Reddit reviews Life and Death in Shanghai

For Shanghai history specifically, I always jump to recommend Hanchao Lu's "Beyond the Neon Lights: Everyday Shanghai in the Early Twentieth Century" [1]. It goes beyond the gangsters and movie stars, and depicts what I judge to be the truest to real life situation for the city's masses during the city's first golden age. (The top Amazon review is a sparkling recommendation by Lisa Movius, if that means anything to anybody.)

My second favorite Shanghai recent-history is Nien Cheng's "Life and Death in Shanghai" [2], which recounts her family life through the revolution and founding of the People's Republic, her imprisonment during the Cultural Revolution, and some recent history, but without the bile -- or wide scope, for what it's worth -- of Chang's Wild Swans, which covers the same period of history.

There's another book that covers modern Shanghai (1990s on) by a female journalist but I can't remember the name right now, I'll try to find it when I get home.

[1] http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520243781
[1] http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Neon-Lights-Everyday-Twentieth/dp/0520243781
[2] http://www.amazon.com/Life-Death-Shanghai-Nien-Cheng/dp/014010870X