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Small Town Life
Readers who enjoy quirky characters and detailed settings are bound to enjoy small town fiction. Sometimes told in first person, more often than not told by multiple points of view, the small town novel allows the reader a closer look into the community. And life is not always idyllic.
American Rust
Follows the lives of two young men bound by family, inertia and the ties of home to a dying Pennsylvania steel town. They dream of escaping to California together, until one of them accidentally kills a transient and attempts to cover up the crime.
Are We There Yet?
Introduces the colorful inhabitants of Partonville, a small farming town in southern Illinois. The first in the Dearest Dorothy series.
At Home in Mitford
A portrait of the mysteries and miracles of everyday life introduces the small North Carolina town of Mitford and its colorful inhabitants, including Tim, a bachelor rector, who is falling in love with his neighbor.
Baker Towers
The decade following World War II becomes one of tragedy, excitement and unexpected change for the five Novak children and the residents of their western Pennsylvania community of company houses, church festivals, union squabbles and firemen's parades.
Bet Your Bottom Dollar
Running the local general store for their small-town South Carolina community, manager Elizabeth enlists her two fellow shopkeepers and a crew of friends to save the store from a rival who would put her out of business. First in a series.
Blue Diary
The revelation of a dark secret about Ethan Ford's true identity and his past threatens to turn a small Massachusetts town upside down as the truth shatters Monroe's small-town peace and tests the bonds between family and friends.
The Bright Forever
The disappearance of nine-year-old Katie Mackey, the daughter of the most affluent family in a small Indiana town, while riding her bicycle to town, has profound repercussions for her entire family.
The Church of Dead Girls
Suspicion built on fear, old rumors and old angers grows out of control as three girls from the same small town mysteriously vanish.
The Circus in Winter
A unique novel charts the long relationship between the Great Porter Circus and a small town in Indiana, where circus folk and small-town inhabitants mingle in a series of long-term relationships that cross into both worlds.
Cold Sassy Tree
Modern times come to a conservative Southern town in 1906 when the proprietor of the general store elopes with a woman half his age, and worse yet, a Yankee.
Concord, Virginia: A Southern Town in Eleven Stories
This colorful debut collection consists of 11 interlinked stories set in a fictitious Shenandoah Valley town between the early 1950s and late 1970s. The stories exhibit an Appalachian Gothic vibe, and their outlandish, often violent plots draw on the antics of the local eccentrics.
Empire Falls
Milo Roby tries to hold his family together while working at the Empire Grill in the once-successful logging town of Empire Falls, Maine, with his partner, Mrs. Whiting, who is the heir to a faded logging and textile legacy.
The Garden of Eden
In the aftermath of a banker's discovery of his wife's affair, the seemingly idyllic town of Eden is thrown into turmoil by an unexpected romance between an alcoholic and a teetotaler, and a potshot taken at a snooping deputy.
Georgia Bottoms
A Southern belle who keeps six lovers - none of whom know of the others - so she can maintain a lavish lifestyle, finds her ruse crumbling when a married preacher she has been seeing plans to confess their affair in front of his congregation.
Hartsburg, USA
In the failing rustbelt town of Hartsburg, Ohio, the competition between two very different candidates - born-again Christian mother Bevy Baer and Wallace Cormier, a failed Hollywood screenwriter and avowed atheist - has a profound impact on the town and for the country as a whole.
Home to Harmony
The new pastor in a small Indiana town experiences one humorous adventure after another as he acclimates to his new congregation and lifestyle.
The Last Town on Earth
Deep in the forests of the Pacific Northwest, a mill town called Commonwealth votes to quarantine itself in the wake of the 1918 flu pandemic, but a violent confrontation with a tired, hungry and cold soldier will have devastating repercussions for the entire town.
Leather Maiden
Returning to the small east Texas town of Camp Rapture, journalist Cason Statler struggles to rebuild his life, taking a job at the local paper and digging into a long-unsolved murder that could have ties to a series of unsettling events in the town.
