Six top books about cities

John Banville's latest novel is Mrs. Osmond. One of his six favorite books about cities, as shared at The Week magazine:

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

Only a blow-in to Los Angeles — the author was born in Chicago and educated in London — could portray the place with such bittersweet accuracy. The Big Sleep is a jewel of a classic crime novel.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Big Sleep also appears on a list of four books that changed David Free, Jeff Somers's lists of fifty novels that changed novels and five famous books that contain huge mistakes, John Sweeney's top ten list of books on corruption, the Telegraph's top 23 list of amazing--and short--classic books, Lucy Worsley's ten best list of fictional detectives, Becky Ferreira's list of seven of the best books set in Los Angeles, Ian Rankin's list of five perfect mysteries, Kathryn Williams's reading list on greed, Gigi Levangie Grazer's list of six favorite books that became movies, Megan Wasson's list of five top books on Los Angeles, Greil Marcus's six recommended books list, Barry Forshaw's critic's chart of six American noir masters, David Nicholls' list of favorite film adaptations, and the Guardian's list of ten of the best smokes in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue