Historical Fictionistas discussion

Greetings all! I am piggy-backing a couple of challenges and need your help! I am working on collecting book for our January mini-challenge and also reading my way through the US states.

Does anyone have any recommendations for HF books set in 1 or more of the following states? The book doesn't need to take place completely in the state.

The states I have left:

* Colorado
* Delaware
* Iowa
* Michigan
* Mississippi
* Missouri
* Nebraska
* Nevada
* New Mexico
* North Dakota
* Oklahoma
* South Carolina
* Vermont
* Virginia

Thanks!

Colorado - Centennial (It's a brick, but authentic enough that I had to read it for a high school state history class.)
Also, several
Louis L'Amour books happen in Colorado. They cover other western states as well.

Oklahoma - The Grapes of Wrath

Mississippi - just about anything by William Faulkner

Nevada:
by Bruce Murkoff
by Chris Hannan- I didn't like this book. I think its sole virtue was that it's a short book.

Louise Erdrich's novels are mainly set in North Dakota. I read and liked the Last Report of a Miracle of little No Horse.

Chris wrote: "... Oklahoma - The Grapes of Wrath ..."

I second this recommendation.

Also for Oklahoma - Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver

For anyone interested in the American Revolution, my new book is a time travel novel in which the protagonists travel to June, 1776 to prevent the kidnapping of Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin and thus thwarting completion of the Declaration of Independence.

These look great so far. Thanks! :)

For Missouri and the Mississippi River I would reccommend The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

For Colorado, I would recommend Little Britches: Father and I Were Ranchers.

Sacajawea might cover some of those states - they did travel over a lot of territory! = )

Another book that might work: My Name is Mary Sutter which takes place over the American Civil War years and spends quite a bit of time in Virginia at all the battles...

Some of Rhett Butler's People takes place in South Carolina as well.

I really enjoyed The Kitchen House which is set in Virginia.

Jubilee Trail covers Missouri, Nevada, and New Mexico, since it's about a girl who travels New York to California with the pre-Gold Rush traders. Also one of my very favorite HF novels; just superb.

For Missouri The River Wife by Jonis Agee. I really liked this one.

Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill was wonderful and is partially set in S. Carolina.

For Vermont I ran across this trilogy recently and haven't read it yet but really want to: Sherbrookes by Nicholas Delbanco.

Another one I haven't read but is on my list for Michigan is The Kingsley House by Arliss Ryan. Really liked her book The Secret Confessions of Anne Shakespeare.

Just Jane: A Daughter of England Caught in the Struggle of the American Revolution is set in South Carolina from 1776-1780 (I think). I LOVE it and think it is very relatable to life today.

Necro!

I and a friend are interested in some American civil war fiction. Can anyone recommend any as what we've found is an unfinished series by cornwell and gone with the wind.

Many thanks! :)

Deep Summer
The Handsome Road
This Side of Glory
All by Gwen Bristow and are a trilogy from the American Revolutio, and from the Civil War to Reconstruction. Not long but very well done and are some of my favorites.

I read those as a teen and loved them. That was a LONG time ago so I would love to revisit them.

I did the same thing, Linda, and then donated the books. Years later I wanted to read them again so went and bought them again and have kept them. I now have so many books because if I like them I don't give them away anymore.

"Centennial" is one of my favorites, and doesn't brilliantly stunning "Blood Meridian" take place in what is now New Mexico?

NEBRASKA:
A Lantern in Her Hand
A White Bird Flying
Spring Came on Forever
The Lieutenant's Lady
Song of Years
(all of the above by Beth Streeter Aldrich.
Goodnight Nebraska by Tom McNeal
One of Ours, by Willa Cather (WWI)
The Echo Maker by Richard Powers

Kate, I agree with you re Jubilee Trail. I love it and reread it every couple of years even tho' I know it by heart!

I read that when I was about nine; it was probably my first real grown-up book. John Ives was certainly my first big literary crush!

Virginia - Dawn's Early Light, by Elswyth Thane.

Massachusetts, January through May, 1775, the start of the Revolutionary War, my historical novel "Crossing the River."

Partially set in South Carolina during the American Revolution: The Blacksmith's Daughter and Camp Follower.

Maude wrote: "Deep Summer
The Handsome Road
This Side of Glory
All by Gwen Bristow and are a trilogy from the American Revolutio, and from the Civil War to Reconstruction. Not long but very well done and are s..."

"Celia Garth" by Gwen Bristow takes place in Charleston, SC.

Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain is another Civil War one.