Reading around the USA in books- please help me (or even join in!).

[mignonette]

I have been inspired by the 'reading around Europe' thread to do the same for the USA.

I am totally hooked on fiction and non fiction that is set in the Deep South or by Southern writers but I so so need to broaden my horizons. I do have quite a few books with connections to other states/by local authors BUT it's be lovely to gather suggestions from all of you which will have the added bonus of lifting me out of my pleasant little self imposed reading rut. The quirkier the better- fiction or non fiction.

I am particularly excited about Hawaii and for extra oomph, will include the US Virgin Islands and Guam too as connected territories (I need the correct term for what these places are to the USA!).

The only genres I really don't like are SciFi and erotica- Fifty Shades type stuff. BUT if you think you have the book to change my mind (maybe erotic S&M on Mars?) then go for it- convince me.

California - Armistead Maupin / Tales of the City (San Fran)/ Brett Easton Ellis (LA)
Colorado - The Stand / Stephen King /
Connecticut - John Irving
Georgia - Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil / Gone with the Wind /
Hawaii- The Descendants / Kaui Hemmings / In Search of Captain Zero
Louisiana - Twelve Bar Blues
Maine- Elizabeth Strout / Amy & Isabelle / Steven King

Maryland - Anne Tyler
Massachusetts - John Irving
Minnesota - John Sandford
Missouri- Curtis Settenfield
Nevada - Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas / Hunter S Thompson
New Jersey - The Plot Against America / Phillip Roth / Judy Blume

New York State - Kate Christansen / Jonathon Dee / Sarah Schulman / Linda Fairstein / Tom Wolfe/ Great Gatsby/
Ohio - What Katy Did / Susan Coolidge
Washington State - Where'd Y'go Bernadette / Betty Macdonald (The Plague/ The Egg)
Wisconsin - Ann Packer
Wyoming (Annie Proulx)

CITIES-

LA - Brett Easton Ellis / This Book Will Change Your Life /
NYC - Tom Wolfe / American Psycho
Philadelphia - The Corrections

Whew- loads already, thank you :)

Native Son by Richard Wright for Chicago
The Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne for Boston
Rabbit, Run by John Updike for Pensylvania
A Slave Narrative by Fredrick Douglass for Maryland/Baltimore

Brilliant idea! Count me in!

Aaah you're right, think carol shields is Toronto?

John Irving I think now is New Hampshire?

What a great plan! And if you go at one book a week, it will fit neatly into a year

Bill Bryson's A Walk in the woods would be good - it's him trying to walk the Appalachian trail, and it was a surprise to me how much of America is actually wilderness, proper get-lost-and-starve wilderness.

But he crosses multiple states, Wiki says the majority is set in Virginia so you could count it under that.

One of Bill Bryson's books was written when he was living in Hanover, NH and quite descriptive iirc.

Am merrily adding all of these to my uber list

Thank you all - keep them coming :)

Kansas - The Life and Adventures of Lidie Newton by Jane Smiley, all about Kansas becoming a state and the slavery/anti-slavery tensions of the late 1850s that led to the Civil War. Fantastic novel.

There are probably some other Jane Smiley books that would fit the quest, will have a look.

California - Armistead Maupin / Tales of the City (San Fran)/ Brett Easton Ellis (LA)
Colorado - The Stand / Stephen King /
Connecticut - John Irving
Georgia - Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil / Gone with the Wind /
Hawaii- The Descendants / Kaui Hemmings / In Search of Captain Zero
Kansas - The Life and Adventures of Lidie Newton by Jane Smiley
Louisiana - Twelve Bar Blues
Maine- Elizabeth Strout / Amy & Isabelle / Steven King

Maryland - Anne Tyler / Rabbit, Run by John Updike
Massachusetts - John Irving
Minnesota - John Sandford
Missouri- Curtis Settenfield
Nevada - Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas / Hunter S Thompson
New Hampshire - Bill Bryson / John Irving
New Jersey - The Plot Against America / Phillip Roth / Judy Blume
Pennsylvania- Rabbit, Run by John Updike

