Marianne Maili’s second full-length publication, I am home. (Chez Soi, 2023) is a memoir hiding inside other genres. It flits through its own timeline, asking to be considered among modernist texts. This makes sense, Maili is clearly influenced by modernism and themes of which come through in her story: there are moments that seem frivolous […]
Book Reviews
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Book Review and Q&A: ‘The Overnight Guest’ by Heather Gudenkauf
I grew up in a small town — population 600 on a good day. Rural Iowans are familiar with the one gas station, one bar kind of town, but it takes a special writer to encapsulate small-town life without turning it trite. Heather Gudenkauf, a New York Times bestselling author based out of Iowa, does […]
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Book Review: ‘The Art of Brevity: Crafting the Very Short Story’ by Grant Faulkner
Readers may know Grant Faulkner for his work as director of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) — a nonprofit organization dedicated to encouraging aspiring writers to pen a whole novel in 30 days — but his newest book, The Art of Brevity: Crafting the Very Short Story, focuses on a different kind of literary challenge: […]
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Book Review: ‘The Beckoning World’ by Douglas Bauer
Though the all-star game of July 11 has passed, baseball fans still looking for a summer read might consider Douglas Bauer’s most recent novel: The Beckoning World (University of Iowa Press, 2022). This Iowa-set novel tells the story of Earl Dunham, a protagonist facing a crossroad — to chase the dream of baseball, or to […]
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Book Review: ‘You Have to Be Prepared to Die Before You Can Begin to Live’ by Paul Kix
When Paul Kix set out to write You Have to Be Prepared to Die Before You Can Begin to Live: Ten Weeks in Birmingham that Changed America, one of his goals — in spite of the text’s lengthy title — was to ensure the book moves at a fast pace. By god, does this book […]
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Fully Booked: The best Star Wars novels in the galaxy
Can’t decide what to read next? Librarians at the Iowa City Public Library have some ideas. Browse the ICPL’s collection of print books and audiobooks online. A long time ago, in a Carnegie library in Pella, Iowa, I discovered The Empire Strikes Back on VHS. It was my first step into a larger world, and […]
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Book Review: ‘Stellaphasia’ by Jason Bradford
Posthumously published from his MFA thesis, Jason Bradford’s Stellaphasia (North American Review, 2023) chronicles life inside a disabled body. It’s unfair to say that this collection is about being disabled or having a disability, though. This is a book of emotional observations, connection and communion. Bradford — a University of Northern Iowa alum — has […]
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Book Review: ‘Pas de Don’t’ by Chloe Angyal
Pas de Don’t is Chloe Angyal’s first novel, a story of romance informed by the author’s years spent reporting on gender and power in American ballet. Angyal, an Australian-born writer now based out of Coralville, is the author of the 2021 nonfiction book Turning Pointe: How a New Generation of Dancers Is Saving Ballet from […]
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Book Review — ‘What Woman That Was: Poems for Mary Dyer’ by Anne Myles
An elaborate persona collection for American feminism, What Woman That Was: Poems for Mary Dyer (Final Thursday Press) by Anne Myles explores the foundations of a culture that would both vilify and glamorize actions of rebellion. This poetry collection is an incredible homage to “the courageous and troublesome women throughout history whose stories have been […]
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Book Review: ‘On Becoming an American Writer’ by James Alan McPherson, ed. by Anthony Walton
I am constantly amazed by how long I was in Iowa City without really hearing about James Alan McPherson. In part, I attribute this to being a student during my first few years in the state. Yet it stands to reason that — as an English student, no less — there was no better time […]
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Book Review: ‘The Language of Love and Loss’ by Bart Yates
As Noah York says of his mother: “Of course I love her, but that’s beside the point.” She is the “most complicated person” he knows, “running the gamut from holy woman to gargoyle, depending on the day.” In The Language of Love and Loss (Kensington Books), it has been eight months since 37-year-old Noah — […]
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Book Review: ‘Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs: A Journey Through the Deep State’ by Kerry Howley
Kerry Howley, you had me the title. Maybe your brain hasn’t been colonized but internet worms for the better part of three decades, but I for one recognized immediately the reference to a viral video from 2014 in which a middle-aged white woman presents a practiced two-minute spiel, including visual aids, breaking down all the […]
