The most famous book set in each state:

[Sheldon Cooper]

http://www.businessinsider.com/most-famous-book-set-in-every-state-map-2013-10

Mine is The Lovely Bones. What's yours?

[TwilightGardener]

1. How did Tom Brokaw beat Laura Ingalls Wilder in South Dakota? That's bullshit.

[sufrommich]

23. Definitely. nt

[dbackjon]

25. Agree - but maybe since they picked her for Wisconsin

They didn't want to have an author with two books on the list.

[starroute]

33. John Grisham appears twice

[dbackjon]

36. So he does

In the words of Emily Latella "Never Mind"


Stephen King appears twice as well

[MNBrewer]

47. Same for MN.

[CrispyQ]

2. I loved "The Shinning" but I would have selected "Centennial" for Colorado.

Interesting list.

[sufrommich]

24. I love Centennial,one of my favorite books.nt

[dbackjon]

27. Agreed - but like my answer above

They seemed to have limited an author to one state - and they picked Hawaii for Michener

[CrispyQ]

34. "Hawaii" was a good book too. Loved Woo Chow's Auntie!

Didn't notice author's only got one state.

[dbackjon]

37. Turns out there is a John Grisham/Stephen King exception to that :)

[CrispyQ]

39. I see Stephen King's in there twice, too.

The Shinning & Carrie. Both good stories, but not as scary as It. I still won't walk by or park near a sewer grate.

[dbackjon]

42. It was very, very scary - moreso than other Stephen King novels

[pipi_k]

59. James Michener

is one of my very favorite authors and I've read a whole bunch of his books, but "Hawaii" is my favorite.

I've read and re-read it so many times that I've had to replace my paperback copies a few times because they fall apart. Waiting for it to come to the Kindle.

His other books I've re-read many times are "Centennial" and "Chesapeake".

And yes...in "Hawaii", Woo Chow's Auntie was really cool.

[CrispyQ]

64. Those are three of my favorites, too!

[edhopper]

3. Many of the choices are questionable

and quite a few are laughable.

Should be titled; "Some famous books from every State."

[Hestia]

6. I think the books are set in that particular state, not from that state.

[edhopper]

46. Okay, my comments

hold for that as well.

[malaise]

4. No Mark Twain

Sorry

[TygrBright]

49. MO: "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" n/t

[malaise]

53. Blind me

LOL

[Hestia]

5. A Painted House by John Grisham which I really enjoyed and seemed to be the only

one. Everyone else didn't like it because it wasn't a courtroom drama. John Grisham got the tone right because only "the better people" lived in painted houses (at least here in Ark.) and were considered poor if your house wasn't painted - the word was, you were considered "common". You still hear elders use that word sometimes.

[Zorra]

11. A Painted House was a wonderful story, a fabulous and authentic regional/period novel.

I love all his novels, every one of them has kept me entertained all the way through.

And they all have socially conscious liberal themes at their hearts. I'd love to sit down on the banks of the Mississsippi and have a serious get drunk and change the world session with John Grisham someday.

[B Calm]

60. A Painted House was also turned into a Hallmark movie!

[B Calm]

61. Grisham has wrote a lot of novels that are not courtroom dramas. Here are

a few that I've read.

Calico Joe
Playing for Pizza
Bleachers
Ford County
Skipping Christmas

[treestar]

7. "Saint of Lost Things"

Never heard of it. Could be interesting to check out though. I don't believe I've ever read any fiction that takes place in Delaware.

[Wounded Bear]

8. Twilight? I thought that was set in Oregon....

Oh well. I'd have gone with a Tom Robbins book, myself.

[Xyzse]

9. Forks, Washington

I feel ashamed that I even know it.

[Wounded Bear]

12. I think they filmed the movies in Or, maybe...

Perhaps that's what confused me.

And yes, you should feel ashamed.

[Xyzse]

15. I am... Very much so...

[dbackjon]

28. I only know that it was Forks because

during the craze, stores in Forks were selling all sorts of "Twilight" related crap.

[Xyzse]

31. I have a friend who wanted to move there...

Kinda like how I have a friend who wanted to move to one of the Carolinas due to Dawson's Creek.

I have fanatic friends.

[Zorra]

30. Definitely!!! Tom Robbins embodies the spirit of Washington. Sissy Hankshaw and Amanda

are totally like my life's role models.

