This Valentine’s Day, UNP’s Marketeers are talking about some favorite backlist books we love. Which ones have you read? 

Gang of One: Memoirs of a Red Guard

by Fen Shen

“I love this book because the author’s escape from China is riveting. I think I read the second half in one sitting because I couldn’t put it down. It makes you appreciate what you have and also helps you understand the oppression that people face in many parts of the world (and the lengths they’ll go to in order to escape it). We published this one years ago, and it has stuck with me since then.”—Erica Corwin

Prisoner of the Vampires of Mars

“Some will find it surprising that UNP publishes a series called Bison Frontiers of Imagination that offers classic works of science fiction and fantasy. Prisoner of the Vampires of Mars was published in 2015—it’s a translation of the early twentieth-century French science-fiction novellas The Prisoner of the Planet Mars and The War of the Vampires. Author Gustave La Rouge was an early writer of science fiction so if you love that genre (and vampires) you need to read this unabridged version.”—Rosemary Vestal

The Skylark of Space

by E. E. “Doc” Smith

“One of my favorite UNP books is another from the Bison Frontiers of Imagination Series. I loved it because it is a fantastic adventure story. It was just a lot of fun to read. One of those books that just doesn’t have a good place to put down.”—Rob Buchanan

The Need for the Bike

Paul Fournel
Translated and with an introduction by Allan Stoekl

“Fournel is a French publisher who has maintained a passionate devotion to cycling throughout his life, despite numerous accidents and mishaps. Cycling has helped him find words and meaning, eased him out of bouts of depression, and given his life joy. Exploring cycling ‘as a practice of life,’ his series of short vignettes address the myriad pleasures, and sometimes pains, of cycling. Although I’m more of a runner than a cyclist, his ranging explorations of the bike, body, and life, take me on a ride I still enjoy.”—Tish Fobben

Death Zones and Darling Spies: Seven  Years of Vietnam War Reporting

by Beverley Deepe Keever

“After finishing her journalism degrees, this Nebraska girl went on a tour of Asia, landing in Saigon in February of 1962. Sensing a story brewing, she stayed, starting a grassroots reporting campaign that lasted seven years (making her the longest continuous American war correspondent). She kept everything—notes to her assistant Phan Xuan An, daily military reports, invitations to parties, carbon copies of her articles. I know this because she donated everything to the UNL archives, where I used to work, after finishing this memoir. You can find some of her work that I transcribed here.” —Anna Weir

Painting from the Collection of the Sheldon Museum of Art

Edited by Brandon K. Ruud and Gregory Nosan

“I love this book mostly for the cover, which is one of my favorite paintings ever (‘Invocation’ by Lee Krasner). But also it’s a really beautiful catalog of the Sheldon’s extensive collection of paintings.” —Tayler Lord