The most recommended books about Iowa

This novel is less well-known, and much more accomplished, than the movie based on it – Field of Dreams. Where the movie is sappy, the book is lyrical and warmly nostalgic for a time and place – rural Iowa in the 1970s. There is a clear magical realism vibe to the whole thing. The plot structure of the novel is a very shaggy dog involving a baseball field in a corn field, the kidnapping of a famous novelist and numerous dead people coming back to life. The book is big-hearted and much of the writing is luminous.

It’s been nine months since I read this book, and my thoughts still return to it (or is it the other way around?) unexpectedly.

On its surface, Lila is the life story of an orphan rescued from a loveless home by a vagrant and her discovery of an unforeseeable future. But this book is poetry in prose, and that surface story is just the start. With its unpredictable time-frames and beautifully complicated characters, it offers insights into the life experiences of societal outcasts with whom most modern readers can scarcely empathize.

Most fascinatingly, its final pages will make many or most readers question, or perhaps rethink, their philosophical and religious views on cause and effect, human desire, and Divine will. My wonder at its wisdom is rare (and I wonder at a lot of books).

Griffin does a wonderful job in this beautiful children’s book.

She guides the reader through a heartfelt tale of a little girl moving to live with her grandmother. On the car ride, they both search for 10 beautiful things. This book will pull at the heartstrings as, together, they find beauty in little things around them on their car ride, and it ends with the pair naming the sweetest, most beautiful thing of all.

As someone who has experienced childhood loss (loss as a child), I highly recommend this beautiful story for any child going through a loss or big change in their life that might have them feeling overwhelmed, anxious, or closed off.

Grant Wood's work coincided with the Great Depression. He was the state director of the Public Works of Art Project, an agency of the federal government which put artists to work. He created the designs for public murals, such as the ones in the library at Iowa State College (now University) at Ames, Iowa. Remarkably, Wood donated his time for the project. This book has many colored photos of Grant Wood's work, stories behind the scenes, and quotes by people who knew and worked with Iowa's favorite artist in bib overalls.

The Federal Writers’ Project was one of many projects undertaken by the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression. The American Guide Series was a subset of works produced by the Federal Writers’ Project (FWP). The books, created through a cooperative effort of both Federal and State organizations, are part travel guide, part almanac. Each includes illustrations and photographs and offers a fascinating snapshot of the 48 United States in the Union, and Alaska, in the late 1930s and early 1940s. The project employed over 6,000 writers. Many of these books have been reprinted.

Switching gears from the Domestic Suspense genre, I’d like to recommend a historical fiction gem. It’s been a while since I finished this first book in a series, but this story – and the mother of all mothers, Jeanie – has stuck with me. Her story is a constant reminder that womankind of the 1800s was made of steel and I’m not sure I would’ve survived back then. Jeanie’s life quickly turns from wealthy and having an esteemed reputation to losing it all. She’s then forced to follow her husband’s dreams of prairie life where Jeanie is forced to live off the land and faces the harshest of conditions, natural disasters, and the worst tragedy a mother can experience. (sidenote: follow this author on TikTok where she reads the real letters from Jeanie!)

When most people think of haunted houses, they usually picture an aging building on the edge of town. But what if the place that’s haunted is a busy fast food joint? That’s the premise of Daniel Kraus’s The Ghost That Ate Us.

The employees of Burger City near Jonny, Iowa begin to experience strange events. At first, the incidents are harmless, but they slowly become more menacing, until an event happens that makes the national news. A journalist comes in after the fact, to interview the surviving workers and try to figure out what ‘really’ happened.

The book is scattered with pictures, a la Ransom Riggs’ Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children series. The result is an intriguing blend of horror, faux true crime, and biting social commentary.

I have adored everything I’ve read by Nicole Baart, and they all fit this theme. I chose this one because all the characters in it are so real. It features two women who are both punishing themselves for a tragedy they believe to be their fault. In this book, the main characters are so true, you almost can’t believe they’re made up. They’re complex people whose struggles and brokenness end up making ripples that bump into other people’s struggles and brokenness. Just a bunch of people doing the best they can and messing it all up and having to start again. This is a book that makes you feel like maybe all hope isn’t lost, after all.

This is a fun series. It starts off in the 50s in small-town Iowa with most of the small-time innocence that you’d imagine but Gorman likes to take a different look. He leads us through the era’s less-than-shining moments while we get to relive the 50s and early sixties.

In this one, a young Black civil rights worker turns up dead. Along the way, we learn about racism and the subtle forms it can take and how it can poison a whole community.

In the end, things are not what they seemed but it doesn’t change the facts about America during this era.

Message—People are people and fighting ignorance and hate is all our responsibility.

For their Golden Wedding Anniversary in 1917, a couple gathered their family for a celebration. During the day, they share their Iowa pioneering stories. What wonderful details about living arrangements, hardships in travel, hard-to-believe hordes of grasshoppers, blizzards, even a probable encounter with Jesse James. Written as a novel but based on historical events, his dear slim book also includes several photographs.