The Best Books Based in Every State

For years, critically acclaimed novelist Harper Lee has taken her audience to the town of Maycomb, Alabama and introduced them to several now-household names: Scout, Jem, and Atticus Finch; their neighbor, Boo Radley; and Tom Robinson. The Depression-era discusses racism and the loss of innocence in profound and memorable ways. Lee’s novel is also on almost every high school reading list in the nation.

To buy: amazon.com, $7

Made into a movie starring Emile Hirsch in 2007, John Krakauer’s work of nonfiction follows the journey of Christopher McCandless — a man who spent two years hiking, hitchhiking, and canoeing across the country, before arriving in the Alaskan wilderness. During his treacherous journey, McCandless encounters Mt. McKinley, follows the often-unmarked Stampede Trail, and lives largely off of foraged berries and small game.

To buy: amazon.com, $7

Our pick for Arizona is a novel that might not have made it to your shelves yet. Haylen Beck’s Here and Gone is a thriller sure to keep you rapidly turning pages. Audra Kinney is fleeing an abusive relationship with her children. Her escape takes a sharp turn when she’s pulled over by cops and taken into custody in the middle of the desert.

To buy: amazon.com, $16

Maya Angelou’s autobiography of her early years begins when the famed writer and poet is three years old, but the messages she delivers are just as poignant and powerful today. Angelou details her life until age 17, remembering her experiences with overt racism, sexual assault, and abandonment in Stamps, Arkansas: a tiny town near the border where members of the community congregate around a single storefront.

To buy: amazon.com, $5

In his 1962 novel, the American novelist Jack Kerouac writes of his alter ego’s (Jack Duluoz) three brief stays in his friend’s cabin in Bixby Canyon, Big Sur punctuated by crazier times and excursions in San Francisco. Big Sur explores themes of paranoia and returning to nature, while also considering the effects of success, excess, and alcohol — contemporary problems still quite relevant in the country.

To buy: amazon.com, $9

Stephen King firmly establish himself as horror writer with his 1977 novel, The Shining. Jack Torrance takes on a job as an off-season caretaker at a hotel in the Colorado Rockies, bringing along his wife and son, Danny. Unbeknownst to the Torrances, the isolated hotel is a haunted place full of terrifying supernatural activity. And it's based on the real-life Stanley Hotel.

To buy: amazon.com, $4

Jardine Libaire’s White Fur could be labeled a 1980s take on Romeo and Juliet. But it's much more than that. When Elise Perez, an unforgettable character with cornrows and no high school diploma, meets Jamey Hyde (a Yale undergrad and the heir to a banking fortune), in New Haven, Connecticut, their connection is instantly complicated and intense. Through this relationship, Libaire brings to life the very real contrasts of this southern Connecticut city.

To buy: amazon.com, $16

“Dear America” novels are dear to those who developed a love of historical fiction at a young age. Karen Hesse’s A Light in the Storm: The Civil War Diary of Amelia Martin brings readers to Fenwick Island, Delaware in the year 1861. Amelia Martin is trying to figure out her place in the war while living with an arguing mother and father, a man who was once a ship captain, now an assistant lighthouse keeper because of his role housing the leader of a slave rebellion.

To buy: amazon.com, $5

If you feel a deep emotional connection to this title, you’re not alone. Kate DiCamillo’s debut novel shot to international fame and became a Newbury Honor book thanks to its memorable, lovable main characters, Opal and Winn-Dixie (a large, unattractive dog Opal finds at the grocery store). Set in Naomi, Florida, Because of Winn-Dixie takes place during a hot, humid summer in this small town off Highway 50.

To buy: amazon.com, $6

Even 81 years after Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind was first published, the haunting romance of Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler is still one of the most famous in history. Mitchell’s 1,037-page tome takes a deep dive into the American South, with a particular focus on Reconstruction-era Georgia. Readers discover the plantations, and the terror of war and slavery, all while detailing following O’Hara’s torrid relationships with Rhett and Ashley Wilkes — a Southern gentleman whose dedication to his wife, Melanie, is often tested by Scarlett.

To buy: amazon.com, $8

Matthew King and his daughters, descendants of Hawaiian royalty, have a tough journey ahead of them: Joanie, their wife and mother, is about to be taken off life support after a boating accident. But as they come together to say goodbye to her, they realize they must tell the one man Joanie truly loved — the man she was having an affair with. Betrayal, love, loss, and cultural identity all play crucial roles in The Descendants, a heart wrenching, compelling story rooted in Honolulu.

