Reading Your Way Into Your Next Family Adventure (The USA Edition)

I love to read about different parts of the world. Not only as a way to “armchair travel” but as a way to prepare to visit a place. Due to travel restrictions this summer from Covid-19 we will generally be restricted to travel in our own countries. So this week I turned my attention to books set in my country, the USA, for inspiration. Reading a novel where the setting plays a big part in the book helps me to better understand the rhythms of the culture, the food, and the people. It also helps to gain an understanding of the community and inspires further exploration.

We’ve gathered what we think are the best reading recommendations for USA travel. Read your way into your next family adventure in the USA by exploring some of these books we love. If you are traveling with kids, we always try to include recommendations for kids and teens as well.

We broke this post up into 4 regions in the US. General US travel comes first, followed by the Northeast, the South, the Midwest, and the West. There are countless books set in the USA. Our country’s premise is based upon the fusion of hundreds of nationalities and cultures, so it would be impossible to cover all of them. We did our best to cover some of the more notable ones from each of the 4 regions but each book in no way defines the culture of an entire state, let alone a region.

For more armchair travel inspiration, or if you have a trip in mind, try either the Europe edition, or the South America edition of Reading Your Way into Your Next Family Adventure.

General USA

• Bill Bryson is a witty travel writer that captures the American spirit pretty well in his two books about the USA. A Walk in the Woods takes place on the Appalachian Trail where the author and his friend walked in the late 90’s. His lack of hiking experience is comical and combines nicely with a bit of history about the trail itself. Also try , The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America for a comical look at his explorations across 38 US states. With some exaggeration, and a little bit of grumpiness, Bryson gives us a look at small town America in the 80’s.
• Blue Highways: A Journey into America by William Least Heat-Moon tells of the authors 13,000 mile journey on the back roads of America. He meets a host of interesting characters and eats in a lot of classic American diners along the way. A blue collar snapshot of small town America in the 80’s.
• The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson is a great untold story in American history. Individual accounts of the migration of black citizens from the South who fled for other parts of the country in search of a better life.
• On the Road by Jack Kerouac is an American classic adventure story about a young kids wandering the country looking for kicks. While it is considered a classic, I found it a difficult read without a true story line.
• Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. In a letter from the author to his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates describes what it is like to be a black man in a systemically racist America. An important read in understanding American culture.
• Our Towns – A 100,000 Mile Journey into the Heart of America by James and Deborah Fallows. Using their single prop plane, this reporter couple travelled across America visiting dozens of small towns in the “flyover states” and through a combination of interviews and everyday activities reports on the current health of small town America. It’s an interesting depiction of how America processes at the local level, regardless of the divisiveness in Washington.

The Northeast

Empire Falls by Richard Russo. All of Russo’s books are about small northeastern towns and this one is a good place to start. Set in a declining Maine town, Miles Roby lives his depressing middle age life slinging burgers at a diner. Surrounding Miles are a whole cast of small town characters that invite a deep dive into blue collar America.

Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates. Set in 1950’s Connecticut, Yates depicts the suburban life of the Mad Men era where women were arm candy and couples were willing to do anything for the American dream.

A Secret History by Donna Tartt. Set in an elite college in Bennington, VT in the early 90’s. An engrossing tale about eccentric and pretentious college students which opens with a murder and then explores the lasting effects on the group of students.

The Crucible by Arthur Miller – a well written play that accounts the story of the Salem Witch Trials. While dark, they are a fascinating piece of New England history.

Share With the Kids!

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This Fitzgerald classic takes you back to NY in the roaring 20’s. Set in Long Island, it’s about mysteriously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his unrequited love for Daisy Buchanan. Its description of daily life in the 20’s is excellent. Can be for teens.

NYC

It would be impossible to fit New York City into any of these categories (despite it’s Northeastern geographic location). So many good reads are set in NYC that I am certain we are missing some. We are partial to the list below, but would love to hear about more in the comments.

The Colossus of New York: A City in 13 Parts by Colson Whitehead. Whitehead captures the essence of what it’s like to arrive in, live in, basque in, and struggle with NYC.

