All About Books

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.

Based on the history of the Black towns that rejected integration as a means of social advancement, the novel “Moonrise Over New Jessup” by Jamila Minnicks follows a family in one of these communities during the late 1950’s.

Last week on All About Books it was “The History of Mysteries”. This Thursday, our genre guide, Scott Clark from Lincoln City Libraries, suggests titles and authors for every mystery category.

An introduction to the Mystery genre with Scott Clark Lincoln City Libraries' resident mystery novel expert. In part 1, we look at origins and the many sub-genres of the mystery story.

For best-selling author Anne Lamott, “Love is our only hope”. That’s the subject of her 20th book, “Somehow: Thoughts on Love”. Drawing on her life and experience, it’s a tour through the many types of love: unexpected, bruised and sustaining. Hear a review this week on

It’s 1914, and World War I is destroying a generation of youth across Europe. For two young men safely at an idyllic boarding school in the English countryside, the war is heroic and far away. “In Memoriam” by Alice Winn is an epic story about the devastation of war and a forbidden romance that blooms in its midst.

In the winter of 1978, 14-year old Debora Harding was abducted from an Omaha church parking lot at knife point. “Dancing with the Octopus: A Memoir of a Crime” is her account of the assault and ransom. It’s this year's "One Book - One Nebraska” selection.