150 Books About the United States | 3 For Each State to Enhance Your Travels

Reading books about a destination is a great way to deepen your understanding of the destination. For instance, following my recent road trip from Massachusetts to Florida (and back), I researched books set in all the states I stopped in along the way.

I didn’t stop at just those states, though. I continued to research books set in or about each of the states that I drove through. In the end, I researched books for 15 states (gotta love the East Coast!). Then I thought, “Why stop there!?” and kept going until I found books for each of the 50 states! Since it is a Mighty Life goal to visit each state, I might as well, right?!

Ready to update your reading list, travel vicariously through the United States, and learn a little bit along the way?

What Kind of Books Are On This List?

Well, I like to read about the cultural and natural history of places. I also enjoy the first-hand accounts of places in memoirs and biographies, especially those set in the 18th or 19th century. Who else read all the Little House books when they were younger? Both types of books help me understand how places took shape through time.

Now and then, a great work of fiction describes the setting so well that I feel like I’m there. Whether city, state, or country, the story’s setting can be as much a character in the book as the people it’s about.

So, in short, this list of books includes a mixture of all types of genres. I found so many great books, but I had to narrow it down to just three books per state as hard as it was. I hope you find one (or several) books to add to your reading list!

*Books I’ve already read and recommend are in italics.

Books Set in Alabama

• To Kill a Mockingbird by Lee Harper
• Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg
• Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

Books Set in Alaska

• Blonde Indian: An Alaska Native Memoir by Ernestine Hayes
• Passage to Juneau: A Sea and Its Meanings
• Travels in Alaska by John Muir

Books Set in Arizona

• Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver
• Going Back to Bisbee by Richard Shelton
• In the Heart of the Canyon by Elisabeth Hyde

Books Set in Arkansas

• True Grit by Charles Portis
• One Summer in Arkansas by Marcia Kemp Sterling
• Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley

Books Set in California

• White Oleander by Janet Fitch
• East of Eden by John Steinbeck
• China Dolls by Lisa See

Books Set in Colorado

• Plainsong by Kent Haruf
• The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb
• The Magic of Ordinary Days by Ann Howard Creel

Books Set in Connecticut

• Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Hidden History of Connecticut by Wilson Faude

Books Set in Delaware

• West of Rehoboth by Alexs D. Pate
• Rehoboth Beach: A History of Surf & Sand by Michael Morgan
• The Saint of Lost Things by Christopher Castellan

Books Set in Florida

• Marley and Me: Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog by John Grogan
• Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
• Swamplandia! by Karen Russell

Books Set in Georgia

• Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones
• Home by Toni Morrison
• Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

Books Set in Hawaii

• The Last Aloha by Gaellen Quinn
• He Mele A Hilo (A Hilo Song) by Ryka Aoki
• Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers

Books Set in Idaho

• Educated by Tara Westover
• In the Wilderness: Coming of Age in Unknown Country by Kim Barnes
• On the Dark Side of the Moon:: A Journey to Recovery by Mike Medberry

Books Set in Illinois

• Native Son by Richard Wright
• The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson
• You Were Never in Chicago by Neil Steinberg

Books Set in Indiana

• The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
• All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
• We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler

Books Set in Iowa

• Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron
• Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
• The Bridges of Madison County by Robert Waller

Books Set in Kansas

• Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
• In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
• The Exact Nature of Our Wrongs by Janet Peery

Books Set in Kentucky

• Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
• The Patron Saint of Liars by Ann Patchett
• Icy Sparks by Gwyn Hyman Rubio

Books Set in Louisiana

• A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines
• Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
• A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy O’Toole

Books Set in Maine

• Empire Falls by Richard Russo
• The Cider House Rules by John Irving
• A Year in the Maine Woods by Bernd Heinrich

Books Set in Maryland

• The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler
• Chesapeake by James A. Michener
• Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson

Books Set in Massachusetts

• See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt
• Mystic River by Dennis Lehane
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Read more about travel in Massachusetts:

• Go to Salem For Halloween 2024! Tips For the Best Halloween in Salem, Massachusetts

Books Set in Michigan

• Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
• The Slave Across the Street by Theresa Flores
• South of Superior by Ellen Airgood

Books Set in Minnesota

• The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir by Kao Kalia Yang
• On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder
• North Star Country by Meridel Le Sueur

Books Set in Mississippi

• The Help by Kathryn Stockett
• We Are All Welcome Here by Elizabeth Berg
• The Little Friend by Donna Tartt

Books Set in Missouri

• Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell
• Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
• Stoner by John Williams

Books Set in Montana

• The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth
• The Last Best Place: A Montana Anthology by William Kittredge
• Fourth of July Creek by Smith Henderson

Books Set in Nebraska

• The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dustbowl by Timothy Egan
• Once Upon a Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen by Bob Greene
• A Cottonwood Stand: A Novel of Nebraska by Chuck Redman

Nevada

• The Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark
• Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
• The Delivery Man by Joe McGinniss Jr

New Hampshire

• Our Town by Thornton Wilder
• 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 Dias
• American Pastoral by Philip Roth
• Let Me Be Frank With You by Richard Ford

New Mexico

• The Wives of Los Alamos by TaraShea Nesbit
• Canyon de Chelly: Its People and Rock Art by Campbell Grant
• Red Sky at Morning by Richard Bradford

New York

• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
• Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

North Carolina

• The Marrow of Tradition by Charles W. Chestnutt
• Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
• Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Ann Jacobs

North Dakota

• The New Wild West: Black Gold, Fracking, and Life in a North Dakota Boomtown by Blaire Briody
• The Horizontal World: Growing Up Wild in the Middle of Nowhere by Debra Marquart
• The Children’s Blizzard by David Laskin

Ohio

• Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
• Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
• The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

Oklahoma

• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
• Where the Heart Is by Billie Letts
• Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann

Oregon

• My Abandonment by Peter Rock
• Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey
• Fugitives and Refugees: A Walk in Portland, Oregon by Chuck Palahniuk

Pennsylvania

• Songs in Ordinary Time by Mary McGarry Morris
• The First Christmas of the War by Alan Simon
• Black Girl/White Girl by Joyce Carol Oates

Rhode Island

• My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
• Calm at Sunset, Calm at Dawn by Paul Watkins
• Every Sunday by Peter Pezzelli

South Carolina

• The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
• The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
• Red Hills and Cotton by Ben Robertson

South Dakota

• By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder
• The Personal History of Rachel DuPree: A Novel by Ann Weisgarber
• The Jumping-Off Place by Marian Hurd McNeely

Tennessee

• The Color Purple by Alice Walker
• A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor
• Under Water: A Natural Disaster Memoir by Owen Grimenstein

Texas

• All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
• Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream by H.G. Bissinger
• The Last Picture Show by Larry McMurtry

Utah

• Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by John Krakauer
• Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey
• The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff

Vermont

• Off the Leash: Subversive Journeys Around Vermont by Helen Husher
• Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
• House Rules by Jodi Picoult

Virginia

• Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry
• The Wettest County in the World by Matt Bondurant
• The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner’s Semester at America’s Holiest University by Kevin Roose

Washington

• Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
• Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
• The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin

West Virginia

• Rocket Boys by Homer Hickam
• Out of the Mountains: Appalachian Stories by Meredith Willis
• Storming Heaven by Denise Giardina

Wisconsin

• Driftless by David Rhodes
• Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder
• Population 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time by Michael Perry

Wyoming

• Altitude Adjustment: A Quest for Love, Home, and Meaning in the Tetons by Mary Beth Baptiste
• The Legend of Colton H. Bryant by Alexandra Fuller
• Close Range by Annie Proulx

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