Literary Tourism - Alaska

I can't believe that I haven't read a book set in Alaska that I can remember.  That vast state seems like a literary goldmine.  There are certainly a lot of choices, but somehow, I managed to avoid them.  I have not yet visited Alaska, but this book has increased my already strong desire. 

The Smell of Other People's Houses by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock

Hitchcock weaves the stories of four teens, Ruth, Dora, Alyse, and Hank, together.  They each narrate their own story and are loosely connected through other minor characters.  While each narrator is very different from each other they are all in search of the same thing, family, even if that family does not mean a blood relation.

I picked up this audiobook at the library because it is the libraries "One Book, One Community" pick, and I have thoroughly enjoyed it.  It gave an excellent sense of place.  Most of the book takes place in Fairbanks, Alaska in 1970.  It touches on political issues like Alaskan statehood, relationships between the various native groups and those who moved from other parts of the States, and reliance on Alaska's natural resources for survival.   

Hitchcock did a great job of giving each narrator a distinct voice which was enhanced by different voices for each narrator on the audiobook.  Ruth uses beautiful imagery.  Dora sounds tired and angry.  Alyse is perky and hopeful, and Hank holds back.  Hitchcock also sprinkles little bits of magical realism throughout the story.  I don't want to give too much away, but orcas! 

Literary Tourism - Maryland

One of my goals for the year is to revisit old, not yet completed goals. And so I return to traveling the United States through literature. Maryland is a state that I visited often in my childhood. I visited Annapolis, the Baltimore area, andthe D.C, suburbs. It is a great state.

Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn

Molly and her brother Michael are struggling to adjust to life in a blended family.  They feel like their younger stepsister, Heather, is moody and intentionally difficult.  Their mother and stepfather keep reminding them to treat her gently because she witnessed the death of her mother by fire.    They are less than excited to be forced to move from their row house in Baltimore to a renovated church in the country.

Molly is disgusted to discover that the property has a graveyard, but Heather is fascinated with it.  She discovers a gravestone with own initials.  Molly fears that Heather's obsession with the gravestone might have ghostly consequences and sets out to save her.

This book has a decent sense of geography.  The author spends time time contrasting life in the Maryland countryside with life in Baltimore.  It helps that the author lives in Maryland.  I was disappointed that Holwell, Maryland is merely fictional.

This is a light, horror story for children, thus not a masterwork of literature.  Molly seems to have adult tastes like reading Emily Dickinson and Shakespeare.  The parents' characters are underdeveloped and maddening at times.  Besides the characters, the plot is well-developed and spooky.  If you are looking for a light read or an appropriate "scary" story for a child, this is a good choice. 

Literary Tourism - Oregon

Emily's Runaway Imagination by Beverly Cleary

When I learned that Beverly Cleary would be celebrating her 100th birthday this week, I decided it was time to revisit one of my old favorites of hers.   I sat back, relaxed, a breathed in the sweet smell of an aging paperback. 

Emily lives in Pitchfork, Oregon, a small farm town.  She is envious of her cousin, Muriel, who gets to visit the public library in Portland and check out any books she wants, especially Black Beauty.  Emily and her mom decide that it is high time that Pitchfork had a library too.  They start fundraising and collecting books so they can have the joy of a library in their own town.

I love this book.  It's in Cleary's typical episodic style so each chapter could stand alone.  Emily is energetic, brave, and a little bit prone to trouble.  She gets the hogs drunk with rotten apples and bleaches her horse, but saves the day when her grandfather can't stop his Model-T Ford.  Cleary has a special ability to really understand the mind of a child.

This book also created an excellent sense of place.  While it is a far cry from representing today's Oregon, it illustrates very directly, Cleary's Oregon, the Oregon of her childhood.  Many references were made to Emily's pioneer ancestors. the men and women who crossed the Oregon Trail to settle on the frontier.  There was even a Chinese character representing the many who travelled from Asia to the western United States and the time.  For a book of its age,  it handled this little bit of diversity very respectfully. 

