There’s Nothing Like Summer in the City: 14 Metropolitan Must Reads

If you’re someone who likes to take advantage of the empty(ish) city streets during the summer, Teju Cole’s haunting novel about identity and place is the perfect companion. It follows a young Nigerian doctor named Julius as he wanders Manhattan and reflects on his life, relationships, journey, and new culture. The prose is unforgettable, and it perfectly captures the weirdly meditative act of absentmindedly navigating New York.

Sometimes, the best way to get to know a city is over time. In Angela Flournoy’s impressive debut, she introduces readers to Detroit through the story of the Turners, who have lived on Yarrow Street for more than 50 years and seen their city rise, fall, and change from a thriving metropolis to one with abandoned lots and embattled, divided neighborhoods. As ailing matriarch Viola decides that what’s best is to move in with her son, her children are called back to reckon with how their pasts will determine their family’s future.

When they were children, three boys in Boston experienced a shocking event that forced them apart forever. Now the past has come back to haunt and unite them in an equally tragic way. This Dennis Lehane classic is an unmistakably New England drama—an intense, addictive, and powerful story about how our identities are inevitably shaped by where we’re from and the ways in which loyalty can be tested.

Set in 1930s Chicago, Richard Wright’s controversial classic tells the story of Bigger Thomas, a young black man who is charged with murder and rape after he kills a young white woman in a moment of panic. There is no one on his side, and no escape from his expected fate. As the tensions flare within the community, so do Wright’s ideas about race, poverty, and society.

Considered by many to be the Los Angeles novel, Joan Didion’s beloved classic captures the ennui and uncertainty of the 1960s through the eyes of the young Maria Wyeth. It’s a salty, dark look at the underbelly of Hollywood and the ways that cities shape and then destroy our expectations of them. This is an unforgettable, raw book that will stick with you long after you’ve finished it.

As the title implies, this novel is nearly combustible, an epic and dramatic mystery that takes place in 1970s New York amid soaring crime rates, punk rock music ’zines, and an impending blackout that will change the lives of four people forever. If you pick this one up, just make sure you’re near an air conditioner, because you won’t be able to move or put it down for a while.

Another California classic, Bret Easton Ellis’s mesmerizing portrait of the 1980s Lost Generation of Los Angeles follows Clay, whose return home on vacation from his Eastern college throws him back into the world of excess, passivity, and privilege. Joined by his girlfriend and his drug-dealing best friend, the three descend into the world of elite parties, seedy bars, and underground clubs—resulting in a downward spiral that impossible to look away from.

THE LAZARUS PROJECT tells the story of 19-year-old immigrant Lazarus Averbuch, who was shot to death in 1908 on the doorstep of the chief of the Chicago police and labeled a would-be assassin. A century later, a young Eastern European writer becomes obsessed with the story and tries to reconstruct Averbuch’s path. As he moves deeper into the past, the two men’s stories become inextricably intertwined, not only with each other but also with the city they both call home.

Set against the WTO protests of 1999, this stunning debut novel (and one of this list writer’s personal favorites!) brings the streets of Seattle to life as it explores a single day of chaos, drama, and hope. Through the eyes of a young boy named Victor, his estranged father (who happens to be the chief of police), activists, bystanders, and political leaders, this book asks timely and crucial questions about empathy, connectedness, social justice, and family.

Seemingly infused with the boozy, sweaty milieu of New Orleans, Anne Rice’s classic follows the life and confessions of Lestat, a charismatic and powerful vampire who chooses a young plantation owner to be his second-in-command. Together, they prey on innocents and recruit others to join them, wreaking havoc for more than 200 years. A novel of love, loss, suspense, and good old-fashioned Southern terror, this one is the perfect summer read.

On the last day of summer, a young college grad moves to the Windy City and rents a small apartment on the north side. During the five seasons he lives there, he meets gangsters, bus drivers, his first girlfriend, policemen, gamblers, and his shy landlord, among others. This isn’t just a coming-of-age story, it’s a love letter to Chicago in all its eccentric and exciting forms.

A novel as iconic as New Orleans, John Kennedy Toole’s comic masterpiece introduces Ignatius J. Reilly, “a Don Quixote of the French Quarter.” Toole takes readers on a hilarious romp, bringing the zaniest of characters and situations to life.

The Great Recession has not been kind to San Francisco web designer Clay Jannon. Out of work and out of options, he takes a job at Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, where strange customers come through at odd times to “check out” large volumes instead of buying them. When Clay starts to investigate, unbelievable secrets emerge. This is one of my favorite books, and you'll see why once you start reading: it perfectly captures the spirit of San Francisco and the way books and tech come together in interesting ways.

All right, this one isn’t a novel, but you can’t have a city summer reading list without this masterful narrative tale, which has spent years—not weeks, years!—on bestseller lists everywhere. In the early hours of May 2, 1981, shots rang out in Savannah’s most decadent mansion. For nearly a decade, that event and its aftermath reverberated throughout the Georgia city. John Berendt’s extraordinary account of that time, that crime, and the people who crossed his path is an absolute must read, if you haven’t already gotten to it.