Tag Archives: Book Club

#BookFaceFriday “Code Talker” by Joseph Bruchac

Posted on November 13, 2020 by Tessa Terry

“Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War II” by Joseph Bruchac (Dial Books, 2005) is a part of the NLC Book Club collection! Even better, your book club can celebrate Veteran’s Day all month long with our book club search engine’s Category setting. Quickly find fiction and non-fiction books covering the topic of War and Military Service.

“Bruchac’s gentle prose presents a clear historical picture of young men in wartime, island hopping across the Pacific, waging war in the hells of Guadalcanal, Bougainville, and Iwo Jima. Nonsensational and accurate, Bruchac’s tale is quietly inspiring…” —School Library Journal

Love this #BookFace & reading?  Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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#BookFaceFriday – “Crooked Little Heart” by Anne Lamott

Posted on July 24, 2020 by Tessa Terry

Game, Set, BookFace!

All happy families are alike, but every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. Leo Tolstoy said it best, dysfunctional families make for the best reads. Set your book club up for some great discussion with “Crooked Little Heart: A Novel” (Pantheon Books, 1997) by Anne Lamott. This national bestseller is a part of our book club kit collection and available for your next read!

“Lamott is at the top of her form in this complex coming-of-age novel in which tennis becomes the metaphor for life’s toughest lessons.”—Sue Grafton

Book Club Kits Rules for Use

  1. These kits can be checked out by the librarians of Nebraska libraries and media centers.
  2. Circulation times are flexible and will be based upon availability. There is no standard check-out time for book club kits.
  3. Please search the collection to select items you wish to borrow and use the REQUEST THIS KIT icon to borrow items.
  4. Contact the Information Desk at the Library Commission if you have any questions: by phone: 800/307-2665, or by email: Information Services Team

Love this #BookFace & reading? Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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#BookFaceFriday – “Where the Crawdads Sing” by Delia Owens

Posted on May 22, 2020 by Tessa Terry

Sweet summertime is so close, the days are getting warmer and all I can think about is that perfect summer read. Keep your book clubs going all summer with titles like “Where the Crawdads Sing” (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2018) by Delia Owens. This New York Times bestseller is a part of our book club kit collection and available for your group to borrow. Check out all of our Book Club titles!

“A painfully beautiful first novel that is at once a murder mystery, a coming-of-age narrative and a celebration of nature…Owens here surveys the desolate marshlands of the North Carolina coast through the eyes of an abandoned child. And in her isolation that child makes us open our own eyes to the secret wonders—and dangers—of her private world.”—The New York Times Book Review

Love this #BookFace & reading? Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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#BookFaceFriday “The Boy in the Black Suit”

Posted on February 21, 2020 by Tessa Terry

Everybody’s crazy for a sharp-dressed #BookFace!

We’re throwing back to this #BookFace as we celebrate Black History Month. The author, Jason Reynolds, was recently selected as the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature by the Library of Congress! We highly recommend “The Boy in the Black Suit” by Jason Reynolds (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2015.) Not only was it the 2019 One Book for Nebraska Teens selection it’s also available as a part of the NLC Book Club collection. This excellent YA novel is also a 2016 Coretta Scott King Author Honor book. You can reserve this kit today for your youth book club!

“Matt is a wonderfully sympathetic, multidimensional character whose voice is a perfect match for the material and whose relationships with Love and Mr. Ray—also a fascinating character—are beautifully realized. This quiet story is clearly a winner.” -Booklist

This week’s #BookFace model is one of our Commissioners, Vernon J. Davis! He began his three-year term as Commissioner this past July after his appointment by Governor Pete Ricketts.

Love this #BookFace & reading?  Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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#BookFaceFriday – “Conversations with Friends” by Sally Rooney

Posted on January 3, 2020 by Tessa Terry

Raise your hand if one of your New Year’s resolutions is to read more! One of the best ways to accomplish that goal is by joining a book club, and have some great ‘conversations with friends’ about books! “Conversations with Friends: A Novel” ( Hogarth, 2017) by Sally Rooney is a part of our book club kit collection. It’s also available to our Talking Book & Braille customers who are looking for a new read in the new year! Check out all of our Book Club titles and TBBS services to start tackling your goals today!

“An insightful look at what it’s like to be young, smart, and deeply confused about friendship and love . . . It’s like an Ask Polly letter in the form of a novel, in the best possible way.”—The Cut

This week’s #BookFace models are Anna Walter and Holly Atterbury, two of our Talking Book & Braille Service Library Readers Advisors!

