1,001 Novels Collected: Upstate New York

1,001 Novels Collected: Upstate New York

  If we treat Upstate New York as a separate state it would be tied for number two behind Massachusetts (30), tied with Maine  and ahead of New Hampshire (13), Connecticut(9), Rhode Island(9)and Vermont (7).  While most of Upstate New York is super rural- including an northern third of the state that only got two books, the selections here mostly focused on the urban areas: Buffalo, Syracuse and Albany- nothing for Rochester.   Upstate New York has a reasonably strong top 5- although I'm unsure how many of these books will be in the all New York and New Jersey list at the end.  Ironweed, for sure will be there.  Maybe Marya and At Home at the End of the World,

  Towards the bottom there is the already familiar blend of genre detective novels and YA and YA leaning fiction centering around teen girls and their particular set of issues (16-22).  Everything outside of the top five are just OK literary fiction, some less fun classics  and some historical fiction- nothing I would recommend picking up.  Really, the only book on this list I would call "a must" is Ironweed. I think Marya has a lot of potential as a show-off book, but it wasn't a fun read and ultimately falls into the same category of teen girl trying to get our of a bad place as the books at the bottom, just executed by an author who went on to literary immortality. 

   This was the first part of the country that I haven't personally visited.  Can't say that any of these books made me want to visit Buffalo or Syracuse, though I'd like to drive up the Hudson River Valley and see Albany and maybe stay at a fun Airbnb.  Unlikely to every happen, but I'd do it!

1. Ironweed (1983) by William Kennedy 

2. Marya (1986) by Joyce Carol Oates

3. Ragtime (1975) by E.L. Doctorow

4. At Home at the End of the World (1990)by Michael Cunningham

5. All-Bright Court (1987) by Connie Porter

6. The Last of the Mohicans (1826) by James Fenimore Cooper

7. America's Dream (1975) by Esmeralda Santiago

8.  We the Animals (2011) by Justin Torres

9.  A Northern Light (2013) by Jennifer Donnelly 

10.  The Collected Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever

11.  The Monsters of Templeton (2008)by Lauren Groff

12. The Air We Breath (2007) by Andrea Barrett 

13.  We Are Gathered Here (1996) by Micah Perks

14.  Lost Lake (1998) by Mark Slouka

15.  Living on the Borderline (2019) by Melissa Michal

16.  The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon (1820) by Washington Irving 

17.  The Church of Dead Girls: A Thriller (1997) by Stephen Dobyns 

18. Girls (1997) by Frederick Busch

19. Tell the Wolves I'm Home (2012)  Carol Rifka Brunt 

20. A Place in the Wind (2017) by Suzanne Chapin

21. And Give You Peace (2014) by Jessica Treadway

22. Mona in the Promised Land (1996) by Gish Jen

23. Against Gravity (1996) by Lucy Feriss