in high places, Katey is bound for social success. But getting to the upper echelons is one thing; staying there, amidst the ambition, the greed, and the betrayals, is another.

Tim Sultan’s devotion to this dive bar in Brooklyn effuses his words, giving a warmth to his descriptions of the late nights bartending here after quitting the rat race. Get to know the wild-haired bar owner, Sunny Balzano, along with the eclectic cast of characters who frequent the bar, in this enchanting, nostalgia-inducing memoir.