All About Books

This week’s guest isn’t an author or reviewer but a listener. Dan Nieman from South Sioux City wrote in with good suggestions for the “One Book – One Nebraska" series. He’ll be on this week offering several contemporary novels which capture Nebraska best for him.

A good portion of the reading world always looks forward to the next novel from Alexander McCall Smith. You can also count as a fan this week’s guest reviewer, Vicky Wood. She and host Pat Leach have both read his latest Isabel Dalhousie story called, “The Sweet Remnants of Summer”

In the novel “Sleepwalk” the main character is a man who exists off the grid with no significant relationships. His life of wandering doing shady jobs for a ruthless organization is interrupted by a call on his burner phone from a young woman claiming to be his daughter. A review of this novel of intrigue by Dan Chaon..

Named the best book of 2021 by almost every outlet, “How the Word is Passed” by Clint Smith is a tour of the landmarks that tell the story of how slavery has been central in shaping this nations collective history and identity.

This week Pat Leach looks into the world of business innovation with guest Brian Ardinger Director of Innovation at Nelnet and the author of a new book on navigating disruption, "Accelerated: a Guide to Innovating at the Speed of Change."

In the summer of 1959 a Baltimore family take their first and last family vacation. Best-selling author Anne Tyler’s new novel “French Braid” is both heartbreaking and hilarious.

Early in the Pandemic a woman leaves Manhattan to shelter in a small Maine town with her ex-husband. The couple’s complex past is forced upon them trapped in a small house by the swirling sea. “Lucy by the Sea” by Elizabeth Strout

Pulitzer Prize–winning author of “All the Light We Cannot See”, Anthony Doerr’s new novel is “Cloud Cuckoo Land” An inventive and uplifting novel about children becoming young adults in times of peril.

In 1996 two women who were experienced outdoor leaders didn’t return from a week’s remote camping in Virginia. Park rangers found them brutally murdered in their sleeping bags. Journalist and outdoor expert Kathryn Miles discovered many problems with the investigation. “All About Books” has a review of her book “Trailed: One Woman’s Quest to Solve the Shenandoah Murders”

Ted Wheeler- writer, bookseller and college professor from Omaha joins “All About Books” host Pat Leach to talk about contemporary writers and how they describe this region. As part of the ongoing series, “This is Nebraska- Book That Tell Our Story” Wheeler will discuss contemporary authors writing about Nebraska today.

If you have a grammar question, Ellen Jovin is the person to ask. She’s traveled to every state where she sets up a card table on the street, inviting people to bring her their grammar questions. These language adventures became a book, "Rebel with a Clause: Tales and Tips from a Roving Grammarian” Hear an interview with the author

It’s opening day of deer season for a small farming community in Nebraska and a teenage girl goes missing. That’s the setting for this year’s winner of the Edgar Award for best new mystery novel, “Deer Season” by Erin Flanagan published by the University of Nebraska Press.

What book would you suggest to someone who’s never visited Nebraska to help them understand our state and its people? This week’s “All About Books” explores that question with special guest Ron Hull, Senior Advisor to Nebraska Public Media. It’s the first in a series called “This is Nebraska – Books that Tell Our Story”

100 years ago, Willa Cather wrote the novel “One of Ours” which won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature. This week “All About Books” welcomes Cather scholar Becky Faber to discuss the significance of the novel in its era and how modern readers might relate to it today.

Joy Harjo, the first Native American to serve as U.S. poet laureate. Her new memoir “Poet Warrior” reveals how she came to write poetry of compassion and healing while finding truth and demanding justice.

What’s the difference between a city and a community? What makes a place home? These topics are explored through the stories of people living in the Capitol City. It's all in a new book written by longtime Lincoln resident Randy Bretz. He’s the guest on this week’s “All About Books” where he introduces his book, “The People of Lincoln: The Framework of Community.”

Several generations of a family in rural New Mexico have both deeply layered relationships as well as their struggles. In the novel “The Five Wounds” by Kirstin Valdez-Quade shows the fragility and resilience of family.

Best-selling Nebraska author Mary Pipher didn’t plan on writing another book, until the Covid lock down forced an inspiration upon her. All About Books host Pat Leach sat down with Pipher to learn about her latest work which deals with loss and change over time while always seeking the light. Learn about “A Life in Light: Meditations on Impermanence” with Lincoln author Mary Pipher.

He was a self-taught musician from Syria who astonished the music world with his innovative technique on the double bass. With his new style, Francois Rabbath could play with ease what should have been impossible. UNL Professor of Double Bass and Jazz Studies Hans Sturm is the guest on this week’s All About Books where he’ll talk about his biography of Rabbath “75 Years on 4 Strings”

James Rebanks and his family have been farmers in England’s Lake District for generations. In his book “Pastoral Song” he tells how the global transformation of agriculture has impacted the environment and even the human relationship to the land. Learn about how this farmer is trying to restore the life that vanished from his small farm on

Nebraska State Poet Matt Mason joins “All About Books” host Pat Leach this week to introduce his new collection “At the Corner of Fantasy and Main” Disneyland is the touchstone for these poems where midlife and memories come together.

The 3 finalists for this year’s community reading event “One Book- One Lincoln” were announced this week. David Smith, the facilitator for the selection committee, joins Pat Leach to introduce each title and share why it’s a book definitely worth reading with others this summer.

Based on the life of a real woman cast out of the court of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Marie de France winds up in England in charge of an impoverished abbey. Lauren Groff’s latest novel, “Matrix” reveals the power of female creativity in a corrupted 12th century.

Suzanne Ohlmann was raised in Seward Nebraska, then traveled far away only to keep returning during her careers in singing and then nursing. As an adopted newborn, she had a shadow she needed to deal with. Hear an interview with Suzanne Ohlmann about this lifelong journey detailed in her book, “Shadow Migration: Mapping a Life.”

Winner of this year’s Pen/Faulkner award for Fiction, author Rabih Alameddine’s latest novel sees a Lebanese doctor arriving at a Syrian refugee camp to help. It's a portrait of ordinary people trapped in horrific circumstances. Hear a review of “The Wrong End of the Telescope”