They say reading takes you places, and our ‘Reading America’ project is designed to do just that. Each Friday, we put out a short video recommending a book set in a particular American state. In this way, we hope you can get a feel for the different cultures and geographies that make up the United States of America. Here are five more books from across the USA that we really think you should ‘check out’.
SING, UNBURIED SING
State: Mississippi
Read the E-book here
Sing, Unburied, Sing, written by Jesmyn Ward, published by Bloomsbury and set in Bois Sauvage, Mississippi, follows a family both literally and figuratively haunted by the past, by memory and by each other.
THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
State: South Carolina
Read the E-book here
‘The Underground Railroad’ by Colson Whitehead imagines a world where the figurative underground railroad escape route for slaves becomes a literal underground railroad, in a fictionalized version of the antebellum south.
THE INTERPRETER OF MALADIES
State: Connecticut
Read the E-book here
The Interpreter of Maladies is renowned author Jhumpa Lahiri’s first published book. The short stories are set all along the New England coast where Lahiri was born and raised.
THE GOOD LORD BIRD
State: West Virginia
Read the E-book here
The Good Lord Bird, by James McBride, is a reimagining of John Brown’s famous failed raid on Harpers Ferry, as told by a fictionalized protagonist who witnesses the events.
THE BOOK OF UNKNOWN AMERICANS
State: Delaware
Read the E-book here
In Cristina Henriquez’ The Book of Unknown Americans, we find ourselves in Delaware as we journey with a family of immigrants in search of the American Dream.
