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If your birthday is January 6th, how do you feel about it? Do you still celebrate?
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Hemingway’s “[Big Two Hearted River](http://xroads.virginia.edu/~DRBR/hem_river.html)” should be required reading for Michiganders.
Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. In many ways it’s the story of America; migrant workers eeking out a living in hostile environments, trying to become something. Many Americans are from such humble origins.
“A land remembered” is a good book about Florida.
I recently read “my 60 years on the plains”, I’m not sure I’d say it’s a good book,it’s an auto biography by a mountain man, but it was definitely interesting and I enjoyed it, it was cool to hear him talk about places I recognized also.
Willa Cather books for the Great Plains.
“What I Saw in America” by G.K. Chesterton.
Dharma Bums, Kerouac.
Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address
MLK’s I Have A Dream speech
If you simply look at the lyrics, California Love.
“Bear Down, Bear North” or “Caribou Island” for Alaska
Alabama Essential Reading List
To Kill a Mockingbird
Letters from a Birmingham Jail
Forrest Gump (historically set fiction but still interesting)
Big Fish
A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
Crazy in Alabama
All Over but the Shoutin
Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer
Those books will give you a good encapsulation of Alabama history and culture. You’ll laugh, cry, and feel enraged.
The Constitution
Enterprising Americans: A Business History of the United States
– https://www.amazon.com/Enterprising-Americans-Business-History-United/dp/0060107022
It shows how America became great through the novel idea of making money ( profit )
*Democracy in America* by Alexis de Tocqueville
Assembling California by John McPhee. Weaves the geologic and human history of the state really well.
Since all the low hanging fruit has already been mentioned I will say the “Dicks, pussies, and assholes” speech from *Team America: World Police*.
A Midwife’s Tale.
It’s a combo of a 1700’s diary and historic analysis of it.
Give me an idea at how tough it was in New England.
[Redcoats and Rebels](https://www.amazon.com/Redcoats-Rebels-American-Revolution-Through/dp/0393322939/ref=d_pd_sbs_sccl_1_1/139-5118042-1421349?pd_rd_w=qGvaV&content-id=amzn1.sym.1e7a0ba4-f11f-4432-b7d8-1aaa3945be18&pf_rd_p=1e7a0ba4-f11f-4432-b7d8-1aaa3945be18&pf_rd_r=3RTZQJYMWDC8WXWHAVJF&pd_rd_wg=0MEtl&pd_rd_r=317b361b-cfa8-4036-84ae-f7a2f792655c&pd_rd_i=0393322939&psc=1) is high up there on my list. It’s an account of the Revolutionary War from a British perspective and a bit different from ones you’d read from an American one.
I’d recommend just about anything from [David McCullough](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=david+mccullough&i=stripbooks&sprefix=David+Mc%2Cstripbooks%2C81&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_2_8). A lot of more “serious” historians don’t like him but I think that’s more sour grapes then anything else.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn are important books that should be read by everyone, particularly the latter.
if you’d like a written work that represents the rural pacific northwest coast maybe you’d like Sometimes a Great Notion by ken kesey
Sons of the Profits by William Speidel
It tells the amusing story of Seattle’s beginning.
Did you know that “skid row” originated in Seattle?
It’s where the logs where skidded down to Elliot Bay to be shipped off.
The Milagro Beanfield War a novel set in the 1970s in a small northern NM town.
The Dresden Files. Set in Chicago.
*East of Eden* by John Steinbeck and *Invisible Man* by Ralph Ellison, especially the latter. They offer some interesting insight into the US at the turn of the 20th century.
Everything MLK wrote except I Have a Dream speech.
Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville remains the premiere sociological work written on America.
East of Eden by John Steinbeck, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard, Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion, On the Road by Jack Kerouac and just about any set of Bob Dylan lyrics but It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) in particular.
Pioneer Women by Joanna Stratton
The Devil Knows How to Ride by Edward Leslie (Civil War)
Boone: A Biography by Robert Morgan
The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan (Dust Bowl)
Celia, a Slave by Melton McLaurin
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Little House on the Prairie gives a little snapshot of frontier life in the late 1800s.
Prophetic City: Houston on the Cusp of a Changing America
Beloved by Toni Morrison. But hold on to your hat, because she shows no mercy on the reader.
Also every Kent Haruf novel.
Literally anything by Kurt Vonnegut, but in particular Cat’s Cradle, and Galapagos. John Irving (he lived in my town and went to my school so I grew up reading him)
I am really attracted to books that explore the immigrant experience. My Antonia, Call it Sleep, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, The Joy Luck Club, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay, even Lolita come to mind. This is a whole genre of literature so there are many to choose from.
This is gonna sound like cheating but it’s the Constitution. It’s our whole history and philosophy, right there in one short document.
If you’re wanting something that reflects the South (specifically Alabama), I highly recommend From the Backbooth at Chappy’s by David Housel.
It’s a collection of essays based on different conversations Housel had at his back booth at Chappy’s Deli in Auburn, Alabama, where he is a regular. The essays cover just about everything relevant in the South: football, politics, religion, and family.
It’s certainly not as widely-known as the other titles mentioned in this thread, but I recommend it to anyone wanting to know more about this slice of the country.
To Kill a Mockingbird. There are a lot of shitty people, and sometimes they win. But fighting them is worth it because there are a lot of good people out there too.
This might be a bit out of the ordinary, but one of my favorite forms of American literature is the tall tale. There’s a good book called “the real book of American tall tales” and I really enjoy it. Pecos Bill, John Henry, High John the Conqueror, Alfred Bulltop Stormalong, Joe Magarac, Mike Fink. There are so many great stories all based on massive exaggeration and fantasy and I love it.
8 mile
Merica ! Fuck yeah! Song