The Thread: Great novels that celebrate the Midwest

When I talk about “adventurous reading,” I usually mean reading about other cultures, experiences and lives lived quite differently from ours.

That means I haven’t done as much exploration as I should have of the stories that hold a mirror up to the Midwest. 

A couple of weeks ago, I asked you for your favorite books set in the Midwest and so many terrific novels came back to me via Twitter that I’m making this a two-part Thread suggestion. 

Any Midwestern-based list, in my view, simply must begin with Willa Cather and her wonderful novel, “O Pioneers!” It includes blizzards, drought, resilience, hardship and harsh Great Plains beauty. This story has it all. I think “O Pioneers!” was Cather’s best.

Here are some of the Midwestern novels you love: “Plainsong” by Kent Haruf; “This Tender Land” by William Kent Krueger; “Peace Like a River” by Leif Enger; and Louise Erdrich’s wonderful “The Round House” and her earlier novel, “The Beet Queen.” 

Heidi on Twitter wrote of cherishing Faith Sullivan’s novels, “Cape Ann” and “The Empress of One,” both set in the fictional Harvester, Minn. The book lovers at the Loft Literary Center weighed in with “Prairie Lotus” by Linda Sue Park and Brandon Taylor’s “Real Life.” And Amy, you made me so happy when you put “Caddie Woodlawn” by Carol Ryrie Brink on the list. It’s a book I’ve loved since my grade school teacher read it to us chapter by chapter.

So, that’s just a taste of the novels that show us who we are here in the Midwest. And if I haven’t mentioned your favorite novel set in the Midwest, put it on my list by tweeting me @KerriMPR.