Anna’s Comments (group member since Jan 06, 2009)

Anna’s comments from the Challenge: 50 Books group.

12. Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut

11. Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel Jeannette Walls

10. O Pioneers! Willa Cather

I've actually spent a lot of time researching these authors, as the more i look the more i find that it's actually hard to find authors born in raised in some states. and then it seems like 80% of all writers are from NY, MA, and NJ. ;)

i've finished six states so far:
NJ: Philip Roth, American Pastoral
NY: Richard Price, Clockers
MS: Eudora Welty, The Optimist's Daughter
MO: Kate Chopin, The Awakening
WV: Jayne Ann Phillips, Lark and Termite
FL: Carl Hiassen, Nature Girl

These are the authors/books i plan to read. i still have some states to figure out.

AL: Joshilyn Jackson, Between, Georgia
AZ: Jeannette Walls, Half Broke Horses
CA: John Steinbeck
CO: Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
CT: Christopher Buckley
GA: Flannery O'Connor
DC: Ann Beattie or Jonathan Safran Foer
DE: Marisa de los Santos, Love Walked In
ID: Marilynne Robinson, Gilead
IL: Ernest Hemingway
IN: Kurt Vonnegut
IA: Bill Bryson
KS: Scott Phillips, The Ice Harvest
KY: Robert Penn Warren, All the King's Men
LA: Lillian Hellman (might break rule and do a bio of her)
ME: Stephen King, Under the Dome
MD: John Barth
MA: Elinor Lipman, The Family Man
MT: Maile Meloy, A Family Daughter
MN: F. Scott Fitzgerald or Louise Erdich
ND: Chuck Klosterman, Fargo Rock City (cheating: he was born in MN, raised in ND)
NE: Willa Cather, O Pioneers (cheating: she's from VA)
NV: Charles Bock, Beautiful Children
NH: Joyce Maynard
NM: Tony Hillerman
NC: Kaye Gibbons, Ellen Foster
OH: Sherwood Anderson, Winesburg, Ohio
OR: Raymond Carver
PA: John Updike or James Michener or Anne Dillard
TN: Amy Greene, Bloodroot
TX: Larry McMurtry or Patricia Highsmith
VA: William Styron or Tom Wolfe
WA: Mary McCarthy, The Group

9. Nature Girl Carl Hiassen

8. The Awakening Kate Chopin

7. Lark and Termite Jayne Anne Phillips

6. The Optimist's Daughter: A Novel Eudora Welty

5. Clockers Richard Price

Stephanie wrote: "This is so fun! How will it work? Will each book have some connection to a state?"

Well, it's tricky! I have a list of authors who were born in each state (though some states really don't have any, if you can believe it), but the hard part is finding the ones who were/are still living there while writing. My base rule is that they must have been born in the state, and then I'll try to pick authors who spent the most time in the state. or at least their formative years. like philip roth was my first...he lives in CT now, but he was born in NJ, spent many years there, and american pastoral is all about NJ.
you should do it too!!

4. American Pastoral Philip Roth

3. Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen Julie Powell

2. Absurdistan Gary Shteyngart

1. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society Mary Ann Shaffer

AL - Joshilyn Jackson, Between, Georgia
AK - Dana Stabenow, A Grave Denied
AZ - Jeannette Walls, Half-Broke Horses
AR - James Sallis, Drive
CA - Rhoda Janzen, Mennonite in a Little Black Dress
CO - Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
CT - Christopher Buckley, Supreme Courtship
DE - Marisa de los Santos, Love Walked In
DC - George P. Pelecanos, Shame the Devil
FL - Carl Hiassen, Nature Girl
GA - James Dickey, Deliverance
HI - Allegra Goodman, The Cookbook Collector
ID - Marilynne Robinson, Gilead
IL - Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises
IN - Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five
IA - Chesea Cain, Sweetheart
KS - Scott Phillips, The Ice Harvest
KY - Steve Hockensmith, Holmes on the Range
LA - Robert Crais, LA Requiem
ME - Stephen King, Under the Dome
MD - Tom Clancy, Patriot Games
MA - Elinor Lipman, Then She Found Me
MI - Loren D. Estleman, Gas City
MN - F. Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise
MS - Eudora Welty, The Optimist's Daughter
MO - Kate Chopin, The Awakening
MT - Maile Meloy, A Family Daughter
NE - Willa Cather, O Pioneers
NV - Nevada Barr, Track of the Cat
NH - Elisabeth Hyde, The Heart of the Canyon
NJ - Philip Roth, American Pastoral
NM - Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, The Dirty Girls Social Club
NY - Richard Price, Clockers
NC - Kaye Gibbons, Ellen Foster
ND - Chuck Klosterman, Eating the Dinosaur
OH - Edmund White, Hotel de Dream
OK - Meg Gardiner, China Lake
OR - Lisa Gardner, The Third Victim
PA - James A. Michener, Caravans
RI - H.P. Lovecraft, At the Mountains of Madness
SC - Dorothy Allison, Bastard out of Carolina
SD - J.A. Jance, Taking the Fifth
TN - Amy Greene, Bloodroot
TX - Julie Powell, Julie and Julia
UT - Ron Carlson, Five Skies
VT - Jack Du Brul, Vulcan's Forge
VA - Matt Bondurant, The Wettest County in the World
WA - Michael Byers, Percival's Planet
WV - Jayne Anne Phillips, Lark and Termite
WI - Peter Straub (& Stephen King) - The Talisman
WY - CJ Box - Savage Run

67. The Wordy Shipmates Sarah Vowell

66. Shutter Island Dennis Lehane

65. The World to Come A Novel Dara Horn

I think this is a great idea! I'm going to make it my "50 in 2010" challenge too. I'm not sure how to handle authors who could claim to be from more than one state; maybe I'll just try to avoid those ambiguous ones. Otherwise, I guess I'll just try to stick to whatever state seemed to be more formative or influential to them.

64. The Lacuna A Novel Barbara Kingsolver