If you're looking for a charming, quick childish read. this is a great choice.

Literary Tourism - Virginia

Most of my experience in Virginia has been in the Washington D.C. area.  It's quite a lovely state.  Most of my literary experience in Virginia has been with a series of novels about a high school that trains female spies.  While those books are fun, they didn't really meet my goals for the project.  But thanks to my book group, I have visited Virginia through prose.

The Cross Gardener by Jason F. Wright

John is born on the side of Route 11 in the Shenandoah Valley when his mother gets into a fatal car accident.  John is shuffled through a few different foster families, but finally finds home on an apple orchard with a good father who has adopted two other sons.  John's life is constantly impacted by death.  His oldest brother drowns while on a school trip.  His father dies of lung cancer.  But worst of all his wife and soon-to-be born son die in a car accident traveling home from the county fair.  John and his daughter, Lou Lou, are left to cope.  In John's struggle to grieve, he meets a man who calls himself the Cross Gardener.  He maintains roadside crosses and asks John to help him.  Along the journey John learns to have faith despite his sadness.    

The sense of place in this book is excellent.  When doing research for another book the author loved the Shenandoah Valley so much that he moved there.  The descriptions are accurate and detailed.  (I looked it up.)  John's love for his home mirrors the author's passion for it.

I liked the book.  You may have guessed by the title that it is Christian literature.  It's refreshing to find literature that extols virtue as a virtue.  The language was clean.  The characters were all people doing their best to live a good life - religious or not.

I have a few criticisms.  First, and this is mostly for Christian literature in general, it was melodramatic.  It was trying too hard to make me feel things.  I felt like I was being manipulated.  Second, the characters were pretty hollow.  Third, at times I felt like I was reading the summary of a story while at other times the author gave me every minute detail that I didn't need.  Fourth, the symbolism was overt.  I prefer a little subtlety. 

But overall it was a good book.  I felt uplifted and surprised at the end, and I liked the peaceful tone of the Cross Gardener.

Literary Tourism - Wyoming

Whales are one of my favorite things, but romance novels aren't.

When I was in college, some of my neighbors wanted to shoot off fireworks.  They wanted to do it legally so they went to Wyoming and I went with them.  My experience in Wyoming was eating at a truck stop and covering my ears while fireworks exploded.

Longing for Home by Sarah M. Eden

Katie Macauley has traveled all the way to the Wyoming frontier to work as a housekeeper and earn return passage to Ireland where she has left a tortured past.  Her goal is to get out of Hope Springs as quickly as possible.  But Irish are not welcome in that town and her employment brings responsibilities she can't handle.  Her prickly presence and refusal to be bullied cause a rucous in the town and thwart her plans.  A love triangle ensues..

I debated long and hard whether or not to count this for Wyoming because I find that romances are often weak on historical facts.  But this author really put the time and energy into creating an authentic period despite the all too convenient town name.  The land is dry and barren.  Each villager had to struggle to build irrigation and plant crops in a difficult terrain.  Conflicts between the Irish immigrants and long-time citizens of the United States felt real and deep.  In a place with limited resources of course there would be tension.

I read this book for my church book group and was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it.  I tend to avoid romance, but I thought this one carried more depth than others I have read. The book is 100% clean which I think makes it feel more appropriate to the period as well.  I'm even excited to read the sequel. 

LIterary Tourism - British Columbia

Since I'm Canadian by marriage and I came across a fun book set in Vancouver, I figured I would expand my literary reviews to the north.  It may be difficult to find books about every province and territory in libraries here in the States, but I'll see what I can do. 

I visited Vancouver about two years ago.  There was a lot going on and we didn't have a lot of time to explore the city, but I loved what I saw of it.  I'm a city girl so this isn't surprising.  This book helped add to my list of what to do on our inevitable next visit.

Word Nerd by Susin NIelsen

When bullies almost kill twelve year old Ambrose by slipping a peanut into his lunch, Ambrose's mom makes him begin correspondence courses.  Utterly lonely and bored, Ambrose becomes friends with Cosma, his neighbors' ex-convict son.  Behind his overprotective mother's back, Ambrose begins attending a Scrabble club and eventually enters the tournament.  Through Scrabble Cosmo and Ambrose bond and get into some trouble along the way.

