History and society
Biography and oral history
Entertainment and culture
Travel writing
Fiction
Raymond Carver Will You Please Be Quiet Please? Stories of the American working class, written in a distinctive sparse, almost deadpan style that perhaps owes something to Hemingway and certainly influenced untold numbers of contemporary American writers. The stories served as the basis for Robert Altman's film Short Cuts.
Don DeLillo White Noise and Underworld. The former is his best, a funny and penetrating pop culture exploration, while the latter is one of those typically flawed attempts to pack the twentieth-century American experience into a great big novel. Worthwhile, though.
Dennis Johnson Jesus' Son. Junkies and thieves and all the usual trappings of a beat-era collection of stories, but from 1990s urban America.
William Kennedy Ironweed. Terse, affecting tale of a couple of down-on-their-luck drunks haunted by ghosts from a checkered past; excellent evocation of 1930s America, specifically working-class Albany, New York.
E. Annie Proulx Accordion Crimes. Proulx's masterly book comes as close to being the fabled "Great American Novel" as anyone could reasonably ask, tracing a fascinating history of immigrants in all parts of North America through the fortunes of a battered old Sicilian accordion.
The most
brilliant prose stylist of twentieth-century America. Stunningly incisive
accounts of the black experience in the cities of the USA, although Baldwin was
such a powerful polemicist that he was occasionally swept away by his own
rhetoric.
Comprehensive and impressively detailed history of urban blacks during
Reconstruction.
Good, up-to-date and
very complete history of the United States.
Twenty years on
from its first publication, this remains the best narrative of the impact of
white settlement and expansion on Native Americans across the continent.
A good interpretive history of American political
development, focusing on the wide gap between those who hold power and those
who are disadvantaged on grounds of race, sex or class.
Taking Yellowstone
as his example, the iconoclastic Chase explores the truth behind the National
Park Service's rhetoric.
Incisive, illuminating
comments on American life, by the broadcaster and chief American correspondent
for the Manchester Guardian from 1946 to 1972.
City politics, neighborhood
gangs, unions, film noir and religion are drawn together in this award-winning,
leftist, hyperbolic history of Los Angeles.
Essays on the American way of life, drawing heavily on the late
Sixties. A respected social commentator, Didion spoils the act at times by
dropping too many names.
Compilation of ex-slaves' autobiographies, ranging from Olaudah
Equíano's kidnapping in Africa and global wanderings to Frederick
Douglass' eloquent denunciation of slavery. Includes Harriet Jacobs' story of
her escape from Edenton, North Carolina.
Immensely readable,
if short, two-volume account of Hawaiian history and theology, which culminates
in the well-argued Call For Hawaiian Sovereignty.
Archeological history of
America's native peoples, from the first hunters to cross the Bering Strait up
to European contact.
Intelligent, sympathetic
exploration of four of the odder corners of American culture, including San
Francisco's gay Castro district and the Rajneeshi community in eastern Oregon.
Epic three-volume
account containing anything you could possibly want to know about the War
Between The States.
Gould's best-known
collection of essays weaves together natural history and contemporary Americana
in a most readable form.
Encouraged by Mark Twain, the
Union general and subsequent president wrote his autobiography just before his
death, in a (successful) bid to recoup his horrendous debts. At first the book
feels oddly downbeat, but the man's down-to-earth modesty grows on you.
Scholarly yet moving account
of the exodus of Southern blacks to northern cities, specifically Chicago,
during the early twentieth century. Though it focuses on the broader social and
economic issues, it also manages to bring to life the individual stories
involved.
Eye-opening collection of essays focusing on the role of Native Americans in US
history, and presenting them as active and aware (if hopelessly out-gunned)
players rather than passive victims. Filled with illustrations and extensive
quotes from journals and contemporary accounts of Native Americans from across
the US.
Engagingly written work which
traces the transition of America from a rural to an urban and industrialized
nation in the crucial decade immediately after the Civil War.
