Task #10: Read a book that is set within 100 miles of your location

[Chrissy]

I just finished All the Birds in the Sky for this prompt, set mostly in San Francisco where I live. In fact, she mentions my street by name! I actually think the geography is a bit off, though. For example, Laurence travels "down to" my street from near the beach, but would actually be headed uphill and to the East. I loved the book overall!

[Allie]

Chrissy wrote: "I just finished All the Birds in the Sky for this prompt, set mostly in San Francisco where I live. In fact, she mentions my street by name! I actually think the geography is a bit ..."

Any chance it's just a dialect thing? I tend to say we're going "down to" wherever, even if it's somewhere north of where I'm physically located, vs. "up the street" if it's somewhere within walking distance, even if the location is further south than my location. I don't think it's an uncommon way to describe it, but I could be wrong. Maybe I'm just THAT bad at directions...

[Elyse]

Allie wrote: "Chrissy wrote: "I just finished All the Birds in the Sky for this prompt, set mostly in San Francisco where I live. In fact, she mentions my street by name! I actually think the geo..."

I talk the same way.

[Chinook]

Yes, I do that too. Down and up don't necessarily correspond to directions like North and south.

Interestingly, you go up to Oxford and go down from
Oxford, also without regard to direction. Being sent down from Oxford was to be expelled. I think it also applies to Cambridge.

[Sunshine]

I'm going to read, "Their Eyes Were Watching God". I live 25 miles from Eatonville. Weird that I've never read it. There is a Zora Neale Hurston festival every year and we always had to read something by her in school since she was one of our (Florida's) most well known writers.

[Lucy]

I read The Lightning Tree by Emily Woof. Set predominantly in the city of Newcastle upon Tyne (in addition to Oxford, London and India), where I live in North East England.

[Julia]

Chrissy,

I just bought All the Birds in the Sky and hope to get around to reading it soon. It's cool that the author even mentions your street. I lived in San Francisco for twelve years. My friends and I would have ribbed someone who didn't know their directions, there. Here, in the landlocked Northeast, I am often confused as to directions and west, east, north and south. In San Francisco I always knew.

Similarly, if in hilly San Francisco, you are going up or down it refers to the hills you are traveling, usually.

[Teresa]

I read By The Iowa Sea by Joe Blair which is set mostly in the Iowa City/Cedar Rapids area.

[quietprofanity]

I live in central New Jersey, but I'm close enough to New York City, New Rochelle, NY and Atlantic City, NJ that I think Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow qualified for me, even with its excursions in Massachusetts, Egypt, Europe and the North Pole. Sadly, I wasn't too fond of the book. (I reviewed it here.)

[Annie]

I'm cheating a little bit and using All the Pretty Horses, it's a little over 100 miles away, but gah. close enough.

Although I was -very- tempted to re-read Preacher, Volume 1: Gone to Texas instead.

[Nancy]

If I stretch the mileage to about 130, I can count the book I just finished: The Class of '65: A Student, A Divided Town, and the Long Road to Forgiveness by Jim Auchmutey.
It takes place in Americas, Georgia, which is a a town in South Georgia; I live in the Atlanta metro area. I had another book in mind, a historical novel and mystery set in Atlanta, and I'll definitely read that too, so I can count both and know that one of them fits the prompt without any fudging—and that I read two excellent books.

[Karen]

The Widow Nash!

[[deleted user]]

I live in Yangon, Myanmar, so I read a novel set in my city called ရင်ထဲကဆောင်းရာသီ. It is a family drama centered on a child with developmental problems

[Brent]

I read Fourth of July Creek for this challenge. Much of the book was set in Missoula, MT where I currently live. Much of the rest, takes place with 100 miles of where I used to live, until last summer, Kalispell, MT.

[[deleted user]]

I'm in Austin TX, so I just finished, News of the World by Paulette Jiles.

Here's my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[xtnalogy]

Okay, so I am living in Dubai, UAE. And this is hard for me.

[Anna]

Christina wrote: "Okay, so I am living in Dubai, UAE. And this is hard for me."

Try The Dog, by Joseph O'Neill

I haven't read it, but I saw it recently on a list of the 10 best city novels, and I was intrigued: The "narrator is a lost and tormented Manhattan lawyer working in Dubai for a family of Lebanese billionaires. In O’Neill’s hands, Dubai becomes a metaphor for the futility of the narrator’s cosseted existence: the city is depicted as a place of empty luxury and moral ambiguity full of luxury resorts and glitzy high-rise apartment buildings. At the end of the book, the narrator revisits New York and is shocked to realise he hates it. He is drawn ineluctably back to Dubai, much to his own bafflement."

[Leslie (updates on SG)]

Christina wrote: "Okay, so I am living in Dubai, UAE. And this is hard for me."

You could try Temporary People, which is about guest workers in the UAE.

[Leslie (updates on SG)]

For this task, I enjoyed reading Natural Obsessions: The Search for the Oncogene, which takes place across the street from my workplace.

[Jolynne]

Boulder Colorado!

[Debbie]

I have a suggestion for folks who live in Southern Oregon (more than 100 miles from Portland, where most books set in Oregon take place).

The Legend of Indian Mary and Umpqua Joe by Percy T. Booth. It tells the story of Indian Mary Park in Galice. Though I didn’t particularly enjoy the writing, it was interesting to learn more about the history of the area where I live.

[Janet]

Does anyone have suggestions for good books set in the Central Ohio area (around Columbus)?

[Bonnie G.]

Janet wrote: "Does anyone have suggestions for good books set in the Central Ohio area (around Columbus)?"

Well, there is The Devil All the Time which takes place in part in that area. Ready Player One takes place in Columbus of the future.

[Janet]

Thanks, Bonnie! I'll check them out.

[Arlene]

I'm reading Swamplandia set only about 85 miles from where I live!

[Karen]

The Widow Nash!

[Wellington]

I read The Merlot Murders by Ellen Crosby which takes place in Northern Virginia. I liked the history of winemaking in VA that the author included.

[Karen]

Dana wrote: "I read The Merlot Murders by Ellen Crosby which takes place in Northern Virginia. I liked the history of winemaking in VA that the author included."

Love this whole series!!

[Yrinsyde]

I finished reading a novel set in multiple places - two locations within 160km (100miles) of where I live. However, two locations are outside this 160km zone. Can I use this novel or does it has to be solely set within 160km?

[Elyse]

Yrinsyde wrote: "I finished reading a novel set in multiple places - two locations within 160km (100miles) of where I live. However, two locations are outside this 160km zone. Can I use this novel or does it has to..."

I would say as long as one place in the book is 100m/160km, then it counts.

[Yrinsyde]

Thanks Elyse !

[Yrinsyde]

I finished reading a Sherlockian fanfic novel published by a micro press and set in various locations close to me (and some not). Melbourne CBD (13.1km or 8.2 miles), Parkville (8.9km or 5.5 miles), Malmsbury (89.8km or 55.8 miles) and further away Ararat (206.3km or 128.2 miles) and London - more than 100 miles!