Great recos. A literate bunch we are.
Right now I'm reaidng "The Clearing" by Tim Gautreaux. (Not William Faulkner's "The Clearing"). Gautreaux lives in and writes flavorfully about Louisiana. This novel is set in a cypress lumber camp in the 1920s. Another fine Gautreaux novel is "The Last Step in the Dance," with a lot of talk about Cajun music.
I'm a major T.C. Boyle fan. Just finished "The Inner Circle" which is a lot like the movie "Kinsey." Boyle's best novels are:
"The Road to Wellville," about the health crazes of a century ago (mostly set at Kellogg's sanitarium in Battle Creek, Mich.) The roundly panned movie was actually great if you'd read the novel.
AND
"World's End," which covers a few centuries in and around Peekskill, NY. Fabuluous re-creation of riots over a Paul Robeson concert there in the 1940s. Pete Seeger (under another name) is a character in the novel. Last time I talked to Pete, maybe 15 years ago, he hadn't read it. T.C. Boyle also goes by T. Coraghessan Boyle, in case there is byline confusion.
Happy reading!