Occasionally impenetrable,
always opinionated academic study of neo-modernist architecture as designed by
Philip Johnson, Peter Eisenman and Richard Meier. Interviews and lots of glossy
photographs lighten the tone.
Collected essays by
one of America's most readable historians, appointed by Clinton to run the
National Park Service. Kennedy looks behind the gloss of conventional tellings
to reveal something of the real story of how America came to be.
Splendid anthology
of womens' autobiographies from the mid-1800s to the present, including
sections on African Americans, scientists, pioneer women and artists.
Eight volumes of meticulous jottings
by the Northwest's first inland explorers, scrupulously following President
Jefferson's orders to record every detail of flora, fauna and native
inhabitant.
Assorted
contributors to High Country News reflect on possible futures for what
was once the Wild West.
Extremely readable
history of the Civil War which integrates and explains the complex social,
economic, political and military factors into one concise volume. Highly
recommended.
An extraordinary Bureau of Ethnology report, first published in 1890
but still available in paperback. Mooney persuaded his Washington superiors to
allow him to roam the West in search of first-hand evidence, and even
interviewed Wovoka, the Ghost Dance prophet, in person.
Compendious but compulsive
account of the environmental and political impact on the West of this century's
mania for dam-building and large-scale irrigation projects.
Accessible and varied collections of the maverick Dr Gonzo's
journalistic rantings on contemporary American life and politics. Spiced up by
tales of his own anarchic love of good times, guns and gambling.
Mark Twain was by far the funniest and most vivid chronicler of
nineteenth-century America. Roughing It, which covers his early
wanderings across the continent, all the way to Hawaii, is absolutely
compelling.
A history of the wagon trains,
drawing heavily on pioneer journals.
Marvellous illustrated history of the Civil War, designed to accompany the TV
series and using hundreds of the same photographs.
Informative and detailed
accompaniment to the excellent TV series, covering the Civil Rights years from
the early Fifties up to 1966, with lots of rare and some very familiar
photos.
Fascinating eight-hundred-page
survey of the literature of the American Civil War, which in its own right
serves as an immensely readable narrative of the conflict.
First volume
of an autobiographical sequence which provides an ultimately uplifting account
of how a black girl transcended her traumatic childhood in 1930s
Arkansas.
Larger than life autobiography of one of the great characters of the
Wild West. Particularly treasurable for the moment when he refers to himself
more formally as "Bison William".
With a great introduction by Michael
Moore (director of Roger & Me), Rivethead tells you what it's like
to work on the assembly lines of General Motors in Flint, Michigan, and
provides an often hilarious tirade against the fat cats of GM.
Hugely
impressive oral history of the Civil Rights movement, heavily drawn from the TV
series.
Johnson, Jack Kerouac's
girlfriend and "muse", tells her own story and those of the other women in the
1950s East Village scene, revealing the stiflingly reactionary male elitism of
the Beats.
.
Searingly honest and moving account of a progress from street hoodlum to
political leadership. Written on the hoof over a period of years, it traces the
development of Malcolm X's thought before, during and after his split from the
Nation of Islam. The conclusion, when he talks about his impending
assassination, is painful in the extreme.
Powerful and entertaining
autobiography of the Louisville boy who grew up to become world heavyweight
boxing champion. The most memorable parts deal with his fight against the
Vietnam draft and the subsequent stripping away of his world championship
status.
Oglala Sioux healer relates
his life and times to the "Nebraskan poet laureate".
Fascinating oral history
based on interviews with the inhabitants of a tiny town in the very center of
Kansas, the heartland of the Midwest.
Evocative rebel-yelling biography of
Rose Greenhow, glamorous Washington socialite and remarkably brave Confederate
spy. Works equally well as an exciting tale of political espionage and an
impeccably detailed historical document.
Moving oral
histories and monochrome photographs trace the life span of the now abandoned
2000-mile highway immortalized in film, novels and song.
Warped, cynical and
crazy underview of America, full of sketches and hacked-about photos, from
sometime Hunter S Thompson collaborator and illustrator.
