Prairie Lights Books and Cafe

True a Iowa City experience

I love visiting independent bookstores when we travel. There's no better way to get a feel for the community. I loved how the store was laid out. All staff was very helpful, even some staff members that weren't on the clock.

I saw a lot of books I had not seen on shelves before. There was a great selection even though this isn't a giant store.

Seek this place out if you're in downtown Iowa City. (Cafe area looked cool... just didn't have time to explore everything...but did buy books!)

Such a cute, unique spot to drink coffee and enjoy company or a good book! Workers are super sweet and helpful. Loved the plants, too!

Love the book portion but the cafe is always extremely slow. I went in on 6/6 and there was just two of us, it took about 8 mins for a barista to come from the back with headphones on just to get our order.

Love this bookstore! Has great author talks, huge variety of books, coffee shop is great!

Nice book store!

The cafe upstairs has some of the best coffee in town and showcases local artists! Fantastic tea options and great matcha as well. I would not recommend their chai, but everything else is very good with pastries fresh from Deluxe bakery. The book store also has a lot of great options!

This isn’t a safe space for people with disabilities. It’s the owner, not the building.

Discrimination isn’t good for business.

Don’t let the wheelchair lifts fool you - the owner is deeply ableist. If you care about people with disabilities, please don’t support this business.

The owner kicked my disabled brother out of her store because “she is the owner and is allowed to kick whomever off her property” there was no problem behaviors from my brother or anything that could be interpreted as bad besides visibly having autism

Everything about Prairie Lights is perfect. Their cafe is incredibly cozy—with window seats, an array of tables, and aesthetically pleasing decor. Also! Their pain au chocolate is absolutely delicious. Their coffee is also quite good which is something you don’t always get from a cafe + bookstore.

Prairie lights hosts a variety of author readings and other literary events, shining light on renowned and upcoming authors!

Their book selection is also top tier. They always line the shelves with recently released books—and not just those by popular authors (like what is seen in chain bookstores). You can tell that the employees genuinely love reading and stay up to date with all of the recent additions to the literary world.

Also!!! They have one of the best collections of poetry I’ve come across. A lot of bookstores don’t carry a lot of poetry, but this isn’t the case for Prairie Lights.

I previously left a review, but I am now editing it.

This is my favorite place in Iowa city. The ambience is family-like, they have a great book selection and the people that work there are friendly.

The coffee shop has a great mocha and capuccino. Last time I went, they had an amazing cheese croissant? I believe. Not sure, but really enjoyed. it

Best place to find books. Independent, terrific knowledgeable staff. Can order books of for some reason not available

What a gem of a store. Came for college visits and my family fell in love with it. Great staff, great location.