Do you enjoy books set in your city?

[Section8]

My wife recently read Stephen King's 11/22/63 (her first Stephen King book). She was born & grew up in Ft. Worth, TX, and has lived most of her life in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area - she has a childhood memory of seeing JFK in downtown Ft. Worth just before the assassination.

She had a lot of complaints about various details of King's portrayal of the Ft. Worth area. The only one I specifically remember is she thought it laughable when he talked about being able to smell oil fumes from the the west Texas oil wells in Ft. Worth (or maybe Dallas) when the wind was right. These wells are hundreds of miles from the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. She doesn't recall ever in her life smelling oil fumes from west Texas.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by Section8

The only one I specifically remember is she thought it laughable when he talked about being able to smell oil fumes from the the west Texas oil wells in Ft. Worth (or maybe Dallas) when the wind was right. These wells are hundreds of miles from the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. She doesn't recall ever in her life smelling oil fumes from west Texas.

The guy was smelling fumes from the mechanic's shop on the next corner. He only thought it was from the oil wells because he was from Maine. What did he know.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by Section8

My wife recently read Stephen King's 11/22/63 (her first Stephen King book). She was born & grew up in Ft. Worth, TX, and has lived most of her life in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area - she has a childhood memory of seeing JFK in downtown Ft. Worth just before the assassination.

She had a lot of complaints about various details of King's portrayal of the Ft. Worth area. The only one I specifically remember is she thought it laughable when he talked about being able to smell oil fumes from the the west Texas oil wells in Ft. Worth (or maybe Dallas) when the wind was right. These wells are hundreds of miles from the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. She doesn't recall ever in her life smelling oil fumes from west Texas.

My wife grew up in Texas. Mostly Houston, Dallas and Austin. I do remember the first time I drove into Lubbock. From 30 miles away I could smell the combination oil fumes and cow manure. Even with the wind blowing the right direction I doubt you could smell Lubbock from Ft. Worth.
Apache

[daffy4u]

I like them. I recently read 2 different series that take place either directly in my area or nearby. They both caused me to notice places that I've driven by hundreds of times but never paid much attention to.

I especially like mentions of local restaurants or Points of Interest that I haven't yet experienced.

I have no problems with a little "artistic license" now and then.

[elemenoP]

I get a big kick out of books set in my neighborhood, especially if they name-check places that I know. I'm a big geek like that. And I get an even bigger kick when I recognize places in movies and TV shows. The show "The Americans" is set in the suburbs of DC but shot in Brooklyn. When they need a remote, in-the-woods setting, they shoot in Prospect Park (Brooklyn's Central Park), which I know very well. There was a scene that was supposed to take place in Italy and they used the Brooklyn Botanic Garden as a stand-in.

[Section8]

Originally Posted by ApK

The guy was smelling fumes from the mechanic's shop on the next corner. He only thought it was from the oil wells because he was from Maine. What did he know.

Yeah - she decided King doesn't understand how far apart things are in Texas.

[BeccaPrice]

It's like the people from Europe who land in New York and expect to take a weekend trip to the Grand Canyon - unless you live there, I think, there's no concept of just how far apart things are.

[Section8]

Originally Posted by elemenoP

I get a big kick out of books set in my neighborhood, especially if they name-check places that I know. I'm a big geek like that. And I get an even bigger kick when I recognize places in movies and TV shows. The show "The Americans" is set in the suburbs of DC but shot in Brooklyn. When they need a remote, in-the-woods setting, they shoot in Prospect Park (Brooklyn's Central Park), which I know very well. There was a scene that was supposed to take place in Italy and they used the Brooklyn Botanic Garden as a stand-in.

I grew up in middle Tennessee. A few years ago, my family saw this version of The Jungle Book: http://http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110213/ (not the animated version from the 60's). Several of the jungle scenes in this move were set in Fall Creek Falls state park, where we used to go camping every summer when I was a kid.

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by BeccaPrice

I tried to read one book (mercifully I've forgotten the name) that took place in
Ann Arbor (Michigan) - I had to stop reading it, it got so many things wrong about the geography of the town. If the author had just pretended it was an un-named Big College Town in the Midwest Somewhere, that would have been much better.

Fortunately the book I read wasn't THAT bad. I wondered if maybe the author had actually visited the area, then gone home and written the book later on, having forgotten a few details. But you would think that in this day and age, he/she could have checked some of the specifics via MapQuest, Google, etc.

For me, having the names of actual local restaurants, etc. pop up in the book jerked me out of the story in the same way as when a TV show does one of those in-show product promotions - like when a TV character gets a new car and tells the other characters some of its features and it sounds like a commercial.

I guess I should stick to books not set in my town so I won't know if the restaurants are real or if the geography is correct - blissful ignorance

[Apache]

Falls Creek Falls State Park is a wonderful park. It is on the Cumberland Plateau and is well worth a visit. It has the highest waterfall in the Eastern United States.

A paradise of more than 20,000 acres sprawled across the eastern top of the rugged Cumberland Plateau, Fall Creek Falls State Park is one of the most scenic and spectacular outdoor recreation areas in America. Laced with cascades, gorges, waterfalls, streams, and lush stands of virgin hardwood timber, the park beckons those who enjoy nature at her finest. While Fall Creek Falls, at 256 feet, is the highest waterfall in the eastern United States, other waterfalls in the park are Piney and Cane Creek Falls and Cane Creek Cascades.

The oak and hickory forest that covers most of the park gives way to tulip poplar and hemlock forest in the gorges. The plants and animals of the moist, protected gorges are not unlike the species found in southern Canada. Mountain laurel and rhododendron are abundant throughout the park, as are other plants and animals.

[Billi]

For contemporary fiction I couldn't care less but I like it very much for non-fiction books and for fiction books that play before around 1990. I find it impressive how much Berlin has changed over the course of the last 100 years and I'm very interested in the (younger) history of the city.

[estelle58]

I live in Montreal Canada and I love when Kathy Reichs sets her books here

[jbjb]

I've very much enjoyed all Stuart Macbride's Logan Macrae novels (set in Aberdeen), even though it's a very dark and seedy portrayal of the city.

In fact, in the preface to the (IIRC) second novel, the author went as far as thanking the Aberdeen Tourist Board for not having him shot after the first one .

/JB

[JSWolf]

One series I rather like is the Spencer series. It's set in the Boston area. I grew up in Lexington and now live in Roslindale. So I know where the places are that are mentioned in the books.

[Moe The Cat]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

I even like the song "The Night they drove old Dixie Down", with all the blazing errors in that one (note to Canadian song writers - Robert E Lee, was in North Virginia, not Tennessee and Stonewall Jackson was not a cavalry general (he also was in North Virginia, not Tennessee)).

I believe the line is "there goes The Robert E. Lee", which was a steamboat on the Mississippi River. Virgil Caine is talking about his life after the Civil War, when he was "back with [his] wife in Tennessee".

And the cavalry were operating under Union General George Stoneman, not Stonewall Jackson.

And only one of the songwriters was Canadian (Robbie Robertson). The other songwriter was Levon Helm, who was born in Arkansas.