Original memoirs by women -
mothers, teachers, homesteaders and circuit riders - who ventured across the
Plains from 1854 to 1890. Lively, superbly detailed accounts, with chapters on
journeys, homebuilding, daily domestic life, the church, the cowtown,
temperance and suffrage.
Interviews with
ordinary American citizens. As illuminating a guide to US life as you could
hope for.
Extraordinary insight into
the traditions and beliefs of the Hopi, prepared through years of interviews
and approved by tribal elders.
A vicious yet high-spirited
romp through Tinseltown's greatest scandals, amply illustrated with gory and
repulsive photographs, and always inclined to bend the facts for the sake of a
good story. A shoddily researched second volume covers more recent
times.
Daydreaming gamblers
will love this account of the attempt by a bunch of Californian college
dropouts, with computers hidden in their shoes, to beat the casinos in Las
Vegas.
Boswell elevates baseball into something higher than
a mere sport. Full of perceptive insights and amusing anecdotes.
, and
Sweet Soul Music.
Thoroughly researched personal histories of black
popular music, packed with obsessive detail on all the great names.
Enthusiastic feminist appraisal of (predominantly American) girl groups from
the Fifties (the Chantels and the Crystals) through to contemporary rap stars
like Salt'n'Pepa. Lots of photos and personal recollections make it a great
read.
Definitive rundown on the evolution of soul music from the gospel heyday of the
Forties through the Memphis, Motown and Philly scenes to the sounds of the
early Eighties. Strong on social commentary and political background and
studded with anecdotes and interviews.
An
academic but thoroughly engrossing study of the roots and development of
country music up to 1968.
Vastly entertaining overview of the
many Elvis myths, if a little hastily put together from previously published
articles. Marcus' Mystery Train is an intelligent and absorbing overview
of American popular music, from Robert Johnson to Elvis Presley and Randy
Newman.
Readable history of the
development and personalities of the Delta Blues.
Thrashes the squeaky clean
image of the country music scene. Cocaine, whiskey, infidelity, murder, rape,
and other skeletons are dug up from the cupboards of some unlikely characters.
Williams` interviews with a
batch of America's very best crime writers build a picture of the underbelly of
US society from the Montana mountainsides of James Crumley to the mean streets
of Elmore Leonard's Detroit. He lapses into sexism, however, when dealing with
Chicago's Sara Paretsky, who "is learning as she goes along".
Hilarious accounts of
whitewater rafting and desert hiking trips alternate with essays, by the man
who inspired the radical environmentalist movement Earth First! All of Abbey's
many books, especially Desert Solitaire, a journal of time spent as a
ranger in Arches National Park, make great travelling companions.
A
deeply personal but also richly evocative journal of travels through the rural
lands of the Depression-era Deep South, complemented by Evans' powerful
photo-graphs.
An
Englishman's drily witty impressions of the Big Apple, with chapters on every
aspect of the place from flotation chambers to Jewish restaurants. Brook's
Honky Tonk Gelato (also in Picador) treats Texas in a similar, if
sometimes patronizing, vein.
Using his boyhood home of
Des Moines in Iowa as a benchmark, the author travels the length and breadth of
America to find the perfect small town. At times hilarious but marred by some
very smug, self-indulgent comments.
First published in 1782,
a remarkable account of the complexities of Revolutionary America.
An immaculately researched and
well-written travelogue containing a wealth of information on the people of the
American prairielands from Native Americans to the soldiers who staff the
region's many nuclear installations.
If you like the
idea of soaking your bones in pools of naturally hot water in some of America's
most beautiful locales, this fact-packed guidebook will point you in the right
direction.
Definitive account of
transcontinental Beatnik wanderings which now reads as a curiously dated period
piece. Not as incoherent as you might expect.
Attractively produced, fully illustrated and easy to use guides to the flora
and fauna of seven different US regional ecosystems, covering the entire
country from coast to coast and from grasslands to glaciers.
Well-illustrated and engagingly readable guide to America's rich variety of
domestic architecture, from pre-colonial to post-modern.