Making Waves
When ex-star athlete Tim Sullivan suffers a crippling accident, he returns to his old love of art and paints a sign for his wife Donnette's new beauty shop, Making Waves, a sign that has a profound impact on their small southern community.
Odd Thomas
Odd is a 20-year-old who sees dead people and helps bring to justice some of the killers of the dead people he sees. Only four people in this small town are aware of Odd's "gift"; his girlfriend Stormy, Little Ozzie, Terri who owns the Pico Mundo Grill where Odd is employed as a short order cook, and most fortunate for Odd, the Chief of Police.
The Persian Pickle Club
Hard times in Depression-era Harveyville, Kan., are softened by the conviviality of a weekly quilting circle called the Persian Pickle Club where Queenie Bean, the "talkingest" member of the group, narrates the novel.
Plainsong
An unlikely extended family is formed when a high school teacher helps a pregnant student make a home with two elderly bachelor ranchers.
Plant Life
When her life falls apart and her marriage ends, Laurel Granger returns home to tiny Russell, N.C., where the simple life of a small southern town teaches her lessons about forgiveness, friendship, family, and freedom.
The Red Garden
Traces the multi-generational story of wintry Blackwell town through the experiences of such characters as a wounded Civil War solider who is saved by a passionate neighbor and a woman who meets a fiercely human historical figure.
A Redbird Christmas
In a tiny and remote Alabama town, an unexpected, unusual and life-transforming event that occurs on one Christmas morning changes a family and a town forever, in a heartwarming holiday novel by the author of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe.
Safe Haven
Katie, a newcomer to the small town of Southport, N.C., resists forming any personal ties until she is drawn into relationships with Alex, a young widower, and Jo, her plainspoken single neighbor, who help her overcome her fearful past.
Saving Erasmus
Andrew Benoit, a fresh seminary graduate, is sent to the tiny parish of Erasmus, where he encounters the Angel of Death who threatens to destroy the town, but as Benoit tries desperately to save the small town, he soon discovers that he, himself, is the only one who needs saving.
The Second Coming of Lucy Hatch
Widowed at the age of 33, farm wife Lucy Hatch returns to her small Texas hometown where, through a series of misadventures, she works through her heartache and opens herself up to new love with the assistance of Ash Farrell.
Small Town Odds
A lovable screw-up from small-town West Virginia, Eric Mercer is a bartender, assistant mortician and father, whose life is turned upside down when his lost love returns the same week as the high-school football team's big game.
Snow Day
Coffey's debut novel takes place in a small Virginia town during a snow day. Peter cares about God, his family and his job, but news of cuts at his factory have him doubting not only himself but everything and everyone else. During the course of the day, he meets several townspeople and realizes that he is not the only one who is struggling.
So Much Pretty
A dark tale inspired by a true case encountered by the author as a police beat reporter follows the experiences of a young victim of domestic violence whose memory is further compromised by community perceptions. A mixture of The Lovely Bones and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Hoffman's first novel is a small-town murder mystery with a surprising twist.
Stealing Lumby
A media frenzy descends on tiny Pacific Northwest town of Lumby after one of the most important paintings of the 20th century is stolen. Soon one of the barns depicted in the missing painting disappears overnight, and pieces of it begin showing up in the strangest places.
Sutter's Cross
When a disheveled outcast wearing stolen clothes shows up at the church's annual spring picnic, the comfortable citizens of a southern Appalachian resort town find their placid, predictable existences challenged.
The Tea-Olive Bird Watching Society
In a modern tale based on the classic film, Arsenic and Old Lace, the women of a small town's bird-watching society secretly plot to murder a member's husband who tricked his wife into marriage in order to steal her land for a development project.
A Town Named Paradise
Abandoning her job with a top legal firm in Manhattan, Karen Mitchell returns to her small hometown of Paradise, where she finds herself using her legal skills to defend Todd Simmons, a resident accused of murdering a six-year-old girl.
