Book cover of Storm Lake: Change, Resilience, and Hope in America's Heartland

Book description

"A reminder that even the smallest newspapers can hold the most powerful among us accountable."—The New York Times Book Review

Watch the documentary Storm Lake on PBS.

Iowa plays an outsize role in national politics. Iowa introduced Barack Obama and voted bigly for Donald Trump. But is it a bellwether…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Storm Lake as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

In Storm Lake, published in 2018, Pulitzer-winning editor, publisher, and author Art Cullen writes with passion, insight and humor about immigration, family, community and the history and future of this part of Iowa – and, to an extent, much of America.

His family’s newspaper, the Storm Lake Times Pilot, serves as a model for local coverage and investigative reporting in an era when hedge funds and out-of-town chains have left many parts of the country without newspapers or with “ghost papers,” shells of their former selves. 

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These Blue Mountains by Sarah Loudin Thomas,

A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.

German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…

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