100 Must-Read Books in and about Chicago

100 Must-Read Books in and about Chicago Ah, Chicago. The Windy City. The Second City. The Best City in the United States of America. The City with the Best Skyline, Certainly Better Than New York or Whatever. The City with the Best Pizza. The City of Hot Dogs, No Ketchup. Weve got 100 books in and about Chicago. We have fiction, nonfiction, and â€" bonus! â€" plays and poetry. Mystery, coming-of-age, adventure, history, sociology, race, class. We have it all. Oh, and a book about the 1985 Bears and another about Michael Jordan, because duh. Ever hear of a swell guy named Barack Obama? Hes from Chicago. Fiction 47th Street Black by Bayo Ojikutu An Abundance of Katherines by John Green The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow American Gods by Neil Gaiman Beautiful Bastard by Christina Lauren Binding Arbitration by Elizabeth Marx Black Iris by Leah Raeder Bodies in Motion: Stories by Mary Anne Mohanraj Building Stories by Chris Ware Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett Chicago by Alaa Al Aswany Chicago Noir: The Classics by Joe Meno Chicago Stories: 40 Dramatic Fictions by Michael Czyzniejewski Coffee Will Make You Black by April Sinclair The Daughters by Adrienne Celt Divergent by Veronica Roth Divine Days by Leon Forrest The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore by Benjamin Hale A Fans Notes by Frederick Exley For Fallon by Soraya Naomi Free Burning by Bayo Ojikutu The Fugue by Gint Aras Generosity: An Enhancement by Richard Powers The Good Girl by Mary Kubica Good Kings Bad Kings by Susan Nussbaum Hairstyles of the Damned by Joe Meno The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros The Hundred-Year House by Rebecca Makkai I Sailed with Magellan by Stuart Dybek Indemnity Only by Sara Paretsky The Jungle by Upton Sinclair Kinda Sorta American Dream: Collected Stories by Steve Karas The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon Living With The Devil by Lori Hart, Cindy Hart Malicious Masquerade by Alan Cupp The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg Native Son by Richard Wright Neanderthal Seeks Human by Penny Reid O, Democracy! by Kathleen Rooney The Old Neighborhood by Bill Hillmann The Paris Wife by Paula McLain Perfect Symmetry by Simone Elkeles A Proper Pursuit by Lynn Austin The Reason for Time by Mary Burns Secrets of Sloane House by Shelley Gray The Silent Wife by A.S.A. Harrison Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser So Big by Edna Ferber Something Like Summer by Jay Bell Sophomoric Philosophy by Victor David Giron Storm Front by Jim Butcher Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger Vibrizzio by Nicki Elson White Collar Girl by Renee Rosen Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty by G. Neri Nonfiction American Project: The Rise and Fall of a Modern Ghetto by Sudhir Venkatesh Black on the Block: The Politics of Race and Class in the City by Mary Pattillo Blood Runs Green: The Murder That Transfixed Gilded Age Chicago by Gillian OBrien Bossypants by Tina Fey Chicago: City on the Make by Nelson Algren Chicago Flashbulbs: A Quarter Century of News, Politics, Sports, and Show Business by Cory Franklin Chicago Haunts: Ghostly Lore of the Windy City by Ursula Bielski City Life: Coming of Age in Chicago by John G. Linehan City of Scoundrels: The 12 Days of Disaster That Gave Birth to Modern Chicago by Gary Krist Cook County ICU: 30 Years of Unforgettable Patients and Odd Cases by Cory Franklin Crook County: Racism and Injustice in Americas Largest Criminal Court by Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve The Defender: How the Legendary Black Newspaper Changed America by Ethan Michaeli The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama Family Properties: Race, Real Estate, and the Exploitation of Black Urban America by Beryl Satter Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets by Sudhir Venkatesh Gangland Chicago: Criminality and Lawlessness in the Windy City by Richard C Lindberg The Girls of Murder City: Fame, Lust, and the Beautiful Killers who Inspired Chicago by Douglas Perry Gold Coast Madam: The Secret Life of Rose Laws by Rose Laws High Rise Stories: Voices from Chicago Public Housing by Audrey Petty Just Add Water: Making the City of Chicago by Renee Kreczmer Lost Chicago by John Paulett Meaty: Essays by Samantha Irby Michael Jordan: The Life by Roland Lazenby Monsters: The 1985 Chicago Bears and the Wild Heart of Football by Rich Cohen My Kind of Sound: The Secret History of Chicago Music by Steve Krakow Negroland by Margo Jefferson Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor by Sudhir Venkatesh Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America’s Soul by Karen Abbott Slaughterhouse: Chicagos Union Stock Yard and the World It Made  by Dominic A. Pacyga The South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation by Natalie Y. Moore South Side Girls: Growing Up in the Great Migration by Marcia Chatelain The Story of Jane: The Legendary Underground Feminist Abortion Service by Laura Kaplan Strike for America: Chicago Teachers Against Austerity by Micah Uetricht Sweetness: The Enigmatic Life of Walter Payton by Jeff Pearlman There are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America by Alex Kotlowitz Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? Police Violence and Resistance in the United States by Maya Schenwar The Working Mans Reward: Chicagos Early Suburbs and the Roots of American Sprawl by Elaine Lewinnek Yes Please by Amy Poehler Plays/Poetry Chicago Poems by Carl Sandburg Maud Martha by Gwendolyn Brooks A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry