University of Nebraska Press

Authors on camera

Wise Latinas
Writers on Higher Education
Edited and with an introduction by Jennifer De Leon

Yadires Nova-Salcedo interviewed Wise Latinas editor, Jennifer De Leon, on Friday, February 28, 2014. During the discussion, De Leon reveals her hopes for how Wise Latinas will influence the lives of young latina women.

Watch the interview:
Centro: Wise Latinas « CBS Boston

Read an excerpt from the book.

_________________________________________________________________ 

From POTOMAC BOOKS:

Tales from the Deadball Era
Ty Cobb, Home Run Baker, Shoeless Joe Jackson, and the Wildest Times in Baseball History
By Mark S. Halfon

On Friday, March 14, 2014, author Mark S. Halfon was interviewed by John Vorperian for Beyond the Game. Halfon discusses the attitudes of the players of the Deadball Era on and off the field.

Watch the interview:
Beyond the Game: Tales from the Deadball Era « White Plains Cable

 _________________________________________________________________

Seymour Hersh
Scoop Artist
By Robert Miraldi

Robert Miraldi discussed the research process for writing Seymour Hersh at the New York Public Library on January 28, 2014, and what he learned about Seymour Hersh, "the world's greatest reporter."

Watch the New York Library discussion:
Book TV: Seymour Hersh « C-SPAN2

_________________________________________________________________ 

Blinking Red
Crisis and Compromise in American Intelligence after 9/11
By Michael Allen

Amid the discussion of intelligence security in December 2013, MSNBC's "The Cycle" invited Michael Allen on the show. Allen was interviewed on his experiences within the intelligence community during the Bush administration.

Watch the clip:
The Cycle: Blinking Red « MSNBC

Review roundup

Billy "the Hill" and the Jump Hook
The Autobiography of a Forgotten Basketball Legend
By Billy McGill and Eric Brach
Reviewed in City Weekly

"Now, almost 50 years since fading from the cultural consciousness, McGill recounts his fame-to-rags-to-(spoiler alert)-eventual-middle-class-life in Billy “The Hill” and the Jump Hook: The Autobiography of a Forgotten Basketball Legend. It’s a fascinating story."
-Geoff Griffin

Read an excerpt from the book.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Young Widower
A Memoir
By John W. Evans
Reviewed on Booklist Online

"While the haunting account of the day Katie died is especially riveting, it is the unfolding and cathartic grieving process that underpins and elevates this heartbreaking tale."
-Margaret Flanagan

Read an excerpt from the book.
_______________________________________________________________________________

A Lenape among the Quakers
The Life of Hannah Freeman
By Dawn G. Marsh
Reviewed on Me, You, and Books

"More innovatively, she also raises questions, encouraging readers to image what took place or how Hannah Freeman might have felt as the conditions of her life shifted. In the process, Marsh is able to make Hannah come alive for readers."
-Marilyn Dell Brady

Read an excerpt from the book.
_______________________________________________________________________________

 The New Reform Judaism
Challenges and Reflections
By Rabbi Dana Evan Kaplan
Reviewed on Jewish Exponent

"Kaplan contends that as it stands now, it is essentially up to Reform Jews to decide these issues for themselves. That, he said, makes for a movement that is potentially in danger of implosion. He points to the bitter divisions that have developed within several liberal Christian denominations as a warning for what could happen to Reform Judaism."
-Bryan Schwartzman

Read an excerpt from the book.

Reviews and in the news roundup

Wheels Stop
The Tragedies and Triumphs of the Space Shuttle Program, 1986-2011
By Rick Houston with a foreword by Jerry Ross

"On each page you are transported further and further into the book and even though at first the book may seem long, you will find yourself flying through this and compelled to read even more (or at least I was)."
-Christopher Lewis

Read an excerpt from the book.
___________________________________________________________________

Author Interview:

Fried Walleye and Cherry Pie

Midwestern Writers on Food

Edited and with an introduction by Peggy Wolff

Eating the Midwestern Way-Talk of Iowa

"One thing Midwesterns do better than everyone else (or at least claim to do better than everyone else) is bake pie.  Host Charity Nebbe speaks with Peggy Wolff, editor of the new book Fried Walleye and Cherry Pie about Midwestern cuisine, culture and of course pie.  Iowa writers Jeremy Jackson and Mary Kay Shanley who contributed to the collection also join the conversation."
-"Eating the Midwestern Way" 

Read an excerpt from the book.

