UncategorizedLeave a comment

This day in history: May 8

univnebpress

Happy Friday, UNP blog readers! It’s time for another edition of This Day in History, and this week’s featured historical occurrence is an interesting one. On this day in 1973, the second battle of Wounded Knee ended. From the New York Times that day: Wounded Knee, S.D., May 8 — The Second Battle of Wounded Knee ended Today. After 70 days, two deaths, numerous injuries, countless meetings, bureaucratic bickering and a last-minute gunfight, more than 100 militants lay down their arms and surrendered this occupied reservation town to wary Federal officials. Nearly 20 years after the occupation, which the NYT … Continue reading This day in history: May 8

UncategorizedLeave a comment

An assortment of Thursday news, including new Kindle, best books list and Louise Pound

univnebpress

I’m back in the office today, just in time for a post on the new large-screen Kindle, which was unveiled yesterday. This new Kindle would facilitate the reading of cookbooks, textbooks and newspapers, as well as just plain books. Publisher's Weekly Morning Report has helpfully compiled a list of reviews of the new Kindle, if you’re interested. Another link: NPR’s Dick Meyer has compiled a list of his favorite 100 novels of the 20th century. UNP authors Willa Cather and Wallace Stegner both have titles in the list, which was something Meyer began compiling years ago and has only recently … Continue reading An assortment of Thursday news, including new Kindle, best books list and Louise Pound

UncategorizedLeave a comment

Kokomo Joe author on NPR

univnebpress

Posting's been a little light this week because I've been out of town (and still am), but I wanted to post one big, exciting link from the road: UNP author John Christgau was on NPR's Only a Game this weekend, talking about his new book, Kokomo Joe. We knew this was coming up, and I posted about it last week, too. What I didn't realize was what a touching, compelling interview this would end up being. Listen here. More tomorrow, when I'm back in the office. Continue reading Kokomo Joe author on NPR

ExcerptsLeave a comment

Off the Shelf: Little Pancho: The Life of Tennis Legend Pancho Segura by Caroline Seebohm

univnebpress

Little Pancho cover image Read from Chapter 2 of Little Pancho: The Life of Tennis Legend Pancho Segura by Caroline Seebohm:

"Pancho returned home from Quito in the spring of 1938. He had been three months away from home, in the cool high altitude, playing tennis every day. When he appeared at the Guayaquil Tennis Club for the first time after his absence, it was clear he was transformed. Stronger, faster, fitter, he was playing brilliant tennis. He was also extremely competitive. When he played with the members, he played to win.

The club players were impressed. Some of them also realized their little Pancho could be of immense use to them. Coming up was the annual tennis tournament between Guayaquil and Quito. The two major cities in Ecuador historically enjoyed an intense political rivalry, and the tennis tournament was no different. It was a fiercely fought match that represented the most important championship in the country. This year a group of members of the Guayaquil Tennis Club decided they should invite Pancho to participate in the tournament.


Continue reading “Off the Shelf: Little Pancho: The Life of Tennis Legend Pancho Segura by Caroline Seebohm”

EventsLeave a comment

Marathons and sustainable agriculture in this extra-long Friday post

univnebpress

Happy Friday, UNP blog readers! This weekend is the Lincoln Marathon, and a number of University of Nebraska Press employees are running either the full or the half. Most years I’d be out there, too, but alas, I’ll be out of town this weekend, so instead I’ll have to settle for checking my friends’ and co-workers’ times online. Another good substitute for running the actual race, though, is Rachel Toor’s book, Personal Record, which the UNP published last year. Rachel captures the moments of euphoria, despair, crippling pain and relief that come with running a race that long. She also … Continue reading Marathons and sustainable agriculture in this extra-long Friday post

UncategorizedLeave a comment

Another day, another UNP author on NPR

univnebpress

What are you doing at 7 a.m. this Saturday? If you’re awake and live in Nebraska, be sure to check tune into 91.1 FM to hear John Christgau talk to Only a Game host Bill Littlefield about his new book, Kokomo Joe. Kokomo Joe, by the way, is about Yoshio Kobuki, the first Japanese-American Jockey. Kobuki rose to fame in the world of horse racing just as World War II was beginning – an era filled with racism, discrimination and far worse for Japanese Americans. Through Kobuki’s story, Christgau tells a larger story about what it meant to be Japanese-American during … Continue reading Another day, another UNP author on NPR

UncategorizedLeave a comment

A whole lotta NYT; also a whole lotta quilts

univnebpress

I begin today’s blog post with Google news: You may have heard about Google Book Search, which basically provides scans of books online for free, and the full text of certain books and collections for a fee. Some authors feel this violates copyright laws, and filed a class action suit against Google in 2005. And today, the Justice Department granted those authors opposed to Google Book Search a four-month extension to decide whether to opt out of Google Books Search, which some say means the Justice Department is taking the authors’ concerns seriously. New York Times story is here, and … Continue reading A whole lotta NYT; also a whole lotta quilts

UncategorizedLeave a comment

This Day in History

univnebpress

It’s been a while since I incorporated any historical milestones into this blog, and I felt it was high time. Hence today’s post. According to the History Channel Web site, on this day in history in 1967, Muhammad Ali was stripped of his heavyweight title after he refused to be inducted into the U.S. Army. Ali cited his Muslim beliefs as reason for his refusal. The University of Nebraska Press is the publisher of Ali’s biography, Sting Like a Bee: The Muhammad Ali Story, by Jose Torres. Torres himself was a famous boxer; he won an Olympic Silver Medal in … Continue reading This Day in History

UncategorizedLeave a comment

LA Times and New York Times

univnebpress

This weekend was the L.A. Times Book Festival, which featured dozens of panels, hundreds of authors and the University of Nebraska Press’s own Gabrielle Burton, author of Searching for Tamsen Donner. Burton was on a panel titled Memory: The Bigger Picture, an appropriate topic as Searching for Tamsen Donner recalls a life-changing trip Burton took with her husband and five daughters more than 30 years ago, during which they retraced the route of the Donner Party. The LA Times has a rundown on many of the other panels at the event, which included discussions about writerly guilt, the writer’s ear and … Continue reading LA Times and New York Times

ExcerptsLeave a comment

Off the Shelf: An Inside Passage by Kurt Caswell

univnebpress

An Inside Passage cover image Read a portion of "California Rental" from An Inside Passage by Kurt Caswell:

"Late summer blackberries are gone now. The vines have drawn their juices in. And the sunburned grass is oak-leaf strewn, brittle to my every step. Yellow jackets (people here call them “meat bees”) cluster like crabs between the window and the screen. And in this stillness waiting, it rains the first rain in weeks on the hour of the equinox.

I walk outside my rented house in the southern Cascade Mountains of northern California, inspecting the ground for black bear tracks near the woodpile; I thought I heard footsteps in the night. I find no bear sign in the rained-fresh earth but there, where reflected light redirects my eye, a small red toy car. I pick it up. It is dense and boxy, foreign and artificial. Who was the child who dropped this here? How long ago? Mother calling? Or haphazardly in pursuit of something else? What life passed through this place in a time just beyond my reach?

Continue reading “Off the Shelf: An Inside Passage by Kurt Caswell”