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

124 replies

mignonette · 02/08/2014 22:42

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.

Smile
OP posts:
mignonette · 07/08/2014 15:12

Boulevard I would love you to do a spreadsheet :)

I have read 'Old Glory' Skol- great book. I love that literary, well researched travel writing.

OP posts:
CaptChaos · 07/08/2014 17:43

Thanks mignonette Smile

iseenodust · 07/08/2014 18:33

Iowa - Bridges of Madison County

iseenodust · 07/08/2014 19:09

Washington DC - David Baldacci's camel club series

mignonette · 07/08/2014 19:46

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 / TC Boyle
Iowa - Gilead by Marilynne Robinson / A thousand Acres / Bridges of Madison County /

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 / Tim Gatreaux /
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 / James Michener /
Massachusetts - John Irving / Emily Dickinson
Michigan - Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenide

Minnesota - John Sandford / Lorna Landvik / Garrison Keiller / On the Banks of Plum Creek / The Summer Fletcher Greel loved me - Suzanne Kingsbury
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 / Jonathan Raban -Old Glory /

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/ TC Boyles

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 / Geoffrey Lent

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 / Craig Johnsos

CITIES-

Baltimore- Rabbit, Run by John Updike / Ann Tyler
Boston- The Scarlet letter / Dennis LeHane / Tess Gerritsen / The Woman Upstairs / Claire Messud
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 / David Baldacci /
Atlanta - Karin Slaughter

OP posts:
BabCNesbitt · 07/08/2014 20:16

I think North Dakota got missed off the list? (Sorry, I keep banging on about it, but I want people to read Erdrich because the only thing anyone ever knows about ND is "Fargo"! Grin)

mignonette · 07/08/2014 20:18

Bugger- sorry about that especially as I love her books Blush Bab

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 / TC Boyle
Iowa - Gilead by Marilynne Robinson / A thousand Acres / Bridges of Madison County /

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 / Tim Gatreaux /
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 / James Michener /
Massachusetts - John Irving / Emily Dickinson
Michigan - Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenide

Minnesota - John Sandford / Lorna Landvik / Garrison Keiller / On the Banks of Plum Creek / The Summer Fletcher Greel loved me - Suzanne Kingsbury
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 / Jonathan Raban -Old Glory /

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/ TC Boyles

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
North Dakota - Louise Erdrich

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 / Geoffrey Lent

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 / Craig Johnsos

CITIES-

Baltimore- Rabbit, Run by John Updike / Ann Tyler
Boston- The Scarlet letter / Dennis LeHane / Tess Gerritsen / The Woman Upstairs / Claire Messud
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 / David Baldacci /
Atlanta - Karin Slaughter

OP posts:
DPotter · 07/08/2014 20:47

Sorry - just pointing out it's Craig Johnson for Sheriff Longmire in Wyoming. Hadn't made it clear before
Thanks for pulling all the suggestions together Mignonette !

mignonette · 07/08/2014 22:37

No don't apologise- am so grateful to you and everybody for suggesting so many cool books.

OP posts:
KeatsiePie · 08/08/2014 04:06

Wow, this is so long and great!

South Carolina: Bastard out of Carolina.

I can't remember who said Rabbit, Run, but I love you. I LOVE the Rabbit books.

KeatsiePie · 08/08/2014 04:06

Oh, sorry, Bastard out of Carolina is by Dorothy Allison.

mignonette · 08/08/2014 09:38

I have just ordered that on Kindle Keatsie- right up my street so thank you :)

OP posts:
skolastica · 08/08/2014 10:41

Does Anita Shreve fit anywhere in the list?

mignonette · 08/08/2014 14:11

I have added her in a couple of categories Skol :)

New Hampshire is one of them.

OP posts:
SconeRhymesWithGone · 08/08/2014 14:33

In the memoir category:

For Mississippi: My Dog Skip by Willie Morris

For Alabama: All Over But The Shoutin' by Rick Bragg

SconeRhymesWithGone · 08/08/2014 14:48

For mystery fans, there is a series of books set in Georgia by Virginia Lanier that are good easy reads, with a strong sense of place. The first is Death in Bloodhound Red and there are several more after that.

Virginia's story is very inspiring. She started writing in her 60s; her first book was published when she was 65. She had a short career as she died a few years after the first book was published.

I knew her slightly; she was a wise and very funny woman and that really comes across in her books.

mignonette · 08/08/2014 15:11

Oooh thank you Scone- excellent recommendations there. Interested to find out more re Virginia Lanier as I have never heard of her and love discovering new Southern writers :)

OP posts:
dsteinway · 11/08/2014 16:15

Pennsylvania ....American Rust

Leo35 · 11/08/2014 21:18

I haven't read the whole thread only your latest list but how about:

Texas/Deep South - Attica Locke's crime fic?
Vermont - The Inn at Lake Devine, Elinor Lipman
Iowa - Bill Bryson's autobiography
Louisiana - Mudbound, Hillary Jordan
West Virginia - the Midwife's Tale, Gretchen Laskas

Also would recommend Travels with Charley, Steinbeck's travelogue.

SconeRhymesWithGone · 11/08/2014 23:41

Yes indeed to the Inn at Lake Devine. I love Elinor Lipman.

And Bryson's memoir, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, is one of my all time favorites.

KeatsiePie · 12/08/2014 07:50

Oh, nice, hope you like the Dorothy Allison! It's not exactly a cheerful book but I do think it's good, and very immersive in a time and place.

Will be copying your list down Smile

mignonette · 12/08/2014 10:34

Woo hoo- more! Thank you everyone :)

Leo i have read Attica Locke and 'The Midwives Tale'- how could I have forgotten these? And Scone I adored 'Redbirds' by Rick Bragg.

Keats i really look for immersive lit with a strong sense of place; that is why American writing is so addictive for me.

OP posts:
JLsMama · 13/08/2014 13:20

Great list! Here are a few more suggestions for the midwest...

Wisconsin - Chad Harbach's The Art of Fielding, my favourite book of last summer

Ohio - The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier

Michigan - Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides is set in the Detroit area, as is Middlesex. Both great.
Elmore Leonard's detective novels are set in Detroit as well, like City Primeval, The Hunted and Unknown Man 89 if you are into that sort of thing.

Hemingway's collection of short stories, The Nick Adam Stories, the stories of young Nick are set in Northern Michigan where Hemingway summered as a young boy.

The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger is set Michigan and Chicago but you've probably read that by now...

mignonette · 13/08/2014 13:30

Thank you JLsMama - I will add those too. The Virgin Suicides is a great book and i have 'The Art of Fielding' still unread. I need to read it soon now you have prompted me. :)

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