Want to read your way across the country? Well now you can! Below we have complied a list of books, one set in every state within the USA.
Alabama- To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
~The unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy Southern town and the crisis of conscience that rocked it, To Kill A Mockingbird became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960.
Alaska- The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
~Jack and Mabel have been unable to have children of their own, and it is destroying them. One day they decide to build a child out of snow. The next day their snow child is gone, but they see a live little girl running in the woods with a fox by her side. Her name is Faina, and they soon love her like their own daughter. Things are never as they appear, and the encounter will leave them transformed.
Arizona- Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
~Leo Borlock follows the unspoken rule at Mica Area High School: don't stand out--under any circumstances! Then Stargirl arrives at Mica High and everything changes--for Leo and for the entire school.
Arkansas- I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
~Sent by their mother to live with their grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.” At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age—and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime.
California- Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
~The compelling story of two outsiders striving to find their place in an unforgiving world.
Colorado- The Shining by Steven King
~Jack Torrance's new job at the Overlook Hotel is the perfect chance for a fresh start, but as the harsh winter sets in it becomes more remote, and more sinister.
Connecticut- Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
~For Samantha Kingston, February 12—"Cupid Day"—should be one big party and it is … until she dies in a terrible accident that night.
Delaware- The Book of Unknown Americans by Christina Henriquez
~After their daughter Maribel suffers a near-fatal accident, the Riveras leave México and come to America. They soon discover that Maribel's recovery will not be easy. Every task seems to confront them with language, racial, and cultural obstacles. At Redwood also lives Mayor Toro, a high school sophomore whose family arrived from Panamá fifteen years ago. As the two grow closer, violence casts a shadow over all their futures in America.
Florida- The Leaving by Tara Altebrando
~Eleven years ago, six kindergarteners went missing without a trace. After all that time, the people left behind moved on, or tried to. Until today. Today, five of those kids return.
Georgia- Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
~Scarlett O'Hara, the beautiful, spoiled daughter of a well-to-do Georgia plantation owner, must use every means at her disposal to claw her way out of the poverty she finds herself in after Sherman's March to the Sea.
Hawaii- Moloka'i by Alan Brennert
~Rachel Kalama, a spirited seven-year-old Hawaiian girl, dreams of visiting far-off lands like her father, a merchant seaman. Then one day a rose-colored mark appears on her skin, and those dreams are stolen from her.
Idaho- Educated by Tara Westover
~Tara Westover was 17 the first time she set foot in a classroom. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, she prepared for the end of the world by stockpiling at home.
Illinois- Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles
~When Brittany Ellis walks into chemistry class on the first day of senior year, she has no clue that her carefully created 'perfect' life is about to unravel before her eyes.
Indiana- The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
~Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis.
Iowa- The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller
~This is the story of Robert Kincaid, the photographer and free spirit searching for the covered bridges of Madison County, and Francesca Johnson, the farm wife waiting for the fulfillment of a girlhood dream.
Kansas- Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
~Libby Day was seven when her mother and two sisters were murdered in “The Satan Sacrifice" of Kinnakee, Kansas. She survived—and famously testified that her fifteen-year-old brother, Ben, was the killer.
Kentucky- Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
~This story is about Uncle Tom, who is depicted as a saintly, dignified slave. While being transported by boat to auction in New Orleans, Tom saves the life of Little Eva, whose grateful father then purchases Tom.
Louisiana- The Streetcar Named Desire by Tennesse Williams
This is actually a play!
~This renowned drama follows troubled former schoolteacher Blanche DuBois as she leaves small-town Mississippi and moves in with her sister, Stella Kowalski, and her husband, Stanley, in New Orleans. Blanche's flirtatious Southern-belle presence causes problems for Stella and Stanley, who already have a volatile relationship.
Maine- Carrie by Steven King
~A story of misunderstood high school girl Carrie White, her extraordinary telekinetic powers, and her violent rampage of revenge.
