If you’re in need of a distraction from the Election Day cycle (I certainly could use one), unplugging and losing yourself in a good book is the way to go, especially one set right here in the commonwealth.

Writers have long been inspired by Pennsylvania, due to its history and diversity. We have large urban cities and tiny rural towns spread across valleys and mountains as well as deep histories of immigration and multiculturalism stretching back centuries. Just as lively real-life characters have made the state their home, so too have fictional characters.

Our Kalena Thomhave is highlighting 10 fiction books set in Pennsylvania worth adding to your library hold list. Some of these novels are gritty tales of fiction (I can recommend Philipp Meyer’s Fayette County-set “American Rust”) while others are celebrated coming of age novels, like Stephen Chbosky’s “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” which is set in Pittsburgh.

 (And if you’ve got a favorite novel based in Pa., I’d love to know about it.)

Shane Dunn is pictured during an interview, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, in Levittown, Bucks County. (Associated Press)

The stakes in Tuesday’s midterm elections are so high that Bucks County resident Shane Dunn voted for the first time in his life, at age 65.

“I was always a busy man,” he said outside his Levittown polling place. But now, “I’m learning what’s going on within our country, and this is actually what brought me out.”

Dunn lives in Pennsylvania’s 1st Congressional District, where Republican incumbent US Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick has been trying to distance himself from President Donald Trump’s policies in his tight race against Democrat Bob Harvie, a twice-elected countywide commissioner who is a former social studies teacher.

Harvie, and other Democrats on the ballot, got Dunn’s vote. “It feels great, to put my word in,” he said, patting the “I Voted” sticker on his black hoodie.

Voters across Pennsylvania are getting their word in, too, as they determine which party controls the House and takes charge of the governor’s offices, state Legislature and other leadership posts in the final two years of Republican Donald Trump’s presidency.

What many of them see is that the America they’ve known is slipping away.

• Pennsylvania’s measles outbreak has surpassed 1,400 confirmed cases, with hundreds of patients hospitalized and cases now reported across much of the state. Here’s the latest.

• The number of Pennsylvanians in advanced years is projected to jump by 43% in the next decade, a period when the commonwealth’s population overall is expected to contract. Get details on how aging Baby Boomers are reshaping the state’s population in this story.

• Two former exotic dancers at an Erie County gentlemen’s club have sued, claiming the club wrongly classified them and other dancers as independent contractors and violated the law by failing to pay them minimum wage and keeping or deducting their tips. Get the story here.

• One of Crawford County’s largest industrial employers has closed, laying off 170 employees. Find out more here.

(Paul Magee)

Pennsylvania has miles upon miles of scenic biking trails, like this stretch of the Armstrong Trails near East Brady in Clarion County, where cyclists pass under an old coaling tower. Thanks to Paul Magee for sharing this photo.

SHOW US YOUR PENNSYLVANIA—whether it’s a scenic hiking or biking trail, a gorgeous sunset or sunrise, or something purely Pennsylvania, like an intersection with a Wawa at one corner, a Sheetz at another corner, and a horse and buggy parked outside a Rutter’s at another corner.

Send us your photos with your name, location, and a brief description of what you’re sharing.

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Thanks for reading. This newsletter was written by Patrick Berkery with stories from Kalena Thomhave, Good Info News Wire, The Associated Press, and USA Today via Reuters Connect. It was edited by Crystal Niforos.

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