Women’s college basketball buzz

For all you basketball fans out there, on Saturday, Feb. 19 UConn and Notre Dame’s Women Basketball teams will be facing off once more. Why is this important? It is a reunion game of what was arguably the greatest game in the history of women's collegiate basketball. On March 6 of 2001, these two top women’s college basketball teams played each other for the Big East Tournament championship. UConn’s Sue Bird hit twelve-foot pull-up jumper at the buzzer over national player of the year Ruth Riley and it was the end of an epic contest between the teams. Bird at … Continue reading Women’s college basketball buzz

Off the Shelf: Valentines by Ted Kooser

Read "A Perfect Heart", a poem from Valentines by Ted Kooser: To make a perfect heart you take a sheetof red construction paper of the typethat’s rough as a cat’s tongue, fold it once,and crease it really hard, so it feelsas if your thumb might light up like a match, then choose your scissors from the box. I likethose safety scissors with the sticky bladesand the rubber grips that pinch a little skinas you snip along. They make you careful,just as you should be, cutting out a heart for someone you love. Don’t worry that your curvewon’t make a valentine; … Continue reading Off the Shelf: Valentines by Ted Kooser

Poems from an ex

Ever wonder what an ex thinks about you after the break-up? Lisa Harper, author of A Double Life: Discovering Motherhood, got an unexpected look into just that.  She wrote about the experience for the Poetry Foundation, and the piece has since been picked up by the Huffington Post, the Rumpus and elsewhere. A few years ago, Harper noticed that her ex-boyfriend had published a book of poetry, 15 years after they had broken up. Harper writes, “I bought a copy, partly out of curiosity, partly out of loyalty to a fellow writer and former friend.” It took her months to … Continue reading Poems from an ex

New book trailer

My Ruby Slippers: The Road Back to Kansas, by Tracey Seeley, is a memoir in which the author chronicles a series of visits over several years to her childhood home of Kansas.  Though Seeley left Kansas shortly after high school and redefined herself as a city girl, she discovered that even after decades away, she still felt a strong connection to the landscape — and people — from her past. Check out the book trailer below:   Continue reading New book trailer

In the media today

Arabs at War: Military Effectiveness, 1948-1991, by Kenneth M. Pollack, describes the military history of the key Arab states: Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Saudi Arabia and Syria. Pollack is a former Persian Gulf military analyst at the CIA and Director for Persian Gulf Affairs at the National Security Council. With the recent situation in Egypt, UNP has seen an uptick in sales of this book. Maybe in order to better understand the present, we must have more knowledge of the past. Today, President Hosni Mubarak prepared to address Egypt whose citizens have been protesting the governement the past three weeks. … Continue reading In the media today

Shout-outs and signings

UNP is all over the news this week… First off, tonight Paul Johnsgaurd, author of the brand-new book, Sandhill and Whopping Cranes (as well as many other University of Nebraska Press titles), will be at the University Bookstore in Lincoln for a reading and a signing at 7. Come out and support a local professor and author! The blog Our Man in Boston gave a shout-out to our Flyover Fiction Series. Flyover Fiction, edited by Ron Hansen, features contemporary fiction set on the Great Plains, a region located in the center of the country and referred to either sentimentally as … Continue reading Shout-outs and signings

Off the Shelf: Sandhill and Whooping Cranes by Paul A. Johnsgard

Johnsgard Read the beginning of Chapter 1, "Lesser Sandhill Cranes", from Sandhill and Whooping Cranes: Ancient Voices over America's Wetlands by Paul A. Johnsgard:

"There is a wonderful old tradition in some parts of Scandinavia, in which the children hang their stockings outside their houses during those days in early spring when the European common cranes first return from their wintering areas in France and Spain. Sometimes the children place an ear of corn or some other gift for the cranes, whose welcome voices and overhead flocks are the surest sign of spring and renewed hope for the future after enduring a long, unbearably dark and frigid Scandinavian winter.

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Steelers’ family dynasty

Fans from all over the country are gearing up for Super Bowl XLV, Packers v. Steelers. The Steelers have won the most super bowls out of any team, at a total of six. Pittsburgh is not only rich in championships but also in history. Art Rooney founded the Steelers in 1933 and ever since it has been a family operation. The current team president is Art Rooney II, with his dad, Dan Rooney, still maintaining his chairman position. Soon to be in paperback, Rooney: A Sporting Life by Rob Ruck, Maggie Jones Patterson and Michael P. Weber is a biography … Continue reading Steelers’ family dynasty

February sale

A collection of our books honoring Black History Month are on Sale! Save 25 % on books like, The Rhythm Boys of Omaha Central, which debutes in March, tells a true story about high school basketball, black awakening and rebellion, and innocence lost in a watershed year. The drama of civil rights in 1968 plays out in this riveting social history of sports, politics, race, and popular culture in the American heartland. For other books on sale and to get the discount code, click here. Offer expires Feb. 28. Continue reading February sale