Read L.A.

I OFTEN SHRUG out of being pinned down on what L.A. books are my favorites. So this list merely represents books that, to me, nail some aspect of Los Angeles that I find evocative or resonant.

A few of them I have returned to time and again ("Day of the Locust" "Hope of Heaven.") The titles are nonfiction and fiction. photography, poetry etc.

Here they are, in no particular order:

Hope of Heaven -- John O'Hara

The White Album -- Joan Didion
What Makes Sammy Run? -- Budd Schulberg
Mildred Pierce -- James M. Cain
Day of the Locust -- Nathaniel West


Imagoes -- Wanda Coleman

Dreams from Bunker Hill -- John Fante
Playback -- Raymond Chandler
Chavez Ravine 1949 -- Don Normark
Days Without Weather -- Cecil Brown
 Devil in a Blue Dress -- Walter Mosley
The Other Side -- Ruben Martinez
A Single Man -- Christopher Isherwood
Low Down -- A.J. Albany

Out With the Stars -- Jim Heimann
Tapping the Source -- Kem Nunn
The History of Forgetting -- Norman Klein
The Nowhere City -- Alison Lurie

Days Between Stations -- Steve Erickson
In a Lonely Place -- Dorothy B. Hughes