To buy: amazon.com, $9

Emma Russell Sweringen is the Sheep Queen of Idaho, a matriarch of a sheep-ranching family. Emma has a son, a daughter who has been a disappointment, and a granddaughter who was given up for adoption but is on a mission to find her family. Family bonds and the rich characters who make them up are central to Savage’s western tale, first written in 1977.

To buy: amazon.com, $6

In the early 1900s, Upton Sinclair rocked the world with his novel on the lives of immigrants in the United States and the unsanitary conditions and health violations in Chicago's meatpacking industry. Sinclair’s research while working undercover in one of Chicago’s meatpacking plants didn't just become a powerful story — it also led to new federal food safety regulations.

To buy: amazon.com, $10

Theodore Finch and Violet Markey are both trying to escape. Theodore, obsessed with death, thinks about ways to kill himself every day. Violet, who’s grieving her sister’s death, can’t wait until she graduates and can leave her small Indiana town behind. They meet six stories above ground, at their school’s bell tower — and simultaneously save each other’s life. As with every story of teenage love, Jennifer Niven’s novel will bring on all the feels.

To buy: amazon.com, $8

Robert James Waller’s The Bridges of Madison County tells the story of Robert Kincaid, a photographer eager to document the covered bridges in Madison County, Iowa. Francesca Johnson is a farm wife longing to attain a dream she’s had since she was a girl. The four days they have together are brief, but they are full of the most intense love either of them has ever experienced.

To buy: amazon.com, $6

There are barely any clues and no clear motive behind the murder of four members of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas. In his 1966 novel, Truman Capote pieces together the crime and retells the investigation, right up until the murderers’ execution. In Cold Blood is a captivating American classic that shows how one of the country's most famous murders shook a small farming town.

To buy: amazon.com, $9

Some novels change history as soon as they’re introduced to the public. Uncle Tom’s Cabin is one of those novels. Author Harriet Beecher Stowe was a teacher and abolitionist who brought Uncle Tom, a black slave living on Shelby plantation in Kentucky, to life and into the homes of millions. Its influence is nearly unparalleled: it’s rumored that Abraham Lincoln met Stowe and promptly said, “So you're the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war.”

To buy: amazon.com, $10

Edna Pontellier’s tale begins in 1890s Louisiana, on an island near New Orleans. Edna and her family are on vacation when she begins to make choices solely for herself — choices that bring her close to Robert Lebrun, a womanizer she ultimately falls in love with. Chopin’s characters, plot, and social commentary worked together to create one of the most influential pieces of early feminist fiction, depicting a woman shedding social norms and refusing to have a life she no longer wants.

To buy: amazon.com, $7

John Irving’s sixth novel, The Cider House Rules, takes place in rural Maine and tells the story of orphaned Homer Wells and Dr. Wilbur Larch, the director of an orphanage and an obstetrician who also performs abortions. Wells grows up in a foggy, abandoned mill town known as St. Clouds — a town created by logging and also destroyed when the final trees fall.

To buy: amazon.com, $13

Macon Leary, a grieving father and travel writer, is dealing with a fallen apart marriage and an uncontrollable dog, Edward. When he meets Muriel, a dog trainer who turns out to be quite the opposite of his ex-wife, his life begins to change. Set in Baltimore, Maryland, The Accidental Tourist will leave you with a new appreciation for characters who could be defined as “ordinary.”

To buy: amazon.com, $10

On the syllabus for nearly every high school English literature class, The Scarlet Letter tells the tale of Hester Prynne, Roger Chillingworth, and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale in Puritanical Massachusetts. Hester is forced to wear an “A” for adulterer on her at all times after she has an affair with Dimmesdale, therefore cheating on her husband, Chillingworth. Gender politics and symbolism are only two of the facets that make Hawthorne’s 1850 novel a true classic.

To buy: amazon.com, $9

Margo Crane is 16 and looking for her mother. She’s beautiful, strong, and living her life on a boat on the Stark River in Michigan. Along the journey, she sees the disrepair of southern Michigan — and finds that even here she is not quite free.

