Here is New York
by E.B. White
The soul of New York, then, now, and always.
buy this book

The Death and Life of Great American Cities
by Jane Jacobs
What's right with New York.
buy this book

The Chosen
by Chaim Potok
The 1967 classic story of the friendship between a Hasidic and a liberal Jewish boy set in 1940s Williamsburg.
buy this book

Motherless Brooklyn
by Jonathan Lethem
A detective story unlike any other, featuring an unlikely hero—Lionel Essrog, an orphan who suffers from Tourett's Syndrome. Set in current downtown Brooklyn, Greenpoint, and Manhattan.
buy this book

The Brooklyn Reader
edited by Andrea Wyatt Sexton
A collection of thirty writers on Brooklyn.
buy this book

How Buildings Learn:
What Happens After They're Built
by Stewart Brand
This book is a must-read for anyone who cares about how and why buildings change—from gas stations to banks and everything in between.
buy this book

Appendices, Illustrations & Notes
by Mónica de la Torre and Terence Gower
A collaboration between Williamsburg resident and WBURG contributor Mónica de la Torre and conceptual artist Terence Gower, this appendix to a fictitious book is an anthology of meaningless book marketing blurbs, reviews of dubious exhibitions, evil-spirited notes by editors rejecting manuscripts, and obsessional letters to a psychiatrist.
buy this book

The Kingdom of the Subjunctive
by Suzanne Wise
Poems by Williamsburg resident and
WBURG contributor Suzanne Wise.
buy this book

It Happened in Brooklyn
by Myrna Katz Frommer and Harvey Frommer
An oral history of growing up in Brooklyn in the 40s, 50s, and 60s.
buy this book

Some Ether
by Nick Flynn
Poems by former Williamsburg resident Nick Flynn.
buy this book

Brooklyn Pops Up
from the Brooklyn Public Library
Think you're too old for pop-up books? Think again. From the Brooklyn Bridge to the Grand Army Plaza to Coney Island, a dozen illustrators such as Maurice Sendak, Robert Sabuda, Carla Dijs, and David A. Carter bring different aspects of Brooklyn to life in this wonderful book.

This book is not in stock at Powells.com, but you can find it in the gift shop at the main branch of the Brooklyn Public Library.

The Brooklyn Cookbook
by Lyn Stallworth and Rod Kennedy, Jr.
Brooklyn food — and culinary history — from soup to nuts. Just about every Brooklyn ethnicity is represented here: Polish, Hispanic, German, Italian, Scandinavian, Jewish, African, Haitian, Irish.
buy this book

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
by Betty Smith
The classic coming of age tale
set right here in Williamsburg.
buy this book

Wild New York
by Margaret Mittlebach and Michael Crewdson
All about the flora and fauna of New York City (including the trees that grow in Brooklyn) and where to find it. Includes maps and directions to bird refuges, woods, lakes, and beaches where you can find anything from horseshoe crabs to locusts.
buy this book

Brooklyn Kings: New York City's Black Bikers
photos by Martin Dixon, essay by Greg Tate
The other kind of wild New York. This book documents predominantly African American motorcycle clubs in Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Manhattan. These black "biker gangs" — like the Jaguars, the Black Falcons, the Transit Wheelers, the Imperials, the Corpians, and the Uptown Riders — are really high-octane social clubs
buy this book

The AIA Guide to New York
by Elliot Willensky and Norval White
The newly revised bible of New York City architecture (first published in 1967), neighborhood by neighborhood — including, of course, Williamsburg. Should be required reading for all residents.
buy this book

The Rough Guide Phrasebooks
Polish, Mexican Spanish, and Italian
from The Rough Guide
Talk to your neighbors, order lunch, or just decode store names with these great phrasebooks.

Polish: buy this book

The Rough Guide Phrasebooks
Italian
buy this book

Say It In Yiddish
by Uriel Weinreich and Beatrice Weinreich
A complete Yiddish phrase book and word list, with a pronunciation guide.
buy this book