The setting in this book was excellent.  The author really brings you to Jericho Beach, Granville Island, and Chinatown.  Ambrose and his mom rely on public transportation which feels real.  The Canadian phrases like the hydro poles, washrooms, and marking papers made it even better.  This book was a ten out of ten for fitting with my goals of the project.  Nothing was in there as a stereotype.  The details were naturally included.

As a word nerd myself, I enjoyed this book.  Ambrose was a perfectly developed twelve year old character.  He is big-hearted and smart, but also brutally honest, obnoxious and sometimes gross.  The story is more than a synopsis of scrabble games and really had some depth to it.  This is definitely a YA novel, not a children's novel.   

Literary Tourism - New York, revisited

As none of you remember, I have already visited New York in a literary sense.  The problem is there is so much literature based there, and I don't feel that my selection did it justice.  I reread a book that I have loved since I was ten.

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsberg

Claudia feels largely unappreciated in her comfortable upper middle class family and plans to run away to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.  For financial reasons, she brings her brother Jamie along with her.  While at the museum they discover a new acquisition  called Angel and are determined to discover whether it is an authentic Michelangelo.  For a week they sleep, eat, and bathe in the museum until their curiosity over the statue drives them to visit Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler's home.  She is more than happy to learn their story.

I love this book!  I also know that I am not the only one who does.  I have discussed the merits of this book with a surprising number of fellow admirers.  When I recommend it to kids at the library, they typically return with a positive review.

Reasons I love this book:

• Like Claudia, I enjoy the finer things in life.  If I were to run away, it would be to someplace classy and easy.
•  Perhaps because of this book, I love fiction about art.  Others that I enjoy include Chasing Vermeer, The Girl with the Pearl Earring, and Hana in the Time of the Tulips.  One exception being the Da Vinci Code. 
• The theme of family and particularly the importance of motherhood. 

The first time I went to New York City, I was determined to visit the Met largely because of this book.

When I visited, I randomly found myself in the wing with all the furniture and thought to myself, "Hey, that's where Claudia slept!"  I wondered about all the adventures a young runaway could have in the museum.

When I worked at the library and had to check the bathrooms every night, this book reminded me to be sure to check every stall.  A kid who wanted to sleep with the books might be hiding in there.

 And really, who wouldn't want to bathe in a fountain?
 

Literary Tourism - Tennessee

I've never been to Tennessee, but I imagine that it is rather muggy with lush, green plumage and very interesting people.  Am I right?

Paperboy - by Vince Vawter

A junior high age boy with a strong stutter takes on his friend's paper route for the month of July 1959.  Along the way his speech impediment and typical young adolescent behavior get him into some pretty big trouble.  He has the help of his African-American housekeeper, a friendly neighbor he meets delivering his papers and his father.


This book creates a great sense of place.  I planned to read this because it won a Newbery Honor this year and it just happened to work for this project as well.  I love when authors use specific street names.  He described the hot Memphis summer so well.  This perfectly matches what I wanted to see for my project.

Overall though, I did not love the book.  I've been debating on whether to give it two or three stars on Goodreads.  I think I have decided on three.  I liked how intelligent and challenging it was.  Some of the dialogue was pure gold.  But overall, I felt like the book was trying to cover too many issues.  The author was writing this largely as a memoir, but tried to include too many things in too short a story.  The book discusses racism, stuttering, deafness, homelessness, alcoholism, domestic violence, murder and mental illness all in less than 300 pages.

As a librarian, I always think about what child I would recommend this to, and I honestly can't think of anyone I would want to connect with this book.  This makes me sad.

This makes me happy.

 

Literary Tourism - New Hampshire and Vermont

We're staying in New England for this week's entry.  New Hampshire and Vermont are similar in a lot of ways.  They are the most mountainous of the New England states and both of these books discuss the plight of the New England dairy farmer.

