Celebrate Independence Day with 50 Favorite Books for 50 States
Ohhhhh say can you read, by the dawn’s early light? It’s the Fourth of July, and for many it’s a long weekend this year, which means that amidst the barbecues, fireworks, and other fun in the sun, you’ll be able to squeeze in plenty of reading time!
To celebrate Independence Day in true book nerd form, we’re rounding up our favorite books set in each of the fifty states in the U.S. of A. We’ve got some classics, some contemporary, some fiction, some nonfiction, some books for young and old alike, some sidesplitters, and some tearjerkers. It’s a melting pot of a reading list, just like our country!
Alabama: To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
Alaska: Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer
Arizona: The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver
Arkansas: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou
California: House of Sand and Fog, by Andre Dubus III
Colorado: The Dog Stars, by Peter Heller
Connecticut: The Ice Storm, by Rick Moody
Delaware: Fight Club, by Chuck Palahniuk
Florida: Swamplandia!, by Karen Russell
Georgia: Paris Trout, by Pete Dexter
Hawaii: Blu’s Hanging, by Lois Ann Yamanaka
Idaho: The Man Who Fell in Love With the Moon, by Tom Spanbauer
Illinois: Native Son, by Richard Wright
Indiana: Alive and Dead in Indiana, by Michael Martone
Iowa: A Thousand Acres, by Jane Smiley
Kansas: In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote
Kentucky: Beloved, by Toni Morrison
Louisiana: A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole
Maine: Olive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth Strout
Maryland: Kindred, by Octavia Butler
Massachusetts: Interpreter of Maladies, by Jhumpa Lahiri
Michigan: Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides
Minnesota: In the Lake of the Woods, by Tim O’Brien
Mississippi: Mudbound, by Hillary Jordan
Missouri: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
Montana: Fool’s Crow, by James Welch
Nebraska: My Antonia, by Willa Cather
Nevada: Beautiful Children, by Charles Bock
New Hampshire: A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving
New Jersey: The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz
New Mexico: The Monkey Wrench Gang, by Edward Abbey
New York: Motherless Brooklyn, by Jonathan Lethem
North Carolina: A Land More Kind Than Home, by Wiley Cash
North Dakota: Love Medicine, by Louise Erdich
Ohio: Winesburg Ohio, by Sherwood Anderson
Oklahoma: Where the Red Fern Grows, by Wilson Rawls
Oregon: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey
Pennsylvania: Baker Towers, by Jennifer Haigh
Rhode Island: She’s Come Undone, by Wally Lamb
South Carolina: Bastard out of Carolina, by Dorothy Allison
South Dakota: By the Shores of Silver Lake, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Tennessee: Child of God, by Cormac McCarthy
Texas: Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, by Ben Fountain
Utah: When the Emperor was Divine, by Julie Otsuka
Vermont: Midwives, by Chris Bohjalian
Virginia: The Known World, by Edward P. Jones
Washington: The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein
West Virginia: Freedom, by Jonathan Franzen
Wisconsin: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, by David Wroblewski
Wyoming: Close Range: Wyoming Stories, by Annie Proulx
What’s your favorite book set in your home state? We’d love to know!