Judy (J.A.) Kundert Novelist
Speaker
Adventurer

If you’ve been on our 50 states’ book tour, thank you for returning. If you’re new to the journey, thank you for joining us.

If you happened to stop by today pat yourself on your back since you’re a reader or you want to read more books. You may want to encourage the 24% of the population who haven’t read a book in the past year. You could start by introducing them to the following excellent books from our journey today through Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, and Hawaii.

Let’s start the road trip.

Connecticut:

What unique about this state?

• The first telephone book ever issued contained only fifty names. The New Haven District Telephone Company published it in New Haven in February 1878.
• The USS Nautilus – the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine was built in Groton in 1954.
• Connecticut and Rhode Island never ratified the 18th Amendment (Prohibition).

Connecticut’s classic book is Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates.

In the hopeful 1950s, Frank and April Wheeler are a model couple: bright, beautiful, talented, with two young children and a starter home in the suburbs. They married too young and started a family too early. Frank’s job is dull. And April never saw herself as a housewife. Yet they have always lived on the assumption that greatness is only just around the corner. But now that certainty is about to crumble. With heartbreaking compassion and remorseless clarity, Richard Yates shows how Frank and April mortgage their spiritual birthright, betraying not only each other but their best selves.

Delaware

What’s unique about this state?

• Delaware was the first state to ratify the United States Constitution. It did so on December 7, 1787.
• The nation’s first scheduled steam railroad began in New Castle in 1831.
• Delaware is the only state without any National Park System units such as national parks, seashores, historic sites, battlefields, memorials, and monuments.

Delaware’s classic book is Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk 

In his debut novel, Chuck Palahniuk showed himself to be his generation’s most visionary satirist. Fight Club’s estranged narrator leaves his lackluster job when he comes under the thrall of Tyler Durden, an enigmatic young man who holds secret boxing matches in the basement of bars. There two men fight “as long as they have to.” A gloriously original work that exposes what is at the core of our modern world.

Florida

What is unique about this state?

• Greater Miami is the only metropolitan area in the United States whose borders encompass two national parks. You can hike through pristine Everglades National Park or ride on glass-bottom boats across Biscayne National Park.
• Saint Augustine is the oldest European settlement in North America.
• Cape Canaveral is America’s launch pad for space flights.

Florida’s classic book is Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

One of the most important and enduring books of the twentieth century, Their Eyes Were Watching God brings to life a Southern love story with the wit and pathos found only in the writing of Zora Neale Hurston. Out of print for thirty years—due to first audiences’ rejection of its strong black female protagonist—Hurston’s classic has since its 1978 reissue become the most widely read and highly acclaimed novel in the canon of African-American literature.

Georgia

What’s unique about this state?

• Okefenokee Swamp encompasses over 400,000 acres of canals; moss draped cypress trees, and lily pad prairies providing sanctuaries for hundreds of species of birds and wildlife including several endangered species.
• Cumberland Island National Seashore contains the ruins of Dungeness, the once magnificent Carnegie estate. Also, wild horses graze among wind swept dunes.
• The City of Savanna was the first steamship to cross the Atlantic. It sailed from Georgia.

Georgia classic book is The Color Purple by Alice Walker

The Color Purple is a classic. With over a million copies sold in the UK alone, it is hailed as one of the all-time ‘greats’ of literature, inspiring generations of readers.
Set in the deep American South between the wars, it is the tale of Celie, a young black girl born into poverty and segregation. Raped repeatedly by the man she calls ‘father,’ she has two children taken away from her, is separated from her beloved sister Nettie and is trapped into an ugly marriage. But then she meets the glamorous Shug Avery, singer, and magic-maker – a woman who has taken charge of her own destiny. Gradually, Celie discovers the power and joy of her own spirit, freeing her from her past and reuniting her with those she loves.

Hawaii

What’s unique about this state?

• Hawaii is the most isolated population center on the face of the earth. Hawaii is 2,390 miles from California; 3,850 miles from Japan; 4,900 miles from China; and 5,280 miles from the Philippines.
• Hawaii is the only state that grows coffee.
• More than one-third of the world’s commercial supply of pineapples comes from Hawaii.

Hawaii’s classic book is Hawaii by James A. Michener.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author James A. Michener brings Hawaii’s epic history vividly to life in a classic saga that has captivated readers since its initial publication in 1959. As the volcanic Hawaiian Islands sprout from the ocean floor, the land remains untouched for centuries—until, little more than a thousand years ago, Polynesian seafarers make the perilous journey across the Pacific, flourishing in this tropical paradise according to their ancient traditions. Then, in the early nineteenth century, American missionaries arrive, bringing with them a new creed and a new way of life. Based on exhaustive research and told in Michener’s immersive prose, Hawaii is the story of disparate peoples struggling to keep their identity, live in harmony, and, ultimately, join together.