New Hampshire

First Boy by Gary Schmidt - Cooper is being raised by his grandfather, a New Hampshire dairy farmer during a heated presidential campaign.  Cooper's grandfather passes away and he copes by putting all of his energy into saving the dairy farm.  But mysterious men start to visit him and even the president sends her henchmen after him.  Is he really the president's illegitimate son?

This fun YA political thriller captures small town New England quite well.  There's the crotchety neighbor, the helpful families, and in the end they all pull together.  Anything by Gary Schmidt is a pleasure to read. Many of the reviews of this book on Goodreads are quite negative, but I actually enjoyed it.  Schmidt is a great writer.

"Keep reading!  There's more!"

Vermont  

Return to Sender by Julia Álvarez - Tyler's father, a Vermont farmer is injured while working and decides to hire Mexican migrant workers to save his farm.  Tyler is unsure of whether he wants the help on the farm and wonders if the family his father hires is documented or not.  Mari is the daughter of the man that startes working for Tyler's father and is undocumented.  Her mother is missing because she had to return to Mexico.  Mari and her family have just moved to the northern state and does not know if she will be accepted.  Many of the old timers in the town are upset that Mexicans are moving into their town to work on farms, but farmers who are desperate to save their farms are willing to take the chance and hire undocumented workers.

This book is based a a Vermont reality as told in the author's note.  The farmers' struggle is what inspired the author to write this book.  It is told from both Tyler's and Mari's perspectives which presents the worries of both teenagers' sides very well.  It was fun to listen to, but at times the story dragged a bit. 

Literary Tourism - Connecticut

Technically, I've been to Connecticut.  I've spent two nights there, but mostly in an I'm-just-passing-through capacity.  But it's part of New England and therefore, I must love it.

I Kill the Mockingbird by Paul Acampora  - When I checked this book out, I wasn't planning on it being part of this project.  In fact right now I'm still a little ambivalent about it because my very brief research has not yielded a real West Glover, Connecticut.  But I really liked this book.  So, oh well.

Lucy, Elena, and Michael are assigned To Kill a Mockingbird as a summer reading book.  The rest of the class is dreading it but Lucy and Elena love the book.  In an effort to make people want to read it, they make the book disappear and they're not quiet about it.  They knew a little controversy would get a lot of people reading the book.  Soon the whole country is caught up in the craze.

I didn't know this book took place in Connecticut when I started, but from the beginning it had a distinct New England feel.  The small state matters too.  The kids were able to travel across the state to hide books.  It spins a little out of control, and they have to repair their work.

I loved these kids.  They were certainly not realistic middle-schoolers.  But I wish they had been my friends all those years ago.  They were smart and passionate and fun.  The dialogue in this book was spot on.  If you like books especially Harper Lee's classic, you should give this one a shot.

"Good books make me drowsy."

Literary Tourism - Kansas

And back to the Midwest we go.  I used the website that I like to see what it offered for Kansas, but didn't get very far.  The Wizard of Oz takes place in more of a fantasy land than the state.  Then I remembered Sarah, Plain and Tall.  I was almost positive it took place in Kansas.  I reread it and discovered that it never actually mentions the state it takes place in.

I googled a few lists and found a bunch of rural horror novels which are seriously not my thing.  Then I found a list reminding me that, indeed, I had read a book set in Kansas.

Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool - Because I like historical fiction I enjoyed this book.  I don't think I would have liked it otherwise.  It tells the story of Abilene who is sent to Manifest, Kansas to live with her father's friends.  Flashbacks and a little mystery help intertwine Abilene's and her father's stories.  This is my review from Goodreads a couple years agao.

"This was a lovely historical fiction story of how a girl finds home and family. It expertly weaves the stories of father and daughter together. Abilene has a very strong voice and the flashbacks were well put together and emotional. While the outset of the story did not seem unique, many of the plot elements made this story unusual for children's literature. My one complaint is that it was very slow. It took me forever to read."