Love this #BookFace & reading? Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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#BookFaceFriday “The Tattooist of Auschwitz” by Heather Morris

Posted on November 8, 2019 by Tessa Terry

“The Tattooist of Auschwitz: A Novel” by Heather Morris (Harper, 2018) is a part of the NLC Book Club collection! Even better, your book club can celebrate Veteran’s Day all month long with our book club search engine’s Category setting. Quickly find fiction and non-fiction books covering the topic of War and Military Service. “The Tattooist of Auschwitz: A Novel” is based on the real-life experiences of a Holocaust survivor, historical fiction doesn’t get any better than this.

“To many, this book will be most appreciated for its powerful evocation of the everyday horrors of life as a prisoner in a concentration camp, while others will be heartened by the novel’s message of how true love can transcend even the most hellishly inhuman environments. This is a perfect novel for book clubs and readers of historical fiction.” (Publishers Weekly)

This week’s #BookFace models are current NLC Commissioner Arunkumar Pondicherry, and past NLC Commissioner Sandy White! Arun was appointed in 2018 to his first three-year term and Sandy just finished her three-year term just this month. A big thank you to all of our NLC Commissioners for their service on our board!

Love this #BookFace & reading?  Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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#BookFaceFriday – “Dracula” by Bram Stoker

Posted on October 25, 2019 by Aimee Owen

Velcome to #BookFaceFriday!

Grab your garlic and wooden stakes, we’re wrapping up October with this classic tale of horror (Puffin Classics, 1994, first published 1897). Written as a series of journal entries and letters, it tells the story of the quest to destroy the evil Count Dracula and end his reign of terror.

“Those who cannot find their own reflection in Bram Stoker’s still-living creation are surely the undead .” — New York Times Review of Books

This week’s #BookFace model is our new TBBS Circulation Technician, Amy Irons!

Love this #BookFace & reading?  Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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#BookFaceFriday “Skeleton Man” by Joseph Bruchac

Posted on October 18, 2019 by Tessa Terry

This #BookFace is sure to get your blood pumping!

We are hitting our Halloween stride with this week’s #BookFaceFriday! “Skeleton Man” by Joseph Bruchac (HarperCollins, 2003) is a chilling middle-grade read. Full of missing parents, nightmares, and spooky stories this book club kit is a great way to learn about tribal legends. Reserve it for your youth book club today!

“Although it’s steeped in Mohawk lore and tradition, Bruchac’s story is contemporary both in its setting and its celebration of the enduring strength and courage of Native American women.” – (ALA Booklist)

This week’s #BookFace model is our new TBBS Director, Gabe Kramer!

Love this #BookFace & reading?  Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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#BookFaceFriday “The Ghost of Fossil Glen” by Cynthia Defelice

Posted on October 11, 2019 by Tessa Terry

This #BookFace is a graveyard smash!

We are getting into the Halloween spirit with “The Ghost of Fossil Glen” by Cynthia Defelice (Square Fish, 2010.) It’s a 3-7 grade read with a teacher’s guide available. Just like a Nancy Drew mystery if she’d had a little paranormal help. Get it reserved for your youth book club today!

“An imaginative and adventurous sixth grader makes a connection with the ghost of the victim of an unsolved murder and puts her own life in jeopardy to find the killer…Fans of ghost stories…will find this excellent book difficult to put down.” ―Starred, School Library Journal

This week’s #BookFace model is Cathy Hatterman, NLC’s Acquisitions Librarian! Unfortunately, we did not have access to a graveyard so our stacks had to suffice for this week’s #BookFace photo.

Love this #BookFace & reading?  Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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#BookFaceFriday “Maisie Dobbs” by Jacqueline Winspear

Posted on October 4, 2019 by Tessa Terry

Hey, #BookFace fans, you can stand under my umbrella.

We took advantage of yet another rainy day for this week’s #BookFaceFriday! “Maisie Dobbs” by Jacqueline Winspear (Soho Crime; 10th Anniversary ed. edition, 2014) is the first novel in what is now a series of fifteen books, 2 in the NLC Book Club collection! These well written, historical fiction novels begin in 1929 and revolve around the heroine’s newly opened private eye business. Fans from Veronica Mars to Downton Abbey will be able to appreciate this mystery series.

“A delightful mix of mystery, war story and romance set in WWI–era England . . . A refreshing heroine, appealing secondary characters and an absorbing plot [make Winspear a] writer to watch.”
—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

Love this #BookFace & reading?  Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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#BookFaceFriday “Alias Grace” by Margaret Atwood

Posted on September 27, 2019 by Tessa Terry

Is this #BookFace a Femme Fatale or Innocent Maiden?!

“Alias Grace” by Margaret Atwood (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2017) is just one of several Atwood works in the NLC Book Club collection! Gear up for her new novel with more than a TV marathon, reserve any of her past works for your book club today. 

“A stunning novel full of sly wit, compassion and insight, boasting writing that is lyrical, assured, evocative of time and place, and seductive in its power to engage us.”
–Houston Chronicle

This week’s #BookFace model is our NLC Commissioner Debby Whitehill Bloom! She was reappointed in 2018 to a second three-year term and is the current Commission Chair.

