Reading about Massachusetts

There, of course, is a library of classics set here which I won't name.

Stillwater by William Weld
Mystic River by Dennis Lehane
Massachusetts by Nancy Zaroulis
Call the Darkness Light also by Nancy Zaroulis

Let me think...

Walden by Thoreau

The Newbery YA novel Johnny Tremain for those interested in Boston and the events leading to the Revolutionary War.

>1 avaland:: I guess you were talking about Walden when you mentioned the library of classics. It's weird, your comment wasn't there when I started writing my message more than 10 minutes after you posted it... Or maybe it's just too late for me to pay attention (it's 3.40am here) :-)

I didn't see the message either the first time I came to this topic. So after a few minutes I came back to post and there it was.

The Harvard Classics perhaps?

Maybe it's because I was editing it?

Yeah, I started with House of the Seven Gables and realized the list would be endless... and then, when I starting thinking about more contemporary books, I thought, there has to be more to Massachusetts than Boston, Cape Cod and the islands...and I'm still thinking...

Blind Side of the Heart and The Garden of Martyrs written by Michael C. White, a Massachusetts author, are both set in the state.

Unredeemed Captive by John Demos. Historical fiction, was nominated for the National Book Award, I think.

For nonfiction, the obvious contemporary pick is Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick.

Many of Tess Gerritsen's books are set in and around Boston ... The Surgeon, The Sinner.

And don't forget Make Way for Ducklings!

#7 Make Way for Ducklings is one of my all-time favorite children's books, and I buy it for every baby I know (along with a bunch of other favorites, to get them all started on the right, i.e., reading, track).

The Works Project Administation sponsered guide books of all the states, including Massachusetts. This was in the 1930's, the darkest days of the great Depression. These books were well researched and well written and are a tribute to a federal government that provided work, not just for builders of post offices and pavers of sidewalks but also for writers and artists. I just wish I had all 48 books of the series. Gee, I wonder did they do the territories? I sem to remember one about Pourto Rico. I better go research that.

MrKris, I'm sure there are zillions of us who read the "Kent Family Chronicles" whether we now admit to it or not. Great, fun (and formulaic) reading for those us much, much younger and otherwise intellectually engaged in that particular decade...

That user has tagged the book 'fantastic series' (IIRC) but has no other books by that author listed, which makes me wonder if it's one entry and one review to cover the whole lot.

A good recent nonfiction Massachusetts book is Bread and Roses by Bruce Watson, about a 1912 textile strike in Lawrence, Mass. Some of the best writing I've read in a while, a good length, impressively documented, absorbing, exciting and moving.

I hope it is not to late to post to this thread - here are two more with a Massachusetts connection:

Hoopi Shoopi Donna by Suzanne Strempek Shea - this is a fun read especially if you grew up Polish-American in Western MA

Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy - also from Western MA but writes about Boston in this particular book.

and lest we forget...Emily Dickinson from Amherst

Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs.

The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George V. Higgins is set in Boston, as are many of his other novels.

Some great non-fiction ...

A Death in Belmont by Sebastian Junger ... about the Boston Strangler case

A Civil Action by Jonathan Harr ... about chemical-dumping and drinking-water case in Woburn

Another non-fiction ...

Safe Harbor: A Murder in (sic) Nantucket.

Zodiac by Neal Stephenson. It takes place in and around Boston. It's a near-future (now recent past) eco-thriller about polluters dumping in the Charles and the harbor.

roseread: The thing I liked best about Zodiac was its description of biking Comm Ave and Charlesgate West with a fried stoplight. Taking it one lane at a time rang true and really does take balls sometimes.

bfertig: My father used to work in Everett, by where the car was Thermited in chapter two. I know that area very well. I love books with that kind of local detail.

Songs of the Humpback Whale by Jodi Picoult takes place in western MA....or somewhere thereabouts. Its been years since I read it...but much of the book takes place on an apple orchard.

Salem Falls - also by Picoult takes place in MA.

The Namesake by Jhumpa Laheri takes place in Cambridge and the suburbs of Boston.

If I recall correctly I believe that The Snow Garden by Christopher Rice takes place in a fictional town in MA

In the horror genre, most of Christopher Golden's original works (as opposed to his franchised work) take place in various parts of Massachusetts. He has a young adult series (I think Head Games is the first) that takes place in a renamed-to-protect-the-innocent knockoff of Tufts University.

I was just rereading H.P. Lovecraft's Bloodcurdling Tales this weekend, and lots of his stories take place in Massachusetts. Some of the places are real, and some are fictional.

Alexander Jablokov's Carve the Sky is a fabulous science fiction novel set in a future Boston. I remember enjoying the descriptions of the preserved ruins of the Hancock tower...

Henry James' The Bostonians (can't get that touchstone to work).

The aforementioned Zodiac is one of my all-time favorite books and the first one that comes to mind whenever I think of fiction set in Boston. :)

In mystery, pretty much everything by Linda Barnes is set in the Boston area, including The Big Dig. Also, Gregory MacDonald, who wrote the Fletch series, also wrote a shorter series about a Boston cop named Flynn: Flynn, Flynn's In, The Buck Passes Flynn.

More recently, bestseller The Namesake takes place partly in Cambridge and partly in western suburbs of Boston.

I really liked the movie version of The Namesake -- though I haven't read the book. I thought it was a great story, well shown.. and they got some great footage of Cambridge and Boston. Made me feel homesick!

"In the Heart of the Sea" by Nathanial Philbrick.

Winthrop Woman - historical fiction about the wife of the first MA governor

Boston has tons of history and mysteries, like Dennis Lehane's work. Here's more...

http://avidreader25.blogspot.com/2012/06/reading-states-massachusetts.html