There are few things we enjoy more than a reading road trip. Getting lost in the pages of our favorite books allows us to travel far and wide without leaving our front porch, and it also inspires us to plan trips to the places we’d like to see firsthand. With that in mind, we’ve rounded up some of our favorite books set across the Southern states. There are classics and new releases, novels and plays—a little bit of everything to keep you entertained as you make your way across the literary landscape of the South. Be sure to make a stop in Mississippi with William Faulkner and Jesmyn Ward, and don’t forget to drive on down to the Florida coasts to visit with Karen Russell and Ernest Hemingway. There are plenty of stories here to fill up years of reading lists, so take your time and wander through. These stories travel far and wide, but they’re all connected by their Southern roots. Also be sure to check out The Ultimate 50 States Reading List for more books set across the U.S., from sea to shining sea.
Alabama
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg
To buy: $9.99, amazon.com, indiebound.org
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
To buy: $14.99, amazon.com, indiebound.org
Also set in Alabama: All Over but the Shoutin’ by Rick Bragg, Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee, Gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson, Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai, Other Voices, Other Rooms by Truman Capote, The Watsons Go to Birmingham by Christopher Paul Curtis, Treeborne by Caleb Johnson
Arkansas
True Grit by Charles Portis
To buy: $15.95, amazon.com, indiebound.org
Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley
To buy: $11.99, amazon.com, indiebound.org
Also set in Arkansas: A Painted House by John Grisham, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, Lightning Bug by Donald Harington, Living in Little Rock with Miss Little Rock by Jack Butler, Lucky You by Erika Carter, The Choiring of the Trees by Donald Harington, The Moaner’s Bench by Mars Hill
Florida
Swamplandia! by Karen Russell
To buy: $15.95, amazon.com, indiebound.org
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
To buy: $17.99, amazon.com, indiebound.org
Also set in Florida: Back to Blood by Tom Wolfe, Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo, Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff, Florida by Lauren Groff, Hoot by Carl Hiaasen, Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen, Sunshine State: Essays by Sarah Gerard, Sweet Bird of Youth by Tennessee Williams, The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Everglades by Marjory Stoneman Douglas, The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean, To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway, Tourist Season by Carl Hiaasen
Georgia
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
To buy: $14.99, amazon.com, indiebound.org
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
To buy: $26.95, amazon.com, indiebound.org
Also set in Georgia: Between, Georgia, by Joshilyn Jackson, Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns, Deliverance by James Dickey, Fire Sermon by Jamie Quatro, God’s Little Acre by Erskine Caldwell, Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt, Sounder by William H. Armstrong, The Ballad of the Sad Cafe by Carson McCullers, The Color Purple by Alice Walker, The Dog Star by Donald Windham
Kentucky
The Memory of Old Jack by Wendell Berry
To buy: $15.95, amazon.com, indiebound.org
Beloved by Toni Morrison
To buy: $16, amazon.com, indiebound.org
Also set in Kentucky: An Atomic Romance by Bobbie Ann Mason, Chasing Redbird by Sharon Creech, Clear Springs by Bobbie Ann Mason, Country Dark by Chris Offutt, Icy Sparks by Gwyn Hyman Rubio, Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry, Kentucky Straight by Chris Offutt, Remembering by Wendell Berry, The Patron Saint of Liars by Ann Patchett, The Vine that Ate the South by J. D. Wilkes, Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Louisiana
The Moviegoer by Walker Percy
To buy: $19.99, amazon.com, indiebound.org
A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
To buy: $12.95, amazon.com, indiebound.org
Also set in Louisiana: A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole, A Gathering of Old Men by Ernest J. Gaines, A Kind of Freedom by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines, Geronimo Rex by Barry Hannah, Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice, Secessia by Kent Wascom, The Awakening by Kate Chopin, The Clearing by Tim Gautreaux, The Pelican Brief by John Grisham, Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
Maryland
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler
To buy: $16, amazon.com, indiebound.org
Chesapeake by James A. Michener
To buy: $20, amazon.com, indiebound.org
Also set in Maryland: A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler, Clock Dance by Anne Tyler, Dicey’s Song by Cynthia Voigt, Digging to America by Anne Tyler, Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson, Mason’s Retreat by Christopher Tilghman, Sea Swept by Nora Roberts, The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler, Wilde Lake by Laura Lippman
Mississippi
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
To buy: $26, amazon.com, indiebound.org
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
