The most recommended books about Iowa

Who picked these books? Meet our 32 experts.

32 authors created a book list connected to Iowa, and here are their favorite Iowa books.
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Book cover of A Thousand Acres

Erica Wright Author Of Hollow Bones

From my list on retelling classic stories.

Why am I passionate about this?

Before fan fiction was popular, I would often daydream about the lives of my favorite book characters. Did Jane Eyre gain more confidence from her inheritance? Did Ponyboy find a way to survive his tragic childhood? Decades later, I gravitate toward retellings, often picking them up simply because I like the source material. Still, when I started working on this list, I realized what a daunting task Iā€™d set myself. There are so many! And I havenā€™t even read two recently lauded titles: Barbara Kingsolverā€™s Demon Copperhead and Percival Everettā€™s James. So hat in my hand, I present these favorites ranging from serious to light-hearted. 

Erica's book list on retelling classic stories

Erica Wright Why did Erica love this book?

This book is the first retelling that I remember reading, so in some ways, itā€™s the standard by which I judge all others. Jane Smileyā€™s Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel imagines King Lear in a contemporary setting with an aging farmer signing over his land to his three daughters.

What I find most remarkable about this project is how Smiley captures the original play's melancholic spirit. Thereā€™s a sense of longing for a different past and sequence of events that might have prevented all this familial heartache. 

By Jane Smiley,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked A Thousand Acres as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This powerful twentieth-century reimagining of Shakespeare's King Lear centers on a wealthy Iowa farmer who decides to divide his farm among his three daughters. When the youngest objects, she is cut out of his will, which sets in motion a chain of events that brings dark truths to light. Ambitiously conceived and stunningly written, A Thousand Acres spins the most fundamental themes of truth, justice, love, and pride into a universally acclaimed masterpiece.


Book cover of Everything We Didn't Say

Kathleen Basi Author Of A Song for the Road

From my list on finding beauty in the crap life throws at you.

Why am I passionate about this?

I suspect my passion for this topic was born when my doctor came into my C-section recovery room and uttered the words ā€œchromosomal abnormality.ā€ My daughter has Down syndrome, and full disclosure: I had zero interest in being a disability mom. Yet as I fell in love with this beautiful, funny, sassy girl, my whole worldview shifted. I am a far better person than I was when she entered my life. She has taught me the beauty and the blessing wrapped up in the things that first appear to be the most difficult. 

Kathleen's book list on finding beauty in the crap life throws at you

Kathleen Basi Why did Kathleen love this book?

I have adored everything Iā€™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 canā€™t believe theyā€™re made up. Theyā€™re complex people whose struggles and brokenness end up making ripples that bump into other peopleā€™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 isnā€™t lost, after all.

By Nicole Baart,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Everything We Didn't Say as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From the author of Little Broken Things, a "race-to-the-finish family drama" (People) following a mother who must confront the dark summer that changed her life forever in order to reclaim the daughter she left behind.

Juniper Baker had just graduated from high school and was deep in the throes of a summer romance when Cal and Beth Murphy, a childless couple who lived on a neighboring farm, were brutally murdered. When her younger brother became the prime suspect, June's world collapsed and everything she loved that summer fell away. She left, promising never to return to tiny Jericho, Iowa.

Untilā€¦


Book cover of A Thousand Acres
Book cover of Everything We Didn't Say

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