To buy: amazon.com, $8

On the Banks of Plum Creek stands out as one of her Laura Ingalls Wilder's most vivid novels. Readers can't forget the grasshoppers’ detrimental impact on the family’s crops, or the imposing Minnesota landscape. But Laura and her family take on every battle with courage and quintessential Midwest resilience.

To buy: amazon.com, $4

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is the second in Mildred D. Taylor's series about racism in the American South, this one taking place during the Great Depression in Mississippi. Nine-year-old Cassie Logan is the narrator, and her sentiments are communicated to the audience in a clear, poignant manner as she navigates the horrible effects of racism and realizes the significance of owning land.

To buy: amazon.com, $6

Mark Twain and Huckleberry Finn are two names that will forever remain synonymous with American literature and the Mississippi River. After faking his own death and escaping his abusive father, Huck Finn jumps on a raft, meets Jim the runaway slave, and tumbles into an unforgettable adventure on the Mississippi.

To buy: amazon.com, $7

Sixteen years before Robert Redford brought this novel to the big screen, Norman Maclean published his experiences in logging camps in the western Rocky Mountains. Made up of two novellas and one short story, A River Runs Through It takes the world of loggers, fly fishing, and forest fires, and thrusts it into the homes and minds of readers across the globe.

To buy: amazon.com, $9

Eleanor and Park meet in 1986 in Omaha, Nebraska. Eleanor comes from a loveless home and is constantly made fun of at school. Park is half-Korean and doesn’t feel like he’s living up to his father’s expectations. Their budding relationship comes with the hardship of Eleanor’s living situation and the passion of a first love.

To buy: amazon.com, $11

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is the tale of a weekend road trip gone rogue. With a mix of truth and fiction, Hunter S. Thompson tells the story of American drug culture in the 20th century. It’s a fast-paced novel with a narrator who communicates the events how he sees them — but that doesn’t mean that’s how they actually are.

To buy: amazon.com, $8

Frindle, originally published in 2001, is the story of Nick Allen and his journey to rename the pen as a “frindle.” Though it starts small, his mission quickly spreads far past his town of Westfield, New Hampshire, causing a lot more chaos than anyone ever expected.

To buy: amazon.com, $5

Paterson, New Jersey is the setting of Junot Díaz’s award-winning novel. Oscar de León is a Dominican boy consumed by love, fantasy novels, and science fiction. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao spans his entire life, detailing his two suicide attempts in college, his move to the Dominican Republic, and the violence and heartbreak that follow.

To buy: amazon.com, $8

Dewey Kerrigan arrives at Los Alamos in New Mexico, a town that doesn’t “officially” exist in 1943. Scientists and mathematicians, like her father, are working on “the gadget,” a secret that will affect the world for years to come. Half historical fiction, half a tale of friendship, The Green Glass Sea is a piece of literature that appeals to readers of many ages.

To buy: amazon.com, $8

Author Betty Smith’s Williamsburg is a far cry from the trendy, hip neighborhood it is today. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is split into five “books” that span the different periods in the characters’ lives. Mary Frances "Francie" Nolan is 11 years old when the book begins, detailing the life of her poor Irish-American family living in Brooklyn.

To buy: amazon.com, $6

Nicholas Sparks has a lock on both romance novels as well as novels based in Southern states. In The Notebook, the setting, New Bern, North Carolina, is a reflection of the main characters, Noah and Allie. It’s hot, humid and not a welcoming place for a relationship like this one that trascends class and familial expectations.

To buy: amazon.com, $8

Several generations of the Neumiller family are featured in Larry Woiwode's Beyond the Bedroom Wall. They’re a German-American family dealing with loss and grief, and their deep roots to the patriarch’s homestead in North Dakota.

To buy: amazon.com, $3

Everything I Never Told You is Celeste Ng’s debut novel. The Lees, a Chinese-American family living in a small town in Ohio, find their daughter Lydia dead in a local lake. The tragedy rocks the entire family; Ng’s portrait of a grief-stricken family full of secrets is painted in a realistic, moving manner.

To buy: amazon.com, $10

The Joads are headed west, leaving behind their Oklahoma farm for California and making their way toward hardships that will test them to their very core. John Steinbeck captures the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl migration in a way that can only be defined as literary genius.

