Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Top Ten Books Set In The U.S. Midwest

This week the ladies at The Broke and The Bookish challenged us to pick a setting and then chose our ten favorite books from that setting. I had a hard time narrowing this one down - the American South? Africa? New York City? I toyed with the idea of an island theme but would have had to leave England off because it would have overwhelmed the list and since I just had to do that recently, I didn't want to do it again. So I started looking at my books read on Goodreads and got to thinking that maybe books set in the U.S. Midwest don't get enough love.

In no particular order, here are actually eleven of my favorite books set in the U.S. Midwest:


1. O Pioneers! by Willa Cather - or any Cather for that matter; they're all great and so beautifully paint this part of the country as the pioneers settled in the Plains.

2. A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick - dark, oh so dark. The isolation of rural turn-of-the-last-century Wisconsin and the decadence of big city Chicago all wrapped up in one novel. Plus, great characters and lots of surprises.

3. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell - Rowell's books all have a Midwest setting and she brilliantly portrays the people I'm surrounded by everyday and the cities I've lived in. This one is my favorite.

4. Some Luck by Jane Smiley - This one's the first of a trilogy I'm still on the fence about but I definitely appreciated Smiley's grasp of this part of the country and its people - the beauty and the minutiae of everyday life.

5. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote - in the 1950's, unless you lived in a city, you felt safe enough in your own home to leave the doors unlocked at night. Until one night two men changed all of that. Capote, who was most definitely not a Midwesterner, buried himself in the story and really captured the feelings of the people most closely impacted.


6. The Man Who Ate The 747 by Ben Sherwood - quirky and fun and heartfelt and utterly unique.

7. The Magician's Assistant by Ann Patchett - this was my second book by Patchett (following on the heels of Bel Canto). So unexpected different and such a nice surprise to find an appreciation for small town middle America.

8. The Round House by Louise Erdrich - you could, of course, include all of Erdrich's books here. She shines a light on a place and people that the rest of the country is all to ready to turn their backs on. Erdrich makes readers remember those whose ancestors were here first.

9. Last Night at the Blue Angel by Rebecca Rotert - Rotert is a local writer who set this book in Chicago. She catches that balance between big city life and midwest values.

10. The Coffins of Little Hope by Timothy Schaffert - Schaffert understands small town Nebraska, the good, the bad, and the hopeful.

11. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn - twisty, dark, terrible people. Not everyone in the Midwest is midwest nice. Although, Amy is a New Yorker.

I'd include all of Kent Haruf's books except they're set in the plains of Colorado and I don't really consider any part of Colorado as midwestern. Likewise, I consider Mark Twain's books, although set in Missouri, to be more Southern than midwestern.

If I'd included children's books, of course you'd also see the books of Laura Ingalls Wilder and L. Frank Baum on this list.

Book Riot has put together a list of 100 Must-Read Books of the American Midwest you might like to check out if you'd like to learn more. Not all of the books they have included are set in the Midwest so I wouldn't have included them on my list. But there are a lot there that I need to get to someday.







20 comments:

  1. Yay for Midwest book love! I always feel we get a bad rap for being boring and not as diverse as the coasts. But we have some amazing authors and are the setting for some outstanding books - many of which you mention in your list. Well done!

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    1. There were so many I found that I haven't read - I really need to make a point to read more locally.

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  2. I don't know how I'd fair in the Midwest. LOL. BUT, I've read a few of the titles listed here and enjoyed them all.

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    1. We do have our extremes in weather here - even we can't handle them sometimes!

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  3. I've only read Gone Girl though I have Last Night at the Blue Angel on my TBR. I've gone back and forth on In Cold Blood. I know the case and I have enjoyed Capote's writing style in other forms but I'm just not sure I want the images from that book in my head!

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    1. In Cold Blood is not nearly as graphic as some of the fiction I've read, honestly. But any time something is true, it does kind of hit me harder.

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  4. Nice shout out to South Dakota in particular there at the end with Wilder and Baum!

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    1. I definitely wanted to try to get something from every state!

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  5. Some Luck is on my nightstand stack right now. I hope I like it because I am always on the lookout for a good series.

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    1. It's slow going, a very intimate look at the minutiae of a family. I appreciated it but I'm still not sure I'll continue the series.

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  6. A lot of these are on my list. I'm a far west gal so I know I'll enjoy learning about this part of the country!

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    1. It is fun to learn a little something about all parts of the country!

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  7. Your set of books is great--I would like to read more Willa Cather (and reread what I've already read). I'm about to start reading Jane Smiley. In Cold Blood was good, chilling but good.

    I wish I had remembered to do this Top Ten Tuesday myself--I enjoy creating lists like this and reading other people's lists as well. And no, Colorado is not the midwest, not even the plains.

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    1. I always find the definition of what is the Midwest funny - technically, I suppose, Colorado would be, geographically more "middle of the west" than Iowa which is on the east side of the country, for example.

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  8. I'm going to check-out some of the books on your list. At the moment I'm reading books with an Italian connection, as you might expect. (I'm missing Italian life right now). Hope you had a good weekend.

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    1. You can never go wrong with books set in Italy!

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  9. You've listed some great books here, Lisa. Some I have read, some I haven't but want to, and others I am unfamiliar with.

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    1. I tried to find something from every state I consider Midwestern but I wanted to make sure I'd read them. Turns out, I haven't read nearly as many set near to me as I thought I had!

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  10. Yes to Willa Cather! I'd never heard of her until we moved to Lincoln in 1992. I've read My Antonia a couple of times, as well as Death Comes For the Archbishop, O'Pioneers!, and Song of a Lark. Wonderful writer.

    Loved Eleanor and Park, but I actually think Attachments was even better. Maybe because it's more for adults than teens.

    I read The Man Who Ate the 747 many years ago and met the author at a local book signing. He was very charming. The book was very quirky!

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    1. I liked Attachments much more than I think a lot of people did. Some of that was because it talked so much about places in Omaha, a lot of which aren't here any more.

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