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Start using Mumsnet PremiumBooks for a US road trip
(18 Posts)Fallen way behind with my 50 book challenge (currently on Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone which is great but I'm just too tired to read) .
On holiday next week and we're on a long haul flight and then doing a US/Canada road trip. Any recommendations for American novels I can immerse myself in? Driving Toronto to Georgia via Ohio and then back up the east coast.
On the road by Kerouac? Travel with Charles by Steinbeck?
Gone with the wind (set in Georgia)
Where on the East coast will you be? How about The bell jar?Sophie's choice? The NY trilogy?Manhattan transfer? Breakfast at Tiffany's?
Bill Bryson also wrote about The USA/travelled around.
Steinbeck is excellent; I love the clarity and power of his writing. The Grapes of Wrath would be perfect for a road trip. East of Eden is also great.
Lolita by Nabokov.
Thank you!
I've read Lolita and also quite a few Steinbeck. Also read Gone with the wind. Not that keen on Bill Bryson although I have read most of his books. (like the travel elements but feel there's a bit of sneery smugness in his writing).
Never read Kerouac's On the Road so that's a must. I have the Bell Jar as an audio book. I'll look out the NY trilogy - although we'll be nowhere near NYC.
We're probably doing New York State, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia. Back up through Tennessee and Kentucky and Ohio.
Everything by Edith Wharton. Everything by Mark Twain. The Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult. The Crucible by Henry Miller. Water for Elephants. The Secret Life of Bees.
Get lots of Audiobooks. We can get them for free from the libraries here in the USA. You could do an Audible trial membership.
Sounds like a lovely trip!
Can't think of many books associated with the Eastern states you mentioned I must admit. Maybe Catcher in the rye?
You could try some Southern literature too:Twain, Faulkner, Chopin (the awakening), To kill a mockingbird, Capote (in cold blood)
One of Dan Browne's books is set in Washington DC (Angels and demons?) with lots of references to the city
Oh and the wizard of Oz :-)
How about the Richard Ford trilogy, the sportswriter, Independence Day and the lay of the land ?
Or Jernigan?
Sounds like an excellent trip. In addition to Kerouac you can try:
"The Drive" by Tyler Keevil where the protagonist takes a hairy road trip Highway 99 and more
"Fallen Land" by Patrick Flanery - one of TripFiction's fave reads of 2013 - Midwest - it was a haunting read...
And here our collated Georgia set novels: www.tripfiction.com/find-a-book/?location=Georgia&reset=1
Have fun choosing and have a great holiday....
Firstly - thanks everyone for your recommendations. I'll add them all onto my kindle. I also have some spare credits on audible so I'll see which I can get there.
Tripfiction - is that your website? It's brilliant! I alway try to get a location relevant book when I'm away. This came for one holiday I spent in an idyllic French gite in the Pyrenees reading a William McIlvanney gritty Glasgow crime thriller. Didn't quite fit! I'm going to consult your website when I go anywhere now
I was in Savannah not long after Midnight was published. It was called "The Book" in Savannah. My cousin took me round all the sites.
Imperial - thanks for the map- incredibly interesting. (I'd like the UK one, but as a member of the Get Shetland on the Map campaign I couldn't really have it on my wall!)
Very off the thread but if you can find a copy, Blue Highways, by William Least Heat Moon, or his book about crossing the US via its waterways, Riverhorse.
Not as high brow as your other recommendations but Dave Gorman wrote a very funny book about his trip across America. Some light relief, maybe?
Trip fiction - loving your work. Thank you mn books for opening up my reading world.
Olly, you're probably on your way now, but if you're still looking, John Irving has a marvellous opus of hefty novels set in places you might be going. They nearly all have wrestlers in, which can be disconcerting, but if you can live with that he's a wonderfully immersive read.
A new memoir/travelogue just out is: "Interstate. Hitchhiking through the State of a Nation" by Julian Sayer and it is particularly interesting with the US Elections coming up...
Many years ago DH and I drove from San Franscisco to Las Vegas - I read The Stand on the drive - perfect!
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