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A list of summer reading lists

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You know that summer has truly arrived once every major media outlet (and a whole bunch of minor media outlets, too) has published its summer reading list. I’ve already taken a stab at creating a summer reading list out of University of Nebraska Press titles, and today I thought I’d offer UNP blog readers a roundup of summer reading lists featuring titles published by presses other than ours. I begin with none other than Oprah. Oprah’s list includes 25 titles that are a mix of mystery, literature, poetry and memoir. Some titles are brand new; others are classics. It is one … Continue reading A list of summer reading lists

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Louise Pound, Pie-A-Palooza and Michael Jackson, too

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Today is the first day of a short but busy week here at the University of Nebraska Press. Tomorrow (Tuesday) evening is a launch party for our book Louise Pound: Scholar, Athlete, Feminist Pioneer, which is (as the title implies) a biography of linguist and notable Nebraskan Louise Pound. The book launch party, which happens to coincide with Louise Pound’s birthday, is at the Antlers Center, at the corner of Sheridan Boulevard and South Street here in Lincoln, from 5 to 7 p.m. Bonus: Some of Pound’s athletic equipment – including skates, golf clubs and tennis racquets – will be … Continue reading Louise Pound, Pie-A-Palooza and Michael Jackson, too

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Off the Shelf: Youth and the Bright Medusa by Willa Cather

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Youth and the Bright Medusa cover image Read from "Coming, Aphrodite!" in the Willa Cather Scholarly Edition of Youth and the Bright Medusa:

"Don hedger had lived for four years on the top floor of an old house on the south side of Washington Square, and nobody had ever disturbed him. He occupied one big room with no outside exposure excepton the north, where he had built in a many-paned studio window that looked upon a court and upon the roofs and walls of other buildings. His room was very cheerless, since he never got a ray of direct sunlight; the south corners were always in shadow. In one of the corners was a clothes closet, built against the partition, in another a wide divan, serving as a seat by day and a bed by night. In the front corner, the one farther from the window, was a sink, and a table with two gas burners where he sometimes cooked his food. There, too, in the perpetual dusk, was the dog’s bed, and often a bone or two for his comfort.

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New from Ted Kooser….

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I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned on this blog that Ted Kooser – Pulitzer Prize winner, former U.S. Poet Laureate, and all around writer extraordinaire – has a new book coming out in September. But I don’t know that I’ve mentioned any details of this book, and now is as good a time as any. When Ted Kooser was a little boy, he spent lots of time with his grandparents – his mother’s parents – in the small Iowa town where they lived. His grandfather owned a gas station, and other aunts and uncles lived simple lives on small farms outside … Continue reading New from Ted Kooser….

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An online puzzle, subject of a UNP book on the Daily Show, and a facinating story about an astronaut-turned-painter

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I learned via today’s PW Morning Report that Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown’s new mystery book will be promoted with a series of online puzzles. This Web site says the puzzles are “bound to intrigue us as much as any of his mystery novels.” We shall see. In University of Nebraska Press news, former Boston Celtics star and basketball legend Bill Russell was on the Daily Show the evening before last, promoting his new book. The UNP is not the publisher of Russell’s book, but it is the publisher of The Dandy Dons, which tells the story of Russell … Continue reading An online puzzle, subject of a UNP book on the Daily Show, and a facinating story about an astronaut-turned-painter

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More Twitter news, four haiku (haikus)

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In today's round of Twitter news, two teenagers have sold a book titled Twitterature: The World's Greatest Books, Now Presented in Twenty Tweets or Less. Here’s a link to the Media Bistro story on the book. In honor of this book, here's are four (even shorter!) descriptions of UNP titles, presented in haiku form:  A Lantern in her Hand Pioneer dreams bigMarries, has children, lives lifeChildren live her dreams The Madness of March: Bonding and Betting with the Boys in Las VegasGather in VegasWatch sports, place bets, eat, drink, sleepReturn home poorer Little Pancho: The Story of Tennis Legend Pancho SeguraPoor kid plays tennisAlmost becomes huge starLater, … Continue reading More Twitter news, four haiku (haikus)

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Short stories on Twitter, short stories on recommended reading list

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This story on PW Online, contains the quote “everyone pretty much agrees that publishing is broken but we keep doing the same things over and over." Among the possible fixes for the broken publishing industry, the article continues, is Twitter. Twitter, as everyone knows, is a quick way to get the word out about events, reviews, interviews and, of course, books themselves. But it’s also a way to, for instance, share a chapter of Ulysses with the masses, as a Boston Tech professor has done. We here at the University of Nebraska Press haven’t jumped on the Twitter bandwagon just … Continue reading Short stories on Twitter, short stories on recommended reading list

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Off the Shelf: The Lie Detectors by Ken Alder

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Lie Detectors cover image Read from Chapter 1, "Science Nabs Sorority Sneak", from The Lie Detectors: The History of an American Obsession by Ken Alder:

"The case had all the signs of an inside job. One of the ninety young women in College Hall was a sneak thief. For several months, someone had been filching personal possessions from the rooms of her dorm sisters: silk underthings, registered letters, fancy jewelry, cash. It was the springtime of the Jazz Age in 1921, and young women were returning to the boardinghouse on the campus at Berkeley to find their evening gowns spread out on their beds, as if someone had been sizing them up. A sophomore from Bakersfield had been robbed of $45 she had hidden inside a textbook; a freshman from Lodi lost money and jewelry valued at $100; and Margaret Taylor, a freshman from San Diego, could not find her diamond ring worth $400—though she wondered whether she had simply misplaced it.

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Remembering Helen Boosalis

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As we reported earlier this week on this blog, Helen Boosalis, longtime political fixture in Nebraska and former Lincoln Mayor, died earlier this week after battling a brain tumor. She was 89 years old. Helen’s memorial service is this morning, and KOLN/KGIN has posted several videos of notable Nebraskans remembering Helen’s contributions to Lincoln and beyond. My favorite of the videos is of Beth Boosalis Davis, Helen’s daughter and biographer, remembering her mother. Continue reading Remembering Helen Boosalis

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One to watch for: My Men by Malika Mokeddem

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I spent much of last night reading My Men, by Malika Mokeddem, a book that the University of Nebraska Press will publish this fall. I only picked this book up because I thought I should do a better job of reading our translation titles – it’s not something I would have read if I didn’t work here. But very quickly, I was completely sucked in. Malika Mokeddem grew up in Algeria, a place where boys are so favored over girls that Mokeddem’s father referred to his sons as “my sons” and his daughters as belonging only to his wife. Mokeddem … Continue reading One to watch for: My Men by Malika Mokeddem