In three
interlinked narratives, environmental activist and Friends of the Earth founder
David Brower confronts developers, miners and dam builders, while trying to
protect three different American wilderness areas - the Atlantic shoreline, the
Grand Canyon, and the Cascades of the Pacific Northwest.
Account of a mammoth
loop tour of the US by backroads, in which the author interviews ordinary
people in ordinary places. A good overview of rural America, with lots of
interesting details on Native Americans. His next book, Prairyerth,
opted for the microcosmic approach, taking six hundred loving pages over the
story of Chase County, Kansas.
A somewhat pompous though always
interesting account of Raban's journey on a small craft down the Mississippi
River from the headwaters in Minnesota to the bayous of Louisiana.
Bad Land: An American Romance. A hard-scrabble journey through rural life in the
American West, from a Brit "trying to find my own place in the landscape and history."
Prepared
during the New Deal as part of a make-work programme for writers, these guides
paint a fairly comprehensive portrait of 1930s and earlier America. Also
available are state by state guides, most of them out of print but easily found
in US libraries and secondhand bookshops.
A
revealing account of life in gay communities across the country, focusing
heavily on San Francisco and New York.
Bleak novel charting
the decline of a youth who flees his Tex-Mex border town after raping a girl
and embarks upon a hobo life, ending up in the sleazy red-light district of New
Orleans.
Three Borgesian investigations
into the mystery and madness of contemporary New York. Using the conventions of
the detective novel, Auster unfolds a disturbed and disturbing picture of the
city.
First novel by broadcaster
from Homer, Alaska, who shot to fame as the voice on Motel 6 radio
commercials. Funny, witty and certainly better than his often shallow
collections of essays (viz. As Far As You Can Go Without A Passport),
but for the best value invest in some of his taped books.
Cajun cop Dave
Robicheaux sets out to expose alliances between government and organized crime
in the beautiful environs of Louisiana and Montana. A detective book that has
it all.
Romantic saga of
Creole family feuds, written at the turn of the century but set during the
Louisiana Purchase. Superb evocation of steamy Louisiana, elite Creole
lifestyle and the resistance of New Orleans to its Americanization. Apparently
shocking at the time for its sympathetic portrayal of blacks.
Melodramatic
title for a sober but very emotive fictionalized biography of the first
archbishop of Santa Fe. The Professor's House has a similar feel for the
history of the Southwest, reaching back to the Anasazi, while her Nebraska
novels, such as the stunning My Antonia, provide a great sense of
pioneer hardships on the Plains.
Rock singer Cave
creates the ultimate outsider and subjects him to more misery, abuse and
hardship than you'll find in the collected works of Faulkner and McCullers. An
intense, well-executed jibe at moral excesses in the Deep South and a superb
pastiche of the heavyweight southern novel.
A just-graduated
gangster's son learns about life during a sweltering Pittsburgh summer.
Subversive story of a bourgeois
married woman whose fight for independence ends in tragedy. Swampy
turn-of-the-century Louisiana is portrayed as both a sensual hotbed for her
sexual awakening and as her eventual nemesis.
The lack of an intricate plot
is more than compensated for by accounts of Montana scenery and the hapless
detective Milo Milodragonovic, a man with a drink problem and a knack for doing
things the hard way. An enjoyable, easy read.
Hugely ambitious novel (originally a
trilogy) which grapples with the US in the early decades of this century from
every possible angle. Gripping human stories with a strong political and
historical perspective.
Slightly offbeat tale of
passion and obsession amongst poor white North Dakota folk - particularly women
- set against the backdrop of an economy and culture changing with the
introduction of sugar beet as a crop in the 1940s. Erdrich's Love
Medicine describes two Native American families on a North Dakota
reservation, the strong women who hold them together, and the tensions between
tradition and "progress".
The last and most humorous
work of this celebrated southern author. The Sound and the Fury, a
fascinating study of prejudice, set like most of his books in the fictional
Yoknatapawpha County in Mississippi, is a much more difficult read.
