I, Nadia, Wife of a Terrorist by Baya Gacemi “Stark, visceral, and disturbing, this biography tells the true story of the transformation of a naïve teenage into the wife of a brutal religious fanatic. . . . Many books have been written about the terrorist mind, but few explore the psychology of the civilians who make the terrorist way of life possible.  . . . Both Gacemi and her subject have taken a brave step in telling this story.”—ForeWordRead More Praise for I, Nadia, Wife of a Terrorist Continue reading More Praise for I, Nadia, Wife of a Terrorist

The Mover of Bones by Robert Vivian “Nebraska native Vivian uses the spare, vivid language of a playwright. . . . Readers who seek straightforward plotting in fiction may feel hijacked, but those who seek haunting prose and staccato insights into human nature from all levels of the socioeconomic spectrum will follow Breedlove’s journey willingly.”—Booklist Read More Praise for The Moverof Bones Continue reading More Praise for The Mover of Bones

Chuck Hagel: Moving Forward by Charlyne Berens “Readers keeping an eye on the next presidential election will appreciate this profile of a possible contender.”—Booklist Read More Praise for Chuck Hagel: Moving Forward Continue reading More Praise for Chuck Hagel: Moving Forward

The Question by Henri Alleg “The lessons of the French experience in Algeria came into play in 2003, when the Pentagon screened Gillo Pontecorvo’s classic 1965 film, The Battle of Algiers, for its special-operations chiefs as an example of the tactical use of torture and murder against terrorism. Now Henri Alleg’s incendiary little book, The Question, has been republished for the first time since 1958, with penetrating contextualization in the time of Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib by historians Ellen Ray and James D. Le Sueur.”—David Levi Strauss, Bookforum Continue reading Praise for The Question

The Blizzard Voices by Ted Kooser “In a collection that has been presented as reader’s theater, Kooser evokes the voices of different people–men, women, teachers, children–taken by surprise when the ‘Children’s Blizzard’ of 1888 swept across the Midwestern plains. . . . The book is short but powerful.”—Omaha World-Herald “It’s the little details that make the stories vivid. . . . In just 64 pages, Kooser brings the people of the great blizzard back to life. You can feel the chill in these pages, hear the voices as if you and the speaker are huddled next to the stove, talking … Continue reading Praise for The Blizzard Voices

During September, save 25% on our football books, including Steve Smith’s Confessions of a Cornhusker Football fan and the story of the game of the century. Browse our football books here. Continue reading Save 25% on UNP football books!

irst books of poetry are generally a miscellany. There are the poems for one’s parents, the love and sex poems, the first person narratives, the gestures at style and quirkiness. In recent years, more and more poetry books have appeared built around a theme or obsession–a lynching in Indiana, say, or the 76 definitions of the word "fall," the death of a sibling, a harrowing divorce. Poets with first books want to be fashionable too. The problem is, our poems were not often composed with a theme in mind at all, but were each conceived in a vacuum, as though … Continue reading Finding the Theme

he Mover of Bones by Robert Vivian is truly a book of biblical proportion in more ways
than one.  It is a book that speaks of life and death in such a poetic way, you almost feel as if you are in church listening to a sermon written solely to make you think about
your life and how big of a mess you’ve made of it, and how on Earth you are going to start to pull it together.

Each story in this book has its own truth, warning, moral, and gospel-like lesson to be extracted.  Chapters cover life, death, resurrection, homosexuality, sodomy, abortion, and everything that might come in between.  Vivian does not stand on either side of a drawn line on any of these topics, but he does present such a crystal-clear situation that you as a reader are made to think about how you feel.

Continue reading “A book of biblical proportion”

ell, it seems we’ve gone and put the science fiction category to shame! In my attempts to drag myself through the dark finale of Mary Shelley’s The Last Man, I seem to have killed my muse. It was either that or the guest pass to World of Warcraft and the flood of guests my own age distracting me from more mature pursuits.

No more apologies. Today, I step back to consider the lighter tales in science fiction, hopeful futures. My hopes for utopian visions in In the Days of the Comet by H.G. Wells were discouraged a bit by the introducer’s notes about the pessimistic, even murderous disposition of the main character. The pleasant old man in the tower in the prologue, however, turns out to be the same man. Instead of a first person account of the destruction of the world, Wells is still hopeful enough to give this character the vision and experience of a transformation that turns men into "angels."

Again, I borrow from the introducer, none other than Ben Bova, of his own science fiction fame. He, a more qualified judge of these things, also points out that Willie Leadford, is not the protagonist. The comet is.

Spoilers beyond what you can find on the back jacket follow…

Continue reading “Visions of Hope”