Challenge: 50 Books discussion
2010
>
DONE -- Anna W's 51 in 2010 (one for each state, +DC)
This is so fun! How will it work? Will each book have some connection to a state?
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!!
great idea! Maybe next year I will do something similar...
Great idea Anna! I may have to try this challenge next year!
How are you determining the state Anna? Does the book take place in the state or is the author from the state?
Hi Sheila--It's actually been kind of hard, because my rule is that the author has to have been born in the state and spent formative years there. However, I've already cheated with Willa Cather (who is actually from VA), and will also w/ Chuck Klosterman (who's from MN). and I still have a few states that I don't have an author for yet. SD, VT, UT and WY, to be precise. If the book has to do with the state, I consider that a bonus :)
Have you read any Sarah Stewart Taylor mysteries? I believe she lives in Vermont but I'm not sure if she was born there or not.I'm just curious as to how you have researched this information. Dust covers, google, fantasticfiction.com? Very interesting premise though. I finished book 21 of my 50 books today so I am well on my way.
congratulations! you're almost halfway there in the third month of the year, that's impressive. I've googled things like "authors from minnesota" and then looked up the individual writers, usually on wikipedia. it's kind of hard, actually, because a lot of the authors that are considered "from" a state often aren't, they might just live there now, or did for a while, etc. at this point, i'm doing the opposite and taking any author i hear about, who sounds interesting, and looking them up. i've exhausted all my resources going the other way. ;)
ps-thanks for the tip! i also just love mysteries so even if she's not from VT, i'm always looking for new ones to read.
Challenge: 50 Books
Books mentioned in this topic
The Mysterious Affair at Styles (other topics)Black and Blue (other topics)
Cleopatra: A Life (other topics)
The Sherlockian (other topics)
Skippy Dies (other topics)
More...
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