Maryland- The Sisterhood of Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares ~Carmen got the jeans at a thrift shop. On the night before she and her friends part for the summer, Carmen decides to toss them. But they seem to fit Tibby, Lena and Bridget who think they’re fabulous. The girls decide to form a sisterhood and take the vow of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants . . . the next morning, they say good-bye.
Massachusetts- It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover ~Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. Lily begins to feel sparks for Ryle an assertive, stubborn, maybe even a little arrogant man with a "no dating rule". As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan — her first love and a link to the past she left behind.
Michigan- Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
~ It's 1936, in Flint, Michigan. Times may be hard, and ten-year-old Bud may be a motherless boy on the run, but Bud's got a few things going for him: He has his own suitcase full of special things and he's the author of Bud Caldwell's Rules and Things for Having a Funner Life and Making a Better Liar Out of Yourself.
Minnesota- The Good Girl By Mary Kubica
~One night, Mia Dennett enters a bar to meet her boyfriend, but when he doesn't show, she unwisely leaves with an enigmatic stranger.
Mississippi- The Help by Kathryn Stockett
~Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.
Missouri- Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
~On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. The day is going as planned until Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media, the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer?
Montana- The Window by Amelia Brunskill
~Anna is everything her identical twin is not. The same on the outside, yet so completely different inside--it's hard to believe the girls are sisters, let alone twins. But they are. And they tell each other everything. Or so Jess thought.
Nebraska- There's Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins
~Makani thought she'd left her dark past behind her in Hawaii, settling in with her grandmother in landlocked Nebraska. She's found new friends and has even started to fall for mysterious outsider Ollie Larsson. But her past isn't far behind.
Nevada- Burned by Ellen Hopkins
~It all started with a dream. Nothing exceptional, just a typical fantasy about a boy, the kind of dream that most teen girls experience.
New Hampshire- Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
~Lia and Cassie are best friends, wintergirls frozen in matchstick bodies, competitors in a deadly contest to see who can be the skinniest. But what comes after size zero and size double-zero? When Cassie succumbs to the demons within, Lia feels she is being haunted by her friend’s restless spirit.
New Jersey- In the Unlikely Event by Judy Blume
~In 1987, Miri Ammerman returns to her hometown of Elizabeth, New Jersey, to attend a commemoration of the worst year of her life. Thirty-five years earlier, when Miri was fifteen, and in love for the first time, a succession of airplanes fell from the sky, leaving a community reeling.
New Mexico- Hearts of the Missing by Carol Potenza
~When a young woman linked to a list of missing Fire-Sky tribal members commits suicide, Pueblo Police Sergeant Nicky Matthews is assigned to the case. As the evidence leads her to a shocking discovery, she uncovers not only murder but an ominous, vengeful twist that strikes at the very core of what it means to be a member of the Fire-Sky People.
New York- The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon
~Natasha believes in science and facts, not fate or destiny. She's not the kind of girl who meets a cute boy in New York City and falls in love. Not when her family is twelve hours away from being deported to Jamaica. Daniel is the good son, the good student, living up to his parents’ high expectations. Never the poet or the dreamer. But when he see her, he forgets about all that.
North Carolina- The Last Song by Nicolas Sparks
~Seventeen-year-old Veronica 'Ronnie' Miller’s life was turned upside-down when her parents divorced and her father moved from New York City to Wilmington, North Carolina. Three years later, she remains angry and alienated from her parents, especially her father . . . until her mother decides it would be in everyone’s best interest if she spent the summer in Wilmington with him.
North Dakota- Dakota Born by Debbie Macomber
~Returning to the struggling town of Buffalo Valley, North Dakota, Lindsay Snyder seeks to discover family secrets while reevaluating her life, an effort that offers unexpected hope to the town of her childhood vacations.
Ohio- Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
~In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is planned-- And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules. Enter Mia Warren--an enigmatic artist and single mother--who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenaged daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Mia carries with her a mysterious past and a disregard for the status quo that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.