New York State - Kate Christansen / Jonathon Dee / Sarah Schulman / Linda Fairstein / Tom Wolfe/ Great Gatsby/
Ohio - What Katy Did / Susan Coolidge
Washington State - Where'd Y'go Bernadette / Betty Macdonald (The Plague/ The Egg)
Wisconsin - Ann Packer
Wyoming (Annie Proulx)

CITIES-

Baltimore- Rabbit, Run by John Updike
Boston- The Scarlet letter
Chicago - Native Son by Richard Wright
LA - Brett Easton Ellis / This Book Will Change Your Life /
NYC - Tom Wolfe / American Psycho
Philadelphia - The Corrections

I am reading Cormac McCarthy's All The Pretty Horses at the moment which is set between the southwest US and Mexico.

The Goldfinch for NYC?

laura yes definitely- Goldfinch for NYC

How about Catcher in the Rye for NYC?

I actually love this idea, it's really caught my imagination. I might set it as a task for my sixth formers who want to study US lit. I could make a cute PDF and everything...

Dennis LeHane writes crime novels set in Boston. He had a series (Patrick and Angie) but also wrote Mystic River and other stand alone books.

Janet Evanovitch books are set in NJ.

Carl Hiaasen for Florida, comic crime books but he is very scathing about the environmental damage being done to Florida, due to development/tourism.

I've just read this set in the Southwest during the Depression. I really liked it. The writing is quite spare and poetic and the descriptions of the landscape are v evocative.

Mississippi- William Faulker: the Sound and the Fury, As I lay Dying etc.
The Help
John Grisham novels.

Alabama- To Kill a Mockingbird.

What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell for Florida.

The Awakening by Kate Chopin for Louisiana.

Trying to fill in some of your gaps:

Arkansas - True Grit

Little House on the Prairie for Kansas. The other Little House books are in a bunch of different places.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is meant to be in Missouri.

Huck Finn is set in Missouri/Illinois/Kentucky/Arkansas

Beloved is set in Ohio.

Alaska - The Yiddish Policemen's Union (but it's alternate history)

Rhode Island - The Witches of Eastwick

Florida - To Have and Have Not

Idaho - Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson

Iowa - Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

New Mexico/Texas - the Border Trilogy by Cormac McCarthy

Good luck with the Dakotas!

Also any of the V I Warshawski novels by Sara Paretsky for Chicago. My favourite was Burn Marks.

OK, well you did say quirky, so if you're feeling adventurous...

The graphic novel series Preacher (Garth Ennis) is mostly set in Texas, and does a better job of evoking the spirit of that state and its people, than any proper 'respectable' novel I have ever read.

Warning - contains violence, strong language and scenes of a sexual nature

They are expensive to buy but your library will almost certainly have them as they are considered a classic of the genre.

I've just started The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff set in Utah, not sure if that works for you?

I've just read a great crime novel set mainly in South Dakota. It's Dear Daughter by Elizabeth Little & is published 14th August. It had been tagged "Gone Girl Meets mean Girls" but I think it's better than Gone Girl because the main characters are likeable and it doesn't lose it's way in the 3rd act.

I was going to suggest True Grit for Arkansas but FairPhyllis beat me to it!

I associate John Irving more with New Hampshire / Maine / New England than with Connecticut.

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides is brilliant & could be used for Detroit / Michigan.

The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon is good on Pittsburgh / Pennsylvania.

Here's the thread from last year - www.mumsnet.com/Talk/adult_fiction/1885761-Read-your-way-around-the-USA

Thanks, EBearHug, hadn't seen that thread. It did move on quite quickly to read your way round England though!

But it had a useful link: www.businessinsider.com/most-famous-book-set-in-every-state-map-2013-10

Poor Washington gets Twilight

Some of them not really evocative of the state, 'The Lovely Bones' could've been set anywhere (if memory serves me right), for example.