It’s a tall ask, trying to encapsulate the scenery, sounds and style of the United States in some 300 pages. But thousands of authors regularly rise to the challenge, penning novels about the 1930s dustbowl through the eyes of penniless Oklahoman farmers and little women navigating womanhood in the heart of Massachusetts. Others prefer to chronicle their own travels across the country’s fifty states (here’s looking at you AA Gill), which may come in handy if you’re planning your own USA road trip. Whether you’re planning on cruising along Florida’s Overseas Highway to Key West or pounding New York City’s pavements on a long weekend, there’s something for everyone in our list of best books to read before travelling to the USA.
- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
- The Golden Door: Letters to America by AA Gill
- Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
- If Only They Didn't Speak English: Notes from Trump's America by Jon Sopel
- The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
1
Little Women
By Louisa May Alcott
Every list should start with a classic. Maybe you were tasked with reading it at school, or perhaps you watched one of its many television and film adaptations. Whatever the reason, there’s no denying that Little Women is worthy of a spot on our list—and America’s literary canon. It chronicles the lives of the March sisters—Meg, Jo, Amy and Beth—as they navigate life between girlhood and womanhood in a quiet Massachusetts town. Read it in true set-jetting style on an autumnal escape to New England, when its famous foliage bursts with brazen reds and incandescent oranges, and you’ll feel like you’ve stepped onto Alcott’s pages.
2
The Golden Door: Letters to America
By AA Gill
If you’re after sharp, clever and vigorous prose of all that is weird and wonderful about the USA, look no further. In this collection of immensely entertaining essays, AA Gill takes on the America he knew in the 1970s, from his experiences of drinking and delivering moonshine in the hills of Kentucky to the stories of historical figures like Thomas Edison and his accidental electrocution of Topsy the elephant. Crack open his letters on a drive through Middle America, and Gill may just be able to answer your inevitable question: why does every small town claim to be the home of something, the biggest ball of string or deepest hole, and are they correct?
3
Demon Copperhead
By Barbara Kingsolver
Kingsolver takes on Charles Dickens's David Copperfield in this Pulitzer Prize-winning retelling. Set deep in Virginia’s poverty-stricken southern Appalachian Mountains, it tells the story of Damon (or Demon). Born to a teenage single mother in a single-wide trailer, he relays, in his own unsparing voice, the modern perils of institutional poverty including addiction and foster care. A good reminder, we think, that the USA isn’t all major metropolises, economic power and Hollywood glamour.
4
If Only They Didn't Speak English: Notes from Trump's America
By Jon Sopel
Expect an insightful and informed portrait of American life and politics by the BBC's former North America editor, Jon Sopel. Dive into its religion, race, guns, patriotism, pharmacological abuse and big government. Linger over Trump’s America and get a sense of how the country is fairing in the midst of a storm of political and racial extremism and division. If you’re planning a visit to Washington DC, this is one of the best books to read before travelling to the USA.
5
The Great Gatsby
By F Scott Fitzgerald
F Scott Fitzgerald successfully immortalised the 1920s with his 1925 classic, The Great Gatsby. Leonardo DiCaprio and Baz Luhrmann did a pretty good job with the 2013 film adaptation we’ll admit. But if it’s a modern classic you’re after in the last of our round-up of best books to read before travelling to the USA, it’s a modern classic you’ll get. Follow the young and handsome Jay Gatsby around his Long Island mansion, which buzzes with champagne and the fabulously rich, before stumbling, as you always do, on a secret that will force his world to unravel. If you’re looking for a way to pass the time during a layover, this is it.
Written by Naomi Pike
