Iowa Books

Christmas in the Midwest! the very best of all! From Chicago's Miracle Mile with its myriad of gaily colored lights and its blazing store windows - to the small midwest cities with their downtown lampposts festooned with evergreen and silvery tinsel - to the small towns with their Season's Greetings bannered across the intersection of Main and Elm Streets - to the farm scenes with strings of red and green bulbs entwined round the spindly legs of long-unused windmills and the picture window curtains drawn back to let the tree lights gleam out over the new fallen snow.

And Christmas Eve in little frame and brick churches with "readings" and songs by the children - a decorated tree and some rosy-faced neighbor in a Santa Claus costume - Christmas mornings with families round the tree and the gaily wrapped gifts with their promises waiting to be unwrapped.

And then go over the hill to Grandma's house where all the aunts, uncles and cousins gathered for a gala Christmas feast!

These are images and recollections that M idwesterners and exiled Midwesterners share. You will find these memories and more in the pages of Christmas in the Midwest. Here is a rich assortment in poem, picture, and story, all done by the best of midwest writers and artists such as, Hamlin Garland, Bess Streeter Aldrich, James Whitcomb Riley, John Muir, Marjorie Holmes, Paul Engle, Hartzell Spence, Phil Stong and Susan Allen Toth. They share stories about the Midwest's very first Christmases, Christmases of the pioneers, and Christmases in this changing twenty-first century. Wether the stories and poems are real or imagined, or mixtures of memory and "might-have-been," this collection is guaranteed to stir heartwarming memories of Christmas in the Midwest, and the spirit of the season everywhere.

My purchase was easy and the book was delivered in a timely fashion with no hook-ups.

Any college-level library specializing in veterinary medicine will find plenty of detail and introductory material in Color Atlas of Small Animal Anatomy: The Essentials. Here's an oblong book packing in anatomical drawings and cut-aways of dogs, cats and rodents commonly kept as pets: chapters provide topographic relationships of major organs and are in full color for excellent reference. A basic 'must' for any small animal vet collection.

I would love to have access to all the back issues of this journal which published quarterly 1981-1996. It is an amazing record of fiction, essays, poetry, art, book reviews, lists of book stores, classifieds, biographies of contributors, and letters. This particular issue is from Fall 1983.

Contributors -
Maureen McGuire
Melanie Perish
Kit Dorsey
Ruth Mountaingrove
Michele Connelly
Baba Cooper
Janet Capone
Merril Mushroom
Susan Hansell
Diana Robbins
Terri L. Jewell
Billie Potts
Diane Denne
Leah Pesa Kushner
Paula Gottlieb
Katherine Kirk
Beverly Burch
Hannah Blue Heron
Jacqui Mandy
Chris McGuigan
Sheryl L. Nelms
Judith McDaniel
zana.

Book Description
From inside the front cover:; The Concept of CL/LL; Common Lives / Lesbian Lives seeks to document the experiences and thoughts of lesbians as we claim our past, name our present conditions, and envision our evolving futures. CL/LL will reflect the complexity and richness of those experiences and thought by describing the lives of ordinary lesbians -- women who have always struggled to survive and create a culture for ourselves. The magazine is a forum for developing and clarifying our lesbian-defined social and political relationships.

Common Lives / Lesbian Lives is committed to reflecting the diversity among us by actively soliciting and printing in each issue the work and ideas of lesbians of color, Jewish lesbians, fat lesbians, lesbians over fifty and under twenty years old, physically challenged lesbians, poor and working-class lesbians, and lesbians of varying cultural backgrounds. CL/LL feels a strong responsibility to insure access to women whose lives have traditionally been denied visibility and to encourage lesbians who have never before thought of publishing to do so.