To buy: $14.95, amazon.com, indiebound.org
Also set in Mississippi: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams, Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty, Desperation Road by Michael Farris Smith, Dispatches from Pluto by Richard Grant, Father and Son by Larry Brown, Light in August by William Faulkner, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor, Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward, Soil by Jamie Kornegay, The Help by Kathryn Stockett, The Fighter by Michael Farris Smith, The Little Friend by Donna Tartt, The Past Is Never by Tiffany Quay Tyson, The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
Missouri
The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams
To buy: $12.95, amazon.com, indiebound.org
The Twenty-Seventh City by Jonathan Franzen
To buy: $20, amazon.com, indiebound.org
Also set in Missouri: Enemy Women by Paulette Giles, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, Tomato Red by Daniel Woodrell, Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell
North Carolina
The Barrowfields by Phillip Lewis
To buy: $16, amazon.com, indiebound.org
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
To buy: $16, amazon.com, indiebound.org
Also set in North Carolina: A Land More Kind than Home by Wiley Cash, A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks, Down River by John Hart, Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons, Gods of Howl Mountain by Taylor Brown, Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe, No One Is Coming to Save Us by Stephanie Powell Watts, Outer Banks by Anne Rivers Siddons, Serena by Ron Rash, The Risen by Ron Rash, Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Oklahoma
Paradise by Toni Morrison
To buy: $15, amazon.com, indiebound.org
August: Osage County by Tracy Letts
To buy: $9, amazon.com, indiebound.org
Also set in Oklahoma: Marked by Fire by Joyce Carol Thomas, Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse, Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver, Rumble Fish by S.E. Hinton, Summer of the Monkeys by Wilson Rawls, That Old Ace in the Hole by Annie Proulx, The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, Where the Heart Is by Billie Letts, Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
South Carolina
South of Broad by Pat Conroy
To buy: $17, amazon.com, indiebound.org
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
To buy: $16, amazon.com, indiebound.org
Also set in South Carolina: Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison, Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson, Charleston by Margaret Bradham Thornton, Edisto by Padgett Powell, Pawley’s Island by Dorothea Benton Frank, Saints at the River by Ron Rash, Sullivan’s Island by Dorothea Benton Frank, The Great Santini by Pat Conroy, The Indigo Girl by Natasha Boyd, The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd, The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd, The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy, The Water is Wide by Pat Conroy
Tennessee
A Death in the Family by James Agee
To buy: $17, amazon.com, indiebound.org
Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver
To buy: $16.99, amazon.com, indiebound.org
Also set in Tennessee: A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor, All We Ever Wanted by Emily Giffin, Child of God by Cormac McCarthy, In the Tennessee Country by Peter Taylor, Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, Last Ride to Graceland by Kim Wiley, Suttree by Cormac McCarthy, The Client by John Grisham, The Color Purple by Alice Walker, The Firm by John Grisham, Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor
Texas
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
To buy: $16, amazon.com, indiebound.org
That Old Ace in the Hole by Annie Proulx
To buy: $17, amazon.com, indiebound.org
Also set in Texas: All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy, Farther Off From Heaven by William Humphrey, Horseman, Pass By by Larry McMurtry, Migratory Animals by Mary Helen Specht, News of the World by Paulette Jiles, Texas by James A. Michener, The After Party by Anton DiSclafani, Texas Blood by Roger D. Hodge, The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelley, The Last Picture Show by Larry McMurtry, The Liars’ Club by Mary Carr
Virginia
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
To buy: $15.99, amazon.com, indiebound.org
Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
To buy: $16.99, amazon.com, indiebound.org
Also set in Virginia: Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson, Lie Down in Darkness by William Styron, March by Geraldine Brooks, Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry, Shadow of the Lions by Christopher Swann, The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron, The Known World by Edward P. Jones, Wish You Well by David Baldacci
West Virginia
Strange as This Weather Has Been by Ann Pancake
To buy: $16.95, amazon.com, indiebound.org
Rocket Boys by Homer Hickham, Jr.
To buy: $17, amazon.com, indiebound.org
Also set in West Virginia: Child of the Mountains by Marilyn Shank, Come Sing, Jimmy Jo by Katherine Paterson, John Henry Days by Colson Whitehead, Lark and Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips, Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, The Unquiet Earth by Denise Giardina
