Iowa Books

Another stunning work by Ms. Peirce. This book has also been awarded the William Carlos Williams award for 2000. Add this treasure to your collection of Peirce poetry.

Rarely have I felt such an intense joy in discovering a new poet: Kathleen Peirce's The Oval Hour (and her first book Mercy) has reawakened my belief that a poet's vision of the world TOUCHES reality -- it's as if vision is transformed into a pair of hands. Miss Perice's poems are beautiful, they internalize the world and reflect back doubt and awareness. A man's gorgeous thumb in her mouth. A delicate drinking thing made of cup and mouth. A father who becomes a black line eating snow -- just some of the moments when the outside and the inside converge in her poetry. Listen, if you are a serious reader of American poetry and are tired of overt academic poets who know the world but can't see it; if you're tried of poets frightened by "I", poets who fragment their perspectives and voice(s) until their poems resemble hothouse flowers taking root in nothing but air, then read Miss Peirce's The Oval Hour. She sees the world. She writes as if she knows the world is looking back. And if you're really a serious reader of poetry, go back and reread those "academic" poets because you are, after all, a reader.

From the title to the final period, "Rediscovering the New World" is the most complete and best written work on inter-American literature. Fitz writes with tremendous style, at times he appears to be a poet, at times a rhetorically gifted politician, yet always he maintains his own unique and innovative style. This work, which made me think Pulitzer as I read it, reaches a large audience. It is sure to challenge the minds of professors, the authors that Fitz writes about, and intellectuals everywhere. Not only is this a must read, it is a must re-read. Also, because of the gorgeous style, this book is appealing to lovers of language. Although Fitz has written many great works in the past, this is his best effort yet. As a true inter-American intellectual, he takes inter-American literature to a new level. While writers have solely focused on Spanish-American and American literature in the past, Fitz, as the Thomas Edison of this area, breaks new ground by including eclectic analyses of Brazil and Canada. Fitz is one of the most complete scholars of inter-American literature. Although this work is good, Fitz can still be better and I look forward to his future works also. I hear that he is currently working on a more complete study of Brazilian literature that is sure to dazzle critics, scholars, and leisurely readers alike. This book is not to be missed.

From the title to the final period, "Rediscovering the New World" is the most complete and best written work on inter-American literature. Fitz writes with tremendous style, at times he appears to be a poet, at times a rhetorically gifted politician, yet always he maintains his own unique and innovative style. This work, which made me think Pulitzer as I read it, reaches a large audience. It is sure to challenge the minds of professors, the authors that Fitz writes about, and intellectuals everywhere. Not only is this a must read, it is a must re-read. Also, because of the gorgeous style, this book is appealing to lovers of language. Although Fitz has written many great works in the past, this is his best effort yet. As a true inter-American intellectual, he takes inter-American literature to a new level. While writes have solely focused on Spanish-American and American literature in the past, Fitz, as the Thomas Edison of this area, breaks new ground by including eclectic analyses of Brazil and Canada. Fitz, a student and friend of the great Gregory Rabassa, is one of the most complete scholars of inter-American literature. Although this work is good, Fitz can still be better and I look forward to his future works also. I hear that he is currently working on a more complete study of Brazilian literature which is sure to dazzle critics, scholars, and leisurely readers alike. This book is not to be missed.

I can not recommend this book enough, especially as it appears to be the only one of its kind to date. Rozik uses more than erudite scholarship and ultimately multiple disciplines to dismantle the pervasive theory of theatre's ritual roots, he uses common sense and, most importantly, a genuine knowledge of theatre.

"It is as absurd to think that theatre originated in ritual as it would be to think that poetry or music originated in it."

Rozik probably made more than a few enemies in writing this book, but his arguments are sound and well reasoned. His premise is that theatre could not have originated from ritual because the two entities function on entirely different ontological levels. Much of the book is focused discrediting the various origin theories and myths that have arisen over the past couple centuries. The ritual-origin myth is his clearest target because of its persistent presence in theatre history classrooms. Rozik rebuffs origin theory altogether and posits his theory of roots as an explanation of theatre's function in society. Very thought provoking and worth reading.

