Best books and websites about Philly

September 22, 2009 7:42 AM

What are your favorite books or websites about Philadelphia or heavily involving Philadelphia? Both historical or modern.
posted by LaszloKv to society & culture (7 comments total)

Philadelphia Fire, by John Edgar Wideman, is pretty good.
posted by box at 8:16 AM on September 22

I enjoy Gillian Roberts' Amanda Pepper mysteries set in Philadelphia. I have only been there once so I can't speak to the accuracy, but they certainly seem to give a Philly flavor and feature famous Philadelphia sites.
posted by agatha_magatha at 10:23 AM on September 22

Much of The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen was set in Philly.
Phillyist is news and events in Philadelphia.
posted by rmless at 10:29 AM on September 22

I just finished Close to Shore by Philadelphia Inquirer writer Michael Capuzzo. It's about shark attacks taking place on the New Jersey coast in 1916, and the first half of the book has a lot of historical background on Philadelphia--medical, social, and industrial.

In general, for books I'd recommend Philly's two university presses' regional lists: Temple and Penn Presses have very good regional nonfiction books. I think Temple's program is a little stronger, specifically about social history, sports history, and architecture.
posted by gladly at 10:31 AM on September 22

Fever 1793

God's Pocket

both of those are fiction, but capture the place really well.

Philadelphia: A 300 Year History is pretty good. I haven't read all of it, but what I have read was good. It's from 1982.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 11:12 AM on September 22

Another from a university press in the city (Saint Joseph's) Philadelphia: A New Urban Direction.
posted by rinosaur at 11:13 AM on September 22

These are the bookmarks in my Philadelphia folder:

http://unbreaded.com/
http://www.philebrity.com/
http://merecat.org/
http://www.phillyist.com/
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/
http://studio34yoga.com/blog/
http://www.uwishunu.com/
http://foobooz.com/
http://www.phillyskyline.com/
http://mealticket.blogs.citypaper.net/blogs/mu/
http://dragonballyee.com/blog/
http://frieswiththatshake.net/
http://philadelphia.menupages.com/
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/index.php
http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/
http://hickeyblunt.blogspot.com/
http://www.philadelphiaspeaks.com/forum/
posted by melodykramer at 1:27 PM on September 22