Los Angeles (nonfiction)
2. 
A Place at the Nayarit: How a Mexican Restaurant Nourished a Community
by:
Natalia Molina
4.15 avg rating — 422 ratings 
4. 
5. 
Water to the Angels: William Mulholland, His Monumental Aqueduct, and the Rise of Los Angeles
by:
Les Standiford
3.86 avg rating — 861 ratings 6. 
The Urban Mystique: Notes on California, Los Angeles, and Beyond
by:
Josh Stephens
4.82 avg rating — 11 ratings 7. 
We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live: Collected Nonfiction
by:
Joan Didion
4.43 avg rating — 2,118 ratings 8. 
The Mirage Factory: Illusion, Imagination, and the Invention of Los Angeles
by:
Gary Krist
4.14 avg rating — 2,026 ratings 9. 
The Castle on Sunset: Life, Death, Love, Art, and Scandal at Hollywood's Chateau Marmont
by:
Shawn Levy
3.67 avg rating — 4,468 ratings 10. 
City of Dreams: Dodger Stadium and the Birth of Modern Los Angeles
by:
Jerald Podair
3.74 avg rating — 167 ratings 11. 
City of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940s
by:
Otto Friedrich
4.11 avg rating — 1,110 ratings 12. 
Sin Padres, Ni Papeles: Unaccompanied Migrant Youth Coming of Age in the United States 4.50 avg rating — 6 ratings
13. 
14. 
Dear Los Angeles: The City in Diaries and Letters, 1542 to 2018
by:
David Kipen
3.64 avg rating — 364 ratings 15. 
Deadly Times: The 1910 Bombing of The Los Angeles Times and America's Forgotten Decade of Terror
by:
Lew Irwin
4.31 avg rating — 49 ratings 16. 
Under the Big Black Sun: A Personal History of L.A. Punk
by:
John Doe
4.10 avg rating — 2,205 ratings 17. 
Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief
by:
Lawrence Wright
4.04 avg rating — 44,513 ratings 18. 
Los Angeles in the 1970s: Weird Scenes inside the Gold Mine
by:
David Kukoff
3.67 avg rating — 132 ratings 
21. 
From Cows to Concrete: The Rise and Fall of Farming in Los Angeles
by:
Rachel Surls
4.55 avg rating — 11 ratings 22. 
South of Pico: African American Artists in Los Angeles in the 1960s and 1970s
by:
Kellie Jones
4.41 avg rating — 37 ratings 
24. 
The Hollywood Sign: Fantasy and Reality of an American Icon
by:
Leo Braudy
3.39 avg rating — 76 ratings 25. 
American Lightning: Terror, Mystery, the Birth of Hollywood & the Crime of the Century
by:
Howard Blum
3.51 avg rating — 3,046 ratings 
26. 
26. 
The Reluctant Metropolis: The Politics of Urban Growth in Los Angeles
by:
William Fulton
3.96 avg rating — 100 ratings 
30. 
30. 
On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family
by:
Lisa See
3.95 avg rating — 11,026 ratings 
30. 
Steven D. Lavine. Failure is What It's All About: A Life Devoted to Leadership in the Arts it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 6 ratings
30. 
Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water
by:
Marc Reisner
4.28 avg rating — 11,659 ratings 35. 
The Chinatown War: Chinese Los Angeles and the Massacre of 1871
by:
Scott Zesch
4.01 avg rating — 67 ratings 35. 
We Were Going to Change the World: Interviews with Women from the 1970s and 1980s Southern California Punk Rock Scene
by:
Stacy Russo
3.94 avg rating — 68 ratings 
37. 
I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer 4.12 avg rating — 257,780 ratings
39. 
G-Dog and the Homeboys: Father Greg Boyle and the Gangs of East Los Angeles
by:
Celeste Fremon
4.36 avg rating — 455 ratings 40. 
Everybody Had an Ocean: Music and Mayhem in 1960s Los Angeles
by:
William McKeen
3.97 avg rating — 285 ratings 40. 
The Source: The Untold Story of Father Yod, Ya Ho Wa 13 and The Source Family
by:
Isis Aquarian
4.13 avg rating — 240 ratings 42. 
Homeboys: Gangs, Drugs, and the Prison in the Barrios of Los Angeles
by:
Joan Moore
4.50 avg rating — 6 ratings 42. 
We Got the Neutron Bomb : The Untold Story of L.A. Punk
by:
Marc Spitz
3.97 avg rating — 2,738 ratings 44. 
Floodpath: The Deadliest Man-Made Disaster of 20th-Century America and the Making of Modern Los Angeles
by:
Jon Wilkman
3.98 avg rating — 731 ratings 44. 
Transparent: Love, Family, and Living the T with Transgender Teenagers
by:
Cris Beam
3.99 avg rating — 526 ratings 46. 
Blue: The LAPD and the Battle to Redeem American Policing
by:
Joe Domanick
3.89 avg rating — 169 ratings 46. 
Hollywood's Eve: Eve Babitz and the Secret History of L.A.
by:
Lili Anolik
3.59 avg rating — 2,486 ratings 
49. 
Crime Wave: Reportage and Fiction from the Underside of L.A.
by:
James Ellroy
3.56 avg rating — 2,039 ratings 50. 
