One State/One Reading (USA)

Submitted by Nance on Fri, 08/17/2007 - 03:12
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  1. United States of America



  5. Alabama: To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
  6. Alaska:
  7. Arizona:
  8. Arkansas: The Firm, John Grisham
  9. California: We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackson
  10. Colorado: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey
  11. Connecticut: The Hunger Games #3: Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins
  12. Delaware:
  13. Florida: Darkly Dreaming Dexter, Jeff Lindsay
  14. Georgia:
  15. Hawaii: The Giver, Lois Lowry
  16. Idaho:
  17. Illinois: The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury
  18. Indiana: Cat's Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut
  19. Iowa: Selected Poems, Ted Kooser
  20. Kansas: Selected Poems, Gwendolyn Brooks
  21. Kentucky: All the King's Men, Robert Penn Warren
  22. Louisiana: Breakfast at Tiffany's, Truman Capote
  23. Maine: The Eyes of the Dragon, Stephen King
  24. Maryland: Black Hole, Charles Burns
  25. Massachusetts: William Wilson, Edgar Allan Poe
  26. Michigan: Little Nemo in Slumberland, Winsor McCay
  27. Minnesota: The Great Gatsby, Francis Scott Fitzgerald
  28. Mississippi: Cat On a Hot Tin Roof, Tennessee Williams
  29. Missouri: Selected Poems, Thomas Stearns Eliot
  30. Montana: Eragon, Christopher Paolini
  31. Nebraska:
  32. Nevada: In a Hundred Graves: A Basque Portrait, Robert Laxalt
  33. New Hampshire: Angels and Demons, Dan Brown
  34. New Jersey: SCUM Manifesto, Valerie Solanas
  35. New Mexico:
  36. New York: The River King, Alice Hoffman
  37. North Carolina: Selected Poems, Fred Chappel
  38. North Dakota:
  39. Ohio: I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, Harlan Ellison
  40. Oklahoma:
  41. Oregon: Address Unknown, Kressmann Taylor
  42. Pennsylvania: The Lady or the Tiger?, Frank Richard Stockton
  43. Rhode Island: At the Mountains of Madness, Howard Phillips Lovecraft
  44. South Carolina: Neuromancer, William Gibson
  45. South Dakota: Who Moved My Cheese?, Spencer Johnson
  46. Tennessee: Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden
  47. Texas: Percy Jackson #2: The Sea of Monsters, Rick Riordan
  48. Utah: The Power of the Dog, Thomas Savage
  49. Vermont:
  50. Virginia: The Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe
  51. Washington: Dune, Frank Herbert
  52. West Virginia: A Separate Peace, John Knowles
  53. Wisconsin: The Turtle Warrior, Mary Relindes Ellis
  54. 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 2013-04-30.

See also One Country/One Reading.

JohnnyW01/21/2008

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

Nance01/21/2008

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.

JohnnyW01/22/2008

In Cold Blood is amazing...

CaptMal01/25/2008

I second the amazingness of In Cold Blood.

cmonster01/02/2009

Want a VT book?

Nance01/02/2009

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

cmonster01/02/2009

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

Nance01/03/2009

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...