Cornfed Librarian

From baseball to bridges, authors have found a bounty of fictional possibilities in the good Iowa dirt. Get in the mood for the NLS conference with a few of these titles:

The Bridges of Madison County
Robert J. Waller
When Robert Kincaid drives through the heat and dust of an Iowa summer and turns into Francesca Johnson's farm lane looking for directions, the world-class photographer and the Iowa farm wife are joined in an experience of uncommon truth and stunning beauty that will haunt them forever.

Gilead
Marilynne Robinson
As the Reverend John Ames of Gilead, Iowa approaches the hour of his own death, he writes a letter to his son chronicling three previous generations of his family, a story that stretches back to the Civil War and reveals uncomfortable family secrets.

Jasmine
Bharati Mukherjee
Jasmine, a young widow in India, moves to the United States to begin a new life, first in New York, then in ... Iowa.

Shoeless Joe
W.P. Kinsella
An Iowa insurance-agent-turned-farmer hears a voice telling him to build a baseball stadium in his cornfield. He does, of course. There, under the glow of the lights, he and a motley crew of fellow dreamers work out their redemption through the magic of love and baseball.

A Thousand Acres
Jane Smiley
Larry Cook owns a thousand acres of Iowa farmland that is unmortgaged and some of the richest soil around. At a party given in celebration of the return of Jess Clark, a local man, after an absence of thirteen years, Cook announces that he is retiring and dividing the land among his three daughters. But the gift soon begins to tear the family apart, and secrets, long hidden, begin to surface.