I’ve often promoted my ongoing program to read books from all the nations of the world in Around the World for a Good Book. It’s got me thinking closer to home about the best books from each of the United States. It’s hard to determine an iconic book for each state. A great book about New York City, for example, would not be very representative of the Finger Lakes for example. At any rate, I thought I’d get a start by looking through my Library Thing catalog to see if I could find an iconic book or two – mostly fiction – for each state. When it seemed I hadn’t read any books from a particular state I listed one that had been tagged most often with the state’s name by other Library Thing users.
Here’s my list. Books I’ve read are in bold. Let me know in the comments if you have additional or alternate suggestions.
Alabama
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Alaska
Call of the Wild by Jack London
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
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Colorado
Plainsong by Kent Haruf
Connecticut
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
Delaware
The Saint of Lost Things: A Novel by Christopher Castellani
District of Columbia
The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty
Florida
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Georgia
The Salt Eaters by Toni Cade Bambera
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
Hawaii
Moloka’i by Alan Brennert
Idaho
All Over Creation by Ruth L. Ozeki
Illinois
Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
Indiana
In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash by Jean Shepherd
Iowa
Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella
A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
Kansas
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Kentucky
Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
Louisiana
All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren
A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines
Maine
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
Empire Falls by Richard Russo
Maryland
The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth
Massachusetts
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
Michigan
Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
Minnesota
Lake Wobegon Days by Garrison Keillor
Mississippi
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
Missouri
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Montana
Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson
Nebraska
My Ántonia by Willa Cather
Nevada
Roughing It by Mark Twain
The Ox-Bow Incident by Walter van Tilburg Clark
New Hampshire
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
New Jersey
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
American Pastoral by Philip Roth
New Mexico
Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
The Milagro Beanfield War by John Nichols
New York
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
North Carolina
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
North Dakota
The Master Butchers Singing Club by Louise Erdrich
Ohio
Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Oklahoma
The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
Oregon
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
Pennsylvania
Appointment in Samarra by John O’Hara
Rhode Island
She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb
South Carolina
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
South Dakota
By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Tennessee
Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence
Texas
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
Utah
The Great Brain by John D. Fitzgerald
Vermont
Midwives by Chris Bohjalian
Virginia
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Washington
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
West Virginia
Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Wisconsin
Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Wyoming
Brokeback Mountain by E. Annie Proulx
Panorama of the Mountains 