Honorable Mention 

Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlin - While a number of websites list the setting of this book in Kansas, it is never explicitly stated in this book.  It may be revealed in the sequels, but I don't remember.  It deserves mention because I LOVE THIS BOOK.  I read it for the first time in third grade and the teacher who shared it with us brought it to life.  I think I felt connected to Sarah because she is originally from Maine.  It's a simple story about finding family and love.  An adult could easily read it in one sitting.  But it is packed full of emotion and meaning and strong characters.  I'm gushing I know, but seriously everyone should read this book.

"I just know that mommy's going to make me read this book."

Literary Tourism - Washington

I don't know a single person from Washington who doesn't like it.  Sure the weather's gloomy, but it seems that everyone can see past that.  I have only passed through the Seattle airport and I don't count airports as visiting states.

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

I have spent a lot of time debating on whether or not to count this for this project because ... well ... it's Twilight.  I'm not sure a vampire romance should count for anything.  But setting matters for three reasons:

1. Meyer's mythology of vampires is that they can awake in daylight, but need clouds to cover their sparkling exterior.  Thus, Washington.  She could have chosen Britain or the Netherlands, but I think she is more familiar with this state. 
2. After checking a map, I discovered that Forks is close to Native American Reservations.
3. It provides a stark contrast from Bella's previous Arizona home.

So, I'm counting it.  I reviewed this book on my blog awhile back.  Feel free to learn my true feelings on it.

Literary Tourism - Massachusetts and California

Today, I'm finishing off books set in states I have lived in.  I've already covered Maine and Utah; now I'm revisiting California and Massachusetts.  The books are also connected because they create a great sense of place for me.  Using the names of specific streets and parts of the city, the authors really bring me back to the places I have been.  It's been awhile since I've read either of these books, but they have stayed with me in a profound way.

Massachusetts

Still Alice by Lisa Genova - Alice is a Harvard professor who is at the top of the research in her field when she begins noticing that she can't remember things the way she used to.  One day she is going for a run down the streets of Cambridge, Massachusetts and she can't remember where she is.  Her family is devasted to learn that Alice has early onset Alzheimer's disease and the experimental treatments she undergoes fail to slow the progression of the debilitating disease.  This book tells the story of Alice and her family as they learn to endure and adjust to a woman who is completely changed. 

Setting this book at Harvard and in one of the most intellectually elite parts of the country was no accident.  It makes the changes in Alice's brain seem even more dramatic.  I enjoyed visualizing her runs, visits to the coffee shops, and Harvard Yard. 

This book opened my eyes to challenges and diseases I barely understand and I liked it for that reason.  But it is profoundly depressing and it took me days to recover from it. I would recommend it highly, but you have to be ready for it.

California

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender  - When Rose is nine she discovers she has a gift when she tastes her mother's lemon cake.  She can feel her mother's sadness.  Upon closer inspection she discovers that she can even taste where a processed meal has been produced.  This tells the story of how Rose learns to live with this curse.

This story takes place in Los Angeles and Bender is very detailed in her descriptions of street names and locations.  The story probably could have taken place anywhere, but I read it while living in Los Angeles which made it more memorable.

This book was weird, but I like weird.  It was a little depressing, but not like Still Alice.
 

"I'm not depressing; I'm cute"

Literary Tourism - Georgia and Alabama

Traveling to the South, I've picked two books similar in theme.  Both of these books deal with Asian families who have immigrated to the South.  It's a good setting because issues of race are so prevalent in southern culture.  The books  are distinctly different however because Japanese and Vietnamese culture are not one and the same, and the families portrayed in the stories are dealing with different challenges.

Georgia

Kira Kira by Cynthia Kadohata - Katie and her family are Japanese and move from a Japanese community to the deep south in Georgia.  Katie has a hard time getting used to all of the people staring at her and it is a difficult adjustment for them.  I read this book a few years ago so the details are a bit fuzzy, but the book did give a good sense of place.  I got annoyed at eh character Katie because she always said she was a bad girl, but she never did anything to prove it.