You know you've got it good when you can be friends with your relatives! Bo has a very special relationship with his Grandpa -- they don't see each other often, but when they do it's very high quality time. Playing ball, taking walks, gardening, cooking, listening to records, weaving baskets, carving statues out of a bar of soap... Bo's summer spent with his Grandpa is full of perfect childhood moments. And Grandpa has just the right attitude towards life. Every animal and tree is his friend and they give them all names. Bo's dearest wish is to see a shooting star before the summer ends. And they do, on the very last night. The illustrations are warm and perfectly match the tone of the book. One of Kevin Henkes' earlier books (copyright 1986), you can definitely see him emerging as a strong writing talent. This is a story to treasure about the love between grandparent and child.

Gently written and charmingly illustrated by Kevin Henkes, Grandpa & Bo is a delightful book for young early readers. Warm, black-and-white sketches showing the love and friendship shared between a young boy and his grandfather enjoying the simple beauty of nature and the turning of the seasons highlight this gentle, wonderful, highly recommended picturebook story.

This book along with it's accompanying video could be a gold mine for any high school coach looking for something a little different to give his offense a competitive edge. Update the blocking rules and The Single Wing Offense with the Spinning Fullback will be a literal nightmare for most high school defenses to stop, especially if they only have one week to prepare defending against it (you'll be the only kid on the block!) The Single Wing is not a "trick" offense but a viable and powerful offense. I know because I coached it. Although not everything in the book is applicable, if you'll eat the meat and spit out the bones there is some great information here!

Coach Aldrich has provided an excellent resource for coaches that still employ the single-wing attack. The system is easy to implement and it is very well-conceived.

Without self-pity nor malice Gilberg writes of a challenging childhood with two dysfunctional parents. This is far more than a retelling of this family's painful history; it's a book that encourages any reader to look into the deeper reality of the events in their family's life enabling reconciliation and healing to result. Gilberg's honest sharing, laced with love and respect for her father, left this reader glad to have "met" this
man. I like him. And it's a book that will bring some understanding and peace regarding our involvement in Vietnam which I also found helpful.

This is a terrific book, one that works into the memory from a series of photos and a set of fixed memories of a difficult man and a difficult childhood. it's so much more than a tale of dysfunction though. Its the elegant tale of a survivor, of a little girl and a nation.

This book is not getting the attention it deserves!

I've had this book out of our school's library for the better part of the semester and am referencing it for a couple of posters which will be traveling around the state on soil formation and classification.

Even for someone who isn't quite yet a pedalogist the book is clear, well laid out, and chock full of information.

This is an excellent text and reference about the study and examination of soils. Some chapters are difficult to read but all are packed with great information about the study of soils. The classification of soils is covered in depth with the USDA Soil Taxonomy system and less throughly with other systems. The figures and tables included are pertinent and relevant. I'd ask for more figures and tables to help illustrate topics covered in the text. Additional comparisons and analysis between classification systems would also be welcome for advanced studies of soils and environmental issues.
Still 5 stars for it's class!

Donald A. Proulx's book begins with a brief overview of the people who produced Nasca pottery. It then describes the rules or canons used by Nasca potters to form and decorate their pottery. It summarizes the discovery of the first Nasca pottery. It describes how 800 years of Nasca art are divided into various periods and the basis for the chronology. It also describes the methodology of both Proulx and other experts in organizing Nasca art.

Then, as Proulx writes on his website: "The centerpiece of the book is a detailed classification and description of the iconography along with an interpretation of their meaning in the context of the Nasca Culture. [Then] I use the iconography (along with archaeological evidence) to reconstruct the religion, political organization and everyday life of the people of this ancient civilization."

