Happy Birthday USA
Reading the USA to pause and reflect on where we've been and where we're going
Today is America’s birthday. Arriving only days after I began my retirement (and just over a month after celebrating my 60th birthday) I have spent a lot of time this year thinking about milestones. As I noted before in this space I am not much of a celebration person, but as a generally reflective person I like to think of milestones as the perfect opportunity to pause and both engage in a safety check (like truckers do at weigh stations) and a temporary pause in a journey (see way stations where travelers rest and refresh and sometimes change transportation).
I am not planning to host or attend a July 4 celebration, but as I live in rural Kentucky I will be surrounded by fireworks displays without leaving my own yard. I have long been engaged in the project of preparing for this milestone as a National Writing Project teacher (see Building a More Perfect Union). Every fall I engaged my first year writers in this reflective exercise and I believe with all my heart that our country would be in a better place if more people engaged in this good faith exercise.
While I have spent a lot of time writing in anticipation of America’s 250, I had not spent a lot of time reading so in April I decided to change that and embarked on a journey to read a book that would teach me something about every state. I have since decided to include territories on my reading list. From the beginning I was interested in reading by region and have found that really enhanced my experience and allowed my books to have conversations with each other. My original goal was to have my reading completed by my 61st birthday but as I am currently at 22 books either completed or in progress I expect to complete this journey within our milestone year. This is a journey I highly recommend every American take. While I (as a retired teacher and devoted bibliophile) have taken great pleasure in planning and curating my journey I know that not everyone has that time/energy available to them so check out Celebrate Our 250th With Books for several great curated reading lists that I used to assemble my own list or you can follow along in my wake! I will share my reading list to date, but first I want to take this milestone moment to reflect (weigh/way station) on what I have learned and felt on this journey.
The Preamble to the US Constitution is one of our most influential founding documents, but the truth is that we do not spend enough time thinking about the hopes and promises it holds while we quibble about the details of the remainder of the constitution. However, even the briefest study of the signing of the Declaration of Independence shows us that we have always been well nigh ungovernable as a nation. Growing from 13 states to 50 after spanning the continent and extending our reach beyond as much as our military might and wiles allowed made the differences of origin and religion present in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776, almost laughably simple compared to today. And yet, after living 60 years as an American (growing up in Upstate New York and living in Kentucky since 1996) I have learned that “We” the people of the United States have always been both America’s greatest strength and greatest weakness. My reading challenge (so far) has only confirmed that belief and left me with a great deal of hope for our continued progress to a more perfect union.
It is so easy to fall into the us vs. them divisions forced on us by politics and our highly mediated communications (from traditional “news” to online algorithms), but “we the people” will rally to support our neighbors in a time of need and join together in projects for the common good from quilting bees to community gardens. My husband spends hours every week working for our local food pantry which is a huge communal effort modeled on and reflected in similar programs throughout our country. In fact, our local food pantry is part of the God’s Pantry Food Bank network which just expands this idea of community supporting community. Cooperatives are one of the earliest groupings of humans where families joined together for defense, for the hunt, and eventually to build tools and raise food. The truth is that humans are communal animals. We can survive alone (at least for a while) but rarely do we thrive alone. This lesson was driven home again and again in my Reading the USA books.
Of course, many of my books also dealt with the ugliness that humans perpetrate upon each other. Genocide. Rape. Murder. Theft. Violence in every form. Slavery in name or deed. Oppression in every form. The ongoing special status afforded to white men - especially white men born to a certain social strata. Some of the books on my reading list lean heavily into these issues and the long-term consequences on our nation as well as the impact of the individual and collective trauma. Some of these impacts are part of my everyday life and others feel far removed from me because I was privileged to be born white and of European lineage, but the truth is that we all need to reckon with the ugliness as well as the pretty myths we tell ourselves because those ripples are always stirring up something. We are an ungovernable mixed bag of a nation, but that includes many (I believe majority) loving and generous people and we can only see all those beautiful gifts by studying the full patchwork picture.
I started my Reading the USA in the west because I have always lived in the east or the eastern fringe of the heartland so I knew I needed to learn more about those from regions beyond my lived experience. This is in truth one of the things we all need to do better as Americans. Most of us tend to think of America as our unique corner but we must remember that we are in fact a very loose coalition of many countries. We are more European Union than United States and until we learn to reckon with that and understand that different beliefs and values can still find common goals such as justice, welfare, and liberty for ourselves and our posterity (see Preamble) we will not find domestic tranquility. The founders always knew this was a long game and that it would not be easy, but I still believe in the pursuit of a more perfect union. Do you?
Reading the USA on July 4, 2026
I did not read in this order, but once I landed on using the Book Girls’ regional list it made my reading plan so much simpler! Note: I’m not reading from their recommendations right now as I had already built a lot of my list before landing on this exact plan. See Celebrate Our 250th With Books for several great curated reading lists that I used to assemble my own list.
This was a very auspicious start to my reading journey as there was not a dud in the bunch although some books were more challenging reads than others. Shark Dialogues and Battleborn as well as A Great Country are more heartbreaking and might be triggering for some. The Music of Bees and Crow Talk were just a delight and I loved them very much. It was helpful to have a balance of heartbreaking and uplifting because that is the story of our nation. I also believe that a challenge should be fun and interesting, but also needs to challenge you so that means there will be some heartbreak.
These southwest reads also offered a wide range of literature from the light Happiness for Beginners to the wild and weird Almanac of the Dead. I mostly loved Desert Solitaire and Bless Me, Ultima and Rough Beauty (in that order) but found some parts rough going.
These northern reads included some books that I recommend heartily: This House of Sky and The Personal History of Rachel DuPree in particular although The Beet Queen is very well written if a bit depressing for my personal taste. I learned so much along the way as well as enjoying the writing. Idaho was not to my taste although very well written. Coming into the Country was a great disappointment and I would not recommend - so far out of 22 books the only one so that is pretty good!
I have two regions in progress for two reasons. First, when I was working out how to progress away from the western coastline things got messy while I was sorting out regions and second, I am mostly using my library for books so sometimes I have to wait for a hold and that sometimes pushes my reading out of my intended order. So, a bit messy, but this is America and that feels true to our story.
I read That Old Ace in the Hole when I was working off a different regional organization plan so that read pushed me to dive into this region earlier than I might have otherwise. I very much enjoyed it as well as learned a lot. I will definitely read more from this author (don’t you love when that happens!). I just finished Life Is Short but Wide which I did not love. It felt a bit uneven and repetitive. I really liked the main characters but found the narrative frustrating (much like I felt about The Beet Queen). I am in the process of reading Kin which I do like quite a bit so far. This was a recommended read that I had to wait for my library to make available and after starting it I decided to swap it in for my original Louisiana choice. I should probably list The Architecture of the Arkansas Ozarks as on deck because I did buy a physical copy (used, I note for my husband) with the intention of reading on vacation when a kindle isn’t always preferable.
I don’t even know where to start with this region because I read three of these books all mixed in with other regions. Tore All to Pieces was written by a friend of mine and perfectly captures a part of the country that is near and dear to my heart so I took the liberty of swapping that in for my original choice. The Confession Club was another light read. I’m not certain why the recommendation was to start in the middle of a series, but I enjoyed it so much that I started the series so definitely recommend. I truly loved Local Wonders and highly recommend as it delivers in every way that Coming into the Country failed. It is really a wonderful exploration of the heartland.
I cannot recommend enough this adventure of Reading the USA. I have learned so much already and fallen back in love with my country and fellow citizens. How can I convince you to join me?