A remarkably comprehensive guide to everything Chicagoan, from theatre to music to literature.

An excellent one-volume source of informed commentary and information about Chicago's glorious architecture.

Chicago's definitive watering-hole guide. It's got more bars rated and reviewed than any other source.

While Travis is a renowned real estate mogul, he also has a productive sideline gig writing well-regarded books about African Americans in Chicago. This book is the authorised biography of Chicago's first black mayor, Harold Washington. Travis has also known and heard every jazz great for more than half a century. His 1983 bestseller An Autobiography of Black Jazz is a rich chronicle of Chicago jazz and the society that spawned it.

The definitive work on the famous gangster, showing that when the romanticising is over, Capone was an amoral violent thug.

Written by the late, legendary Chicago journalist, this is one of the best political books ever written and tells the story of Richard J Daley, the mayor who ruled Chicago from 1955 to 1976.

The fans' profitable fascination with the losing Cubs is at the centre of this tale. The chapters on the era of owner Philip K Wrigley are a fascinating read about the oddest man ever to own a baseball team.

All you need to find the excellent nature hikes that are mapped and detailed throughout the state, including 29 around Chicago.