Julie's 50 States

I thought I'd try my hands at this, and see how it goes, just for the fun of it.I've edited my list to only include books I've read since the start of 2020, in the spirit of doing this as a sort of challenge going forward. So my list is very sparse, but I seem to be getting my reading groove back again, finally, so hopefully I can start filling it in.

My Map of States Visited

Alabama

Alaska

Arizona

Arkansas

California

Colorado

Connecticut
Inheritance: a memoir of genealogy, paternity, and love by Dani Shapiro: read January 13 through 17, 2020, 4 stars
The One I Left Behind by Jennifer McMahon: read November 2 through December 1, 2021

Delaware

Florida

Georgia

Hawaii

Idaho

Illinois

Indiana

Iowa

Kansas

Kentucky

Louisiana

Maine
The Poacher's Son by Paul Doiron: read September 26 through December 20, 2020, 3 stars

Maryland

Massachusetts

Michigan

Minnesota

Mississippi

Missouri

Montana

Nebraska

Nevada

New Hampshire

New Jersey
People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present by Dara Horn: read December 4 through 7, 2021, 5 stars

New Mexico

New York
Julie and Julie: My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell: read August 11 through September 17, 2020, 3 stars
People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present by Dara Horn: read December 4 through 7, 2021, 5 stars

North Carolina

North Dakota

Ohio

Oklahoma

Oregon
Inheritance: a memoir of genealogy, paternity, and love by Dani Shapiro: read January 13 through 17, 2020, 4 stars

Pennsylvania
Inheritance: a memoir of genealogy, paternity, and love by Dani Shapiro: read January 13 through 17, 2020, 4 stars

Rhode Island

South Carolina

South Dakota

Tennessee

Texas

Utah

Vermont
The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon: read May 18, 2021, 4 stars
Don't Breathe a Word by Jennifer McMahon: read May 20, 2021, 3.5 stars
The Night Sister by Jennifer McMahon: read May 23-28, 2021, not rated yet
The Invited by Jennifer McMahon: read June 3-5, 2021, not rated yet

Virginia

Washington

West Virginia

Wisconsin

Wyoming

Washington, DC

Welcome! I just joined in the last year and enjoy the encouragement to stretch my reading.

>2 ritacate: Thanks!

I'm currently reading The Poacher's Son by Paul Doiron. Not only does the book, the first of the Mike Bowditch Mysteries, take place in Maine, it makes its Maine setting an integral and omnipresent part of the story. Doiron makes Maine, specifically the back woods of Maine so unfamiliar to those of us who've never lived there, nearly a character in itself, recreating the land, the people, and the culture on the page so vividly it's almost like I've been there myself. I've currently read through chapter 18 of 33.

So I'm back, and I've finally finished Paul Doiron's first Mike Bowditch novel, The Poacher's Son. I rated it three stars out of five.

The prose is fine, nothing special but also not noticeably bad or clunky. I never did develop any attachment to any of the characters, including the protagonist Mike Bowditch, nor did I ever develop a burning curiosity about the solution to the murder mystery.

My main takeaway: as a mystery, The Poacher's Son is fine. It's not bad, but it's not spectacular, either.

(I do think that my particular hang-ups with regard to certain elements of the plot - my sympathetic embarrassment issue, and my dislike of 'detective's relative or friend is the main suspect' plots - played a significant role in my reaction to this novel, so when it comes to the mystery plot, keep that in mind.)

What makes this book special, and worth reading, for me, is not the mystery plot, though. It's the setting.

Paul Doiron takes readers on a journey through the unfamiliar world of the backwoods of Maine and the people who call it home with amazing skill and success. It's that aspect of the novel that has me looking forward to continuing the series.

My three star rating, in this case even more than usual, reflects my personal taste and preferences more than the inherent quality of the book, and I would encourage any police procedural/murder mystery fans, and anyone interested in the backwoods of Maine, to try it out for themselves.

I'm glad to be back, and I look forward to reviewing and discussing more books with you all.

>5 Julie_in_the_Library: thank you for the review. I haven't been to New England for (ACK! Is it already) 40 years so that descriptive aspect sounds wonderful. Your review reminds me of William Kent Kreuger's descriptions of northern Minnesota.

