Explore the country by reading a book set in every state. A checklist covering all fifty states is available at the Lititz Public Library.
Connecticut
Stillmeadow Calendar: A Countrywoman’s Journal by Gladys Taber (Nonfiction)
The author writes about her adventures living in a 200-year-old wood frame home in the countryside, chronicling her love of the house, the surrounding wildlife, gardening, helpful neighbors and her wonderful dogs and cats.
Florida
The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean (Nonfiction)
In 1994, a renegade plant dealer was arrested with rare orchids he had stolen from a swamp in south Florida.
Hawaii
Unfamiliar Fishes by Sarah Vowell (Nonfiction)
An examination of Hawaii’s history retraces the impact of missionaries who began arriving in the early 1800s to remake the island paradise into a version of New England.
Indiana
A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland, Indiana by Haven Kimmel (Nonfiction)
In the 1960s, Mooreland, Indiana was a sleepy little hamlet of three hundred people at a time when small-town America was enjoying the innocent postwar period.
Mississippi
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward (Fiction)
When her children’s father is released from prison, a mother packs her kids and a friend into her car and sets out across the state to the penitentiary.
Nevada
Mile-High Fever: Silver Mines, Boom Towns and High Living on the Comstock Lode by Dennis Drabelle (Nonfiction)
In the late 19th century, the immense wealth extracted from silver mining spurred the growth of Virginia City, a wild town where the risks and expenses of mining led to stock-market manipulations and fraud on a grand scale.
New Jersey
Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times and Corruption of Atlantic City by Nelson Johnson (Nonfiction)
A history of the international entertainment and gambling mecca traces the city from its birth as a quiet seaside health resort, through the notorious backroom politics and power struggles.
New York
Just Kids by Patti Smith (Nonfiction)
Singer-songwriter shares tales of New York City and her life in Brooklyn with a young photographer named Robert Mapplethorpe, the man who changed her life with his love, friendship and genius.
North Carolina
Serena by Ron Rash (Fiction)
Newly married owners of a logging company aim to maximize profit without regard for the safety of their workers or the future of the land they’re pillaging.
Oklahoma
True Grit by Charles Portis (Fiction)
A fourteen-year-old girl sets out to avenge her father’s death with the help of a mean, a one-eyed U.S. Marshal.
Pennsylvania
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (Fiction)
Murdered on her way home from school, a teen, now in heaven, narrates the event’s devastating effects on her family.
Vermont
Mud Season by Ellen Stimson (Nonfiction)
Told in a self-deprecating and hilarious fashion, a woman shares the story of how her dream of moving to Vermont to raise children, chickens and sheep while running an old country store led to one calamity after another.
Virginia
The Known World by Edward P. Jones (Fiction)
Under his mentor’s tutelage, a black farmer in antebellum Virginia becomes proprietor of his own plantation, as well as his own slaves.
Wyoming
Bird Cloud by Annie Proulx (Nonfiction)
The author fell in love with 640 acres of wetlands and prairie, designed and constructed the perfect house and became enthralled with the natural history and archaeology of the region.
November 30, 2018