Virgin River
Arriving in the remote mountain town of Virgin River in response to an ad, recently widowed Melinda realizes that she has made a mistake, until she finds an abandoned baby on her porch and lets a former Marine into her heart.
Waltzing at the Piggly Wiggly
With her favorite market, the Piggly Wiggly, on the verge of closing, Laurie Lepanto launches a campaign to save the store, enlisting the town's influential widows and eligible bachelor and dance instructor, Powell Hampton, in her scheme. The first in the Piggly Wiggly series.
Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!
TV anchorwoman Dena Nordstrom, the pride of the network, is a woman whose future is full of promise, her present rich with complications and her past marked by mystery.
Where the Heart Is
Pregnant, overweight and convinced about her inherent bad luck, Novalee Nation hopes for a new life in a new state with her boyfriend but is dumped along the way in Oklahoma, where she finds her spirit renewed.
Winesburg, Ohio
This classic novel profiles the people of a small Midwestern town during the early 1900s, revealing the potential consequences of human misunderstanding.
World and Town
Two years after burying her husband and best friend, 68-year-old Hattie Kong moves to a small New England town where she is joined by a Cambodian family and reunited with an ex-lover before tackling challenges in the form of fundamentalist Christians and struggling family farms.
The Year of Pleasures
Betta Nolan moves to a small town after the death of her husband to try to begin anew where she is determined to find pleasure in her simply daily routines.
Small Town Life Nonfiction
As in fiction, you get a closer look at a community and can often find quirky characters in small towns in real life. And it isn't always idyllic, either.
All Our Yesterdays: A Century of Family Life in an American Small Town
974.6 R65a
Examines 150 years of the social life and customs of a small New England town through letters and other documents belonging to the family that built and lived in the authors' house in Hampton, Conn.
American Towns: An Interpretive History
307.76 R96a
This history of American small towns looks at their founding and development from colonial times to the present, discussing political, economic, social and cultural life. Patterns in development are illustrated with many specific examples of how towns came into existence, grew or declined, gave way to larger urban areas and have reappeared in idealized forms.
Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team and a Dream
796.332 B624f
Chronicles a football season in Odessa, Texas, a depressed All-American town that lives and dies with the fortunes of its high school football team.
Bingo Night at the Fire Hall: The Case for Cows, Orchards, Bake Sales & Fairs
975.528 H73b
A portrait of the author's life in the Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains details a small town where everyone gets along, and her adventures there.
Bluegrass: A True Story of Murder in Kentucky
364.1523 V21b
Describes the events surrounding the 2003 rape and murder of Kentucky sorority student Katie Autry - a girl who spent years in foster care before attending college. Details the arrests, conflicting stories and trials of two young men who crossed paths with Katie that night.
The End of the World as We Know It: Scenes from a Life
B G6595
A candid and deeply personal memoir of growing up in the seemingly idyllic world of a small Southern college town reflects on the devastating secrets behind the genteel facade and the effects of a family history of alcoholism on the author's life.
A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland, Indiana
B K498
The author offers a chronicle of growing up in a small town in America's heartland, offering portraits of her family and her encounters with the complexities of the adult world, romance and small-town life during the 1960s and 1970s.
A Home on the Field: How One Championship Team Inspires Hope for the Revival of Small Town America
796.334 C96h
The coach of North Carolina's 2004 state soccer championship winning team traces how the team's victory was achieved in spite of many challenges, including prejudice in their small rural town, poverty and ignorance.
Home Town
917.4423 K46h
Explores what life is really like in contemporary small-town America, focusing on the people of Northampton, Mass., to assess how individuals in a community transform a place into a home.
I Love You, Miss Huddleston, and Other Inappropriate Longings of My Indiana Childhood
B G973
A coming-of-age tale about the author's experiences in small-town Indiana recounts his awkward adolescence and unwavering crush on his sixth-grade teacher, a fixation for which he fruitlessly struggled to avoid getting promoted to junior high.
