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.

North Carolina:

Cold Mountain, Charles frazier

You've already got Laura Ingalls Wilder for Wisconsin, upthread. Then they go to Kansas. Plum Creek's Minnesota. The later books will also do for South Dakota.

The Horse Whisperer for Montana. That's the main thing I remember about the book, the mountain lanscape. There's a murder novel I read which I remember for similar reasons (that might have been Colorado, though,) but I can't remember either the author or title...

The Man Who Fell To Earth is in Kentucky.

Could you have the Grapes of Wrath for Oklahoma? I remember them going on about Okies and Arkies, but I can't remember which states they were actually in.

Isn't Cold Mountain partly in North Carolina?

I realise I haven't mentioned a single book here which hasn't been a film or on TV... But most of them I knew as books before I saw the films.

Louise Erdrich for North Dakota - most of her novels are set there, I think.

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk for Delaware.

Oh, and Nothing But Blue Skies for Montana and Crossing To Safety for Wisconsin.

Connecticut: Ira Levin, The Stepford Wives

Indiana: Gene Stratton Porter, A Girl of the Limberlost

New Mexico: Tony Hillerman, The Blessing Way (and most of his other novels). Crime fiction set on a Navajo Indian reservation.

North Dakota: Louise Erdrich, Love Medicine

Oklahoma: John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath (works for California too!)

Tennessee: Barbara Kingsolver, Flight Behavior

Wisconsin, Carol Ryrie Brink, Caddie Woodlawn. A wonderful children's book (as I recall anyway; I haven't read it since I was a kid!).

Oops, Grapes of Wrath for Oklahoma and Erdrich for North Dakota were cross-posts!

Kentucky: Ann Patchett, The Patron Saint of Liars. Also the Little Colonel series by Annie Fellows Johnston, but they might not be in print any more.

Nebraska: Willa Cather, My Antonia

Oh dear, I've got to go to bed, but more titles keep popping into my head.

Alabama: James Agee, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men

Florida: Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God

Massachusetts: Thoreau, Walden

Wyoming: Mary O'Hara, My Friend Flicka

I also wonder if you should have a category of American 'road trip' novels that feature a journey across different states. Kerouac's On the Road is the obvious one, but there's also Martha McPhee's Bright Angel Time, Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Steinbeck's Travels with Charley, Bill Bryson's The Lost Continent, Mona Simpson's Anywhere But Here...

Alabama - To Kill a Mocking Bird / Truman Capote- A Southern Memory / James Agee /
Alaska - The snow child by Eowyn Ivey / The Yiddish Policemen's Union / Jack London / Heather Lende / Into the Wild /
Arizona - the almanac of the dead' by sicko / Pigs in Heaven / The Bean Trees /

Arkansas - I know why the caged bird sings- Maya Angelou / True Grit / Dee Brown- Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee / Ellen Gilchrist,
California - Armistead Maupin / Tales of the City (San Fran)/ Brett Easton Ellis (LA) / Amy Tan / Raymond Chandler / Phillip K Dick / The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy / Andre Dubus III /

Colorado - The Stand / Stephen King / Plainsong and Eventide by Kent Haruf / Susan Coolidge / The Shining /
Connecticut - John Irving / Wally Lamb / Julie Hecht -"Happy Trails To You / Ira Levin, the Stepford Wives /

Delaware - Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk /
Florida - To Have and Have Not / What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell / Carl Hiaasen / Karen Russell- Swamplandia / Janice Owens / Queen of the Underworld by Gail Godwin / Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God

Georgia - Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil / Gone with the Wind / The Colour Purple / Pat Conroy / Fannie Flagg's 'fried Green Tomatoes' / Sue Monk Kidd / Karin Slaughter /
Hawaii- The Descendants / Kaui Hemmings / In Search of Captain Zero / Susannah Moore / Tom Robbins / Democracy by Joan Didion /

Idaho - Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson / The Stand /
Illinois- Saul Bellow / American Gods / Sara Paretsky / Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury /
Indiana - Laura Ingalls Wilder / Stone Diaries, Carol Shields / Meg Cabot / Snapper by Brian Kimberling / Gene Stratton Porter, A Girl of the Limberlost
Iowa - Gilead by Marilynne Robinson / A thousand Acres /

Kansas - The Life and Adventures of Lidie Newton by Jane Smiley/ Laura Ingalls Wilder / Truman Capote- In Cold Blood / Frank L Baum / The Virgin of Small Plains by Nancy Pickard /
Kentucky- Ann Patchett, The Patron Saint of Liars / Little Colonel series by Annie Fellows Johnston / The Man Who Fell to Earth

Louisiana - Twelve Bar Blues / The Awakening by Kate Chopin / Rebecca Well's 'YaYa' trilogy / Lalita Tadermy / James Lee Burke / Julia Reed /
Massachusetts - Little Women / The Crucible / Ethan Frome- Edith Wharton / Steven King -Cell / David Foster Wallace / Love Story-Erich Segal / Phillip Roth / Running with Scissors / Girl Interrupted / Thoreau/ Walden /

Maine- Elizabeth Strout / Amy & Isabelle / Steven King / Richard Russo / Cujo / Carrie / Norman Mailer
Maryland - Anne Tyler / Rabbit, Run by John Updike / Paul Auster /
Massachusetts - John Irving / Emily Dickinson
Michigan - Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenide

Minnesota - John Sandford / Lorna Landvik / Garrison Keiller / On the Banks of Plum Creek /
Mississippi - William Faulker: the Sound and the Fury, As I lay Dying/ The Help / John Grisham / Cat on a Hot Tin Roof / Joshilyn Jackson / Eudora Welty / Let the Circle be Unbroken /

Missouri- Curtis Settenfield / The Adventures of Tom Sawyer / Laura Ingalls Wilder / Gone Girl / Daniell Woodrell / Stoner / Mark Twain /
Montana - Nothing but blue skies / The Horse Whisperer
Nevada - Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas / Hunter S Thompson / Justin Cronin / Dean Koontz /

New Hampshire - Bill Bryson / John Irving / Anita Shreve /
New Jersey - The Plot Against America / Phillip Roth / Judy Blume / Janet Evanovitch
New Mexico - Tony Hillerman- The Blessing Way/

New York State - Kate Christansen / Jonathon Dee / Sarah Schulman / Linda Fairstein / Tom Wolfe/ Great Gatsby/ Stuart Little / Farmer Boy / EB White / Jean Webster- Daddy Long Legs / Kate Seredy The Open Gate /
North Carolina - James Villas/ Cold Mountain

Ohio - What Katy Did / Susan Coolidge / Beloved / Fannie Flagg's 'Standing in the Rainbow' / Susan Coolidge /
Oklahoma- The Grapes of Wrath /

Oregon - My Friend Flicka / Laura Ingalls Wilder / Breakheart Pass by Alistair Maclean / Steven King / One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest /
Pennsylvania- Rabbit, Run by John Updike / Joyce Carole Oats' Black Girl, white girl' / Oreo /

Rhode Island - The Witches of Eastwick / Barbara Delinsky 'The Vineyard' / The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri /
South Carolina- The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd / Prince of Tides, Pat Conroy / Bastard Out of Carolina, Dorothy Allison

South Dakota - History of Rachel Dupree /It's Dear Daughter by Elizabeth Little /
Tennessee - Flight Behaviour /
Texas - Vermont God Little / Cormac McCarthy's All The Pretty Horses / Preacher by Garth Ennis /

Utah - The lonely polygamist / The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff / The Executioners Song / Wallace Stegner
Vermont - The Secret History / Dorothy Canfield Fisher / Pollyanna /

Virginia- Barbara Kingsolver / Animal Vegetable Miracle / Adriana Trigiani / Patricia Cornwell / Rescue by Anita Shreve /
Washington State - Where'd Y'go Bernadette / Betty Macdonald (The Plague/ The Egg) / The Highest Tide by Jim Lynch

West Virginia - Lawrence Hill / book of Negroes /
Wisconsin - Ann Packer / American Gods / Laura Ingalls Wilder / The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski / Drowning Ruth by Christina Schwarz / Carol Ryrie Brink, Caddie Woodlawn / Crossing to Safety
Wyoming (Annie Proulx) / The Legend of Colton H Bryant by Alexandra fuller / Mary O Hara

CITIES-

Baltimore- Rabbit, Run by John Updike
Boston- The Scarlet letter / Dennis LeHane / Tess Gerritsen
Chicago - Native Son by Richard Wright / V I Warshawski novels by Sara Paretsky /
LA - Brett Easton Ellis / This Book Will Change Your Life /
NYC - Tom Wolfe / American Psycho / Catcher in the Rye / The Goldfinch / Sarah Schulman - Shimmer / The Privileges
Philadelphia - The Corrections
Pittsburgh - The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon
Washington DC - Frances Parkinson Keyes Queen Anne's Lace
Atlanta - Karin Slaughter

Is The oldest living confederate widow tells all set in Tennessee or Georgia? It's about a million years since I read it.... I know it's set somewhere in the Confederacy

The Clearing - Tim Gautreaux - Louisiana
In the Fall - Jeffrey Lent - Vermont
Property - Valerie Martin - the south, not sure which state
The Summer Fletcher Greel loved me - Suzanne Kingsbury - Minnesota
Empire Falls - Richard Russo

The Tortilla Curtain - TC Boyle - California
A Tree grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith
Chesapeake - James Michener

Speaking of TC Boyle, The Inner Circle (Indiana)

How could I have forgotten Tim Gatreaux? He's a favourite of mine Skolastica :)

Capt The story is told from the mouth of a widow in a North Carolina rest home.

This column in the Guardian will be of interest: 'Reading American Cities: Boston in books' www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2014/aug/06/reading-american-cities-boston-in-books?CMP=twt_gu

Thanks for that Toothless :)

I promise to come back with some of my own

Having read that article properly again, I was engrossed Toothless. Brilliant- boy do we need more journalism like that instead of inane celebrity crap.

That's just reminded me of another Boston-set novel, The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud, which I just read a few months ago and which has haunted me since.

Can't cross another state off for you but adding another author for Wyoming - Craig Johnson's Sheriff Longmire series. Very good on the geography and they also talk about the weather a lot in Wyoming apparently. Really appreciate the pulling together of this thread. Will use it myself I think !

Just passing through on my way to GBBO. In the meantime:

New Hampshire: John Irving - the World According to Garp

Cities
Baltimore - Anne Tyler is a must

I think I feel a spreadsheet coming on

Mignonette I love Tim Gautreaux too. He just hasn't written enough!

Also need to add Jonathan Raban, 'Old Glory'. Mississippi.

Must apologise, My Friend Flicka us Wyoming, not Oregon. Stupid me.