>6 ritacate: I'm glad that you enjoyed the review. I've lived in New England my whole life, except for college, but I've never been to the backwoods of Maine, so the descriptive aspect was fun for me, too. I've never read Kreuger, but I just looked him up, and I'll probably give his books a try at some point. Thanks for the recommendation!

Interesting review, Julie, thank you. I've got Richard Russo's Empire Falls down to read for Maine on my list - I've only got into New England once as yet, with Ethan Frome in Massachusetts. Had not even heard of Paul Doiron until now!

>8 Willoyd: I actually discovered Paul Doiron completely by chance, myself. I was browsing the mystery section at my local bookstore looking for something to buy for my dad for his birthday, and the newest Bowditch mystery was on the shelf.

I ended up buying it for him, he got hooked and read the whole series, and then he passed them all over to me so he wouldn't have to figure out where to put them once he was done.

I've been surprised to discover since that Doiron is not the only author with a police procedural series starring a game warden, which is a job I was previously unaware even existed.

It's funny how things happen by chance sometimes.

I've just started reading No Saving Throw, a geeky, dungeons and dragons themed cozy mystery by Kristin McFarland that stars the owner of a gaming store in small town Wisconsin.

I'm only two chapters in, so far, but as of yet the Wisconsin setting has not been heavily featured or emphasized at all, just mentioned. Still, that may change as I get further in, and even if it doesn't, it's canonically set in Wisconsin, so it still counts!

The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon: 4 stars - Vermont

This one was a book bullet from Carol420 in the Mystery and Suspense group.

I read this book in a single day - I started it at 12:38 pm over lunch, and finished it at 6:12 pm, over dinner - and I really enjoyed it. The plot and mystery kept me absorbed all the way through, to the point where I found myself resenting phone calls from friends, the need to make dinner, and the call of nature, because they interrupted my reading.

The setting was vivid. The town of West Hall felt very real, with appropriate complexity and depth, and rang true as a small New England town, albeit one more rural than the small New England town in which I live.

The characters were similarly well-rendered. Like real people, I didn't love or even like all of them - I had an antipathy for Martin from the moment he entered the novel, and that's nothing on how I felt about his brother - but even those for whom I felt little sympathy struck me as entirely believable.

Likewise, the relationships depicted throughout the novel all felt deep, complex, and incredibly real. The novel particularly focuses on mother-daughter relationships, and one sibling relationship, all explored in depth and with thematic resonance. While none of these reflected the particular mother-daughter or sibling relationships that I'm part of in my own life, I'm sure that many women will see their own experiences reflected in this book.

I also really like the plot itself. The ending surprised me, and yet also felt entirely right. I closed the final page feeling exactly what I felt that I should be feeling - a mix of satisfaction, sated curiosity, and melancholy, with a twist of unease. Not to mention a certain degree of awe at McMahon's skill at weaving the story together.

I will say that certain facets of the narration - the prose - left something to be desired. Some of the writing struck me as needing a final polish. But the story was more than gripping enough that the narrative prose quickly faded to the back of my mind as I lost myself in the story anyway. This is not a book in which the beauty of the prose is the focus or the point, and the things that are the focus, this book does very well, indeed.

As a final note, I'll add that I usually avoid anything that could be classed as horror, because I don't enjoy being afraid. I haven't tried to watch Criminal Minds since I moved into my own place. I don't go on roller coasters for the same reason.

But I tried this anyway, because the story intrigued me and it came highly recommended, and I don't regret it even a little bit. I did find myself a little spooked while and directly after reading, but not nearly enough to detract from my enjoyment of the book. And, of course, it does point to McMahon's skill as a writer, that she was able to convey tone so well that it affected me so much.

I picked up three of McMahon's other books at the library yesterday, as well, and will be starting Don't Breathe a Word either this afternoon or tomorrow.

Thank you for this review. I'm not into horror either, but your review sounds promising so I just checked out the audiobook. I've been on a "reading" binge the last couple weeks, listening to books while I cook, clean, sew, garden etc.

>12 ritacate: I hope you enjoy it. I finished Don't Breathe a Word and like it, and now I'm onto The Night Sister.

I just realized I never posted my review of Don't Breathe a Word over here. I put it on my main thread in Club Read yesterday.



Don't Breathe a Word by Jennifer McMahon: 3.5 stars

I enjoyed reading this book. As with The Winter People, the mystery/suspense plot drew me in and held my attention - so much that I finished the whole book in a single day.