Idyll Banter: Weekly Excursions to a Very Small Town
818.54 B67i
A compilation of essays, based on a series of weekly columns, reflects on life in a small town in New England as it explores how America has changed over the past decade.
The Jew Store
B S941
The author describes her family's life in a small town in Tennessee before World War II, where, as the first Jews in town, they owned a dry goods store and struggled to prosper in a place where Jews were treated as outsiders.
The Last Fish Tale: The Fate of the Atlantic and Survival in Gloucester, America's Oldest Fishing Port And Most Original Town
639.209744 K96L
From the New York Times-bestselling author of Cod, Salt and The Big Oyster comes the colorful story of a way of life that for hundreds of years has defined much of America's coastlines but is slowly disappearing.
Like Judgment Day: The Ruin and Redemption of A Town Called Rosewood
975.9 D69L
Details the 1923 massacre of black inhabitants of the small Florida town of Rosewood by a white lynch mob, tracing the lives of survivors and describing the unprecedented award given to survivors and their descendants by the state of Florida some 70 years after the rampage.
Mama Makes Up Her Mind: And Other Dangers of Southern Living
814.54 W58m
Recounting life in her small Southern town, the author describes teaching first-graders to read with the help of the Titanic, her cane-wielding mother in a juke joint and other tales.
Our Town, a Play in Three Acts
812.5 W673o
The author's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama portrays life in a small New Hampshire town during the early 1900s.
Population, 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time
977.544 P46p
An oddball memoir of a small-town prodigal son turned volunteer fire fighter who returns to his hometown after a decade of exile. Chronicles life in a village of 485 people in rural Wisconsin.
Porch Talk: Stories of Decency, Common Sense, and Other Endangered Species
242 G97p
A nostalgic collection of personal anecdotes reflects on a time when porch-centered lives enabled greater family and community connections, remembering such simple pleasures as lemonade, chirping crickets and bonding with a pet dog.
Roads to Quoz: An American Mosey
917.3 H43r
Recounts the author's series of journeys into small-town America, visits during which he performed life-enhancing investigations into some of the nation's most incongruous regions.
A Three Dog Life
B T454
The wife of a man who was institutionalized after an accident left him brain damaged describes her efforts to rebuild her life in a small country town with three dogs, a process during which she struggled with a very different relationship with her husband, passed her days knitting and found comfort in friendships.
The Town on Beaver Creek: The Story of a Lost Kentucky Community
976.922 S63t
A family history offers a portrait of mid-20th-century life in a small Appalachian town and brings together the traditions, memories, stories and people of Martin, Ky., in an effort to preserve them in the wake of a planned demolition by the government.
The Town that Food Saved: How One Community Found Vitality in Local Food
338.19 H61t
Relates how the farming community of Hardwick, Vt., developed a sustainable, local food system with its own support network where entrepreneurs share advice, equipment and business plans, and shows how the town is becoming a model for other communities.
Townie: A Memoir
B D821
The author of House of Sand and Fog describes his childhood in a depressed Massachusetts mill town saturated with drugs and crime and his weekly visits with his father, an eminent author who taught on a college campus.
Way Off the Road: Discovering the Peculiar Charms of Small Town America
973.924 G31w
The author describes his 5,600-mile RV odyssey across America, along with the eccentric individuals, unusual places and offbeat celebrations and events he encountered on his journey.
Welcome to Utopia: Notes from a Small Town
976.4 V13w
A full-length account of the story behind an article in Entertainment Weekly that traces the stories of five residents who witnessed the transformation of their small community from a town uncorrupted by pop culture to one fraught by modern technology and war.
Zebratown: The True Story of a Black Ex-Con and a White Single Mother in Small-Town America
306.73 D67z
Tells the story of the relationship between Kevin Davis, an ex-con from Brownsville, Brooklyn, and Karen, a single mother of a six-year-old daughter, discussing their attempts to make a life together in the small town of Elmira, N.Y., with a focus on Kevin's struggles to be a better man and find legal work.