The 2022 All Iowa Reads selections were announced on Iowa Public Radio’s Talk of Iowa program with host Charity Nebbe. Nebbe was joined by All Iowa Reads committee member Jillian Rutledge of the Waterloo Public Library to announce the title for adults; and Tegan Beese, Youth Services Consultant at the State Library and head of the All Iowa Reads teen and kid committees, to announce the titles for teens and kids.
Established in 2003, the All Iowa Reads program is one of the first projects to be provided by the Iowa Center for the Book. The purpose of All Iowa Reads is to foster a sense of unity through reading. We encourage Iowans statewide to come together in their communities to read and talk about a single book title in the same year. Libraries, book clubs, schools, and other local organizations are encouraged to sponsor discussions of the title.
2022 All Iowa Reads
The Butterfly Effect: a novel by Rachel Mans McKenny
A Man Called Ove meets The Rosie Project in this “delightfully off-kilter” (Rachel Yoder, Nightbitch) tale of a grumpy introvert, her astonishing lack of social skills, and empirical data-driven approach to people and relationships. The Butterfly Effect is an unconventional tale of self-discovery, navigating relationships, and how sometimes it takes stepping outside of our comfort zone to find what we need the most.
2022 Teen All Iowa Reads
What I Carry by Jennifer Longo
“Dubbed not only a necessary book — [but] a charming, honest, and hopeful one by A Heart in a Body in the World author Deb Caletti, Longo’s What I Carry centers on Muiriel, a self-described “foundling” approaching her 18th birthday in the foster-care system. She has become an expert at moving, because she’s bounced around to nearly two dozen foster homes. With her emancipation from the system on the horizon, Muiriel just needs to keep herself out of trouble until her birthday. But when her home city of Seattle can’t place her anywhere, Muiriel is shipped off to a remote island in the Puget Sound, where she finds people who complicate, and may heal, her personal philosophy against attachments. And she may find a home at last.” – BUSTLE
The 2022 Kids All Iowa Reads
The Lonely Heart of Maybelle Lane by Kate O’Shaughnessy
Perfect for readers who enjoyed the bittersweet tenderness of Kate DiCamillo’s Raymie Nightingale and the road trip fun of Ingrid Law’s Savvy, Kate O’Shaughnessy’s debut middle grade novel, The Lonely Heart of Maybelle Lane, follows a girl who sets out on the adventure of a lifetime to enter a singing competition and—she hopes—meet her father, one of the competition’s judges, for the first time.
