Books

How Winter Began by Joy Castro

Recommendation from NBC News:

“The startling range of these 28 stories (many of them, at two pages, poignant examples of flash fiction) bring depth and dimension to the complex lives of women, mostly Latina and mostly working class. Castro’s compressed narratives are as fulfilling as the longer stories and their purpose is to mine the rich interior of women whose roles in society are usually overlooked, whose voices are seldom heard. A stand-out story is ‘Independence Day,’ a piece of historical fiction based on the little-known life of Josefa Segovia, whose lynching in 1851 was the first recorded hanging of a woman in California.”

Waterman by David Davis

Review in the Wall Street Journal:

“Mr. Davis tells the somewhat melancholy story of Duke’s later years with great sensitivity and tenderness. And he does more: He reminds us that this majestic and kindly man was, above all else, a Hawaiian—a personification of the still-revered “aloha” spirit of the islands, which has become so egregiously adulterated by those who have turned Waikiki, and much else in Hawaii (the west end of Maui most notably), into such displeasing sinks of vulgarity and gaudiness.”

 “This fine book—bravely put out not by a major New York publisher, or even by one in Hawaii, but by sensible and sensitive souls in Lincoln, Neb., where they know little of surf or even of the sea—is a step in the right direction.”

A Scientific Way of War by Ian C. Hope

Praise from Civil War Books and Authors:

“A Scientific Way of War is a well researched and keenly argued defense of the nineteenth century U.S. army officer corps against historical charges of narrowly limited education and military dilettantism. Instead, the picture author Ian Hope paints of West Pointers is one of broadly knowledgeable and highly professional officers well adapted to the traditional social and political boundaries uniquely applied to America’s budding military power. It also inspires an even greater appreciation of West Point graduate, theorist and instructor Dennis Hart Mahan, who left an indelible stamp on military science and the academy. This study is highly recommended to any reader interested in the early development of the U.S. army.”

Nebrasketball by Scott Winter

Review from the Lincoln Journal Star:

“Winter used his unlimited access to the program to focus upon the coaches, players and fans’ interrelated personalities as they traversed the long season together . . . The result is a fascinating glimpse into the forces that have molded Coach Tim Miles into a driven individual who has risen from a modest beginning into the upper echelon of a most competitive occupation.”

Authors

Witness by Josephine Waggoner

Edited by Emily Levine

The American Historical Association awarded Emily Levine the J. Franklin Jameson Award for excellence in editing primary sources.

She Can Bring Us Home by Diane Kiesel

Excerpt published in Women’s eNews.

Cheated by Jay M. Smith and Mary Willingham

Congressional Briefing from co-author Mary Willingham.