Alabama

"Don't take my word for it."*

 Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai - I'm a total sucker for a novel in verse so I loved this book, I actually reread this one so I could write a better review.  The book starts in Saigon just before it is taken over by North Vietnam communists.  Ha and her family escape to a boat are taken to Guam and are eventually sponsored by a family in Alabama.

Ha barely speaks English and encounters many new experiences - fried chicken, Christmas, and kids at school with many different skin tones.  She is bullied for her different looks and considered dumb because she hasn't mastered English grammar.

Lai writes based on her own personal experience as a refugee in Alabama which makes this book and her impressions even more authentic.  She is truly a poet and can give a great sense of place in just a few words.  If you like novels in verse I strongly recommend this book.   

*I was told my book reviews would be a lot more interesting with pictures of Joshua.

Literary Tourism - Delaware

Delaware is probably the most forgettable state to me.  Sorry Delawareans, but it's true.  It's only claim to fame for me is that it was the first state to enter the union.  Anyway, I had to hurry up and read a book set there before I forgot it even existed.

There were not a ton of options for Delaware, but I used this handy list of YA books by state to help me out.  I'm not 100% using this list because it doesn't always fit my criteria, but it helps a lot.

The Unbearable Book Club for Unsinkable Girls by Julie Schumacher

Page 9 of this book pretty much summed Delaware up for me.  "We lived in a flat oversized suburb ... a dot on the map in a state people drove through to get somewhere else."  I laughed when I read this because driving through is the only time I have ever experienced Delaware.  Highways and rest stops are all I know.  I got the impression that it is quite typical just ot pop over to Maryland or Philadelphia for a bit because they are that close. 

Did I like the book?  When I first started it, I thought it was exactly what I was looking for, but it devolved quickly.  I sometimes think YA authors write about what they think teens want to read about and not really what teens want to read about.

For instance, the narrator Adrienne is suddenly on a quest to find herself.  The quest is completely manipulated by CeeCee the obnoxious one who has a million issues that the book doesn't even address.  Does a teen really want to see a protagonist with zero backbone?  I hope not.  The characters just didn't work for me.  The book had it's fun parts, but I think I need to read a classic to get my IQ back up. 

Literary Tourism - Utah

I have a little more time on my hands these days, so I've decided to return to my literary journey through the states.  I decided that the easiest way to find a book on Utah is to read one while I'm living here.

Because Utah is stereotypically Mormon, I actually refined my criteria for this project a little bit more.  I wanted a book that was nationally published.  (There are a lot of small publishers in Utah.)  I also didn't want a book about crossing the plains (strictly speaking not Utah) or polygamy (not an accurate representation of typical Utah life.)  It took some searching but I found one.

Missing in Action by Dean Hughes

During World War II, Jay's dad goes missing in the Pacific and his mom decides to move him from Salt Lake City to her hometown of Delta, Utah.  Delta is a small desert town - very typical of small Utah towns.  The community is mostly LDS, but Jay doesn't quite fit in.  His mom is not practicing and Jay is part Navajo.  A short distance away is a Japanese Interment Camp, and Jay gets to know Ken one of the prisoners who works for his grandfather.

Here we learn that Utah housed a lot of Japanese during the war -  a little known and rather embarrassing fact.  It also depicted the barren landscape and respectfully touched upon Mormon culture from the perspective of one who was not fully immersed in the religion.  So, the book did well for my purposes.

Missing in Action was missing action.  Honestly, I didn't finish the story.  Jay played baseball and talked to people and that's about it.      

Literary Tourism - Florida

I travel today as far Southeast as I can go.  In Florida, we find Disney World, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and many, many miles of coast line ...

Which brings us to today's story.

Flush, by Carl Hiaasen - Noah's father has been put in jail for sinking a casino cruise ship.  He admits that he did it, but feels justified because he believes the owner is dumping waste into the Atlantic.  It's up to Noah to prove that his father is right.

