Reading about Ohio

Well, heck, let's mention the obvious: Winesburg, Ohio, by Sherwood Anderson.

Another excellent novel is Crooked River Burning, by Mark Winegardner, set in Cleveland, from the end of WWII through the birth of rock 'n' roll and the advent of Carl Stokes. A thoroughly engrossing book.

James Thurber is another Columbus, OH writer. The Thurber House is open for tours and houses an organization that gives a prize for humor writing. Several of his stories have an autobiographical component.

Another humorist, P. J. O'Rourke is from Toledo and went to Miami Univ. of Ohio.

Toni Morrison set several of her books in her native Ohio, including The Bluest Eye, set in Lorain, OH. Beloved is set in Cincinnati.

Also by Sherwood Anderson Poor White is a masterful account of the industrialization of Ohio.

Les Roberts' Milan Jacovich series is set in Cleveland, Ohio, and the city is always prominently featured.

Anything by Louis Bromfield, especially The Farm or Malabar Farm would be a very good non-fiction choice.

Stewart O'Nan's new book Songs for the Missing takes place in Kingsville, Ohio.

The Days of the pioneers & the settling of Ohio are beautifully written in The Awakening Land series by Conrad Richter. The Trees The Fields & The Town It was a mini-series a few years ago.

In My Experience, subtitled Pleasures and Miseries of Life on a Farm and Pleasant Valley are two more by Louis Bromfield, with Malabar Farm and its surrounding countryside in the starring role.

Allen W. Eckert's The Frontiersmen is a wonderful history of the Shawnee, Simon Kenton, and Tecumseh-- after you read it and then drive around Ohio you'll be seeing a great many related place names, including streets, towns, schools, and Ohio counties.

The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio is a nonfiction one and here's a few more...

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