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It’s official: I am reading America.

Most Famous Book Set in Every State from Business Insider
Most Famous Book Set in Every State (credit: Business Insider)

I was halfway through To Kill a Mockingbird, the pages of my yellow “Andrea Reads America” composition book scribbled with book titles set in specific states, when this map from Business Insider began making its way around the bookternet. Most of the discussion around it involved methodology – it does not depict the best selling books set in each state, or the most popular, or the most beloved, but the most famous, and how on earth did they determine which book was most famous from each state? I would have thought Prince of Tides was more famous than Secret Life of Bees for South Carolina, but who knows how to measure fame. The authors of the map certainly don’t tell us.

While the map caused a sensation on book podcasts around the nation because it mystifies us as to how the authors picked these titles, the methodology of this map doesn’t matter for my purposes. What matters is that it came along right when my creative juices were really flowing around a project I’d been contemplating for months, and had finally committed myself to taking on.

I am going to tour the United States through literature.

My husband and I have moved a lot: from Georgia to Maryland, to Florida and Maine, to Minnesota, and finally, to Virginia. Each time we’ve moved, I have researched our new home not in welcome bureaus or newcomer guides, but through fiction. Each well-set novel has taught me about the land and its people, its culture, its history, and its idiosyncracies.

Through those reading projects, and through the past year and a half of self-discovery on this blog, I have found recurring themes in my life: I love a strong sense of place, and I love immersing myself in a place via fiction. I am passionate about reading, and when I read I often go for setting. While I kind of already knew that, what I didn’t realize about myself is that most of my favorite books are set in America: the prairies of My Ántonia, the plains of Lonesome Dove, the red clay of Gone With the Wind, the marshes of Prince of Tides. Now that we’ve settled down and we won’t have the opportunity to travel our country in real life for a while, I’ve got a wanderlust that can only realistically be sated through reading.

I plan to read 3 books set in each of the 50 states in the US, plus the District of Columbia with the following authorships represented:

  • a woman author
  • a man author
  • a non-Caucasian author

I want to see each state from different points of view. Whenever possible, I would like to read authors who are native to or are longtime residents of the state they set their fiction in, for whom the land is a part of their psyche. Beyond authorship, after reading the Science paper linking literary fiction and empathy, I plan to read a lot of literary award winners, but I also want to throw in fun and funny titles as well. I’m not sure how New Jersey natives will feel about this, but when I think of New Jersey, I think of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum. And she makes me happy, so I’ll be reading her when I get to Jersey.

So that map up above? I already see several titles I can’t wait to read, and several I’m sure I will bypass. The map is a starting point, but I plan to dig up other resources as well, including your recommendations. So if you can confirm (or one-up) a title on that map, or if you have a favorite book set in a particular state, in which the sense of place is so memorable it becomes another character in the narrative, please feed me your titles in the comments here, or head over to my new site, Andrea Reads America and suggest a title.  Thank you, and I look forward to sharing my adventures with you!

In response to the Daily Prompt: Playtime.  Books are how I play. 

24 thoughts on “It’s official: I am reading America.”

      1. Thanks! I’ve actually read 4 – To Kill A Mockingbird, Carrie, one Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and The Lovely Bones, all of which I loved. Feel free to point me at anything good 😉

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      2. Ok, sounds like you like a bit of darkness in your fiction, so your next title should be a John Irving book. Try Hotel New Hampshire, A Widow for One Year, or A Prayer for Owen Meany. All are excellent, but Owen is on the longish side, so you might want to make sure you’re a fan of Irving before you try that one. Have fun!

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  5. Very ambitious project, Andrea ! I disagree with the Hemingway choice for Florida. I don’t think “To Have and Have Not” says anything about Fl. and he failed to even bring life to Key West. Peter Matthiessen’s “Shadow Country” is a better choice, imho. It’s the combination of his Watson trilogy ( “Killing Mister Watson”, “Lost Man’s River” and “Bone by Bone” ) . My Georgia is not epitomized by “Gone With the Wind” as much as it is by Harry Crew’s “A Feast of Snakes” but that’s the grim and gothic me.

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    1. I disagree with the Hemingway choice for Florida too. I think they just wanted to use Hemingway for something and Florida was the only place he fit. I was surprised Florida wasn’t a Carl Hiaassen title, or Their Eyes Were Watching God. Though my all time favorite book set in Florida is Judith Richardson’s Summer Lightning. Have you read that? I think you’d love it. I’ll have to check out your Matthiessen titles. I’ve nver read him.

      I think Georgia might have to get some special treatment, seeing as how it’s my home state and all. I don’t know how I would narrow it down to three titles. I’ve already got four favorites, and not a male author among them. I haven’t read A Feast of Snakes, but after reading the blurb about it, I think I’m going to have to.

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  6. This is such a cool idea! Living in western New York, I see the choice is The Great Gatsby. Meh. Hated the book, myself, but it IS a classic. Of course New York City is probably overrepresented on any and every booklist.

    One non-NYC novel that I’ve read is City of Light by Lauren Belfer. It’s set in Buffalo in early 1900s around the time of the Pan-American Exposition and centers on a school headmistress with a past who gets involved with high-society intellectuals and powerful people. A murder in the electrical plant in Niagara Falls acts as a catalyst. Also, interesting subplots dealing with treatment of women and people of color, politics, etc.

    Happy reading with this massive project!

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    1. Thank you for a non-NYC New York title. I’ve been going through the Pulitzer and National Book Award lists, and NYC (and NY) are represented by so many titles, I’m not sure how I’m going to pick. Luckily I have a while before I get to the Ns 😀

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  7. What a fabulous idea. Now I’m thinking what I would read from each State here in Australia. At least we only have six states and two territories to contend with. I’m going to suggest it to my book club next week. It would generate hours of discussion just choosing what to read.

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  9. What a fun idea! What came to my mind: Tony Hillerman’s mysteries are interesting and fun and set in the Navajo communities of New Mexico. Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove series may seem super hackneyed, but I really enjoyed them, and they definitely exemplify the mythical ideal of Texas (my home state). Mary Karr’s Liar’s Club is a good TX book too. Nella Larsen’s Passing is set in NYC, but in the Harlem Renaissance, so at least not the stereotypical NYC. I’d do Owen Meany instead of Hotel New Hampshire for NH, mainly because I think it’s a way better book, in my opinion. I look forward to seeing what choices you make 🙂

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    1. I can’t tell you how happy it makes me that you are a native Texan and find Lonesome Dove to “exemplify the mythical ideal of Texas.” Lonesome Dove is one of my top five favorite books of all time. You just did my heart good. And if we were in the same town, we would totally need to be in a book club together. Owen Meany – another top five favorite of mine. Thank you so much for the NM titles – I am excited to include mysteries, and don’t want to be all serious all the time. And Harlem Renaissance? That’s a setting I definitely plan on including in my tour of NY. Thanks for all the feedback!

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    1. Thank you. It is at this point that I am totally identifying with your name: creative? or crazy? I’m feeling a bit on the maybe-I’ve-gone-off-the-deep-end-with-this-project, but at least I didn’t give myself a time limit.

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  11. I love your idea! Good for you! Colorado – The Dog Stars and/or The God of Animals (both set on the Western Slope of Colorado). I’m sure there are tons of others, too. Have fun! This sounds so cool!

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  12. Pingback: Resources for taking a literary tour of the US | Butterfly Mind
  13. Pingback: It’s Official. I am reading America. | Andrea Reads America

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