Okay, not my favorite book of all time.  I despise message heavy children's literature because I feel like the author is not allowing children to make inferences and really think about what they're reading.  I will admit though that Noah's solution to the problem is quite creative.

It fits this project's criteria because Florida as a setting is important.  The characters seem true to the setting, and many of the events are made possible because it is set in Florida.

8 states down, only 42 to go.

Literary Tourism - Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin

What do Wisconsin, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania have in common?  Three Newbery Medal winners, of course!  Two of the following are absolutely two of my favorite children's books, and one has all the makings of a Newbery winner, but I thought it was just okay.

Pennsylvania

Dead End In Norvelt by Jack Gantos - This book wins the "tourism" prize for Pennsylvania because it opened my eyes to a part of America that I never knew existed.  Norvelt is a community that was created as a farming commune for underemployed coal minors in the 1930's.  It's name was derived from Eleanor Roosevelt even. 

While initially designed to be a sort of socialism, many of the residents eventually turned to capitolist traditions to make a living.  The book takes place in the 1960's, when the town is in decline.  Although not my favorite Newbery winner, it features a cast of quirky characters, like a boy with innummerable nose bleeds, crazy old people that seem to be dying every day, and a father busy digging up his wife's garden to build a bomb shelter.  It's worth a read if you like that kind of thing.

Oklahoma

Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse - I had a professor who called this book "The Grapes of Wrath light."  It's a dust bowl era novel in verse that will rip your heart our.  Billie Joe, her father, and her pregnant mother are trying to survive in Oklahoma during drought and depression.  Billia Joe's true love is playing the piano, but on accident she loses her mother and her baby brother.  Her hands are also scarred making it painful to play the piano.  Billie Joe and her father  must learn to depend on each other to survive.  Though the language is sparse the sensory details are incredible.  While reading, I felt grit in my teeth. 

I know that not everyone likes a book in poetry.  But if you are willing to try it, I highly recommend it.  While deeply sad, it does have a hopeful ending.

Wisconsin

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin - I LOVE THIS BOOk.   I have probably read it 10 times.  Of all of the books, in this entry, the state it is set in is probably least important.  But some plot elements like a snowstorm and the building's overlook of Lake Michigan are important. 

A group of seemingly unrelated people all move into Sunset Towers, a new apartment building.  The new residents soon discover that they are connected to Sam Westing when he is murdered.  They are split into teams and charged with discovering the villian.  I love this book; I love the characters; I love everything about it.  Read it.  You'll discover why. 

Literary Tourism - New York

One of my goals with this little project is to gauge what I have already read that aligns with my very loose criteria. For New York, I even got to revisit a review that is already on this blog.

 

 

A Novel Idea by Aimee Friedman  You can link to my summary from a few years ago.  It was for a class so it is actually quite detailed. The reason I chose this for my literary travels is because it featured a lot of tidbits about New York City that I had never before considered - brownstones in Brooklyn, Greenwich village, indie bookstores.  As someone who grew up in a small town, I didn't know that a place could have so many nooks and crannies.  As stated in my review this book is no timeless literary masterpiece, but a fun bit of mind candy for the teenage girl in all of us.  

Literary Tourism: Illinois, Michigan

For this journey we aren't going in any particular order.  Many of the books I've read recently seem to be centered in the midwest.  So, today I will cover two of those states.

Illinois

Hold Fast by Blue Balliett - Many of Balliett's mysteries are set in Chicago.  Her Chasing Vermeer series features a middle school at the University of Chicago.  Hold Fast is also a mystery, but deals with a different population in the city - the homeless.  Balliett writes beautiful mysteries that challenge readers to think abstractly.  This book impressed me so much because it was honest in discussing issues facing the homeless like substance abuse, being undervalues in society, and losing dignity and hope.  This book is also set in the main branch of the Chicago Public Library which I loved of course.

Michigan

Bud Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis - I had no idea how important Flint was to Michigan until I found multiple references to it in literature.  After some research (read: a perusal of a Wikipedia article), I discovered that historically it was a center of industry.  This book is a historical novel of an orphan looking for his father and is very entertaining.