This is a softcover journal, 112 pages, Published by a collective of lesbians in Iowa City, Iowa seeking to document a broad cross-section of the lives and thoughts of lesbians measures approximately 5-1/4" x 8-1/4"

Community Economics: Linking Theory and Practice 2nd Edition by Ron Shaffer, Steve Deller, Dave Marcouiller (Blackwell Publishers) This complete revision of Dr. Shaffer's classic Community Economics provides readers with a comprehensive understanding of economic structure in small communities and urban neighborhoods of America. Authors Shaffer, Deller, and Marcouiller review the economics of smaller communities with continued emphasis on how to build and achieve theoretically sound community economic development policy. The text also demonstrates how local participation and knowledge can be used to identify problems, form solutions, and maintain community support for long-term goals.
The main body of economic research and literature has neglected the economics of smaller communities. Community Economics: Linking Theory and Practice fills that information void. This text serves as a comprehensive guide on smaller, open economies and urban neighborhoods for economists, regional planners, rural sociologists, and geographers. Additionally, Community Economics is an issue-oriented handbook of development strategies for development practitioners, planning and zoning officials, and others involved in the day-to-day activities of community economic development.

Ron Shaffer is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Shaffer is also a community development economist with the University of Wisconsin-Extension.

Steve Deller is a Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Deller also holds joint appointments in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, the Center for Community Economic Development, and the Center for Local Government and is a community development economist with the University of Wisconsin-Extension. ,

Dave Marcouiller is an Associate Professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Marcouiller also holds joint appointments in the Department of Forest Ecology and Management, the Institute of Environmental Studies, and the Center for Community Economic Development and serves as a resource economist with the University of Wisconsin-Extension.

"Company" is a haunting tale of one man about whom nothing is known, who spends his final hours alone in a pitch black room. His sanity is questionable at best in this sensory-deprived state, and he tells himself stories and even makes up imaginary friends with whom he converses to pass the time (this is the titular company he seeks). Beautifully written, this piece flows like a prose poem and is as easy a read as one will find in Beckett's works. Bringing up important questions of rationality and the concept of the self, "Company" is not to be missed.

Heywood and Thomas give a thorough recounting of Cornell's history from the founding in 1853 up through the present day. While most friends of Cornell will probably be satisfied with Charles Milhauser's Cornell College: 150 Years From A to Z, this is a great two volume set for those interested in the comprehensive story.

My grandparents on my father's side lived in a house with no electricity, running water or any other modern convenience. Up until the day my grandmother died in the early 1990's, she used devices that were largely unchanged since the arrival of the twentieth century. They farmed using only horses up until my grandfather had a stroke in the late 1950's. Since their farm was approximately ten miles away, I recognized and have used nearly every device illustrated in this book.
While the times depicted in this book were simpler, they were also harder. Sleeping in an unheated, un-insulated house in the dead of winter is not something I would like to repeat. Getting up in the morning is an experience to say the least. You carry out a serious debate with yourself as to whether it would be better to wet the bed or get up when the interior temperature is around zero. Once you do, you have to walk outside to the privy and expose your privates to an even greater cold. However, as Artley mentions, there is no greater pleasure than pressing your backside up to the hot stove after you have done your business. As someone who has performed hard physical labor, I know exactly what Artley is saying when he talks about the delivery of lunch and how incredibly refreshing a cold drink can be.
In this book Artley draws scenes of those times with text that explains what the scene depicts. Most of the sketches are of devices that were used on the farms before they were mechanized. If you have used these tools, then this book will bring back memories, both fond and of situations that are best left behind you. Those who have no experience will get a lesson in how it was on an Iowa farm before the modern era. It reminded me that those who have nostalgia for the simple times probably didn't have to live through them.

Good mystery in the Series Of Amazing Gracie mysteries. Couldn't put it down until I reached the end.
Booksbyfay, Keystone, Iowa

I thought this would be a dull read but was pleasantly surprised to find it anything but boring. The history spans a time of great changes in Iowa and the midwest and the newspaper industry. The exemplary index is a wonderful aid to this book.