You Can't Fall Off the Floor: And Other Lessons from a Life in Hollywood
by:
Harris Katleman
3.67 avg rating — 124 ratings 51. 
51. 
Golden Dreams: How Hattie McDaniel Broke Barriers in Hollywood and Beyond
by:
Charlene Porter
0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings 
53. 
The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick
by:
Mallory O'Meara
3.96 avg rating — 6,507 ratings 55. 
Gangster Squad: Covert Cops, the Mob, and the Battle for Los Angeles
by:
Paul Lieberman
3.25 avg rating — 1,100 ratings 55. 
Comic Books Incorporated: How the Business of Comics Became the Business of Hollywood
by:
Shawna Kidman
3.78 avg rating — 9 ratings 
57. 
59. 
Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon: Laurel Canyon, Covert Ops & the Dark Heart of the Hippie Dream
by:
David McGowan
3.61 avg rating — 1,772 ratings 
62. 
Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age
by:
Michael Barrier
4.02 avg rating — 130 ratings 63. 
Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Powerful Women of Early Hollywood
by:
Cari Beauchamp
4.35 avg rating — 319 ratings 64. 
Chronicles of Old Los Angeles: Exploring the Devilish History of the City of the Angels (Chronicles Series)
by:
James Roman
4.09 avg rating — 64 ratings 64. 
An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood
by:
Neal Gabler
4.01 avg rating — 765 ratings 66. 
Water and Los Angeles: A Tale of Three Rivers, 1900-1941
by:
William Deverell
3.76 avg rating — 17 ratings 66. 
Dance Floor Democracy: The Social Geography of Memory at the Hollywood Canteen
by:
Sherrie Tucker
3.53 avg rating — 17 ratings 68. 
Hard-Boiled Hollywood: Crime and Punishment in Postwar Los Angeles
by:
Jon Lewis
3.33 avg rating — 24 ratings 69. 
City of Inmates: Conquest, Rebellion, and the Rise of Human Caging in Los Angeles, 1771-1965 4.50 avg rating — 447 ratings
71. 
Making Black Los Angeles: Class, Gender, and Community, 1850-1917
by:
Marne L Campbell
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 6 ratings 
73. 
The Nearest Far Away Place: Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys, and the Southern California Experience
by:
Timothy White
3.93 avg rating — 270 ratings 75. 
Thirsty: William Mulholland, California Water, and the Real Chinatown
by:
Marc Weingarten
3.99 avg rating — 76 ratings 75. 
The Wrecking Crew: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll's Best-Kept Secret
by:
Kent Hartman
4.07 avg rating — 2,416 ratings 
78. 
80. 
Civil Racism: The 1992 Los Angeles Rebellion and the Crisis of Racial Burnout
by:
Lynn Mie Itagaki
3.57 avg rating — 7 ratings 80. 
Canyon of Dreams: The Magic and the Music of Laurel Canyon
by:
Harvey Kubernik
3.97 avg rating — 250 ratings 82. 
Shameful Victory: The Los Angeles Dodgers, the Red Scare, and the Hidden History of Chavez Ravine 4.17 avg rating — 18 ratings
83. 
Los Angeles Street Food: A History from Tamaleros to Taco Trucks
by:
Farley Elliott
3.59 avg rating — 22 ratings 84. 
City Girls: The Nisei Social World in Los Angeles, 1920-1950 really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 19 ratings
85. 
Homicide Special: A Year with the LAPD's Elite Detective Unit
by:
Miles Corwin
3.91 avg rating — 517 ratings 86. 
Dodgerland: Decadent Los Angeles and the 1977–78 Dodgers
by:
Michael Fallon
3.92 avg rating — 71 ratings 87. 
L.A. Secret Police. Inside the LAPD Elite Spy Network
by:
Mike Rothmiller
3.73 avg rating — 135 ratings 88. 
Official Negligence : How Rodney King and the Riots Changed Los Angeles and the LAPD
by:
Lou Cannon
4.10 avg rating — 104 ratings 
90. 
KJLH-FM and the Los Angeles Riots of 1992: Compton's Neighborhood Station in the Aftermath of the Rodney King Verdict
by:
Phylis Johnson
3.67 avg rating — 3 ratings 91. 
Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture, and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900-1945 3.85 avg rating — 361 ratings
93. 
Wild LA: Explore the Amazing Nature in and Around Los Angeles (Wild Series)
by:
Lila M. Higgins
4.62 avg rating — 134 ratings 94. 
Seduction: Sex, Lies, and Stardom in Howard Hughes's Hollywood
by:
Karina Longworth
4.08 avg rating — 2,179 ratings 95. 
96. 
The Last Innocents: The Collision of the Turbulent Sixties and the Los Angeles Dodgers
by:
Michael Leahy
4.41 avg rating — 454 ratings 97. 
Lost Champions: Four Men, Two Teams, and the Breaking of Pro Football’s Color Line
by:
Gretchen Atwood
3.25 avg rating — 16 ratings 98. 
Out of Sight: The Los Angeles Art Scene of the Sixties
by:
William Hackman
4.16 avg rating — 45 ratings 99. 
The Archaeology of Hollywood: Traces of the Golden Age
by:
Paul G. Bahn
2.96 avg rating — 25 ratings 100. 
Creating the Future: Art and Los Angeles in the 1970s
by:
Michael Fallon
3.94 avg rating — 16 ratings