Eudora Welty’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Optimist’s Daughter (1972) delves into the relationship between a mother and daughter, as reflected upon by the daughter after her mother’s passing.

Flannery O’Connor’s collection A Good Man Is Hard to Find (1955) showcases vibrant characters in the mid-1950s American South. Several stories in this collection are regarded as masterpieces of the short story genre.

Alice Munro’s story "Boys and Girls" from the collection Dance of the Happy Shades (1968) also features the Jordan family. Set on a fox farm, it revolves around the narrator, Del Jordan, and her growing awareness of gender differences and the limits they impose.

John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath (1939) is set during the Great Depression in the United States. It follows the Joad family’s migration from their Oklahoma Dust Bowl farm to California. This Pulitzer Prize-winning novel significantly highlighted the injustices faced by migrant laborers in the West.

Anna Quindlen’s novel Object Lessons (1992) is a coming-of-age tale narrated from the perspective of a teenage girl living in a northeastern suburb of New York City.

Carson McCullers’ novel The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1940) examines the inner lives of five isolated individuals residing in a Georgia mill town during the 1930s. The main characters are societal outcasts due to their race, politics, disabilities, or sensibilities. This novel is widely considered the author’s greatest work.

Margaret Atwood’s historical novel Alias Grace (1996) focuses on the murder of a farm family in nineteenth-century Canada. The novel is set in the same Scotch-Irish community where Munro grew up, a setting that features prominently in many of her stories.