Indiana Books: The Best Books Set in the Hoosier State

Book Summary

Elise grew up with women who loved the spotlight. Her mother is an award-winning actress, and her late-grandmother, Vivian, was a 1940s Hollywood icon. Elise, on the other hand, prefers her privacy. But when her upcoming wedding coincides with a documentary being made about her grandmother, it seems she won’t be able to avoid the cameras. She’s convinced to hold the wedding in Edinburgh, Indiana, at the same church where Vivian was married.

Vivian grew up in Edinburgh with a strict Italian father. Aiming to aid in the home front WWII effort, she took a job in 1943 working as a translator at an Italian POW camp in south-central Indiana. She also sang at the local USO club, entertaining the troops. There she fell in love with a handsome soldier.

Upon arriving in her grandmother’s hometown, Elise begins learning more about her grandmother’s past. She is shocked to discover things about Vivian’s pre-Hollywood life that also threaten to unravel her own.

Book Summary

Wren is an architect in the UK, but when her fiancé breaks off their engagement, she decides to head to the States to visit the father she hasn’t seen in years. She hopes that spending a quiet summer on his Indiana farm will help her begin to heal.

Anders is a racing engineer in Indianapolis, but he’s been unable to move forward since losing his wife in a tragic accident four years ago. The only place he finds peace is on his brother’s farm. That is, until his peace is disrupted the night he unexpectedly meets Wren.

Book Summary

In under 200 pages, author Laird Hunt covers the entire life of the main character, Zorrie. It begins with Zorrie in a modest home before the death of her parents. After being orphaned a second time when her aunt passes away, Zorrie drifts through Depression-era Indiana. She even spent a short time as a radium watch painter.

Eventually, she finds home in the community of Hillisburg. As Zorrie ages, you’ll see many events of the 20th century through the eyes of a woman in a small midwestern town.

Book Summary

Since she was a teen, aspiring author Lena London’s favorite author has been Camilla Graham. When Lena gets a chance to work as Camilla’s assistant, she jumps at it and packs up to move to Blue Lake the next day.

Things quickly go awry when a body is found on the beach near Camilla’s house, and the handsome man next door is extradited to New York as a suspect in the murder of his wife. Lena and Camilla work to help the local police solve these crimes.

Book Summary

Thirty-one-year-old Yardley Belanger is a celebrated wedding planner, helping to arrange the perfect country-chic affairs for Indiana brides. But when it comes to her own love life, she’s completely clueless.

For years, she has given everything she has to building her business, leaving little time for her personal life. But then she meets Travis, the handsome older brother of her newest client.

Travis and his little sister, Sheena, tragically lost their parents, and now Travis wants nothing more than to give his little sister the wedding of her dreams. What Sheena wants is a country wedding in a quirky small town called Cemetery, and Yardley is just the person for the job.

As the planning gets underway, Yardley and Travis find themselves nudged together by well-meaning locals who want to see their favorite wedding planner finally get her own happy ending.

Book Summary

Hazel has known her life would be cut short since she was first diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. She reluctantly attends the “Cancer Kid Support Group” at the request of her mom, but what she finds there is the last thing she expected – first love.

Hazel and the charming Augustus Waters have many things in common, including their favorite author, whom they are determined to meet, even if they have to travel to Amsterdam to do it. 

Book Summary

Khadra’s devoutly Muslim family immigrated from Syria, and she grew up in 1970s Indiana “at the crossroads of bad polyester and Islamic dress codes.”

Capturing what it’s like to grow up Muslim in middle America, the story follows Khadra’s struggle to balance her parents’ beliefs and histories with her own experiences in American culture.

Book Summary

This novel tells the story of four teenagers – one young woman and three young men – who have recently aged out of the foster care system in Indiana. They live together in a run-down apartment building that locals call “the rabbit hutch.”

All three of the boys are madly in love with their roommate, Blandine, but she pays them little attention.

Set over the course of just one week, this story takes us into the lives of these four teens, while also providing a look at a city that’s been left behind by the automobile industry. With their town on the brink of death, how far will the residents, including Blandine, go in search of a better way to live?

Book Summary

Outcast Theodore is preoccupied with death and the ways he could end his life. But each time he gets serious about a plan, something good happens to stop him.

Cheerleader Violet is counting down the days until she can escape her Indiana town, which is filled with survivor’s remorse after the recent death of her sister.

When Finch and Violet meet at the edge of the bell tower, it’s unclear who saved whom. Now, they’re paired up on a project to discover the “natural wonders” of Indiana, forcing the unlikely duo to find beauty in unexpected places.

Book Summary

After writing a successful children’s book about her bloodhound, Bailey, Pris leaves her teaching career to pursue writing full-time. She moves back to her hometown of Crosbyville, Indiana, where she discovers some things have changed while she was gone, but many things have not.

Pris is distraught to discover that a Whitney, a new member of the school board whom Pris remembers as a high school mean girl, is pushing to eliminate “frivolous spending” on programs supporting the arts. Sadly, this includes Pris and Bailey’s beloved pet-assisted reading program.

When Pris and Whitney get into an argument, it’s nothing out of the ordinary. But when Bailey later sniffs out Whitney’s dead body in a bed of flowers, Pris becomes the prime suspect.

Book Summary

Rosie grew up in Indiana in what looked like a typical middle-class American family, but they were actually far from that. She had a twin sister named Fern, but at age five, Fern was taken away.

Rosie tells the story beginning in the middle, during her years at UC Davis in California. The story of her Indiana childhood is slowly revealed, with lots of twists and turns.

Book Summary

This novel tells the story of 14-year-old Kathryn Baile, who is coming of age amid some very serious challenges. Not only was she growing up during the Great Depression in a state ravaged by Dust Bowl conditions, but she was also born with a severe clubfoot. 