Love this #BookFace & reading?  Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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#BookFaceFriday “The Boy in the Black Suit”

Posted on September 20, 2019 by Tessa Terry

Everybody’s crazy for a sharp-dressed #BookFace!

“The Boy in the Black Suit” by Jason Reynolds (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2015) is the 2019 One Book for Nebraska Teens selection and a part of the NLC Book Club collection. This excellent YA novel is also a 2016 Coretta Scott King Author Honor book. You can reserve this kit today for your youth book club!

“Matt is a wonderfully sympathetic, multidimensional character whose voice is a perfect match for the material and whose relationships with Love and Mr. Ray—also a fascinating character—are beautifully realized. This quiet story is clearly a winner.” -Booklist

This week’s #BookFace model is our newest Commissioner Vernon J. Davis! He began his three-year term as Commissioner this July after his appointment by Governor Pete Ricketts. Welcome, Vernon!

Love this #BookFace & reading?  Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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#BookFaceFriday “The Woman in the Window”

Posted on September 13, 2019 by Tessa Terry

I always feel like somebody’s watching me! "The Woman in the Window" Book Face image

It isn’t paranoia if it’s really happening . . .

In honor of Friday the 13th, check out “The Woman in the Window” by A.J. Finn (William Morrow, 2018) in the NLC Book Club collection. The ups and downs of an agoraphobic woman and what she thinks she’s witnessed will have you on the edge of your seat. A perfect fit for any Rear Window fans, or lovers of Tana French and Gillian Flynn. Browse this title or our entire collection at nlc.nebraska.gov/ref/bookclub today!

“The Woman in the Window is a tour de force. A twisting, twisted odyssey inside one woman’s mind, her illusions, delusions, reality. It left my own mind reeling and my heart pounding. An absolutely gripping thriller.” (Louise Penny, #1 New York Times bestselling author)

This week’s #BookFace model is our staff break room, more commonly known as the Crows Nest. No blinds were harmed in the making of the #BookFace.

Love this #BookFace & reading?  Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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#BookFaceFriday – The Dewey Decimal System of Love

Posted on July 19, 2019 by Aimee Owen

This #BookFaceFriday has love down to a (library) science…

“For questions about love, and more particularly, inappropriate love, go the 306.7s.” If you’re searching your library’s catalog for a quick, funny, and perhaps slightly naughty, summer beach read, look no further than Josephine Carr’s “The Dewey Decimal System of Love” (New American Library, 2003).

“…a most bizarre, unpredictable and thoroughly delightful mess that keeps the pages turning and the laughs coming.” — Tampa Tribune

This week’s #BookFace model is Mary Sauers, our Government Information Services Librarian. Mary knows all about love in the library – she married another librarian, former NLC Technology Librarian, and current Director of Technology at Do Space, Michael Sauers.

Love this #BookFace & reading? We suggest checking out all the titles available for book clubs at http://nlc.nebraska.gov/ref/bookclub. Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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#BookFaceFriday “Under the Harrow”

Posted on July 12, 2019 by Tessa Terry

New Books = New #BookFaceFridays!

"Under the Harrow" by Flynn Berry BookFace PhotoHas your book club been on the hunt for new reads? The NLC Book Club Kit collection is here to help! We’ve recently added several new titles to the collection, one of which is   “Under the Harrow” by Flynn Berry (Penguin Books, 2016). For those of you who devoured “Gone Girl” and “Girl on a Train,” this psychological thriller is sure to get your blood pumping. Browse all the new additions at nlc.nebraska.gov/ref/bookclub today!

“A thrilling novel of psychological suspense…Under the Harrow contains similarities [to The Girl on the Train and Gone Girl]that will undoubtedly attract readers – but underneath its hard-driving, page-turning, compulsively readable narrative is a striking, original voice all Berry’s own…[Her] precise sentences call to mind Hitchcock’s meticulous storyboards and enrich the work with a cinematic scope.”—Elizabeth Brundage, The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice)

This week’s #BookFace photo is Cathy Hatterman, our Acquisitions Librarian! We added a large number of titles to our book club kit collection in the past 2 months! Cathy has been hard at work tracking down all our requests, as well as adding quite a few books to our library science collection.

Love this #BookFace & reading?  Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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#BookFaceFriday “Wired”

Posted on August 10, 2018 by Tessa Terry

This week’s #BookFace is practically electric!

"Wired" by Julie Garwood BookFace“Wired” by Julie Garwood (Berkley, 2017) is this week’s #BookFaceFriday and seemed like the perfect way to kick off the next round of our Nebraska Library Innovation Studios (LIS) project! NLC staff members will be traveling around Nebraska over the next few months, maybe even visiting your library. They will be installing makerspaces, training librarians/community members in the different types of technology, and showing them how to share it with their communities. This week’s #BookFaceFriday model is Max Wheeler, Instructional Designer on the LIS project! He may not be an FBI agent or a model/hacker but he sure knows a lot about all of the different machines in our makerspaces.

