Reading the States: Kansas

Friday, April 27, 2012


State: KANSAS

Fiction:

- The Wonderful Wizard of Oz* by L. Frank Baum
- Still Life with Crows by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
- The Center of Everything by Laura Moriarty
- Secrets of the Tsil Café by Thomas Fox Averill
- Little House on the Prairie* by Laura Ingalls Wilder
- West of Dodge by Louis L'Amour
- Doc* by Mary Doria Russell
- The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton by Jane Smiley

Nonfiction:
- In Cold Blood* by Truman Capote
- What's the Matter with Kansas? by Thomas Frank
- John Brown, Abolitionist by David S. Reynolds
- PrairyErth by William Least Heat-Moon

Authors Known for Writing in or about the State:
- Judith McCoy Miller

Authors Who Lived Here:
- William Stafford
- William Inge
- Amelia Earhart
- William S. Burroughs

Great Bookstores:
Rainy Day Books
Rivendell Books
Watermark Books

*Books I've Read

Photo by moi.

3 comments:

Sandy Nawrot said...

You know I've driven through Kansas and it doesn't make much of an impression! But it is the perfect place for the events in In Cold Blood to occur.

Jeanne said...

I never realized William Stafford was from Kansas. I always pictured him as one of those dime-a-dozen east coast poets. That actually makes him more interesting.

Melissa (Avid Reader) said...

Sandy - My sister used to live in Colorado, so I'd drive out there about once a year. The stretch through Kansas was always the most boring part. It's so flat and there was nothing to see!

Jeanne - I've loved discovering where some authors originated for this series. It makes me appreciate their work a bit more.