When first published in the Thirties
it shattered the credibility of the mythical west peddled by Hollywood.
Realistic historical fiction at its very best, following desperate mountain man
and fugitive Boone Caudill whose idyllic life in Montana was ended by the
arrival of white settlers.
Hiaasen is the most humorous
crime writer on the scene. This one sees rednecks/bass fishermen and religious
sects caught up in a fast-moving and hilarious plot.
Crime thriller
written almost entirely in the dialogue of Boston lowlifes and crooked
lawmen.
The adventures
of Jim Chee of the Navajo Tribal Police on the reservations of northern
Arizona, forever dabbling in dark and mysterious forces churned up from the
Anasazi past.
Action-packed and uproariously violent novels set
in New York's Harlem, starring the much-feared detectives Coffin Ed Johnson and
Grave Digger Jones.
Short stories celebrating black
culture and experience from around the country, by a writer from Florida who
became one of the bright stars of the Harlem cultural renaissance in the
1920s.
Wry, witty tales about a
mythical Minnesota small town. Pokes fun at the rural Midwest with an
affectionate finger.
Classic tale of racial
conflict and society's view of an outsider, Boo Radley, as seen through the
eyes of children.
One of the funniest of
Leonard's tough, brutal thrillers. Set in Detroit, it follows two former
Sixties radicals who turn to crime.
London's
classic tale, of a family pet discovering the ways of the wilderness while
forced to pull sleds across Alaska's gold rush trails, is still essential
reading before a trip to the far north.
Unputdownable - the
best ever novel about fly-fishing, set in beautiful Montana lake
country.
Long-running saga
comprised of sympathetic and entertaining human tales of life in San Francisco,
that also work surprisingly well as suspenseful stand-alone novels. The fact
that many of its key characters are gay meant that over the years the series
became a chronicle of the impact of AIDS on the city.
McCullers is
unrivalled in her sensitive treatment of misfits, in this case the attitude of
a small southern community to a deaf mute.
Compendious and compelling
account of nineteenth-century whaling, packed with details on American life
from New England to the Pacific.
Worth a read even if
you know the lines of Scarlett and Rhett off by heart.
Exquisitely written ghost story by
the Nobel-Prize-winning novelist, which traces the painful lives of a group of
freed slaves after Reconstruction, and the obsession a mother develops after
murdering her baby daughter to spare her a life of slavery.
Short stories,
featuring strong, obsessive characters, that explore religious tensions and
racial conflicts in the Deep South.
Shrewd love-hate
stories set in the immigrant Jewish communities of New York.
One of a series of
sensual, chilling vampire novels set in Louisiana.
Classic novel of
adolescence, tracing Holden Caulfield's sardonic journey through the streets of
New York.
Written in 1935, this fictionalized
biography gives a wonderful insight to the life of the author's pioneer Swiss
father on the Nebraskan plains. Sandoz's other major work Crazy Horse
contains great historical overviews but is spoilt somewhat by her insistence on
narrating it through Sioux eyes.
The classic account of a
migrant family forsaking the Midwest for the Promised Land. Steinbeck's
lighthearted but crisply observed novella Cannery Row captures daily
life on the prewar Monterey waterfront, and the epic East of Eden (Pan)
updates and re-sets the Bible in the Salinas Valley and details three
generations of familial feuding.
Warm tale of a wealthy
Tennessee family who make a downmarket move from Nashville to Memphis during
the Thirties.
Anarchic black
tragicomedy in which the pompous and repulsive antihero Ignatius O Reilly
wreaks havoc through an insalubrious and surreal New Orleans.
Moving and powerful
stories of black women in the South, from the author of the much-acclaimed
The Color Purple.
Quirky, humorous evocation of
life in a backwater Mississippi town. Her most critically acclaimed work,
The Optimist's Daughter, explores the tensions between a judge's
daughter and her stepmother.
A harrowing story about Bigger
Thomas, a black chauffeur who accidently kills his employer's daughter. The
story develops his relationship with his lawyer, the closest he has ever come
to being on an equal footing with a white.