5 Books to Read When You’re Moving to New York

Just Kids, by Patti Smith
In many ways, the New York we now know and love was born in the 1960s. Writer and performer Patti Smith captures this truth with her unflinching 2010 memoir, Just Kids. The book centers on Smith’s relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, her best friend, lover, and muse. Smith recounts the pair’s haphazard exploits against the backdrop of a city in the midst of reinventing itself. The reader gets to experience NYC for what it once was: a crucible of heightened political awareness and revolutionary artistry in all its Bohemian glory. In addition to being a funny, vivacious, often heart-rending read, this book also deepens our appreciation of NYC as an incubator for the free spirits who go on to shape our culture.

Broken Windows: Graffiti NYC, by James T. Murray & Karla L. Murray
Speaking of counterculture art forms, there is perhaps none more fascinating and controversial than graffiti. Beginning in the late ’70s, graffiti artists (or “writers,” for those in the know) began to take the city by storm, first covering train and subway cars with their massive works before moving on to building facades. Graffiti has long straddled the line between art and vandalism, and, as such, has been consistently targeted for eradication by city officials. Broken Windows captures graffiti’s struggle for recognition as a valid form of expression while flouting the law. With its captivating interviews and gorgeous layouts of impressive pieces, this book challenges us to redefine our notions about art and public space. Broken Windows leaves you with the sense that graffiti, like the larger hip-hop culture to which it belongs, is an indelible part of New York history.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith
Anyone who’s ever lived in NYC will tell you the soul of the city is not in Manhattan, but in the outer boroughs. The Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island harbor the rich history of how a city full of transplants grew new roots in New York. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn tells the tale of Francine “Francie” Nolan and her family’s struggle for survival at the turn of the 20th century. The Nolans live in a tenement in a tough Brooklyn neighborhood, constantly dogged by crushing poverty, as well as Francie’s father’s alcoholism. Through it all, the family’s will to make a better life for themselves sustains them through unimaginable circumstances. In addition to teaching us about the trials of life in 1900s Brooklyn, this classic tale reminds us of the unbreakable nature of the human spirit.

Bright Lights, Big City, by Jay McInerney
This book could be considered the ultimate manifesto on the cocktail of seduction and peril that was New York City in the ’80s. The story focuses on an unnamed narrator, an upstart in the magazine world who is struggling to find himself and forget his pain. His girlfriend left him after he followed her to the city, he can’t seem to catch a break in his career, and he has family troubles to boot. In an apparent effort to suffocate his sorrow, the narrator fills his nights with debauchery in the era’s yuppie club scene. In a trailblazing literary moment, McInerney wrote the entire book in the second person, demanding the reader identify with the narrator despite his often off-putting behavior. Bright Lights, Big City details a very particular moment in the city’s cultural history, and yet we can still clearly see traces of McInerney’s Big Apple in the NYC of today.

Sex and the City, by Candace Bushnell
Okay, okay, I know what you’re thinking! After 10 years of the HBO series and two full-length feature films, no one can blame you for being a little Sex and the City-ed out. But the magic of the book often gets lost in the show’s fanfare. Bushnell’s ’90s New York, and Carrie Bradshaw along with it, is still reeling from the collective hangover of the ’80s. Carrie and her friends reinvent dating in this new, progressive landscape, and do so in a funny, awkward, imperfectly human way. Compared to the show, the book has a refreshingly cutting bite, and its ending is far more ambivalent than Carrie and Big running off into the sunset. Although the book has some years on it now, it’s still a necessity on the NYC newcomer’s (tiny, space-saving) bookshelf. After all, there are some things about NYC dating that, for better or worse, never seem to change.
What are your favorite Big Apple books?