Books about USA

Michael Moore is America's favourite thorn in the side, a social commentator with a vicious bite. In Stupid White Men , Moore provides a much-needed alternative to the steady let's-line-up-behind-the-president drumbeat of today's commentators.

From the author of Notes from a Small Island and The Lost Continent comes this humorous report on his walk along the Appalachian Trail. The Trail is the longest continuous footpath in the world, and it snakes through some of the wildest and most spectacular landscapes in America.

An account of one man's rediscovery of America and his search for the perfect small town. Instead he finds a continent that is doubly lost: lost to itself because it is blighted by greed, pollution, mobile homes and television; and lost to him because he has become a foreigner in his own country.

After nearly two decades in England, Bill Bryson returned to the country of his birth. Gathered here are 18 months' worth of his Mail on Sunday columns about that strange phenomena, the American way of life, in which he brings his bemused wit to bear on one of the world's craziest countries.

Tells the story of a seventeen-year-old dropout who has been kicked out of his fourth school. This novel dissects the 'phony' aspects of society, and the 'phonies' themselves: the headmaster whose affability depends on the wealth of the parents, his roommate who scores with girls using sickly-sweet affection.

Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, this work explores with humour the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South of the thirties.

An entertaining, anecdotal look at the origins of language and ideas in the USA. Bryson explains why two bicycle repairmen from Ohio succeeded in mastering manned flight, why the assassination of President Garfield led to the invention of air conditioning, and many other improbable but true facts.

Well, now the world's Bushwhacked. It's time for the good ol' boy to head for the hills, and Mike's on a mission to smoke him out at the next election - and help ordinary people get their country back. What's more, he's going to use his share of the tax cut to do it.

Jay Gatsby is the man who has everything. But one thing will always be out of his reach. Everybody who is anybody is seen at his glittering parties. Day and night his Long Island mansion buzzes with bright young things drinking, dancing and debating his mysterious character.

This account of US history from the bottom up tells the real story of the people, rather than the flag-waving official story.

Tells the story of an eerily compelling madman pursuing an unholy war against a creature as vast and dangerous and unknowable as the sea itself. But more than just a novel of adventure, more than an encyclopaedia of whaling lore and legend, this book can be seen as part of its author's lifelong meditation on America.

Set against the background of dust bowl Oklahoma and Californian migrant life, this novel tells the story of the Joad family, who, like thousands of others, are forced to travel West in search of the promised land.

Features a satirical indicement of military madness and stupidity, and the desire of the ordinary man to survive it. This work tells a tale of the dangerously sane Captain Yossarian, who spends his time in Italy plotting to survive.

First published in 1978, this is a novel peopled with some of the most extraordinary characters.

Wild child Huck has to get away. His violent drunk of a father is back in town again. So the enterprising boy fakes his own death and sets out in search of adventure. Teaming up with Jim, the two fugitives go on the run. But Huck finds himself wrestling with his conscience. Should he save Jim, or turn his friend over to a terrible fate?

This one-volume history - from early British colonization to the fall of President Nixon - captures all the vivid personalities and events as well as the broad sweep of America's triumphant progress.