Ireadthereforeiam allocates a book for each state.
Talk Fifty States Fiction (or Nonfiction) Challenge
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1LovingLit
So: I intend to try and slot books Im reading, as i read them, into the list here. And will be going over what I have read and slotting them in also.
Im from New Zealand, but have visited the US 3 times over my life, and intend to again one day, to do a Road Trip all over the northern states (this could change).
Bold titles I have read, other titles fit the bill and I intend to read at some point.
* AL Alabama To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
* AK Alaska The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon
* AZ Arizona Half Broke Horses by Jeanette Walls
* AR Arkansas A Painted House by John Grisham
* CA California Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
* CO Colorado Plainsong by Kent Haruf
* CT Connecticut I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb
* DE Delaware
* FL Florida To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway (intended read)
* GA Georgia
* HI Hawaii Josie Dew
* ID Idaho Train Dreams by Dennis Johnson
* IL Illinois Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
* IN Indiana The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
* IA Iowa Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
* KS Kansas Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingals Wilder
* KY Kentucky Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
* LA Louisiana A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J Gaines (intended read)
* ME Maine- Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
* MD Maryland Chesapeake by James A. Michener (intended read)
* MA Massachusetts Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick
* MI Michigan Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenidies (intended read)
* MN Minnesota Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
* MS Mississippi The Help by Katherine Stockett
* MO Missouri When the Mississippi Ran Backwards by Jay Feldman (intended read)
* MT Montana Horse Whisperer by Nicholas Evans
* NE Nebraska O Pioneers by Willa Cather
* NV Nevada- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hunter S Thompson
* NH New Hampshire The World According to Garp by John Irving
* NJ New Jersey- The Sportswriter by Richard Ford
* NM New Mexico The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy
* NY New York- My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
* NC North Carolina The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver (intended read)
* ND North Dakota Tracks by Louise Erdrich
* OH Ohio Indignation by Philip Roth (intended read)
* OK Oklahoma The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan
* OR Oregon The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt (intended read)
* PA Pennsylvania The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
* RI Rhode Island The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides (intended read)
* SC South Carolina
* SD South Dakota Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown (intended read)
* TN Tennessee The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter
* TX Texas All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
* UT Utah The Executioners Song by Norman Mailer (intended read)
* VT Vermont- Midwives by Chris Bohlalian
* VA Virginia Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver (intended read)
* WA Washington Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
* WV West Virginia The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
* WI Wisconsin Blankets by Craig Thompson
* WY Wyoming- The Solace of Open Spaces by Gretel Ehrlich (intended read)
I have read the following states:
visited 30 states (60%)
Create your own visited map of The United States
Im from New Zealand, but have visited the US 3 times over my life, and intend to again one day, to do a Road Trip all over the northern states (this could change).
Bold titles I have read, other titles fit the bill and I intend to read at some point.
* AL Alabama To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
* AK Alaska The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon
* AZ Arizona Half Broke Horses by Jeanette Walls
* AR Arkansas A Painted House by John Grisham
* CA California Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
* CO Colorado Plainsong by Kent Haruf
* CT Connecticut I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb
* DE Delaware
* FL Florida To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway (intended read)
* GA Georgia
* HI Hawaii Josie Dew
* ID Idaho Train Dreams by Dennis Johnson
* IL Illinois Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
* IN Indiana The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
* IA Iowa Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
* KS Kansas Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingals Wilder
* KY Kentucky Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
* LA Louisiana A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J Gaines (intended read)
* ME Maine- Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
* MD Maryland Chesapeake by James A. Michener (intended read)
* MA Massachusetts Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick
* MI Michigan Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenidies (intended read)
* MN Minnesota Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
* MS Mississippi The Help by Katherine Stockett
* MO Missouri When the Mississippi Ran Backwards by Jay Feldman (intended read)
* MT Montana Horse Whisperer by Nicholas Evans
* NE Nebraska O Pioneers by Willa Cather
* NV Nevada- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hunter S Thompson
* NH New Hampshire The World According to Garp by John Irving
* NJ New Jersey- The Sportswriter by Richard Ford
* NM New Mexico The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy
* NY New York- My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
* NC North Carolina The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver (intended read)
* ND North Dakota Tracks by Louise Erdrich
* OH Ohio Indignation by Philip Roth (intended read)
* OK Oklahoma The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan
* OR Oregon The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt (intended read)
* PA Pennsylvania The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
* RI Rhode Island The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides (intended read)
* SC South Carolina
* SD South Dakota Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown (intended read)
* TN Tennessee The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter
* TX Texas All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
* UT Utah The Executioners Song by Norman Mailer (intended read)
* VT Vermont- Midwives by Chris Bohlalian
* VA Virginia Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver (intended read)
* WA Washington Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
* WV West Virginia The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
* WI Wisconsin Blankets by Craig Thompson
* WY Wyoming- The Solace of Open Spaces by Gretel Ehrlich (intended read)
I have read the following states:
visited 30 states (60%)
Create your own visited map of The United States
2LovingLit
Iowa
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (Pulitzer, 2005)
This book is a minefield of theology. Take a step BOOM, theological rumination....BOOM BOOM, theological discourse with a side of religion....BOOM, theology and father son issues. If you can get through all that and out the other side with a smile on your face- then you will love this book like I did. The story is a slow rambling from an elderly and unwell man of the cloth. He is writing a letter to his young son in the hope that this will provide some of what he will miss out on being able to tell him as he grows.