(I've done that twice now, both times with suspense novels by Jennifer McMahon, and I feel like I could continue, but I'm actively deciding not to. It turns out that reading books in single days requires the setting aside of all other responsibilities and tasks, which, while fun, isn't really practical more than once in a while. Alas.)

In this book, McMahon takes on the folklore of Faerie and changelings, all with a dark, sinister twist. While I was never really afraid while reading, per se, Don't Breathe a Word definitely left me unsettled, and a little reluctant to turn out the lights for a while. In this book McMahon more than demonstrates her ability to create atmosphere and leave a lasting impression on her readers.

Don't Breathe a Word, which was published in 2011 and was McMahon's fourth novel, is concerned with some of the same themes and contains some of the same motifs, as in The Winter People, which was published three years later in 2014: the question of whether places can be evil, the idea of doors to other worlds hidden in seemingly ordinary landscapes, sibling relationships, mother-daughter relationships, motherhood, family, the ways that the past haunts the present. I'm sure there are more that I've left off and will think of as soon as I hit post.

I'm only on page 50 of 322 of McMahon's 2015 novel The Night Sister, and some of these themes and motifs are already evident in that work, as well.

These themes and motifs do not come across as stale for their repeated exploration, however. Each McMahon novel I have read so far has come at these questions and relationships from a different angle and through a different lens, and wrapped in an exciting suspense plot that more than keeps things interesting, besides.

It was evident while reading Don't Breathe a Word, especially having read The Winter People first, that Don't Breathe a Word was an earlier effort by an author gaining in skill with each new book. Certain elements of the writing in this book are noticeably less polished than in the later book. For instance, McMahon in 2011 was very liberal with parentheticals in her prose in a way that she had reigned in by 2014. She also outright states themes in the voices of characters a few times here, where by 2014 she had gotten significantly more subtle.

That's to be expected, of course - writers should improve the more they write, just as anyone improves in their craft as they gain experience. And while Don't Breathe a Word isn't quite as accomplished as The Winter People, it's still a great read and well worth it in its own right, not just as a comparison for McMahon's later work.

Creating and rendering complex, believable, full characters seems to be a particular strength of McMahon's from early on, and it's on full display here. The main character, Phoebe, in particular felt real right from page one.

Unlike The Winter People and The Night Sister, both of which employ multiple POV styles in alternating chapters, Don't Breathe a Word is told from a single, deep, limited-third-person point of view - that of the main character, Phoebe. I found this strategy less effective than the alternating POV - as apparently, did McMahon, given that she seems to have abandoned it in later books.

I did have a problem with faux-cursive font in which the book excerpts included throughout the book are rendered. The use of this font, clearly meant to mimic handwriting, is an unnecessary affectation that comes across as silly, artificial, and too try-hard. It' also an ableist barrier to entry for readers with learning disorders and disabilities such as dyslexia or even bad eyesight. I found the font difficult to parse myself, and I have no such organic handicap hindering me - I can't imagine how difficult and obnoxious it must be to readers who do have disabilities of that type.

All in all, despite some technical flaws that kept it from a full four stars, Don't Breathe a Word is a gripping suspense novel that looks at interesting themes and asks interesting questions, and I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys suspense, supernatural or horror mystery, darker looks at faerie folklore, or McMahon's other books.

I've now finished The Night Sister, which is another book set in Vermont. Review to come.

>11 Julie_in_the_Library: Thank you for your review. My husband and I listened to The Winter People and I just listened to The Invited and Don't Breathe a Word on my own. Listening allows me to "read" a lot while gardening, cleaning, cooking, etc. I very much enjoyed this author and her incredible ability to keep me guessing right to the end. She also created a wonderful sense of place.

>16 ritacate: The sense of place is one of the things I really appreciate about McMahon's writing. That, and the engaging plots - it takes a lot to hold my attention, and her books all seem to do the trick.

I'm planning to start my next one either today or tomorrow.

I've finished The One I Left Behind by Jennifer McMahon, which is set in Connecticut. I have written a review on my Club Read thread.

I just started a list this week, and I'm wondering how you are deciding where a book "belongs." Setting of the book? Author's birthplace or residence? I'm trying to figure out where to put books like The Glass Castle, which takes place in multiple states as the author's family moved a lot. Thanks for any advice!

