Fall books are starting to arrive in the University of Nebraska Press offices, and, very soon, they will begin arriving in bookstores and in libraries, too. I have a big stack on my desk right now: pristine covers with beautiful, modern designs, smooth pages, straight spines. They smell new, too, like crisp, clean paper and a little bit of glue. I am admiring them as I write. And I figured that now, with these new books in plain sight, would be a good time for a preview of our small season. A small sampling of what’s to come this fall: … Continue reading Fall Preview

Today is the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11’s lunar landing. The University of Nebraska Press (as previously mentioned on this blog) is the publisher of the Outward Odyssey series, which chronicles the evolution of spaceflight. One of the books in this series, In the Shadow of the Moon, chronicles the early days of the space race with Russia through the July 20, 1969 moon landing. I love this book. It’s fast-paced and suspenseful and full of interviews with astronauts, their families, and others instrumental in reaching the moon. It’s also a wealth of moon-landing trivia including: – The average age … Continue reading That’s one small step for man…

The University of Nebraska Press title In the United States of Africa made a summer reading list put together by Public Radio International program The World. Here’s the description of In the United States of Africa that The World posted on its Web site: "In the United States of Africa by Abourahaman A. Waberi. Translated from the French by David and Nicole Ball. University of Nebraska Press. Waberi, a French-speaking African writer, makes expert use of an acidic satiric set-up worthy of Swift. History has reversed itself: millions flee the poverty of the United States and Europe for the prosperity … Continue reading Speaking of summer reading lists…

  Select University of Nebraska Press titles that lend themselves well to lazy afternoons of summer reading are on sale through August 15. Titles on sale include novels Jackalope Dreams, Because a Fire was in my Head and The Plain Sense of Things, as well as adventure and travel memoirs including Kayaking Alone, Bicycling Beyond the Divide and Searching for Tamsen Donner. Also on sale is How to Cook a Tapir, a book I’ve been meaning to blog about all summer. How to Cook a Tapir is the story of author Joan Fry’s year in Belize. Fry was a 20-year-old … Continue reading The UNP’s summer reading list, on sale

The British Open, believed to be the most challenging tournament in professional golf, begins tomorrow on the Ailsa Course at Turnberry, Scotland. It was on this course in 1977, that a legendary Duel in the Sun took place, which has spurred articles recounting the famous match to pop up all over the place, (this one, for example).   In 2005, the University of Nebraska Press published a book about this head-to-head golf championship titled, aptly, Duel in the Sun. During the famous match, Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus battled over the last thirty-six holes with Watson winning with a closing birdie. … Continue reading Duel in the Sun

On this day in history, 1930, the first World Cup matches took place in Montevideo, Uruguay. Interestingly, many of the best teams didn’t even compete in the tournament – Europe was in a depression, and many European players opted not to take time off work to play, for fear that their jobs would no longer be theirs upon return. The final match was played on July 30, and Uruguay won, beating Argentina 4-2. The Global Game, edited by John Turnbull, Thom Satterlee, and Alon Raab, is a collection of writers’ reflections on the game of soccer, which, unlike that first … Continue reading This day in history

As I was perusing some book blogs this morning, I stumbled across this essay on The Millions about the process (and the mystery) of designing a book jacket. First-time novelist Sonya Chung writes that when it came time to offer input on the cover of her book, she didn’t know what to say other than that she didn’t want the cover to be too literal or to be a montage of fans, cranes, cherry blossoms and other stereotypical images associated with Asian culture. She loved image the book jacket designer sent to her – a woman taking a photograph of … Continue reading Judging books by their covers

It was on July 20, 1969 that astronaut Neil Armstrong, a member of the Apollo 11 spaceflight mission, stepped foot on the moon. To mark this historic event, newspapers are asking readers to write in sharing their memories of the moon landing, television stations will rebroadcast footage of Armstrong’s space stroll, and the University of Nebraska Press is offering 25 percent off our spaceflight titles, including those in our popular Outward Odyssey series. Among the sale books is A Journal for Christa, Christa being Christa McAuliffe, the “Teacher in Space” aboard the Challenger shuttle that exploded in 1986. A Journal for Christa was … Continue reading Spaceflight on sale!