These are all terrific suggestions.  I would also consider having your students research and evaluate current fiction set in their own counties, or allow them to pick and study a city, county or region.  NY locales are the settings for many contemporary novels.

To keep students' interest, you could also make reference to movies based on novels and filmed in NY.  Among recent films set in Upstate I'm thinking of "Nobody's Fool."

David Palmquist
NY State Museum
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Folks--

I have been hired to teach a one-semester New York State history course at
the university level for this coming fall term.  In hopes of offering
students a variety of sources from which to work, I'm looking for teachable
novels about the state, but preferably ones that are not solely about New
York City.  Any suggestions?

Tom Baker
soon-to-be Assistant Professor of History, SUNY-Potsdam