The National Grasslands by Francis Moul “[A]s this book shows, it might be wise to take a side trip to spend some hours in the total serenity of the National Grasslands. Moul writes with the passion and poetry needed to stimulate the traveler to look beyond the bold and the gaudy and see into the very heart of the American continent. The photographs by Georg Joutras are seductive enough to lure any traveler seeking a less hectic pace. . . . This book is the first to describe each of the National Grasslands in a manner that emphasizes their value … Continue reading Praise for The National Grasslands

Dining with Marcel Proust and Pampille’s Table by Shirley King “The At Table series published by the University of Nebraska Press provides several welcome additions to the culinary library. Shirley King’s Dining with Marcel Proust, first published in 1979, is a natural, given what even someone who has not read Proust knows about him: master of the evocative, sensory life and, of course, the source of that famous passage about those madeleines. . . . King has translated the work of one author spoken of with reverence by Proust: Marthe Daudet, author of the 1919 Les Bons Plats de France. … Continue reading Praise for Dining with Marcel Proust and Pampille’s Table

True to the Roots by Monte Dutton “The book’s golden.” —Booklist “True to the Roots is an engaging . . . account of Americana as it is lived today, a breezy read, evocative of the kinds of places many of us will never know.”—Music and Letters Continue reading Praise for True to the Roots

Baseball and the Media by George Castle “George Castle, the veteran Chicago sportswriter and host of the syndicated ‘Diamond Gems,’ has written a hard-hitting and insightful expose of the decline of serious reporting about baseball. . . . [A]n insider’s view of Chicago’s press boxes and a harsh indictment of sports/talk radio. It’s Castle’s eighth book—and his best yet.” —Robert Feder, Chicago Sun-Times “This is not a scholarly treatise. [Castle] quotes from other sportswriters, team media directors, and athletes, rather than academic statistics, which helps the average reader relate. . . . His most interesting analysis comes when he compares … Continue reading Praise for Baseball and the Media

Famous by Kathleen Flenniken “At some point in our lives, most of us come to realize that we aren’t going to play for the major leagues or star on the silver screen or win the Nobel Peace Prize, that the accretion over time of our choices and mistakes isn’t adding up to a life quite as dazzling as the one we originally might have envisioned. Nonetheless, we’re still more or less the authors of our lives, and rather than throw in the towel we have to keep moving—sometimes blundering ahead, sometimes taking interesting detours, and only occasionally pulling up with … Continue reading More Praise for Famous

Nocturnal America by John Keeble “Writers write about the same 10 things over and over. Love, hate, loyalty, betrayal, innocence, guilt, birth, death, hope, despair. . . . There’s nothing new to write about. In the wrong hands, stories can be too familiar. In the right hands, stories show us how we live. John Keeble’s hands are the right ones. . . . [I]n issues of craft, Keeble is first-rate.”—Ellen Slezak, Los Angeles Times Book Review Read More Praise for Nocturnal America Continue reading More Praise for Nocturnal America

maha, Nebraska native Tillie Olsen died on January 1, 2007.  She was 94. Tillie Olsen was a renowned feminist, activist, scholar, and writer.  Her most famous short stories, "I Stand Here Ironing” and “Tell Me a Riddle,” are widely anthologized and often taught.  She also recovered books written by unknown women writers, such as Rebecca Harding Davis’ Life in the Iron Mills, published by the Feminist Press.  Olsen began writing her novel Yonnondio: From the Thirties in the early part of the 1930s and published the first chapter in the Partisan Review in 1934, but the novel was not published … Continue reading A Goodbye to Nebraska Native and UNP Author Tillie Olsen