Looking for a book straight out of the wild? Vote for your favorite works with rural settings here.

To get you started, trek into the wilderness with these five recs from Charles Frazier, the Appalachian native behind Nightwoods, a novel set at an abandoned mountain lodge. See his picks here!
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1,137 books · 1,016 voters · list created October 5th, 2011 by Jessica (votes) .
127 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


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Comments Showing 1-17 of 17 (17 new)

dateUp arrow    newest »

message 1: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl To Kill a Mockingbird doesn't have a rural setting. It takes place in a small town.


message 2: by Jan C (new)

Jan C I think that is true with a lot of these. Certainly The Adventures of Tom Sawyer also takes place in a small town.


message 3: by Ian (new)

Ian To kill a mockingbird is in a town, but it has sort of a rural setting around it.


message 4: by Molly (new)

Molly Lovelady Alice in wonderland isn't a rural setting...

Also Into the Wild would be a good add :)


message 5: by Laurel (new)

Laurel Wicke Gone with the Wind? Atlanta? C'mon...


message 6: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl A lot of Gone with the Wind takes place at Tara, though.


message 7: by Laurel (new)

Laurel Wicke Yeah, I'll give you that, but I still don't think of it as a rural kind of book.


message 8: by Chaminda (new)

Chaminda dff


message 9: by Judy (new)

Judy Some of these are definitely not my idea of rural. For those of you looking for a great book, I think "Ordinary Wolves" is a much under-acknowledged book. I found it fascinating, takes place in a remote part of Alaska.


message 10: by Rebekah (new)

Rebekah What about The Help? I don't think the citizens of Mississippi would consider their capitol city "a rural setting"!


message 11: by Melanie (new)

Melanie David Copperfield? Rural setting? Not quite.


message 12: by Bettie (new)

Bettie There is a discrepancy in the list description which throws voters off. Rural denotes farmed or grazed land i.e. tamed by man in some way. Wild is the opposite. *shrugs*


message 13: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl ☯Bettie☯ wrote: "There is a discrepancy in the list description which throws voters off. Rural denotes farmed or grazed land i.e. tamed by man in some way. Wild is the opposite. *shrugs*"

Agreed, that has bugged me for donkey's years.


message 14: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl Rebekah wrote: "What about The Help? I don't think the citizens of Mississippi would consider their capitol city "a rural setting"!"

Deleted.


message 15: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl Jessica, since you started the list, do you want books that have rural settings (e.g. pastures, meadows, farms, grassy fields surrounded by mountains, etc.) or truly wild - wilderness, jungle, savannah, tundra, taiga, boreal forest?

I've been voting as if you meant "rural."

Which I do not consider small town, by the way. Small towns are not the same as rural.


BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) @Debra
It is a sorry state when you are forced to promote your own book this way, at least three times....


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