___________________________________________________________________

Michael and the Whiz Kids
A Story of Basketball, Race, and Suburbia in the 1960s
By John Christgau

"It is a tale of cliffhanger games and players as outsized in character as they are short in stature, from the wild-haired, bespectacled 'Professor' to the well-traveled Latvian dubbed 'Suitcase' to the quiet and tenacious 'Salt,' as in 'of the earth.'"
-Christopher Lewis

Read an excerpt from the book.
___________________________________________________________________
Author Interview:
Sovereign Screens
Aboriginal Media on the Canadian West Coast
By Kristin L. Dowell

Sovereign Screens

"Kristin L. Dowell uses the concept of visual sovereignty to examine the practices, forms, and meanings through which Aboriginal filmmakers tell their individual stories and those of their Aboriginal nations and the intertribal urban communities in which they work."
-Books on the Radio

Read an excerpt from the book.

___________________________________________________________________
Theresa Bernstein
A Century in Art
Edited by Gail Levin

"Working in realist and expressionist styles, she treated the major subjects of her time, including the fight for women’s suffrage, the plight of immigrants, World War I, jazz, unemployment, racial discrimination, and occasionally explicitly Jewish themes such as a synagogue interior or ritual objects such as a menorah."
-Christopher Lewis

Review roundup

The Life and Poetry of Ted Kooser
By Mary K. Stillwell
Reviewed in Ploughshares

"It’s an intimate portrait rich with details of how family history and life on the Plains influenced Kooser’s early world vision, and then how Kooser juggled his creative ambitions as a poet, publisher and 'Sunday painter,' along with his obligations as husband, father, and 9-5 insurance executive."
-Kate Flaherty

Read an excerpt from the book.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Jon Lewis
Photographs of the California Grape Strike
By Richard Steven Street
Reviewed in Lens, the photography blog of the The New York Times

"What makes these photographs different is their location and the subjects. Taken in central California and not in the Jim Crow South, they depict farm laborers of Mexican and Filipino descent, the vanguard of the historic Delano grape strike."
-Maurice Berger
_______________________________________________________________________________________

The X-15 Rocket Plane
Flying the First Wings into Space
By Michelle Evans
Foreword by Joe H. Engle
Reviewed in AmericaSpace

"This book frequently delves into the personal costs that came with pioneering hypersonic flight, with interviews from families and close friends. The X-15 Rocket Plane is a valuable addition to libraries and goes past the technical jargon into the hearts of the pilots."

Read an excerpt from the book.
_______________________________________________________________________________________

Domesticated Wild Things, and Other Stories
By Xhenet Aliu
Reviewed in Late Night Library

"Choices mostly exist in fairy tales and less so in (as the book’s back cover describes the setting) the 'rusty underbelly' of Connecticut. Perhaps Aliu’s stories deal with the massive gray area of human character located between the bad choices and the wrong ones."
-Marina Petrova

Read an excerpt from the book.

Review roundup

Occasional Desire
Essays
David Lazar
Reviewed on Popmatters.com

"In the world of essay writing there is a gap that is rarely filled, between the mass-market dilettante approach of magazines like the New Yorker, the proudly obscure realm of academia, and the emotional acuity of the memoirist. In Occasional Desire, David Lazar seeks to piece together the best elements of these differing styles, defining and demonstrating his ideals for the essay form while ruminating on Curb Your Enthusiasm, death, and public pay phones in the process."

-Michael Buening

Read an excerpt from the book.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Upton Sinclair
California Socialist, Celebrity Intellectual
Lauren Coodley
Reviewed in Historical Novel Society

"Perhaps you’ve seen the bumper sticker: 'If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.' Upton Sinclair was paying attention. This biography is a balanced but sympathetic look at the idealistic, passionate man who wrote The Jungle when he was just 25."

Read an excerpt from the book.

_______________________________________________________________________________________
Fried Walleye and Cherry Pie
Midwestern Writers on Food
Edited and with an introduction by Peggy Wolff
Reviewed in The Chicago Tribune

"As alternately beloved and disdained as flyover country itself, Midwestern food stretches far beyond the fried walleye and cherry pie that make up the title of this expansive new collection. And as edited by Tribune contributor Peggy Wolff, the volume exemplifies not just the culinary eclecticism of a dozen-odd states and their Great Lakes, high plains, river valleys and deep woods, but also the scope of the authors' approach to their subject matter."
-Martha Bayne

Read an excerpt from the book.

