‘Amazing Iowa’ author to share her story at SL Public Library

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The public is invited to an Author Talk with Michelle Sprout Murray, author of “Amazing Iowa: Great Tales and Curiosities from the Hawkeye State,” at the Storm Lake Public Library.

The free event is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 11, at 5 p.m. Book signing will be available.

“Amazing Iowa,” released earlier this year, is packed with fascinating facts, offbeat tales, quirky characters and unique places from around the state.

Michelle Sprout Murray has had a long career in higher education, including years as a career specialist at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake in the 1990s. She has been a longtime newspaper columnist, with a passion for theatre and travel. Currently she co-owns a popular Mason City ice cream parlor.

“I have lived in Iowa all my life, but I’ve also traveled extensively around the world. So many times people think the ‘grass is greener’ elsewhere,” she writes in the introduction to her debut book. “It turns out my home state is pretty, well, amazing (thus the title), and I had a ball finding out more about the very place I thought held no more surprises after all this time.

“For example, two astronauts had humble beginnings in Iowa. There’s also a woman who championed women’s suffrage all over the country and a man who wrote a musical about his tiny Iowa hometown that people in New York flocked to see. There are haunted places, sports heroes, and foods that will make you want to cross state lines to try. Miracles, legends, and the ordinary made extraordinary… this is what is amazing about Iowa.”

The Author Talk is sponsored by the Friends of the Library volunteer group, along with other library events and offerings.