Love this #BookFace & reading? We suggest checking out all the titles available for book clubs at http://nlc.nebraska.gov/ref/bookclub. Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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#BookFaceFriday “The Singing and Dancing Daughters of God”

Posted on August 3, 2018 by Tessa Terry

This week’s #BookFace had us at “seriocomic love story,” and yes, seriocomic is a real word."The Singing and Dancing Daughters of God" BookFace Image

“The Singing and Dancing Daughters of God” by Timothy Schaffert (Unbridled Books, 2005) is this week’s #BookFaceFriday selection. Written by a Nebraska author, and set in our very own state, this novel is all about the twisting turns of the “Good Life.”  This novel a part of our NLC Book Club Kit collection, and it’s the perfect choice for your next book club read!

“Laced with hope and an aching sweetness, it is as whimsical and smile-inducing as its title. Readers will fall for Hud, his family, and the one-off inhabitants of the quirky little town from page one owing to Schaffert’s homey yet elegant and precise prose. The only reason to put the book down is to make it last.” —Library Journal, starred

This week’s #BookFaceFriday model is our Information Services Librarian, Aimee Owen!

Love this #BookFace & reading? We suggest checking out all the titles available for book clubs at http://nlc.nebraska.gov/ref/bookclub. Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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#BookFaceFriday “Harry Potter” 20th Anniversary

Posted on July 27, 2018 by Tessa Terry

You’re a #BookFaceFriday Harry!Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

I can’t believe it’s been 20 years since I first started reading Harry Potter! We’re celebrating the iconic series with this week’s #BookFace! Featuring two of the series novels, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” (Arthur A. Levine Books, 2009) and “Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix” (Arthur A. Levine Books, 2003). As an added bonus July 31st is both J. K. Rowling and Harry’s birthday! It also marks the day Harry found out he was a wizard. NLC has the entire series in our Book Club Kit collection, and they can all be reserved for your book club to read today!

This week’s #BookFaceFriday models are some very special magicians we’ve had at the Commission lately, NLC has been getting a bit of a facelift with new paint and carpeting! It’s like having our very own house elves. We asked a few of the Brown Brothers Construction crew to step in as this week’s models!

Love this #BookFace & reading? We suggest checking out all the titles available for book clubs at http://nlc.nebraska.gov/ref/bookclub. Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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#BookFaceFriday “A Lost Lady”

Posted on July 13, 2018 by Tessa Terry

It’s the end of an era with this week’s #BookFace!

"A Lost Lady" by Willa Cather BookFaceWe chose, renowned Nebraska author, Willa Cather’s novel “A Lost Lady” (Virago UK, 2006) as this week’s #BookFaceFriday selection. Published in 1923 and set against the background of the west, it’s a third person account of a small town aristocrat’s social decline, and the symbolic end of the idealized pioneer and old west. The heroine, Marian Forrester, has been coined a “symbolic flower of the Old American West,” and is rumored to have been an inspiration for F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Daisy Buchanan. This short novel is a quick and engaging read for any book club!

“Her finest novel… Unforgettable…This wonderful performance displays Cather’s narrative technique at its sharpest, as well as her understanding of the eloquence of the slightest gesture, the simplest statement … A masterpiece.” –Irish Times

This week’s #BookFaceFriday model is our Cataloging Librarian, Allison Badger! If you get a chance, wish her a happy birthday, because it’s today!

Love this #BookFace & reading? We suggest checking out all the titles available for book clubs at http://nlc.nebraska.gov/ref/bookclub. Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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#BookFaceFriday “Unbridled Dreams”

Posted on June 22, 2018 by Tessa Terry

This #BookFace isn’t our first rodeo!

Unbridled Dreams BookFaceFridaySet in Nebraska against the background of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Exhibition, and written by a Nebraska author “Unbridled Dreams” by Stephanie Grace Whitson (Bethany House, 2008) is one of our most popular book club kits. We’ve been wanting to use this book for a while now, but it is almost always checked out. Take a wild west adventure with seventeen year old Irma, as she pursues her dreams even if they go against her mother’s wishes. If I were you, I’d add this Nebraska title to your book club list today!

“Set against the backdrop of the Wild West Exhibition, Unbridled Dreams is an unusual novel whose characters stayed with me long after I closed the book.” –Historical Novel Society

This week’s #BookFaceFriday model is our Library Technology Specialist, Holly Woldt!

Love this #BookFace & reading? We suggest checking out all the titles available for book clubs at http://nlc.nebraska.gov/ref/bookclub. Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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