All About Books

Take a trip back to Renaissance Italy and into the family at the center of everything. A new novel by best-selling author Maggie O’Farrell offers a fictional take on a teenage girl who married into the d’Medici family- “The Marriage Portrait”

Pat Leach talks with Clark Whitehorn, Senior Editor with the University of Nebraska Press about which books he thinks best describe our state.

More holiday gift suggestions but this time aimed at younger readers. Vicky Wood, Youth Services Coordinator at Lincoln City Libraries brings suggestions for kids of different ages.

The annual Holiday Gift Guide for book lovers airs this week on "All About Books." Special guest Leslie Huerta of "Francie and Finch" book store has suggestions in many categories including: novels, memoirs and history as well as titles for people with an interest in birds, engines or ancient Egypt.

Nebraska journalist, George Ayoub, has written a biography of Omaha World Herald CEO John Gottschalk. Hear an interview with the author about the research and writing of “Confluence: John Gottschalk’s Life or Duty, Service and the Business of News.”

In 1873, a small community in south eastern Kansas made a grisly discovery. Buried in the cabin cellar and property of a family of homesteaders, were the remains of countless bodies. The book, “Hell’s Half Acre: The Untold Story of the Benders, a Serial Killer Family on the American Frontier” traces the mystery that fascinated the nation after the Civil War.

After the Korean War a medical doctor leaves his homeland for rural Minnesota where he works at a hospital living the quiet, American dream for 50 years. Then, a letter arrives from Korea which may expose the lie the doctor’s life was built upon. “The Evening Hero” is a new novel by Marie Myung-Ok Lee.

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.