Whether it’s via their tone, topic, or tenor, certain works just say “America.” Here are three such titles, suggested by David Bruce Smith, founder of the Grateful American™ Foundation, in partnership with the Washington Independent Review of Books.

• Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterley. Shining a light on the brilliant but unsung “human computers” who worked to put a man on the moon.

 

• Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser. A young girl sets out for Chicago in search of the American Dream, only to discover there’s more to life than “having it all.”

 

• The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. After being expelled from prep school, 16-year-old Holden Caulfield journeys to New York City, where he ponders childhood, growing up, and the prevalence of phonies.

 

Whether it’s via their tone, topic, or tenor, certain works just say “America.” Here are three such titles, suggested by David Bruce Smith, founder of the Grateful American™ Foundation:

• O Pioneers! by Willa Cather. An immigrant family struggles on (and with) the Nebraska prairie in this first installment of the author’s “Great Plains” trilogy.
• Moby-Dick by Herman Melville. This classic tale of an obsessed Captain Ahab seeking vengeance on an elusive white whale is as American as, well, obsession and revenge.
• Animal Farm by George Orwell. A political allegory about tyranny, revolt, and the seductive — and often devastating — allure of power.

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