After her beloved older sister marries and moves out, Kathryn’s only escape is into the pages of her favorite book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Kathryn’s dad decides they should relocate to Indianapolis, where she can have surgery to make her “normal.” But when disaster strikes along the way, Kathryn is left to try to complete the journey on her own.

Meanwhile, back in Oklahoma, Kathryn’s sister, Melissa, has just married into the most affluent family in the town of Boise City. But the mounting pressure of the Dust Bowl ultimately reveals her husband’s true colors, leaving her trying to hide her bruises from the neighbors.

Book Summary

This 1909 classic is a stand-alone sequel to the 1904 book Freckles. In A Girl of the Limberlost, Elnora is the main character who struggles with her mother and her school. She gets solace in an eastern Indiana swamp and meets a boy who shares her love of nature. She finds a way to turn her love of nature into funding for the education she craves. 

This book is rated as appropriate for 3rd grade and up. It would be fun to read aloud with your upper elementary or middle school kids.

Book Summary

In 1950, Ellie gave her heart away for the first time. Twelve years later, she’s working as a professor of astronomy at Indiana University when she receives an unmarked box containing a novel written by her first love, Jack. In the book, he tells the story of meeting at the water’s edge and falling madly in love, only to have their romance cut short by circumstances beyond their control.

As she reads the book, she relives that magical Tennessee summer from her past. However, she then comes across a detail in the story that prompts her to question everything. She turns to he sister for help finding answers. Before they can solve the mystery, they receive word of her aunt’s death, and Ellie returns to the water’s edge in search of the truth.

Book Summary

Textile artist Sadie Fox came home to Indiana for one reason, and one reason only – to care for her father’s beloved pumpkin patch and grow a pumpkin big enough to win the Indiana State Fair in order to win back her father’s respect.

Unfortunately, things are not going according to plan. A horde of wild hogs destroyed the entire pumpkin patch. And to make matters worse, the annoyingly sexy next-door neighbor, Josh, is offering help, despite being her biggest competition.

Josh is a tech millionaire who traded in the office for growing gourds, and he and Sadie couldn’t be more different. He’s all sunshine, while she’s tattoos, swear words, and a prickly personality. But nonetheless, there’s definitely something growing between them – something bigger than their pumpkins, or the secret Josh is hiding.

Book Summary

In the 1920s, the Klan’s rise seemed unstoppable, especially in Indiana. A charismatic con man named D.C. Stephenson led the way, despite the constantly changing facts when he recounted his life story. He brought the message of the KKK out of the shadows and into the mainstream as he worked to spread hatred of Blacks, Jews, Catholics, and immigrants in equal measure across the state.

His message of hate was endorsed from the pulpits of local churches, spread at family picnics, and cheered on during town celebrations. Judges, prosecutors, ministers, governors, and senators nationwide proudly proclaimed their membership.

Then, in 1925, his cruel nature was exposed in a new way. Madge Oberholtzer was kidnapped, raped, and mutilated by Stephenson. She suffered for twenty-nine days before succumbing to her injuries. However, she boldly left behind a testimony that resulted in the arrest and conviction of Stephenson. Her deathbed testimony brought down the KKK’s Grand Dragon of Indiana and helped change the course of Indiana & American History.

Book Summary

Author Ashley Ford grew up idolizing her father. She believed he was the only one who could understand her, and that they were both artists with sensitive souls. She is sure they will be reunited one day, with the major barrier being that he’s in prison, and she doesn’t know what he did to end up there.

This memoir goes back to her coming of age, as she suffered through growing up black in Indiana amid poverty, a difficult relationship with her mother, and her changing body that began attracting the attention of men. As she strives to find unconditional love, she dates a boy her mother hates. When she begins to see that her mom is right this time and ends the relationship, he rapes her. After that, she finally finds out why her father is in prison. And that’s where the story really begins.

Book Summary

This short, illustrated guide will make you laugh out loud as you learn about the colloquialisms and sentiments of the Heartland. For example, if a Midwesterner says, “I didn’t really care for it,” that actually means they hated it beyond belief. 

The author was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, right in the heart of the Midwest, giving an authentic feel to this non-fiction guide that strikes the humorous balance of being both heartwarming and self-deprecating.

Book Summary

Did you know that the now-classic 1983 movie A Christmas Story was based on a series of short stories? This 144-page book contains the autobiographical humor that Jean Shepherd drew upon to create this enduring film.

Whether your favorite scenes include the Ovaltine decoder ring, the leg lamp prize, or Ralphie’s obsession with the Red Ryder carbine-action 200-shot range model air rifle, you’re sure to chuckle while reading this book.

Book Summary

Saira has had a successful career as a romance writer, but she’s been in a recent slump, with her last three books failing to meet expectations. Her publisher has decided to put her current work-in-progress on hold and instead wants her to write a holiday book – Saira’s least favorite kind of romance novel.

Determined to save her career, Saira decides to pack her bags and head to Santa Claus, Indiana, in search of the holiday spirit she’ll need to complete this writing assignment. She arranges to rent a property for her stay, but doesn’t expect the rental manager to be a handsome volunteer firefighter and football coach.

Book Summary

Layla dreads her cousin’s Christmas wedding because the groom is her ex-fiance. Seth, the ex’s best friend, convinces Layla to be his date to the wedding, and then proceeds to announce that he and Layla are engaged (they’re not!). But the news of Layla and Seth’s (fake) impending nuptials isn’t all bad, because it convinces a client that Layla might just be high-society enough to work for him, which could put her home-staging business on the map. But does Seth have other motives?