>19 labfs39: I'm doing setting, myself. For something that takes place in multiple states, I would count any where the setting is significant, or that lasts more than a brief scene.

>19 labfs39: >20 Julie_in_the_Library:
Apologies if jumping in, but just to say that, in general terms, Julie's system is pretty much the norm when you get to look at where books are allocated in most lists. My list is fiction only, so The Glass Castle would be ineligible*, but to give you two examples of multi-state books, I've allocated True Grit to Oklahoma, even though a fair chunk is in Arkansas, and others have positioned it there (I was also going to position it in Arkansas initially, but, for various reasons to do with satisfying the criteria I have been using, moved it!), and allocated Lonesome Dove to Texas, even though it's the story of a cattle drive from Texas to Montana and could probably have counted for any one of five states! Song of Solomon is another on my 'Tour' which has been allocated to different states by different listmakers.

(*I read plenty of non-fiction, but wanted in this case to focus on fiction).

>21 Willoyd: No need to apologize! Your input is valuable!

Hmm, this makes sense. I guess I need to decide whether I am trying to highlight authors from each state or learn more about each state. To try and find books that accomplish both at the same time may be too much.

>22 Julie_in_the_Library:
Thank you.

>23 labfs39:
There are some great writers who do both very successfully, and it would make an interesting challenge to put such a list together. It would certainly be easier if you allowed non-fiction books. On the fiction front, some of those on my list (both already read and to read) who were born (never mind have been resident!) in the state about which they have written include:

Eowyn Ivey in Alaska*,
Donald Harington or Charles Portis* in Arkansas,
John Steinbeck in California*
Kent Haruf in Colorado*
Carson McCullers in Georgia
Marilynne Robinson in Idaho*
Wendell Berry for Kentucky*
William Faulkner in Mississippi
Edith Wharton* or Don DeLillo in New York
Charles Frazier in North Carolina*
etc.

Hmmm - I might even try and put together such a list.
(* Authors I've already read and enjoyed either for my list or previously)

>23 labfs39: Or you double the number of books and read a book set there and a book by an author from the state. :)

>24 Willoyd: Thank you for this starter list. You are right, there are books that are both by and about each state. The trick is finding them. Your list reminds me of some author's I've read or have that might work. For instance, I hadn't thought of Wharton or Frazier. I love Ivey. And I am listing one fiction and one nonfiction from each state, so don't hold back on the nonfiction ideas either!

>25 AnnieMod: Lol. You keep setting rabbit holes for me to fall down, Annie!

>23 labfs39: I tend to think of my list as being of books that allowed me to "visit" the state in question, which is why I focus on setting, especially for fiction. Highlighting authors from each state is something that I had not even considered!

>26 labfs39: As for finding books, I go about things much more haphazardly. Which is to say, I read whatever I'm reading, and then add it to my list if it qualifies, rather than seeking out books that qualify ab initio*.

*from the beginning. Sorry, Daf Yomi/Talmud reference. I just finished this morning's daf and I couldn't resist. :)

>27 Julie_in_the_Library:
As for finding books, I go about things much more haphazardly. Which is to say, I read whatever I'm reading, and then add it to my list if it qualifies, rather than seeking out books that qualify ab initio*.

I've been virtually the opposite! Because I had fairly strict criteria, I needed to make a list up before I started. It's been tweaked a bit since, but is essentially the one I started with. A large part of my enjoyment has come from making up the list, a companion to another I did previously with an on-line book group, of the most famous book set in each of the 40 or so English counties (and which led me on to this).

>27 Julie_in_the_Library: Since I'm not doing this as a challenge, but more as a list making exercise, I'm counting books I've read since I joined LT and began writing reviews. Part of my motivation is to see how diverse my reading has been to date. I don't read a lot of US lit, so even counting previously read books, it's going to take me a long time!

>27 Julie_in_the_Library:, >28 Willoyd: I too am approaching this haphazardly. My main focus is international literature (for me that is non-US), but I was curious to see what my US reading looked like. I love lists though, so I would be tempted to join Willoyd in creating a to-read list to fill in gaps, even if I didn't work from it aggressively.

I just bought Mark Oppenheimer's new book Squirrel Hill: The Tree of Life Synagogue Shooting and the Soul of a Neighborhood, which, being all about the Squirrel Hill neighborhood in Pittsburgh, will definitely go on my list for Pennsylvania once I've read it.