He wrote a lot of his novels at his house in La Conner. I loved his first two novels Another Roadside Attraction and Even Cowgirls Get The Blues so much that I have to confess, I worked in Friday Harbor one weekend a month, and would get to Anacortes early for the ferry, and then head over to La Conner and hang out at a bar near his house for a few hours in the hope of having a beer and conversation with him.

Pinky swear, that's the only silly groupie like thing I have ever done in my entire life.

[panader0]

10. Not 'Lonesome Dove' for Texas?

[sufrommich]

26. Another of my favorite books. nt

[justabob]

43. I was thinking Giant, but Lonesome Dove is

definitely more famous.

[ScreamingMeemie]

50. Or Terms of Endearment or any of McMurtry's awesome books set in Texas.

[Proud Public Servant]

13. Fun idea, silly in a lot of particulars

John Updike's "Rabbit, Run" is just one of many books set in Pennsylvania that's more famous than "The Lovely Bones."

Speaking of Updike, "The Witches of Eastwick," also set in Rhode Island, is surely more famous than anything ever written by Jodi Picoult.

"The Jungle" for Illinois? Over "Sister Carrie," "Native Son," or any one of several Saul Bellow novels (I'd pick "The Adventures of Augie March&quot ?

Leaving aside other novels set in NJ ("Goodbye, Columbus" anyone?), why pick "Drown" over Diaz's more famous "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao"?

But mostly: How the f*ck did they pick any book other than Toni Morrison's "Beloved" for Ohio? That's like trying to come up with famous plays set in Denmark and listing "Copenhagen" instead of "Hamlet." No, actually, it's worse than that...

Still, fun idea!

[Wounded Bear]

16. Yeah, this has the earmarks of an ad campaign....

rather than an objective book review.

[Laelth]

44. Agreed on Witches of Eastwick.

That is an incredible novel.

-Laelth

[Ms. Toad]

62. Umm - yeah, to Ohio.

Don't have a clue about the one they picked, but I definitely know "Beloved."

[Blue_In_AK]

14. Into the Wild

which to this day continues to generate a great deal of controversy here. Was Chris McCandless a clear-eyed romantic idealist who would have been fine if he hadn't eaten poisonous seeds or was he an idiot who woefully underestimated the dangers of the Alaska wilderness? Most people here tend to believe the latter. Our troopers still have to go out there almost every year to rescue Lower 48 fools who continue to make pilgrimages to the old bus and get themselves stuck.

[dogknob]

17. Interview with the Vampire? Bite me.

A Confederacy of Dunces.

[cali]

40. lol. I hear you.

[Laelth]

48. Agreed. n/t

-Laelth

[BlueJazz]

18. Washington DC = The Walking Dead

[hatrack]

19. Tom Sawyer over Huck Finn? Come ON.

[exboyfil]

21. I agree it is ridiculous

What is sad is my daughters' public school did not require them to read either one. When they were in elementary I had them read Tom Sawyer with a promise that Huck Finn would be required. Surprise - surprise it never was.

[Laelth]

45. Agreed. Huckleberry Finn is a more significant novel.

That said, Tom Sawyer's critique of the exploitative nature of capitalism is also quite relevant today. This is a tough call.

-Laelth

[Art_from_Ark]

66. Well, half of Huckleberry Finn is set in Arkansas

so maybe that's why Tom Sawyer was selected for Missouri.

[Laelth]

69. Could be.

It might be interesting to see the methodology behind the choices made by the editors of Business Insider.



-Laelth

[exboyfil]

20. Into the Wild

Versus Jack London's The Call of the Wild. Now you must be kidding.

I think a criteria for such a piece should be the surroundings of the state dramatically impacting the story. This would exclude books like The Lovely Bones for example.

What this list does show is that there are a great many places calling for excellent literature about them (or at least popularizing excellent literature already written). I will check out A Thousand Acres since I live in Iowa and love King Lear.

[sufrommich]

22. Anatomy Of a Murder is a much more famous

best selling book in Michigan than The Virgin Suicides,at least with Michiganders.

[Crepuscular]

65. From purely

a number of volumes sold standpoint, I would bet that either "Wheels" by Arthur Hailey or "The Betsy" by Harold Robbins outsold both of those.

[TygrBright]

29. REALLY hard to believe Willa Cather didn't make it for NM. n/t

[Retrograde]

56. Cather's so 1920s (and I think of her as MidWest anyway)

My Antonia and Oh, Pioneers, for example. But yeah, it's skewed towards modern books: there were a lot of regional writers who aren't read much today who were active in the early 20th century.