To buy: amazon.com, $11

Lydia Sanderson is full of courage as she makes her home in the Oregon mountains in the 1890s. After leaving her marriage behind in Pennsylvania, she strikes out on her own to battle the harsh realities (and harsher nature) of frontier life out west. Molly Gloss’ lack of romanticism is a relief from other novels with similar plots.

To buy: amazon.com, $11

Jeffrey Lionel "Maniac" Magee is now an orphan and looking for a home in a town in Pennsylvania, a town based on the author’s childhood home in Norristown. He’s also a local legend, thanks to his athleticism and courage.

To buy: amazon.com, $6

In a quaint coastal town in Rhode Island there are three witches — Alexandra, Jane, and Sukie — who developed powers after losing their husbands to death or divorce. Soon, Darryl Van Horne moves in, and all kinds of chaos ensue. Seduction, humor, and revenge reign in John Updike's magical little town of Eastwick.

To buy: amazon.com, $11

A high-quality beach read is the perfect way to describe The Summer Girls. Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina is the setting for Mary Alice Monroe's novel about three half sisters, one grandmother, and the three months they spend reconnecting in the home they used to frequent for vacation.

To buy: amazon.com, $8

Another story of the American prairie hits our list: The Personal History of Rachel DuPree. Rachel and Isaac, an African-American couple from Chicago, move out west in the early 1900s, claiming land in the South Dakota Badlands. Their lives as ranchers are far from easy, and Rachel has to decide what’s best for the family — and how to keep them alive.

To buy: amazon.com, $8

Clarice Starling is an FBI trainee on an assignment to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter about a killer named “Buffalo Bill.” While Thomas Harris' novel takes place in several states, including West Virginia and Maryland, it is Tennessee where some of the most engaging scenes with Lecter takes place.

To buy: amazon.com, $7

If there was ever a character with a unique background, it’s Stanley Yelnats. Stanley’s family has been cursed for generations. This curse is the reason he’s sent to Camp Green Lake, a boys’ detention center where they’re forced to dig holes — 5 feet wide and 5 feet deep — in the middle of the Texas desert. But these holes aren’t being made just to build character.

To buy: amazon.com, $6

Ann Eliza Young has left her husband, Brigham Young, the leader of the Mormon church. Named an outcast, she’s on a mission to end polygamy. Alongside her story, author David Ebershoff introduces Jordan Scott. Set in the present, Scott finds his way back to his Mormon family in Utah to find out the truth behind his father’s death.

To buy: amazon.com, $9

The year is 1972, and Carole LaPorte lives a relatively normal life with her family in Vermont. But when she begins to hear things, she's terrified of following her mother’s footsteps and being sent to a mental hospital. Her daughter, Alison, wants to help her in any way she can. All the Best People is a powerful story about mental illness and unconditional love.

To buy: amazon.com, $9

Jess Aarons and Leslie Burke are two good friends who spend their free time in the woods of Virginia creating an imaginary place called Terabithia.

To buy: amazon.com, $6

In Snow Falling On Cedars, the remote San Piedro Island in Washington State is reeling from the death (a possible murder) of a local fisherman. Kabuo Miyamoto, a Japanese American, is charged with the murder. This small village holds onto memories for years — memories of a white boy and a Japanese girl (Kabuo’s wife) as well as memories of what happened to the island’s Japanese residents only a few years prior during World War II.

To buy: amazon.com, $8

Edward P. Jones' collection of 14 stories, Lost In The City, discusses life in Washington, D.C. from the perspective of its African-American residents. The first story is of the youngest resident, while the final story is of the oldest. The result is a snapshot of the nation’s capital.

To buy: amazon.com, $10

Jeannette Wells’s memoir, The Glass Castle, takes readers on a journey to West Virginia. Her father, an alcoholic, and her mother, a free spirit with no desire to care for a family, left the children to grow up more or less alone.

To buy: amazon.com, $10

Ralph Truitt is waiting for a “reliable wife,” one he sent for via a newspaper advertisement, in rural Wisconsin. Catherine Land is not exactly the woman he was hoping for.

To buy: amazon.com, $8

Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist are ranch hands in the mountains of Wyoming whose relationship becomes romantic out on the range one summer. Not your traditional cowboy tale, Brokeback Mountain is one of the most heart-wrenching stories of our time.

To buy: amazon.com, $6