Its setting is small town America, in the recent past. But the real guts of the story is relationships. Friendships, loves, parenting and all the trickiness and complications that goes with them. It is conversational in style, and jumps around revealing bits and pieces along the way. Ultimately revealing some truths that are hard to put in words. Lovely. 4 stars.
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (Pulitzer, 2005)
This book is a minefield of theology. Take a step BOOM, theological rumination....BOOM BOOM, theological discourse with a side of religion....BOOM, theology and father son issues. If you can get through all that and out the other side with a smile on your face- then you will love this book like I did. The story is a slow rambling from an elderly and unwell man of the cloth. He is writing a letter to his young son in the hope that this will provide some of what he will miss out on being able to tell him as he grows.
Its setting is small town America, in the recent past. But the real guts of the story is relationships. Friendships, loves, parenting and all the trickiness and complications that goes with them. It is conversational in style, and jumps around revealing bits and pieces along the way. Ultimately revealing some truths that are hard to put in words. Lovely. 4 stars.
3LovingLit
Maine
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Stroud
A lovely looking book, with a matching interior. I loved this book as soon as I started reading it. The tone is so unassuming. The observations are so startlingly astute. I took a perverse pleasure in seeing the sad reality of what relationships can do to people be played out.
Each chapter is really a free standing story. Each chapter features Olive Kitteridge whether in passing, or as the main character. She is a fascinating woman- imposing, bolshie, no-nonsense and warm-hearted underneath it all. I liked her. Some will not. She can barely admit to herself her own mistakes, and certainly doesn't to anyone else. A beautifully written book telling a fantastic, real-life story. 4.5 stars.
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Stroud
A lovely looking book, with a matching interior. I loved this book as soon as I started reading it. The tone is so unassuming. The observations are so startlingly astute. I took a perverse pleasure in seeing the sad reality of what relationships can do to people be played out.
Each chapter is really a free standing story. Each chapter features Olive Kitteridge whether in passing, or as the main character. She is a fascinating woman- imposing, bolshie, no-nonsense and warm-hearted underneath it all. I liked her. Some will not. She can barely admit to herself her own mistakes, and certainly doesn't to anyone else. A beautifully written book telling a fantastic, real-life story. 4.5 stars.
4amysisson
Ooh, I love having a look at your list; it will give me ideas for my own challenge. Thanks!
5LovingLit
Alabama
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
It was great to approach this book without having prior knowledge of its content. It was as fresh as it could be when I began reading it.
Atticus Finch is the hero of this book, and about him revolve the lives of his 2 children. Scout- a tomboy with a strong sense of right and wrong, and Jem her older brother, who is learning to fit in to the adult world and not liking what he sees. It is through Scouts eyes that we see the world, and her mature perspective let us get both quite adult insights along with the innocent and sweet musings that are universal to children.
The first half is all about growing up, long summers hanging out, new classrooms at school, negotiating parental boundaries and getting into mischief, the chief source of which is curiosity. It is a real immersion into the kids' lives, and feels so real. The second half is all about the trial of a local black man. It is about the injustice and the ingrained prejudices a society holds. It is about a lot of things. It is a smart and sensitive story, and told so well. I very much liked it.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
It was great to approach this book without having prior knowledge of its content. It was as fresh as it could be when I began reading it.
Atticus Finch is the hero of this book, and about him revolve the lives of his 2 children. Scout- a tomboy with a strong sense of right and wrong, and Jem her older brother, who is learning to fit in to the adult world and not liking what he sees. It is through Scouts eyes that we see the world, and her mature perspective let us get both quite adult insights along with the innocent and sweet musings that are universal to children.
The first half is all about growing up, long summers hanging out, new classrooms at school, negotiating parental boundaries and getting into mischief, the chief source of which is curiosity. It is a real immersion into the kids' lives, and feels so real. The second half is all about the trial of a local black man. It is about the injustice and the ingrained prejudices a society holds. It is about a lot of things. It is a smart and sensitive story, and told so well. I very much liked it.
6LovingLit
Massachusetts
Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick
Continuing on with my mini-obsession with the early settlement and life in North America, this book was a must-read for me. Its dense text and dark blocks of words didnt deter me. But upon reading it, the seemingly endless battle descriptions did wear me down a little.
You can guess the book is about the arrival of the Mayflower, that Pilgrim-carrying first ship that is known so well, in New England. It appears that a lot of what is known or taught is part myth and in part an idealised version of what actually happened.
Yes, the Pilgrims did "get on" with local Native Americans at the time of their arrival, but that was not so much a joyful meeting of peoples, as it was mutual survival/convenience. But then there was a lengthy series of wars, where Indians banded together against the new settlers after a long period of unfair treatment by the sons of the Mayflower travellers, as well as the influx of new arrivals who knew little of the initial good feeling between sharers of the land.
