This work is not just heartwarming;it is also instructive. A celebrated creative writer, Hildebrand...not only understands the Midwest and makes it understandandable to those who do not live here, but he also teaches midwesterners to be curious about and reflect on the richmeanings of their own lives. He conveys the honest emotions that are the heart of things. (Barbara J. Dilly, The Annals of Iowa)

Where the Heart of Things could easily veer into sentimentality, Hildebrand brings his prose back down to earth. He writes, "Every face within the campfire's glow belongs to someone I've known the better part of my life.I'd tell them how much they mean to me except it would spoil the mood, so I crack another beer instead." Emotional and restrained, humorous and solemn, open-minded and opinionated, this book is a complex  and charming as the Midwest itself. (Elizabeth Wyckoff, Wisconsin People & Ideas)

What impresses me most about The Heart of Things is Hildebrand’s power of observation, especially in those passages dealing with the natural
world— the vivid details with which he describes something as surprising as a snapping turtle in the road, for example, or as commonplace as lilacs
in a field; from the intricate patterns of deer or dobsonflies to fishing, before it “became a branch of applied electronics.” (Mark Vinz, Middle West Review)


...a beautiful book that I think every Wisconsinte should consider reading. With little fanfare and tons and tons of beautiful adjectives, Hildebrand shares his journeys of being so present in the moment I found it hard to stop reading...It's what brings this book together, the weaving of sight and sound, of water dripping off oars, eagle's wings taking flight, of a river flowing away, how the horizon sits low and hope is found in every sunrise.(Jay Gilbertson, Dunn County News)