I have a confession to make. A major motivator in my Andrea Reads America project is my ambition to read more Great American Literature. I’ve read Faulkner and Ellison and Steinbeck; I’ve read Cather and Walker and Lee; but Philip Roth – who’s he? John Updike? Never tried him. Toni Morrison? I want to read … Continue reading Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winners mapped by US setting
As a coastal person, I was uncomfortable reading Arizona. The dry cracked land, the absence of emerald-green, and the silence where dripping should be were disorienting to me. I think my soul might dry up and blow away if I were to move to the desert. But where I feel withered and desolate, the people … Continue reading Andrea Reads America: Arizona
I have to tell you, I was really excited when I realized my Andrea Reads America tour would have me reading Alaska in winter. I love cozying up with icy books when it is cold outside – I reread The Shipping News nearly every winter – and Alaska literature has not disappointed. I’ve gone back … Continue reading Andrea Reads America: Alaska
I am devouring the final pages of my third Alaska novel for the Andrea Reads America project (3 books set in each state of the US) and will soon be moving south to Arizona, which means I am spending a lot of time on the couch, cup of coffee by my side, feet propped on … Continue reading Resources for taking a literary tour of the US
I didn’t look at an Alabama map when I selected books set there for my Andrea Reads America project, so I didn’t realize until I started reading that two of my three picks took place on the coast. Boy did they make me miss home. All that talk about herons, and shrimp, and the salt … Continue reading Andrea Reads America: Alabama
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 … Continue reading It’s official: I am reading America.
Butterfly Mind 