In Paradise Lost, Milton describes Satan’s army of fallen angels as engaging in swarm behaviors: “As bees / In spring-time,” upon their summoning the unholy host “Thick swarmed, both on the ground and in the air, / Brushed with the hiss of rustling wings.” By the 18th century, the supernatural ensemble of an epic — […]
Book Reviews
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Book Review: ‘Another Woman’ by Hannah Bonner
Hannah Bonner’s Another Woman (Eastover Press, 2024) is a cutting surprise of a collection that explores the emotional stakes of a woman’s relationships. With acerbic and spare language that circles in on itself, Bonner instructs her readers to live in her body and experience these moments with both an intimacy and a distance that, as […]
Posted inFood & Drink
30 tasty tomes recommended by Iowa indie bookstores
For the 2024 Bread & Butter dining special, Little Village asked bookstores located around central and eastern Iowa about their favorite food-related titles. They responded with cookbooks, memoirs, nonfiction and fiction recommendations —and in some cases, a paragraph or two explaining their choices — including books from Iowa authors and/or focused on Iowa culinary history. […]
Posted inBook Reviews
Book Review: ‘The Body Alone’ by Nina Lohman
The Body Alone (University of Iowa Press) is all encompassing. Nina Lohman’s memoir describes itself as, “…a lyrical nonfiction inquiry into the experience, meaning, and articulation of pain.” This articulation comes at the reader from all angles. Yes, there are first-person accounts from Lohman that one would expect from something like a traditional memoir. But […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Fully Booked: Comic books to expand your universe
I’ve been a lifelong comic book fan, but I go through seasons of feast or famine. Recently, I read a slew of comics after not reading any for roughly a year and a half. Luckily, the Iowa City Public Library’s collection always has titles of interest when I’m in the mood for superhero epics or […]
Posted inBook Reviews
Book Review: ‘Bjarki, Not Bjarki’ by Matthew J.C. Clark
I’ve been told a thousand times that readers want to be surprised. As someone who reads a lot, I don’t often find myself surprised. Bjarki, Not Bjarki by Matthew J. C. Clark (University of Iowa Press) is a wild outlier — bombastic and unyielding, the prose unravels and is woven into chaotic, precise new patterns […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Fully Booked: Travel books to guide your next vacation
It’s summer, which means that it’s time for that hallowed tradition of summer vacation. I have many fond memories of piling into my parents’ light blue and fake-wood-paneled station wagon to hit the road. Many times that meant Adventureland (the sky seats! the swimming pool! the bingo parlor!), but we definitely also set out to […]
Posted inBook Reviews
Book Review: ‘A Grotesque Animal’ by Amy Lee Lillard
In her new hybrid memoir, Amy Lee Lillard starts out slowly, advising the reader that A Grotesque Animal (University of Iowa Press) is about a middle-aged woman coming into her own following her late-in-life autism diagnosis. That is the premise, it’s true, but it is not a fair synopsis of this book. The early sections […]
Posted inBook Reviews
Book Review: ‘Iowa’s Changing Wildlife: Three Decades of Gain and Loss’ by James J. Dinsmore and Stephen J. Dinsmore
In Iowa’s Changing Wildlife: Three Decades of Gain and Loss (University of Iowa Press), the authors survey 60 species of birds and mammals, providing brief histories of their existence in Iowa, a look at their population fluctuations over time and summaries of their current status, making this book a valuable resource for wildlife enthusiasts and […]
Posted inBook Reviews
Book Review: ‘All Black Everything’ by Shane Book
This book belongs in the hands of people whose cultures are misaligned. This book belongs to people whose words overlap, whose minds are many places, who hear a rhythm in every background. Shane Book’s All Black Everything (University of Iowa Press) is a promise kept. It is an altar to the church that gave him […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Fully Booked: Interactive books to flip over
By Casey Maynard Children love books that defy traditional format categories: picture book biographies, early reader comics, longform illustrated novels, graphic novel nonfiction. The combinations offer endless variety for readers. Lucky for us, publishers are delivering! Here is a brief list of books on Iowa City Public Library’s new children’s shelves featuring more than one […]
Posted inBook Reviews
Book Review: ‘Labyrinths’ by Christopher Okigbo
The Iowa Writers’ Workshop and the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program (IWP) have long brought writers of international stature to the Greatest Small City for the Arts. Many of these writers are Nigerian, and include recent workshop graduates Adedayo Agarau and Romeo Oriogun, recent IWP participant Wana Udobang, and (through the School of Journalism […]
