Part personal essay, part biography, I found myself luxuriating in the prose of Katie Bennett’s She Was Wild Grass (Brink Literary), slowing down my own reading to sit in the sentences when the narrative moved faster than my ability to appreciate the language. This first full-length publication from Iowa City’s Brink Books meets the bar […]
Book Reviews
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Book Review: ‘What They Stole: A Familicide Rooted in Intercountry Adoption’ by Paige Towers
It’s a thing of beauty when a piece of nonfiction can educate without demeaning, be pointedly scathing without catching the undeserving and inspire the reader to review their community with a fresh lens. Paige Towers accomplishes all of this with What They Stole: A Familicide Rooted in Intercountry Adoption (University of Iowa Press). I have […]
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Fully Booked at DMPL: Reads for the kid in all of us
If you’re like me, you know that growing up means stretching regularly to avoid cramps and sleeping well to have energy for the whole day. What it doesn’t necessarily mean is stopping ourselves from reading books geared toward children and young adults. In fact, new juvenile fiction is published every year that catches my interest. […]
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Review: ‘There Is No Place For Us’ by Brian Goldstone — guest speaker at Drake — lays bare the structural violence behind homelessness
For many, the cost of housing is rising faster than income, as are the costs of other necessities. It’s no surprise then that homelessness is rising both in Iowa and nationally. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author Brian Goldstone will speak on these issues at a free event hosted by Drake University’s Harkin Center on Tuesday, which […]
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Book Review: ‘Before the Mango Ripens’ by Afabwaje Kurian
Before the Mango Ripens by Afabwaje Kurian is an aching and scathing reflection on colonialism, gender politics and the influence of Christianity’s spread amongst non-European cultures. Kurian, who received her MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, has served as visiting faculty for both the fiction program and the International Writing Program. It’s no wonder that […]
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Book Review: ‘Carousel’ by Sarah Minor
The concepts of time, memory and perspective are elusive and finicky. In Sarah Minor’s Carousel (Yale University Press), our speaker attempts to guide us through all manner of experiences that may lead us closer to an understanding. Carousel, billed as “an essay on seeing,” is an ambitious and artful collection of vignettes that weave together […]
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Book Review: ‘The Natural Order of Things: Poems’ by Donika Kelly
Donika Kelly has a system: the award-winning poet and University of Iowa associate professor brings poems to her reader that are accessible and welcoming. Then, they build into an overwhelming and holy crescendo of piercing, evocative vignettes. Kelly’s latest, The Natural Order of Things (Graywolf Press), is hearty, nourishing. The crescendo in this collection brings […]
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Fully Booked at DMPL: Books best read aloud
Long before we learned to read, we learned to listen. Some of my favorite reading memories are not just about the books themselves, but about the voices that brought those stories to life: A grandparent sharing a favorite tale, a teacher making a character unforgettable, a librarian turning storytime into a magical experience. Reading aloud […]
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Book Review: ‘Cave Mountain: A Disappearance and a Reckoning in the Ozarks’ by Benjamin Hale
I thought I knew what I was getting into when I picked up Benjamin Hale’s Cave Mountain: A Disappearance and a Reckoning in the Ozarks (HarperCollins Publishers). It is billed as a combination of true crime and memoir; the author investigates an event that shook his personal history to draw connections to the broader world. Reading […]
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Fully Booked at ICPL: Stories to celebrate Disability Pride Month
Disability Pride began as a single day of celebration when the Americans with Disabilities Act became law on July 26, 1990. In 2015, July officially became Disability Pride Month on the 25th anniversary of the ADA. Representing decades of disabled-led activism, including an historic 26-day occupation of the San Francisco federal building in 1977 over […]
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Book Review: ‘You Were Never Lost: Poems from the Tallgrass Prairie’ by Suzanna de Baca
Suzanna de Baca instills a subliminal radiance within her debut poetry collection, You Were Never Lost: Poems from the Tallgrass Prairie. Its contents reflect her accumulated experiences from an artist residency at the White Rock Conservancy in Coon Rapids, Iowa. The 5,500 acres of prairie, woodland, pasture and river valley protected along the Middle Raccoon […]
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Book Review: ‘Fidelity’ by Susan Glaspell
Earlier this spring, Belt Publishing — an imprint that focuses on books about Rust Belt cities — put Susan Glaspell’s 1915 novel Fidelity back into print with a new introduction by Sarah Blackwood, professor of English at Pace University. The Iowa-born and -raised Glaspell, as Blackwood argues, is best remembered today for her work as […]