[TygrBright]

58. I thought "Death Comes for the Archbishop" was on every "100 Classics" list.

And it's the quintessential New Mexico novel.

But, what do I know, I just live here.

baffledly,
Bright

[Ms. Toad]

63. My Antonia,

In Nebraska. Where it belongs.

[Zorra]

32. Barbara Kingsolver for AZ. Great choice. nt

[cali]

35. Poor Maine. Not the wonderful 'The Country of the Pointed Firs' by

Sarah Orne Jewett, but Steven King. And CO gets stuck with him too.

My state of Vermont gets stuck with Pollyanna.

[cthulu2016]

38. Grapes of Wrath is considerably more famous than either East of Eden or Paradise

Is the idea that the book has to be set entirely in the state?

[KansDem]

52. A good runner-up for California would be "Valley of the Moon" by Jack London

From Wikipedia:

It begins with Billy as a Teamster and Saxon working in a laundry. Billy has also boxed professionally with some success, but decided there was no future in it. He was particularly upset by one bout in which he was fighting a friend and they had to go on fighting and making a good show after his friend injured one hand.

Their early married life is disrupted by a major wave of strikes. Billy is involved in violent attacks on scabs and goes to jail. Saxon loses her baby in the backwash of the violence. She hears socialist arguments but does not definitely accept them. She also meets an old woman who takes a very individualist view, describing how she successfully attached herself to a series of rich men. She also meets a lad called Jack who has built his own boat and seems modeled on Jack London's own teenage years.

When Billy gets out of jail, Saxon insist that they leave the city and try to get their own farm. They have memories of when the government gave out land free, but find that is long past. They pass through an area where the earliest European settlers have been displaced by Portuguese. There is a detailed description of how the Portuguese, who arrived very poor, have flourished by using the land more intensively. They also stay a few days with a middle-class woman who grows flowers along with her vegetables and has a flourishing business selling high-quality products to rich people.

Moving on, they find an artists' colony which they like, but they move on, still looking for their own place. Billy begins dealing in horses as well as driving them. He also returns to the boxing ring, using a new name so he will not be identified against an up-and-coming boxer. Saxon is scared for him, but in fact he wins the fight in the first few seconds, much faster than he intended. This gets him 300 dollars for a pair of horses he wants. Invited to a rematch, he accepts and finds it much harder, but still wins. He resolves to fight no more.

They also encounter well-known writer and journalist 'Jack Hastings', generally considered to be a self-portrait of Jack London as he then was. His wife—presumably modeled on London's second wife—is also described as very much like Saxon. They are directed to a suitable place to settle, and do settle. There is also much talk about the wastefulness of the early American farmers, exhausting the land and moving on. These reflect Jack London's views on sustainable agriculture.

They find their 'valley of the moon' and presumably live happily ever after. A character in the book says that this is the Native American meaning of 'Sonoma Valley'. This was Jack London's belief, though it is disputed.

It made an indelible impression on me when I read it years ago...

[Laelth]

41. No question for Georgia. Gone with the Wind takes the cake.

That said, I'd also recommend the following from Georgia:

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
The Hornet's Nest by Jimmy Carter
Jubilee by Margaret Walker
Deliverance by James Dickey
Southern Living by Ad Hudler (about my home town, Macon)
The Violent Bear It Away by Flannery O'Connor

That's just a start.

Deep cultural and racial repression in the South make those of us on the left speak louder and more aggressively than is typical in other places. A lot of solid, liberal art comes out of the South as a result.

-Laelth

[rsdsharp]

51. Given that the title is "most famous" rather than "best"

I don't think there can be any doubt that "The Bridges of Madison County" should represent Iowa.

[closeupready]

54. Great Gatsby, not read it - four books I have read on this list

The Shining, Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Firm and The Jungle.

[JI7]

55. i feel bad for washington state

[pipi_k]

57. "Walden"

Henry David Thoreau

cool.

[Art_from_Ark]

67. I think "True Grit" (set in Yell County and Fort Smith, Arkansas)

is more famous than "A Painted House"

[JCMach1]

68. Obscure Hemingway novel for Florida... FAIL

Should have been:

Their Eyes Were Watching God- Zora Neale Hurston

or

The Yearling- Marjorie Rawlings

[RebelOne]

70. I'm in Georiga, so of course Gone With The Wind. n/t