Review roundup

Advise and Dissent
Memoirs of an Ex-Senator
by James G. Abourezk with a Foreword by Fred Harris
Reviewed in Capital Journalism

"The first Arab American ever to serve in the U.S. Senate, Abourezk was strident in his criticism of U.S. foreign policy on Israel and the Palestinians, for example, as well as a harsh critic of domestic policy on American Indian issues."
-Lance Nixon
______________________________________________________________________

The New Reform Judaism
Challenges and Reflections
by Dana Evan Kaplan with a Foreword by Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie and an Afterword by Rabbi Rick Jacobs
Reviewed in Publishers Weekly

"The stresses that challenge Reform Judaism, America’s largest Jewish denomination, are examined by Kaplan, a Reform rabbi and author of three previous books... After chapters on the need for a Reform Jewish theology and the history of the Reform movement, Kaplan explores its confrontation with contemporary issues of worship, practice, values, and ethics."
-PW

Read an excerpt from the book
________________________________________________________________________________________

Wheels Stop
The Tragedies and Triumphs of the Space Shuttle Program, 1986-2011
by Rick Houston with a Foreword by Jerry Ross
Reviewed in Publishers Weekly

"The Challenger and Columbia disasters receive their grim chapters along with another on the greatest achievement—launching and caring for the Hubble Space Telescope. Readers will find the section on American–Russian space flights absorbing, and will be mourning the end of the shuttle program by the final chapter."
-PW

Read an excerpt from the book
________________________________________________________________________________________

The Gods Are Broken!
The Hidden Legacy of Abraham
by Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin
Reviewed in Jewish Herald Voice

"Rabbi Salkin maintains that the midrash of the breaking of the idols is not simply a story about rebellion against the religious mores of the day. The midrash serves as a typology illuminating three paths to the sacred: religious absolutism (pre-modern), religious relativism (modern) and Abraham’s model of a religion that has the courage to challenge (post-modern)."
-Aaron Howard

Read an excerpt from the book

Review roundup

Making the American Body
by Jonathan Black
Reviewed in Publishers Weekly

“The antecedents of the American fitness industry are varied and fascinating, and journalist Black (Yes, You Can!: Behind the Hype and Hustle of the Motivation Biz) does a superb job of chronicling them—from the early days of body builders on Santa Monica’s Muscle Beach, through the creation of gyms as spare as “dungeons,” to the high-end health clubs of today.”
-PW

Read an excerpt from the book
________________________________________________________________________________________ 

Football Revolution
by Bart Wright
Reviewed in The Wall Street Journal

“For avid fans, Football Revolution will inspire friendly arguments over the staying power of the spread—and what might supersede it someday. But all readers will enjoy the book's vivid profiles and marvel at the amazing ingenuity of a game that is supposed to favor brawn over brains.”
-Bob Boyles

Read an excerpt from the book
________________________________________________________________________________________ 

501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read Before They Die

by Ron Kaplan
Reviewed in Baseball America

“Baseball book enthusiasts may be familiar with Kaplan from his website, Ron Kaplan’s Baseball Bookshelf (www.ronkaplansbaseballbookshelf.com), where he has been blogging about the sport’s literature and other related topics since 2006. With thousands of posts on countless hundreds of books (he also writes about movies and baseball paraphernalia on occasion), he has established himself as the go-to resource for reviews on books new and old alike.”
-James Bailey

Read an excerpt from the book
________________________________________________________________________________________ 

It’s Not Going to Kill You, and Other Stories
by Erin Flanagan
Reviewed in Booklist

“Like holographic slivers, her stories contain a breadth and scope usually found in novels, telling whole lifetimes in the span of after-dinner coffee. Thematically, her stories are linked by the hard-earned realization that the most important moments, those that change our lives, are the ones that seem the most inconsequential at the time.”
-Greg Baldino

Read an excerpt from the book

Review roundup

Tell Me a Riddle, Requa I, and Other Works
by Tillie Olsen
Reviewed in The Literarian

