One State/One Reading (USA)

Tags: 
  1. United States of America

  2. Alabama: To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
  3. Alaska:
  4. Arizona:
  5. Arkansas:
  6. California: The Lottery, Shirley Jackson
  7. Colorado:
  8. Connecticut: Close Range: Wyoming Stories, Edna Annie Proulx
  9. Delaware:
  10. Florida: Darkly Dreaming Dexter, Jeff Lindsay
  11. Georgia:
  12. Hawaii: The Giver, Lois Lowry
  13. Idaho:
  14. Illinois: The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury
  15. Indiana:
  16. Iowa: Selecting A Reader, Ted Kooser
  17. Kansas: We Real Cool, Gwendolyn Brooks
  18. Kentucky:
  19. Louisiana:The Vampire Lestat, Anne Rice
  20. Maine: The Eyes of the Dragon, Stephen King
  21. Maryland: The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett
  22. Massachusetts: William Wilson, Edgar Allan Poe
  23. Michigan: Mr. Peabody's Apples, Madonna Louise Ciccone and Loren Long
  24. Minnesota: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Francis Scott Fitzgerald
  25. Mississippi: Cat On a Hot Tin Roof, Tennessee Williams
  26. Missouri:
  27. Montana: Eragon, Christopher Paolini
  28. Nebraska:
  29. Nevada:
  30. New Hampshire: Angels and Demons, Dan Brown
  31. New Jersey: SCUM Manifesto, Valerie Solanas
  32. New Mexico:
  33. New York: The River King, Alice Hoffman
  34. North Carolina: Narcissus and Echo, Fred Chappel
  35. North Dakota:
  36. Ohio: The Devil's Dictionary, Ambrose Bierce
  37. Oklahoma:
  38. Oregon: In the City of Shy Hunters, Tom Spanbauer
  39. Pennsylvania: The Lady or the Tiger?, Frank Richard Stockton
  40. Rhode Island: Pickman’s Model, Howard Phillips Lovecraft
  41. South Carolina:
  42. South Dakota: Who Moved My Cheese?, Spencer Johnson
  43. Tennessee: Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden
  44. Texas: Percy Jackson & the Olympians #2: The Sea of Monsters, Rick Riordan
  45. Utah:
  46. Vermont:
  47. Virginia: Father of Frankenstein, Christopher Bram
  48. Washington: Dune, Frank Herbert
  49. West Virginia: A Separate Peace, John Knowles
  50. Wisconsin:
  51. Wyoming: More Perfect than the Moon, Patricia MacLachlan
Author Comments: 

I want to know how wide I've read from the fifty states.
For each state, I will try to found a book I've read from an author born there.
Sometimes this is complex when an author has multiple nationalities. I will try to change the most polemic ones as I read from new authors...
I've read most of these in french language, but I wrote the titles in engligh (mostly the original title) for a better understanding.
The list is subject to change, I'll update as I discover or remember books.
I will put the ones I "prefer" from each state.
The updates are in highlight.
Updated 2009-10-01.

See also One Country/One Reading.

Interesting idea! I lived in Alabama for awhile, and of course Harper Lee is a living legend there, but have you read anything by Truman Capote? He also grew up in Alabama...

Johnny Waco

I've just read the short stories One Christmas and The Thanksgiving Visitor, which didn't impressed me much, althought I like that this is non fiction, its adds something to the story. My next try with him will probably be In Cold Blood.

In Cold Blood is amazing...

I second the amazingness of In Cold Blood.

Want a VT book?

I have to say that I have problem finding readings for:

Alaska (most of the writers there, didn't born there)
Delaware
Idaho (Well, Ezra Pound, but it hardly available in library)
Nebraska (because I'm not sure I want to read the Pendragon cycle by Stephen Lawhead)
Nevada
North Dakota
South Carolina (same thing, I would have to begin the The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan)
Vermont (I didn't found any ideas!)

I read mostly in french and the author have to be born there. If you have some ideas... It could be poets/short stories writers too.

For the other states I know a little what to read:
Arizona: Brady Udall
Arkansas: John Grisham
Colorado: Connie Willis
Florida: Carl Hiaasen
Georgia: Carson McCullers
Indiana: Kurt Vonnegut
Kentucky: Robert Penn Warren
Minnesota: Francis Scott Fitzgerald
Missouri: William S. Burroughs
New Mexico: Mitch Cullin
Oklahoma: Ralph Ellison
Texas: Patricia Highsmith
Utah: Thomas Savage
Wisconsin: Vernor Vinge

Hmmm... for Vermont, I'd recommend Joseph A. Citro, The Gore, but I'm not sure it's available in French. Will research.

I will keep his name in case, but he is not available at my libraries:
http://nelligan.ville.montreal.qc.ca/
This is sad because I love Poe style. I will try to look if some of his things are online...