Seasoned authors know that the best way to get readers invested in their characters is to make them as relatable as possible. Highlighting the flaws of central figures is essential in creating a story that sticks with readers long after the last page. Romance author (and Iowa native) Rachelle Chase accomplishes just that in Hot […]
Local book reviews
Posted inBook Reviews
Book Review: ‘The Wilderlands’ by R.E. Bellesmith
I have apparently never read fantasy before The Wilderlands by R.E. Bellesmith (November 2024). I didn’t know that. I thought the various books I read involving magic and the like were fantasy. Apparently there are levels. For folks like me who see themselves more often reading literary fiction, I hope this review will act as […]
Posted inBook Reviews
Book Review: ‘The Monsters We Make’ by Kali White
I grew up in the era of stranger danger. I was a generally anxious child even on my best days, a veritable nightmare on my worst; my family loves to tell the story of my weeping refusal to approach Santa Claus at a school event, unable to recognize the costumed man as my own father.
Posted inBook Reviews
Book Review: Ben Miller — ‘Pandemonium Logs’
We don’t talk about the tolls the pandemic has taken on each of us. In Ben Miller’s new book Pandemonium Logs: Sioux Falls, South Dakota, 2020-2022 (Rutgers University Press, November 2024) he says the quiet part aloud.
Posted inBook Reviews
Book Review: Vince Gotera — ‘Dragons & Rayguns’
Although Iowa Poet Laureate Vince Gotera’s collection of speculative poetry, Dragons & Rayguns (Final Thursday Press), is a panoply of allusions (and although I’d boldly state that I understood many of them), it is also in turns sincere, self-deprecating, thought-provoking and tender.
Posted inBook Reviews
Book Review: ‘My Father Called Us Monkeys’ by Mario Duarte
When my friend Mario Duarte asked me to read his latest book, a series of connected short stories about a Mexican-American boy growing up in western Illinois called My Father Called Us Monkeys published by Ice Cube Press, I was both excited and a tad apprehensive.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Book Review: ‘(Re)present: Racism and Resistance in Iowa’
Important books exist. They are written and published every day. There are people dedicated to creating and publishing work that changes and educates people. Sometimes, they put out important work that is accessible and educational and aimed at helping the youth in Iowa understand their home and their histories. (Re)Present: Racism & Resistance in Iowa […]
Posted inBook Reviews
Book Review: ‘Brazos’ by Justin Carter
This January, while visiting Tulsa with a friend, I made an effort to reconnect with my redneck roots. We went firing at an indoor gun range. Across the street was a church with a sign announcing the coming of its gun sale. Later, at the tattoo parlor, as his own gun pierced me with a […]
Posted inBook Reviews
Book Review: ‘Such Lovely Skin’ by Tatiana Schlote-Bonne
Never in my memory has a book kept me from sleep or made me avoid everyday objects. Officially, Such Lovely Skin (Page Street Publishing) by Tatiana Schlote-Bonne is the most unsettling book I have ever read, full stop. The novel follows the narrator, a teen girl named Viv who is a relatively well-known video game […]
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Book Review: ‘Children in Tactical Gear’ by Peter Mishler
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 — […]
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. […]
