I’m often asked by AirTalk listeners what books I recommend to get a better sense of Los Angeles’ history and complexity. That’s a harder question to answer than you might imagine. Many terrific books have been written, and there’s clearly much to write about.

To start, I recommend browsing the shelves of local independent bookstores. They often have a strong selection of L.A.-centric works. Plus, it’s more fitting to buy such a book on location in L.A. than ordering it online!

Among my favorite local bookstores are Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena, Skylight Books in Los Feliz, Chevalier’s Books in Larchmont Village, and The Iliad (used books) in North Hollywood. There are several others that have fine selections that I’m looking forward to visiting.

Here are a few LA-themed books you might look for when browsing. For your convenience, we have also linked to BookShop.org, which supports local independent bookstores.

1. 'Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A.,' by Luis J. Rodriguez

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D.ZAPA MEDIA / Atria Books

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Rodriguez’s account of his early years growing up in East L.A. and his journey from gang member to acclaimed writer. His book provides important background on multi-generational Chicano culture within a very powerful personal story.

2. 'On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred Year Odyssey of a Chinese-American Family,' by Lisa See

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Author photo: Patrica Williams / Book cover: Vintage

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See’s book describes her great grandfather’s immigration to the U.S. and rise to prominence in L.A’.s Chinatown. The family’s more than century-old antiques store still operates near Pasadena City College. I learned so much about this family’s immigrant experience, which is distinct from the thousands of Chinese immigrants who traveled here to construct California’s railroads.

3. 'Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir,' by D. J. Waldie

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Courtesy W.W. Norton & Company

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The former Public Information Officer for Lakewood details his 1950s upbringing in the city. It was developed as housing for the many employees of nearby aircraft factories, as were several other Southern California communities near massive plants. This was a history I thought I knew pretty well, but Waldie’s sense of place for postwar suburbia is palpable.

4. 'Devil in a Blue Dress,' by Walter Mosley

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Author photo: Marcia Wilson / Book cover: Washington Square Press

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Mosley’s first book in his acclaimed hardboiled detective series devoted to day-laborer turned detective Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins. It establishes a wonderful sense of postwar L.A.’s Central Avenue business and entertainment district, surrounded by single-family, Black-owned, homes.

5. 'Material Dreams: Southern California through the 1920s,' by Kevin Starr

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Oxford University Press

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California’s former State Historian looks at the boom in population and construction that reshaped Los Angeles in the teens and 20s. Much of the boom came from the migration of midwesterners looking for jobs. Starr dubs them “the folks.” My great grandfather was one of the “folks,” arriving from Michigan at the turn of the century.

6. The Bosch series, by Michael Connelly

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Cover: Little, Brown and Company | Author image: Kat Westerman

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The former L.A. TImes crime reporter is now famous for creating LAPD Hollywood Division Detective Harry Bosch. The character appears in over 20 books. You can start at the beginning with 1992’s The Black Echo. His latest is Resurrection Walk. Connelly’s books give a tremendous sense of place and also provide a balanced view of cop life. The character of Bosch is particularly interesting to me, as my grandfather Arnold Hubka was an LAPD Hollywood Homicide detective in the 1940s and 50s and worked on several prominent cases.

7. 'An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood,' by Neal Gabler

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Anchor

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A fascinating look at how the founding Jewish immigrant film moguls of the major studios oversaw an extraordinary range of movies that helped define what it meant to be American. The stories of each studio head are loaded with complexities about their motivations and how Los Angeles gave them a place to build an industry and reinvent themselves.

8. 'Zev’s Los Angeles: From Boyle Heights to the Halls of Power,' by Zev Yaroslavsky

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Photo by MEENO / Book cover design by Ivan Grave, book cover photograph by Al Seib / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

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A political memoir that I found difficult to put down. Yaroslavsky’s four-decade career as an L.A. County Supervisor and L.A. City Councilmember allow him to provide the backstories on an array of critical events in our local history. An inside look at local government that’s anything but discouraging.

9. 'Rio L.A.: Tales from the Los Angeles River,' by Patt Morrison with photography by Mark Lamonica

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Angel City Press

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The L.A. Times columnist who writes so entertainingly about local history turns her attention to an often overlooked but essential part of the City’s settlement and founding. The river’s storm-channeled past and up for debate future are all here, along with terrific photos by Mark Lamonica.

10. 'City of Quartz: Excavating the Future of Los Angeles,' by Mike Davis

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Verso Books

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With its many negatives about our region and lens focused consistently from the Left, Davis’ book is anything but the Chamber of Commerce version of L.A. There’s a lot to learn from Davis’ analysis, though I admit to being frustrated by much of his framing of events. It’s hard to overstate the influence of this book on present-day academic perceptions of 20th century LA.

11. 'California Crazy: American Pop Architecture,' by Jim Heimann

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Courtesy of Taschen

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This is the 'for fun' entry on the list: This frequent AirTalk guest’s photo-filled book looks at roadside establishments designed to catch the eye of drivers — from Samson’s Tire Works (now The Citadel shops) in Commerce to The Tamale in East L.A. These larger than lifesize structures are a blast. Many are gone, but some remain (like the two examples above!)