“I cried for all the culmination of chance events, all the wrong and right turns, the happenstances, the recognition of the importance of what is, the immediate and deliberate decisions, the random bits of conversation, the crossing of paths, the unlikely encounters, the impossibility of the discovery of a forty-year old magazine in a flea market bin, the books that happened to be in a particular library at a precise moment Tillie Olsen happened by, the accumulated consciousness, the ruminations, the overcoming, the struggle for time, the utter unlikelihood and impossibility of all the moments and memories coalescing, lining up, and becoming the words on paper that became the collection of stories Tell Me a Riddle.”
-Katherine Arnoldi
________________________________________________________________________________________ 

Fetish
by Orlando Ricardo Menes
Interviewed in the Los Angeles Review of Books

“My interest in the word “fetish” is in how it can denote or mark the idea of attraction in the broadest sense of the term: attraction to other human beings, especially the Other, to nature, to the sacred, to the past, to music and art, etc.  The word possesses a disquieting edginess — a disturbing allure — that I find productive to my poetics.”
-Daniel Olivas
________________________________________________________________________________________ 

Wide Open Fairways
A Journey across the Landscapes of Modern Golf
by Bradley Klein
Reviewed on Wisgolfer.com

“His exploration on golf in Nebraska – Willa Cather country, he calls it, after the author who wrote so eloquently about the hardships of life in a beautiful rural setting – illustrates perfectly what Klein means in calling “the experience of place” crucial to the golf experience. Sand Hills GC in Mullen, the much-lauded creation of Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore, is located pretty much in the middle of nowhere, reached only by a 55-mile drive from North Platte, more frontier outpost than country club.”
-Dennis McCann
________________________________________________________________________________________ 

Billy “the Hill” and the Jump Hook
The Autobiography of a Forgotten Basketball Legend
by Billy McGill and Eric Brach
Reviewed in Booklist

“Now in his seventies, McGill looks back on a career that fizzled due to circumstance, injury, and inability to adjust to the more physical pro game. McGill takes responsibility when it’s appropriate but also, through the prism of time, points to the situations that were beyond his control.”
-Wes Lukowsky

Review roundup

Domesticated Wild Things 
by Xhenet Aliu
Reviewed in Booklist

“Aliu’s debut collection, winner of the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction, looks at a variety of characters living on the outskirts as they wrestle with their circumstances or impulses.” 

-Leah Strauss

 

Family Trouble 
Edited by Joy Castro
Reviewed in Richard Gilbert's blog

“The issue of family exposure in memoir is important—and the writers collected in Family Trouble explore it well; besides Moore’s, of the essays I’ve read so far I especially admired Susan Olding’s and Jill Christman’s. And Olding, like Moore, confronts the issue of writing about one’s children, which is much stickier than writing about one’s parents."

-Richard Gilbert 

Fried Walleye and Cherry Pie
Edited by Peggy Wolf
Reviewed in Publishers Weekly

“The 30 essays and 14 recipes (a portion of which are reprints) bring the flavors of the Midwest vividly to life; but, more importantly, they dig deeply into the universal connections between food, family, time, and place. “

-PW

 

Contemporary Comics Storytelling
by Karin Kukkonen
Reviewed in Dad of Divas

“This book makes you think deeply about the comics that you read today or even the comics that you read as a child and the complex art of storytelling that happens within the pages of the comic itself. This is a great book that opened my eyes to the so much more.”

-Dad of Divas

Review roundup

Weeds: A Farm Daughter’s Lament by Evelyn I. Funda in Booklist

 “While patiently recounting the deep immigrant roots that permeate her personal history, Funda has crafted an intensely American story. She channels Willa Cather when writing of her mother, who traveled west from New York City on the promise of an epistolary friendship after only recently escaping Moravia with her life and little else.” —Colleen Mondor

 

 

Bridging Two Dynasties by Lyle Spatz in Library Journal

“The pieces are written in the lively voices of writers deeply instilled with Yankees lore. Fans of the historical Yankees are likely to love this. For every Yankees collection.” —MH

 

 

Works Cited by Brandon R. Schrand in Richard Gilbert’s blog

“My summer’s most happy reading surprise was Works Cited, a well-written memoir with a structure both clever and pleasing.”—Richard Gilbert

 

 

 

In the Shadows of a Fallen Wall by Sanford Tweedie in Readers Lane

"In the Shadows of a Fallen Wall is a success, both as a family adventure and as a cultural exploration of a unique period of European history.  Tweedie’s bravery and persistence in the face of formidable challenges makes for an entertaining and recommended read." —D. Driftless