All About Books | Net Radio

Combining cultural examination and autobiography, Pulitzer-Prize winning author Margo Jefferson’s new book pursues many threads at once- music, beauty, celebrity. Hear a review of her new book, “Constructing a Nervous System”

Online harassment forces a woman offline for a while. She heads to the place she felt safe as a child- to her late Grandmother’s city of Lincoln, Nebraska. This week’s “All About Books” features an interview with Nebraska author Ladette Randolph, she talks to host Pat Leach about her new novel, “Private Way”

This novel is Charles Dicken’s Victorian epic of grim poverty, cruelty and survival brought to the American rural south. “Demon Copperhead” by Barbara Kingsolver is a page turner of a story which follows a resilient boy born into systemic poverty.

Because of extreme weather and drought, landscaping your home with native plants has gone from a niche area of gardening to the sustainable future. Benjamin Vogt, a master gardener and writer here in Nebraska, has just published, “Prairie Up!: an Introduction to Natural Garden Design” It’s a photo-rich guide to reviving plant and wildlife diversity in the neighborhood.

With characters from the past and the distant future, the best-selling novel “Sea of Tranquility” by Emily St John Mandel is a work of speculative fiction playful and puzzling.

The Nebraska National Forest at Halsey is the largest hand-planted forest in the Western Hemisphere. UNL Professor of photography Dana Fritz joins Pat Leach to talk about her new book about this unique ecosystem. “Field Guide to a Hybrid Landscape” is filled with environmental essays, maps as well as historical and contemporary photographs.

Many of the books suggested by listeners which describe Nebraska best for them have been literature or history. This week Don Macke joins host Pat Leach to suggest titles that offer a sociopolitical description of our state as part of the series, "This is Nebraska - Books That Tell Our Story"

If you’ve wondered why some people find pleasure in sad songs, this week’s program offers some insight. Host Pat Leach talks about the New York Times best-seller, “Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole” by Susan Cain.

Take a trip back to Renaissance Italy and into the family at the center of everything. A new novel by best-selling author Maggie O’Farrell offers a fictional take on a teenage girl who married into the d’Medici family- “The Marriage Portrait”

Pat Leach talks with Clark Whitehorn, Senior Editor with the University of Nebraska Press about which books he thinks best describe our state.

More holiday gift suggestions but this time aimed at younger readers. Vicky Wood, Youth Services Coordinator at Lincoln City Libraries brings suggestions for kids of different ages.

The annual Holiday Gift Guide for book lovers airs this week on "All About Books." Special guest Leslie Huerta of "Francie and Finch" book store has suggestions in many categories including: novels, memoirs and history as well as titles for people with an interest in birds, engines or ancient Egypt.

Nebraska journalist, George Ayoub, has written a biography of Omaha World Herald CEO John Gottschalk. Hear an interview with the author about the research and writing of “Confluence: John Gottschalk’s Life or Duty, Service and the Business of News.”

In 1873, a small community in south eastern Kansas made a grisly discovery. Buried in the cabin cellar and property of a family of homesteaders, were the remains of countless bodies. The book, “Hell’s Half Acre: The Untold Story of the Benders, a Serial Killer Family on the American Frontier” traces the mystery that fascinated the nation after the Civil War.

After the Korean War a medical doctor leaves his homeland for rural Minnesota where he works at a hospital living the quiet, American dream for 50 years. Then, a letter arrives from Korea which may expose the lie the doctor’s life was built upon. “The Evening Hero” is a new novel by Marie Myung-Ok Lee.

This week’s guest isn’t an author or reviewer but a listener. Dan Nieman from South Sioux City wrote in with good suggestions for the “One Book – One Nebraska" series. He’ll be on this week offering several contemporary novels which capture Nebraska best for him.

A good portion of the reading world always looks forward to the next novel from Alexander McCall Smith. You can also count as a fan this week’s guest reviewer, Vicky Wood. She and host Pat Leach have both read his latest Isabel Dalhousie story called, “The Sweet Remnants of Summer”

In the novel “Sleepwalk” the main character is a man who exists off the grid with no significant relationships. His life of wandering doing shady jobs for a ruthless organization is interrupted by a call on his burner phone from a young woman claiming to be his daughter. A review of this novel of intrigue by Dan Chaon..

Named the best book of 2021 by almost every outlet, “How the Word is Passed” by Clint Smith is a tour of the landmarks that tell the story of how slavery has been central in shaping this nations collective history and identity.

This week Pat Leach looks into the world of business innovation with guest Brian Ardinger Director of Innovation at Nelnet and the author of a new book on navigating disruption, "Accelerated: a Guide to Innovating at the Speed of Change."