Oklahoma- Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
~A loving threesome, they ranged the dark hills and river bottoms of Cherokee country. Old Dan had the brawn. Little Ann had the brains, and Billy had the will to make them into the finest hunting team in the valley. Glory and victory were coming to them, but sadness waited too.
Oregon- The Summer of Chasing Mermaids by Sarah Ockler
~The youngest of six talented sisters, Elyse d'Abreau was destined for stardom - until a boating accident took everything from her.
Pennsylvania- Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult
This book is actually set in Shannon and I's hometown!
~The small town of Paradise, Pennsylvania, is a jewel in Lancaster County - known for its picture-postcard landscapes and bucolic lifestyle. But that peace is shattered by the discovery of a dead infant in the barn of an Amish farmer. A police investigation quickly leads to two startling disclosures: the newborn's mother is an unmarried Amish woman, eighteen-year-old Katie Fisher. And the infant did not die of natural causes.
Rhode Island- The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
~Ivan is an easygoing gorilla. Living at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade, he has grown accustomed to humans watching him through the glass walls of his domain.
South Carolina- The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
~This story is set in South Carolina in 1964 and it tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed.
South Dakota- Strange Girl by Christopher Pike
~From the moment Fred met Aja, he knew she was different. And she was. Aja had a gift. But her gift came with a price.
Tennessee- The Firm by John Grisham
~At the top of his class at Harvard Law, he had his choice of the best in America. He made a deadly mistake. When Mitch McDeere signed on with Bendini, Lambert & Locke of Memphis, he thought he was on his way. Mitch should have remembered what his brother Ray-- doing fifteen years in a Tennessee jail -- already knew. You never get nothing for nothing.
Texas- Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi
~Sam and Penny cross paths and it’s less meet-cute and more a collision of unbearable awkwardness. Still, they swap numbers and stay in touch and soon become digitally inseparable,
Utah- The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff
~It is 1875, and Ann Eliza Young has recently separated from her powerful husband, Brigham Young, prophet and leader of the Mormon Church. Expelled and an outcast, Ann Eliza embarks on a crusade to end polygamy in the United States. Soon after Ann Eliza’s story begins, a second exquisite narrative unfolds–a tale of murder involving a polygamist family in present-day Utah.
Vermont- Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin
~From the time he was a small boy in Vermont, Wilson Bentley saw snowflakes as small miracles. And he determined that one day his camera would capture for others the wonder of the tiny crystal. Bentley's enthusiasm for photographing snowflakes was often misunderstood in his time, but his patience and determination revealed two important truths: no two snowflakes are alike; and each one is startlingly beautiful.
Virginia- Postmortem by Patricia Cornwell
~Four brutalized victims of a brilliant monster - a "Mr. Nobody", moving undetected through a paralyzed city, leaving behind a gruesome trail of carnage . . . but few clues. Kay Scarpetta, female medical examiner, is determined to unmask a maniac.
Washington- Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
Hello, who would we be if this wasn't our answer?
~Bella Swan moves to Forks with her father expecting life to be boring and normal until she meets Edward, a vampire, and quickly falls in love.
West Virginia- Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
~When Marty Preston comes across a young beagle in the hills behind his home, it's love at first sight—and also big trouble. It turns out the dog, which Marty names Shiloh, belongs to Judd Travers who drinks too much and has a gun—and abuses his dogs.
Wisconsin- Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder
~Little House in the Big Woods takes place in 1871 and introduces us to four-year-old Laura, who lives in a log cabin on the edge of the Big Woods of Wisconsin. She shares the cabin with her Pa, her Ma, her sisters Mary and Carrie, and their lovable dog, Jack.
Wyoming- Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx
~Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist, two ranch hands, come together when they're working as sheepherder and camp tender one summer on a range above the tree line. At first, sharing an isolated tent, the attraction is casual, inevitable, but something deeper catches them that summer.
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