Once again, a sad telling of the riguors and realities of early settler life, where health was precarious and happiness not worth striving for. Apart from the meticulous over-telling of pieced together battles, which some would enjoy greatly, I read with great interest about what life was like then. 4 stars
Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick
Continuing on with my mini-obsession with the early settlement and life in North America, this book was a must-read for me. Its dense text and dark blocks of words didnt deter me. But upon reading it, the seemingly endless battle descriptions did wear me down a little.
You can guess the book is about the arrival of the Mayflower, that Pilgrim-carrying first ship that is known so well, in New England. It appears that a lot of what is known or taught is part myth and in part an idealised version of what actually happened.
Yes, the Pilgrims did "get on" with local Native Americans at the time of their arrival, but that was not so much a joyful meeting of peoples, as it was mutual survival/convenience. But then there was a lengthy series of wars, where Indians banded together against the new settlers after a long period of unfair treatment by the sons of the Mayflower travellers, as well as the influx of new arrivals who knew little of the initial good feeling between sharers of the land.
Once again, a sad telling of the riguors and realities of early settler life, where health was precarious and happiness not worth striving for. Apart from the meticulous over-telling of pieced together battles, which some would enjoy greatly, I read with great interest about what life was like then. 4 stars
7LovingLit
visited 20 states (40%)
Create your own visited map of The United States
These states I still need to visit.
8LovingLit
Oklahoma (and Texas, Kansas and Nebraska)
The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan (non fiction narrative)
What a book!
It reads like the best fiction. Stories of the people who settled the grasslands in the late 1800's are gripping. The government promised land for everyone. Their high hopes of breaking farmland that could sustain their families were palpable. It was all going to be so good. That is, until everyone who came did the same thing: ripped up the prairie grass that had held the plains together for centuries. The massive boom of the 1920s set people up for high expectations. But with the drought came the great depression, and with that, the farmland turned into sand dunes.
Egan paints a picture of the dust storms that ravaged the plains so well. These "dusters" came and went regularly for the best part of the decade, and were present in peoples lives for 150 days a year some years. During the storms people hunkered down inside with dampened towels over their faces. Doors and windows were sealed as best they could be with cloth, but dust still coated everything. Animals outside died with eyes crusted open and guts full of grit. Sand dunes formed and covered fences and eventually sheds and houses too. Schools closed and people fled before they succumbed to "Dust Pneumonia", a slow painful condition caused by the ingestion of dirt. Farming was now subsistence only. And you were lucky if you could manage even that.
Reading all this made me angry. Angry that such blatant mismanagement occurred all in the name of profit. And in the years since, of course this kind of "profit before all else" mentality has grown.
"The subsidy system that was started in the New Deal.......has become something entirely different: a payoff to corporate farms growing crops that are already in oversupply, pushing small operators out of business. Some farms get as much as $360,000 a year in subsidies. The money has got almost nothing to do with keeping people on the land or feeding the average American."
This book gives excellent context if you are interested in reading any of John Steinbecks books that are set in this time or place. It is a fantastic history of the settlement of the plains and gives real life to the facts,figures and the well-used title, the Dust Bowl.
4.5 stars
The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan (non fiction narrative)
What a book!
It reads like the best fiction. Stories of the people who settled the grasslands in the late 1800's are gripping. The government promised land for everyone. Their high hopes of breaking farmland that could sustain their families were palpable. It was all going to be so good. That is, until everyone who came did the same thing: ripped up the prairie grass that had held the plains together for centuries. The massive boom of the 1920s set people up for high expectations. But with the drought came the great depression, and with that, the farmland turned into sand dunes.
Egan paints a picture of the dust storms that ravaged the plains so well. These "dusters" came and went regularly for the best part of the decade, and were present in peoples lives for 150 days a year some years. During the storms people hunkered down inside with dampened towels over their faces. Doors and windows were sealed as best they could be with cloth, but dust still coated everything. Animals outside died with eyes crusted open and guts full of grit. Sand dunes formed and covered fences and eventually sheds and houses too. Schools closed and people fled before they succumbed to "Dust Pneumonia", a slow painful condition caused by the ingestion of dirt. Farming was now subsistence only. And you were lucky if you could manage even that.
Reading all this made me angry. Angry that such blatant mismanagement occurred all in the name of profit. And in the years since, of course this kind of "profit before all else" mentality has grown.
"The subsidy system that was started in the New Deal.......has become something entirely different: a payoff to corporate farms growing crops that are already in oversupply, pushing small operators out of business. Some farms get as much as $360,000 a year in subsidies. The money has got almost nothing to do with keeping people on the land or feeding the average American."
This book gives excellent context if you are interested in reading any of John Steinbecks books that are set in this time or place. It is a fantastic history of the settlement of the plains and gives real life to the facts,figures and the well-used title, the Dust Bowl.
4.5 stars
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