The most recommended books about Brooklyn

Who picked these books? Meet our 143 experts.

143 authors created a book list connected to Brooklyn, and here are their favorite Brooklyn books.
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What type of Brooklyn book?

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Book cover of The Chosen

Josh Weiss Author Of Sunset Empire

From Josh's 3 favorite reads in 2023.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Creative Enterprising Funny Culinarily inclined Spontaneous

Josh's 3 favorite reads in 2023

Josh Weiss Why did Josh love this book?

I grew up hearing about this book all the time, often spotting it on my sisterā€™s bookshelf, but I didnā€™t pick it up until this year while doing research for my next book. My only regret is that I didnā€™t read it sooner!

Potokā€™s tale of friendship in the years during and after the Second World War is as heartwarming and optimistic as it is fraught with poignant commentary about the divides of religion.

Even those individuals who subscribe to the same faith may often find themselves on opposite ends of observance and ideology. As the old saying goes, ā€œTwo Jews, three opinions.ā€

By Chaim Potok,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Chosen as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

ā€œAnyone who finds it is finding a jewel. Its themes are profound and universal.ā€ā€”The Wall Street Journal

It is the now-classic story of two fathers and two sons and the pressures on all of them to pursue the religion they share in the way that is best suited to each. And as the boys grow into young men, they discover in the other a lost spiritual brother, and a link to an unexplored world that neither had ever considered before. In effect, they exchange places, and find the peace that neither will ever retreat from again. . . .


Book cover of Another Brooklyn

Kevin Carey Author Of Junior Miles and the Junkman

From my list on by writers in the first-person voice.

Why am I passionate about this?

Iā€™ve always been fascinated with the first-person voice, the way it magically pulls us into a story through the characterā€™s/narratorā€™s perspective, and how when done well, can feel so natural and personal. Iā€™ve tried to write in this perspective over the years, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. I hope I have done it adequately with this current novel. I wouldnā€™t say Iā€™m an expert when it comes to the first-person, but I am an interested participant. I am a creative writing professor, but I am also a student of writing and always will be. The more I investigate, the more I read, the more I learn. Focusing on this topic has been no exception. 

Kevin's book list on by writers in the first-person voice

Kevin Carey Why did Kevin love this book?

Some first person voices are just so naturally nostalgic, like youā€™re sitting around a campfire listening to someone telling you a story.

ā€œThe year my mother started hearing voices from her dead brother Clyde,ā€ or ā€œBut Gigi was the first to fly.ā€ So many moments to hold onto in this novel, each an introduction to another tale, or a memory you canā€™t wait to listen to and run off down the street to share it for yourself.

The voice of August is so real and clear and poetic that one forgets thereā€™s even a writer behind it. This close first-person voice lets us in, welcomes us into the secrets of the street. ā€œEverywhere we looked we saw the people trying to dream themselves out.ā€ And dream I did, along every glorious page, only I never wanted out.

By Jacqueline Woodson,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Another Brooklyn as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER FROM A NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNING AUTHOR

A TIME MAGAZINE TOP 10 NOVEL OF 2016 | SHORTLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION 2016

FROM THE WINNER OF THE ASTRID LINDGREN MEMORIAL AWARD 2018

They used to be inseparable. They used to be young, brave and brilliant - amazingly beautiful and terrifyingly alone. August, Sylvia, Angela and Gigi shared everything: songs, secrets, fears and dreams. But 1970s Brooklyn was also a dangerous place, where grown men reached for innocent girls, where mothers disappeared and futures vanished at the turn of a street corner.

Anotherā€¦


Book cover of Last Days Of Summer

Susie Finkbeiner Author Of The All-American

From my list on making you fall in love with baseball.

Why am I passionate about this?

Iā€™m intrigued by baseball. The passion and drama of the games and the way the sport is nearly always linked to a meaningful relationship with someone dear. That curiosity has only been fueled by the books Iā€™ve read over the years and inspired me to write a baseball story of my own. The All-American is my ninth novel and I couldnā€™t feel more privileged to have been able to write it.

Susie's book list on making you fall in love with baseball

Susie Finkbeiner Why did Susie love this book?

My friend and fellow novelist, Allison Pittman, recommended this one to me.

Itā€™s a story told in letters written between a goofball kid named Joey and a New York Giants player named Charlie. I laughed and cried my way through this winner of a novel, rooting for both Joey and Charlie the entire time. Itā€™s a story about the love of baseball, yes.

But itā€™s also a book about ambition and friendship, heartache and dreams, disappointments and hope. And with every page I read, I fell more and more in love with baseball. Itā€™s one of the finest novels Iā€™ve read.

By Steve Kluger,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Last Days Of Summer as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A contemporary American classicā€”a poignant and hilarious tale of baseball, hero worship, eccentric behavior, and unlikely friendship

Last Days of Summer is the story of Joey Margolis, neighborhood punching bag, growing up goofy and mostly fatherless in Brooklyn in the early 1940s. A boy looking for a hero, Joey decides to latch on to Charlie Banks, the all-star third basemen for the New York Giants. But Joey's chosen champion doesn't exactly welcome the extreme attention of a persistent young fan with an overactive imagination. Then again, this strange, needy kid might be exactly what Banks needs.


Book cover of The Chosen
Book cover of Another Brooklyn
Book cover of Last Days Of Summer

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