Bright Lights, Big City by Jay Mclnerney. Perfectly depicts drug fueled, club going life of the youth of NYC in the 80’s and has become a classic must read NYC book.

The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe. Another classic NYC read set in the 80’s. A drama about ambition, racism, social class, politics and greed. A sharp portrayal of NY society.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote. Experience the high end NY lifestyle of the 1940’s through the famed Holly Golightly.

Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathon Lethem. Boerum Hill raised Lethem sets this 1999 noir novel in Brooklyn’s mob scene. Add that to a protagonist with Tourette’s Syndrome and you have a detective caper combined with a good character study.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathon Safran Foer. A great father – son novel set in all 5 boroughs of NYC. A look at the events of the 9/11 tragedy through the eyes of a nine year old boy whose father was killed.

Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson. Author of Brown Girl Dreaming (see the South) this is her first adult novel. The story of August, a black girl who moves from Tennessee to Bushwick with her father and little brother in the early 70’s. She and her 3 best friends discover that beneath their hopeful veneer of the city they live in, there is another version.

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A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. A coming of age story about a second generation Irish girl growing up in Williamsburg during the early 19o0’s when it was a struggle to put food on the table and keep warm in winter. Great for ages 12+

Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue. A Cameroonian immigrant family living in Harlem in the early 2000’s trying to gain a foothold in America. Jende (the dad) lands a job as a chauffer for a Lehman executive moments before the collapse of Lehman and the beginning of the Great Recession. Can be for teens 15+

From The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg. Suburaban Claudia Kincaid doesn’t want to run away from somewhere she wants to run to somewhere. To a place that is beautiful and elegant. She goes to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ages 9+.

The South

Grab a glass of sweet tea and anything by Tennessee Williams to transport yourself to life in the South. Or, check out these favorites:

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt. A true life case of a murder trial set in Savannah, GA that is part murder mystery, part travelogue, part history lesson, and all intrigue.

Before We Were Yours by Lisa Windgate. It’s 1939 in Memphis. A 12yr old and her 4 siblings living aboard their family’s Mississippi River shanytboat are faced with getting sent to an orphanage when their mom is taken to the hospital. Based on a true story in which Georgia Tann, director of a Memphis-based adoption organization, kidnapped and sold poor children to wealthy families all over the country.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. A beautifully written autobiography of the coming of age of Angelou and her struggles with trauma and racism.

Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier. The story of a wounded Confederate soldier who walks away from the Civil War back to his love, Ada. An exploration through the devastated lands of the soon-to-be defeated South.

A Kind of Freedom by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton. Following three generations of a black family in New Orleans through romance, drug addiction and Hurricane Katrina we see how systemic racism continues to weave its way through the century.

Boy Erased by Gerard Conley. A memoir about the son of a Baptist pastor in a small town in Arkansas who is forced into conversion therapy to be “cured” of his homosexuality.

Share With the Kids!

The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls. A haunting memoir about Walls and her siblings growing up in the dirt poor town of Welch, West Virginia. The setting combined with a severely alcoholic father and an impossible dreamer of a mother make for a very difficult childhood told through the non-judgemental eyes of a child. Can be for teens 14+

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. A classic novel shining a light on the harsh racial injustices of a southern Alabama town. Told through the eyes of a 10yr old girl, Scouts father is a lawyer defending a black man of raping a white woman. Scout learns that doing the moral thing is not always easy, or safe. Frequently taught in school- ages 12+.

Fried Green Tomatoes at Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg. A light and heartwarming novel told from the viewpoint of 3 loveable women in a small Alabama town pivoting around the Whistle Stop Cafe. A charming story of love and hope. Can be for teens 13+.

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson. Growing up in the 60’s alternating between Greenville, SC and Brooklyn, NY, Woodson provides a tremendous sense of time and place for young brown girl in America. Ages 10+

The Midwest

A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley. Loosely based on the plot of Shakespeare’s King Lear, this story tells the tale of the demise of an American family farm in Iowa. The plot opens with a wealthy Iowa farmer dividing his farm amongst 2 of his 3 daughters. As in all of Shakespeare’s works, chaos ensues.

