Ten years ago, the state of Iowa published its Nutrient Reduction Strategy (NRS), a plan to reduce the amount of nitrate and phosphorus polluting not just the state’s waterways, but that of everyone downstream from Iowa, until the pollution flows into the Gulf of Mexico, where it helps create the massive dead zone that forms […]
Book reviews
Posted inArts & Entertainment
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 […]
Posted inBook Reviews
Book Review: ‘The Behavior of Words’ by Efe Duyan, transl. Aron Aji
In the translator’s note, Aron Aji — director of MFA in Literary Translation at the University of Iowa — gives some insights on his methodology and experience as both a reader and translator of Efe Duyan’s The Behavior of Words (White Pine Press, 2023). “Given the infamous incommensurability of English and Turkish grammars, the process […]
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Book Reviews: ‘hush hush hush’ by Audra Kerr Brown
In hush hush hush (Small Harbor Publishing), Audra Kerr Brown’s writing turns the mundane to horror. This chapbook is a collection of Brown’s flash fiction, some of which has previously been published across journals and literary magazines over the years. Many of the stories contained within have won awards and been included in the editions […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Fully Booked: Adventure memoirs that take you places
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. With spring in the air, my feet itch to hit the Iowa dirt and take in the sight of green, new growth outdoors. While I consider myself a dedicated […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Book Review: ‘The Witch of Woodland’ by Laurel Snyder
If I were Zipporah Chava McConnell, writing an essay about The Witch of Woodland (the newest middle grade novel from Laurel Snyder, published by Walden Pond Press) for class, I’d probably talk a lot about the themes of Silence and Space. Any theme that recurs is worth mentioning, right? And isn’t it strange? A book […]
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Book Review: ‘Where Rivers Go to Die’ by Dilman Dila
Whatever else you take away from this review, it should be noted that Where Rivers Go to Die is primarily a collection of horror stories. Deftly created horror, sure, but unsettling — along the lines of the more mild episodes of The Twilight Zone, at its lightest. At its most frightful, expect tales akin to […]
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Book Review: ‘Bang Bang Crash’ by Nic Brown
Once a drummer, always a drummer? When Nic Brown landed a fellowship to enter the very selective Iowa Writers’ Workshop (where he earned his MFA in 2006), he figured his drumming days were done. He didn’t want to reference his years on the rock circuit with his new friends in Iowa City. At parties, the […]
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Book Review: ‘Accidental Sisters: The Story of My 52-Year Wait to Meet My Biological Sibling’ by Katherine Linn Caire
I try to imagine myself learning, at age 52, that I have a sister. I think about my own sister and how important that relationship is to me. I think about how much life there is in 52 years — how much identity is formed, how awkward it becomes just making friends as an adult […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Fully Booked: Unflinching U.S. history books
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. Hilary Mantel once wrote that reading history and historical fiction allows us to measure up our own lifetimes. “Are these good times, bad times, interesting times? We rely on […]
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Book Review: ‘The Emergent’ by Nick Holmberg
In Nick Holmberg’s debut novel, The Emergent (Koehler Books), he asks whether we can come to understand and know a person through the way they tell their story. The book shows the psychological and moral growth of the narrator, a young woman named Kat, as she challenges her audience to piece together the account she […]