For the general reader like myself, the images in the "centerpiece" are incredible, and stay in the mind well after the pages are closed. Images of realistic plants, animals, birds, and fish and numerous abstract anthropomorphic creatures persist in memory, even though even to experts, some of the forms and meanings are incomprehensible today. I was particularly struck by the comparison between the images on the pottery and the shapes of the Nasca Lines, which Proulx has also studied. I poured over the reconstructions with a sense of real excitement.

I was fascinated with how Proulx created this incredible collection of images. 45 years ago as a student he was hired to catalog a collection of Peruvian artifacts. He continued his interest by photographing Nasca collections throughout Peru and the United States as well as key museum collections in Germany and Great Britain. He added all of the images he found in books as well as museum collections available on the Internet. He then digitized the entire archive and now has approximately 24,000 images in an electronic archive representing pieces from over 150 museums and private collections. There is no doubt that this book, and the conclusions Proulx reaches, are based on the largest collection of Nasca images ever assembled.

As a consumer, I asked myself, so why, oh why doesn't this book include an CD containing all of these images? It would be so much fun to search and compare images from several different pages, and perhaps even find a connection that Proulx had missed.

His answer, also perfectly comprehensible appears on his excellent website [Google "Donald A. Proulx"]: "It has always been my desire to share my archive with other scholars until I realized the legal prohibitions of distributing the disks. I would have to obtain permission from over 200 sources to be able to do this. I also discovered that the file names that I generated on my Macintosh computer are not all compatible with PCs, and many of these names would have to be modified to be used on these other operating systems."

I am very disappointed that I can't play with these images on my own computer. Nevertheless, the book is a treasure. As a lover of art and a student of how art is integrated into culture, I was enchanted. I'll return to these images over and over again.

Robert C. Ross 2008

For those captivated by ancient Andean imagery Don Proulx's A Sourcebook of Nasca Ceramic Iconography provides an indispensable guide to the colourful world of the Nasca. Located on Peru's south coast in the first centuries A.D., Nasca potters left a visual account of their world view in an astounding array of depictive designs. Drawing on forty years of study, Proulx offers the first comprehensive catalogue of Nasca motifs, along with his own identifications and interpretations. In addition to the motif catalogue, Proulx provides the most extensive description of the nine-phase Nasca pottery sequence ever published in one place. This contribution alone makes this book a "must have" reference. The Sourcebook also contains Proulx's own overview of Nasca culture, covering special topics such as religion, subsistence, daily life, material culture, and dwellings. A Sourcebook of Nasca Ceramic Iconography is destined to be a standard reference for generations to come. It represents the crowning achievement of Proulx's long and distinguished career, though not, we hope, the last we hear from Don Proulx.

...antique chest just opened. Cole Swenson's poetry in this book is so thoroughly modern in its fullness of experimentation & in its valuing of history. It is set in 15th century France, & proceeds through its setting with such musical unique poesy, innovative writing at every carefully crafted unpredictable turn--

The flickering images that construct these poems build in intensity and beauty throughtout. By the end of the book, the reader is transported to a world in which all feels strangely new, yet historically rich at the same time. Each poem hits a different emotional register, from the tragic to the humerous, with wonder and amazement dominating, all done up in intricate off-rhymes and complex rhythms that are unlike anything anyone else is writing these days.

This is a wonderful book to evoke those bygone memories. The pictures bring back so many memories from my own childhood years. The writing just ties it all together and transports you back in time. It stimulates thoughts and feelings from a simpler and slower paced time. Very enjoyable. Makes for good conversation with family and friends from the past! Loved It!!!!!!!!!

I received this book as a Fathers Day gift and once I opened it, I did not put it down until I read it and looked at all the pictures.
Since I was born in 1929 in a small Pennsylvania town, I couldn't help remembering seeing and playing with similar people that were depicted in the book. During that era, in the early forties, I delivered meats and groceries on a bicycle for the local store. The food prices reflected in the pictures, brought back memories of the cost of those groceries. A family of five, was able to live on $10 to $15 dollars a week food bill.
This book is a legacy to the life of Everett Kuntz
Jack Vax