Guest blogsLeave a comment

Banned books, limited literacy

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Lisa Catherine Harper, author of A Double Life: Discovering Motherhood, wrote a guest blog for Huff Post Parents. In her post, she discusses banned books and what affects those have on children. When talking about one of her son’s favorites, Captain Underpants, she writes,” The problem is not really the appropriate — or inappropriateness — of Pilkey's world. The problem is much bigger: we limit our kids' literacy all the time.” One of her final points is that “It shouldn't matter what kids want to read. They should just read.” To read Harper’s full blog post, click here. Continue reading Banned books, limited literacy

In the NewsLeave a comment

The Big O’s big anniversary

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In the beginning of September, Sports Illustrated.com published an article discussing The Big O on revenue sharing and the current lockout debate in the NBA. Zach Lowe writes, “… the general issue of revenue sharing is clearly not new, and the players’ union forty years ago was arguing that revenue sharing, rather than cutting player salaries, could stabilize the league. Forty years later, the NBA still does not split gate receipts (something the NFL does), and every team gets to keep 100 percent of its local television revenues.” The Big O, written by Oscar Robertson, is his memoir of his … Continue reading The Big O’s big anniversary

EventsLeave a comment

What They Saved book launch

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What They Saved by Nancy K. Miller is about her discovery of a minuscule family archive: a handful of photographs, an unexplained land deed, a postcard from Argentina, unidentified locks of hair. Miller follows their traces from one distant relative to another, across the country, and across an ocean. Her story, unlike the many family memoirs focused on the Holocaust, takes us back earlier in history to the world of pogroms and mass emigrations at the turn of the twentieth century. Earlier this month, the book launch took place at Girls Write Now. Below is a photo from the event. … Continue reading What They Saved book launch

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Reviews and interviews

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This past weekend, The Circus of Dr. Lao by Charles G. Finney, was mentioned in the LA Times Book section as “a splendid fable of a miserable-looking little circus that visits a dusty Arizona town and leaves an unforgettable impression.” Click here to read the full review. Also earlier this week, UNP author John Schulian had a Q&A session with Lary Wallace of The Faster Times. Wallace introduced Schulian by listing great sports writers but then saying, “If I’m forgetting anyone, it’s because I’m eager to get to the writer with perhaps the purest talent of them all, the closet … Continue reading Reviews and interviews

AwardsLeave a comment

Nebraska Book Award winners

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The results are in and two UNP books have been named winners for the 2011 Nebraska Book Award! Lamb Bright Saviors by Robert Vivian won the Fiction Award, and Stolen Horses by Dan O'Brien won the Fiction Honor Award. Lamb Bright Saviors follows several troubled young men, a wandering preacher, and his young assistant, whose lives intersect for a few hours on a desolate Nebraska farmstead. Stolen Horses takes readers to McDermot, Nebraska, a pleasant, scenic western cattle town situated in the Pawnee River valley, as a local journalist uncovers a medical scandal epitomizing the problems facing the community. Award … Continue reading Nebraska Book Award winners

ExcerptsLeave a comment

Off the Shelf: Sometimes They Even Shook Your Hand by John Schulian

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Schulian Read the beginning of the Introduction from Sometimes They Even Shook Your Hand: Portraits of Champions Who Walked Among Us by John Schulian:

"In an age when it seems that no royal perk is enough for the athletes who have been crowned our heroes, the helicopter that whisks Kobe Bryant to the Lakers’ home games strikes me as more practical than self-indulgent. After all, the drive from his manse can take as long as two hours, even in a Lamborghini. What better reason to fly over the traffic jams that snarl the sprawling mess of Los Angeles, where his name and likeness are indelible in every subdivision and strip mall? L.A. is his kingdom, and a kingdom must be a hard thing to ignore when it is yours, but still I hope Kobe looks beyond it once in a while. I hope he looks until he sees the past.

Continue reading “Off the Shelf: Sometimes They Even Shook Your Hand by John Schulian”

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Q & A with H. Lee Barnes

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Today, Time Magazine Online posted a Q & A with author H. Lee Barnes about his new book, When we Walked above the Clouds. In the Q & A, Lee discusses what he learned during Vietnam, what drove him to write book, and about the relevance of the book with today’s fighting in Afghanistan.   When asked what lessons he learned in Vietnam, Lee answered this way: "I learned the value of humility and that heroism, in order to be recognized, requires both a substantial act and witnesses to verify it, but courage is the simple act of pulling on a … Continue reading Q & A with H. Lee Barnes

UncategorizedLeave a comment

Off the Shelf: Bohemian Girl by Terese Svoboda

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Svoboda Read the beginning of Chapter 1 from Bohemian Girl by Terese Svoboda:

"Pa lost me on a bet he could not break, nor would, having other daughters to do for, and other debt besides. The bet with the Indian—really a race, Pa liked any kind of bet—was who could walk first to the mouth of this river that flows so flat into the distance that the eye starts to water following it. Too thick to drink, too thin to plow, he says every time we cross it. My Pa traps and knows the land but maybe not so much the river, or maybe he stopped to take refreshment the way he does and got himself confused because that bet was not won although he and the Indian spent most of one winter chasing the river down, with the Indian squat at the mouth by the time Pa showed.

Continue reading “Off the Shelf: Bohemian Girl by Terese Svoboda”

EventsLeave a comment

Ted Kooser celebration

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Last Friday, University of Nebraska-Lincoln libraries hosted a celebration for Ted Kooser at the Van Brunt Visitors Center. Ted recently donated a collection of manuscripts, journals, workbooks and correspondence from 1966-2010 to the libraries. Ted Kooser has published many books with UNP such as Valentines, Local Wonders and The Blizzard Voices, just to name a few. University and community members gathered to celebrate Ted's work and to thank him for his donation.  UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman introduces Ted at the celebration.  Ted Kooser addresses the crowd. All photos courtesy of the University Libraries. Continue reading Ted Kooser celebration

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Baseball book sale

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As MLB teams start to clinch playoff spots, UNP is getting in the baseball spirit with a sale! Now you can get baseball titles for 25 percent off. 1921: The Yankees, the Giants, and the Battle for Baseball Supremacy in New York by Lyle Spatz and Steve Steinberg captures the crucial moment in the history of baseball, telling the story of a season that pitted the New York Yankees against their Polo Grounds landlords and hated rivals, John McGraw’s Giants, in the first all–New York Series and resulted in the first American League pennant for the now-storied Yankees’ franchise. Today … Continue reading Baseball book sale