U.S.A. (trilogy by John Dos Passos)
A Death in the Family by James Agee (get the recent, uncut version)
Captains Courageous (an American book, tho Kipling was not an American author)
The Ninth Wave by Eugene Burdick
The Revolt of Mamie Stover by William Bradford Huie
Syndic by C. M. Kornbluth

I second Art Thieme's nomination of Earth Abides.