Stoner by John Williams. A beautifully written description of the unremarkable midwestern life of a farm boy who becomes an English professor at an average midwestern university. The everydayness is written with an expertise that brings you right to the scene.

Freedom by Jonathon Franzen. Franzen masterfully writes books about midwestern America and the dysfunctional family and emerges as a premier interpreter of American society. Both Freedom and The Corrections, are set in the midwest.

The Son by Philipp Meyer. An epic tale of Texas spanning three generations, this story opens with Eli McCullough being kidnapped by a band of Comanche after they brutally murder his family. He is raised as the chief’s adopted son and struggles with his white identity. Intertwined in the story are the lives of his son and his great grand-daughter giving the reader a chance to experience the family’s life in Texas over 100 years.

Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich. Erdrich expertly looks into the lives of Native Americans on a reservation in North Dakota. An epic story of the intertwined fates of the Kapshaw and Lamartine family told in the form of interconnected stories in the first person narrative.

And Hell Followed With It by Bonar Menninger. An illustrative account of the destruction resulting from a massive tornado in Topeka, Kansas in 1966.

The Coast of Chicago by Stuart Dybek. A series of short stories just as much about strangers in Chicago as it is about the landscape of the city.

The Liars Club by Mary Karr. Karr’s memoir of an abusive 1960’s childhood in an east Texas oil town is darkly funny.

Not Without Laughter by Langston Hughes. First published in 1930, Hughes describes the life and times of a young black boy coming of age in a largely white Kansas town. A moving story of race and poverty in America that is sadly, not much better today.

For the Kids

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. The story of a young latina girl growing up in Chicago trying to discover who she is and how she fits into the world. Ages 13+.

The West

Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin. The first novel in a series of 9 that initially ran as serialized fiction in the San Francisco Chronicles. The story of an apartment house on 28 Barbary Lane and all its inhabitants during the 70’s in San Francisco – poor, rich, gay, straight and everything in between.

Oh You Pretty Things by Shanna Mahin. A light and voyeuristic tale of the extravagant and eccentric lifestyles of Hollywood celebrities told from the perspective of a personal assistant.

The Sellout by Paul Beatty. Beatty constructs a town modeled after Compton in Los Angeles. The story has everything – police violence, segregation, urban change, weed, surfing and even a fading Little Rascals star.

Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion. Didion comes from a very long line of Californians and writes what she knows. You can read almost anything written by her to get a sense of California and Slouching Towards Bethlehem in a non fiction piece that focuses on CA in the 60’s. For something more current, try Where I Was From.

Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson. Immerse yourself in the setting of Puget Sound with this gripping novel of the trial of a Japanese man who is accused of drowning a local fisherman. Set in the 1950’s, prejudices against the Japanese post WWII lingers in this small town.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson. Love it or hate it, this book is culturally enriching. A drug and violence fueled look at America’s underbelly, Las Vegas.

The Devils Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea. A true story about a group of Mexican immigrants lost in the Arizona desert. An important read in understanding what people will do out of desperation to help their family.

In the Heart of the Canyon by Elisabeth Hyde. A must read if the Grand Canyon is in your future. The journey of 12 passengers over 13 days as they navigate the rapids of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. Gripping.

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey. An adaptation of a Russian fairytale. A couple who settles in Alaska are desperate for a child so they build one out of snow. In the morning they find she has come alive. A native Alaskan, Ivey does a great job of depicting the magic and harshness of a life in Alaska.

A River Runs Through It and other Stories by Norman Maclean and Robert Redford. Set in the mountains and small towns of Montana, this is a classic of the American West. Populated with drunks, loggers, card sharks and fly fishing…. so much fly fishing.

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Wild by Cheryl Strayed. At 22, after the death of her mother and her impending divorce, Strayed hiked alone more than 1,000 miles on the Pacific Crest Trail. With no experience, we feel her struggles as she passes through the Mojave Desert, California, Oregon and Washington State. Can be for teens.

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. A sweet, multigenerational story of 4 immigrant Chinese women trying to teach their American daughters to believe in themselves and experience a better life in America. Set in San Francisco. Ages 14+

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie. This book or anything else by Alexie expertly depicts Native American culture out west. A great description of growing up Indian in contemporary American society. Ages 12+

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