By Peter Ackroyd
848 pages; Anchor
Available at: Amazon.com | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound

"You'd be hard-pressed to come away with an imaginative look at a city's history without having to do a lot of research. But with this incredibly detailed, brilliant book, you learn—in one read—what makes London the city it is today," says Spacey of Ackroyd's biography of the city on the Thames, which has become a treasured guide to his new home. "As an American moving here, I didn't know the history of London. I learned details about the city I wouldn't think to ask about."

— As told to Naomi Barr