Biblio File

Who's the King of Ohio?

Stephen King mobilized the Twitter armies on Wednesday with a single question:

He got a flurry of responses from authors like Jodi Picoult and journalist James Fallows, and an avalanche from regular Twitter users who were quick to point out their favorite Buckeye State books.

A few responses from Twitter are below, but first, here are three of our own Ohio-centric recommendations. (It's tough to say whether a book is truly about Ohio or any particular place, really, but all three of these novels feel like they couldn't possibly take place anywhere else.)

bluest eye

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Morrison set her first novel in her own real-life hometown of Lorain, Ohio. A tragic story of incest, rape, and heartbreak, the novel uses flashbacks to show Lorain both before and after the Great Depression.

 

 

 

 

 

everything i never told you

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
An immigrant family from China brings an outsider perspective to a small Ohio town, which stands at the forefront of this novel about identity and loss.

 

 

 

 

 

missing

Songs for the Missing by Stewart O’Nan
Residents of Kingsville, Ohio, comb every inch of their small town looking for a missing 18-year-old girl. Kingsville is scrutinized, from its woods to its houses to the gas station where Kim worked, and the novel is as much an examination of life in Ohio as it is a missing-person story.

Honorable mention: The Odds by Stewart O’Nan
OK, so this O'Nan book is really about escaping Ohio. But when the middle-aged couple at the center of the book runs away to Niagara Falls, their life in Ohio follows them like a third character nipping at their heels.

 

 

And a bunch of people tweaked the bestselling author by calling out one of his own books, published under his "Richard Bachman" pseudonym:

Disclaimer: We don't know these Twitter users! Their inclusion in this post is based solely on their book recommendations.

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Staff picks are chosen by NYPL staff members and are not intended to be comprehensive lists. We'd love to hear your ideas too, so leave a comment and tell us what you’d recommend. And check out our Staff Picks browse tool for more recommendations!

Comments

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Lorrie Moore's A Gate at the

Lorrie Moore's A Gate at the Stairs supposedly takes place in a college town in "the Athens of the Midwest". Well there is an Athens in the midwest and... it's in Ohio. http://browse.nypl.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb18711130

Thsnks Stephen King

I don't know how the NYPL generated this list from Stephen's tweet. I love these kind of questions and lists.