All About Books

Irish novelist Colm Toibin’s latest book is “Long Island” which continues the life story of Eilis Lacey, the complex and enigmatic heroine from his previous best-seller, “Brooklyn”

In her award-winning novel “The Wren, The Wren” author Anne Enright creates 3 generations of Irish women who contend with their inheritances- which includes charismatic, poetic men and sometimes ill treatment.

If you need gift ideas this holiday season, “All About Books” has great suggestions. Tory Hall of Sower Books has ideas for book lovers into history, nature, mysteries, romance and horror. It’s the annual gift guide for the holiday shopping season.

Nancy Hopkins began her career in science in the 1960s. By 1999, she and other female scientists at MIT gave detailed evidence of the college’s flagrant favoritism and discrimination. Their speaking out led to a historic admission by MIT and resulting changes. Their story is in the book “The Exceptions: Sixteen Brilliant Women at MIT and the Fight for Equality in Science” by Kate Zernike

John Stevens Berry is probably best known as a lawyer with a Lincoln practice since 1965. But he’s also a Vietnam veteran and poet. This week Pat Leach talked with Berry about his book, “Foot Soldier: New and Selected Poems”

Editorial cartoonist Darrin Bell was six years old when his mother had “the “talk” with him. For Darrin, who is mixed-race, the talk was about the reason he couldn’t have a realistic-looking water gun was for his own safety. Bell’s graphic novel, “The Talk” uses sharp humor to examine this talk that shaped his understanding going forward.

They are an almost a mystical creature due to their rarity, size and beauty. The tallest bird in North America and rarest crane in the world. Nebraska photographer Michael Forsberg gives a rare glimpse into the world of the Whooping Crane.“Into Whooperland: A photographer's journey with whooping cranes by Michael Forsberg”

Molly Gray’s flair for cleaning and proper etiquette sees her excel at her job as a maid at the Regency Grand Hotel. It’s her remarkable eye for detail that helps her solve mysteries. That’s exactly what’s in store for Molly in the new Nita Prose novel, “The Mystery Guest”

The Roaring Twenties might be remembered for jazz, style and excitement, but it was also the decade that saw the rise of the hate group, the Ku Klux Klan. Their center of power was not the old Confederacy, but the Heartland and West. A new history of the group reveals the con man who rose as its leader, and the woman who stopped him. “A Fever in the Heartland” Timothy Eagans

“The Biography of X” by Catherine Lacey is a novel adventure. When a polarizing artist and writer known as “X” dies unexpectedly, her widow goes on a quest to write a biography only to discover a life filled with deceptions.

Ava Chin was confused that the stories her grandparents told her did not match the history she learned in school. Her research into family history and the father she never met, led to a single building in New York’s Chinatown where many of her ancestors lived. “Mott Street” by Ava Chin

Like others, author Amy Tan was becoming discouraged by a world filled with fear and strife. She turned to nature for relief, specifically the birds that visited her backyard. “All About Books” host Pat Leach talked with the author of the “Joy Luck Club” about her new book, “The Backyard Bird Chronicles” written and illustrated by Amy Tan

“The Berry Pickers” by Amanda Peters is a novel revealing the lives of migrant workers in Maine. It’s a harrowing story of Indigenous family separation and trauma.

Safiya Sinclair grew up in Jamaica with an oppressive Rastafarian father who thought women’s highest virtue was their obedience. She escaped this limited world through her mother’s gift of books, poetry, and education. Her memoir is “How to Say Babylon”

The Kaw River runs from the high plains of Colorado, through Nebraska, all the way to Kansas City. The prairie environment and the life the river sustains is the focus of the book “In the Country of the Kaw: A Personal Natural History of the American Plains” by James H. Locklear, director of conservation at Lauritzen Gardens.

A construction project uncovers a human skeleton in Pottstown Pennsylvania. The mystery of who this person was uncovers the history of a dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived together. Learn more about this New York Times bestseller, “The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store” by James McBride.

What can you learn from tapeworms and lice? A good deal according to Dr. John Janovy emeritus professor of biology at UNL. His new book, “Life Lessons from a Parasite” shows how these remarkable creatures can teach us how to deal with some of humanity’s most difficult problems.

A ready-to-retire CIA officer stationed in the Middle East has one final mission- which ends up going dangerously awry. That’s the plot of this year’s Edgar Award for Best First Novel, “The Peacock and the Sparrow” by J.S. Berry, who was herself a CIA officer.

This week “All About Books” welcomes Dylan Teut, Executive Director of the Plum Creek Literacy Festival to introduce the children’s picture book, “The Yellow Bus” by Loren Long. This New York Times #1 bestseller is about the long journey of a forgotten school bus that finds happiness and purpose in the most unexpected places.

Have you ever stopped to wonder who lived in your house before you or, who will inhabit it after you’ve moved on, that’s the idea behind the inventive novel, “North Woods” by Daniel Mason. Starting with a young couple fleeing a puritan colony, a humble cabin in the New England woods welcomes many inhabitants through the years.