Tag Archives: bookfacefriday

#BookFaceFriday “The Joy Luck Club” by Amy Tan

Fortune smiles on the #BookFace!

Jump for joy, it’s #BookFaceFriday with “The Joy Luck Club” by Amy Tan (Ballantine Books, 1989)! Now considered a “modern classic”, Tan didn’t have high expectations for her first novel.

Decades (and numerous awards) later, she can joyfully admit she was wrong; her debut was a bestseller that is still a book club “best bet” today! Read Mackenzie Marrow’s excellent Book Club Spotlight review to find out even more about this title and its legacy. We have 14 copies for your reading group to borrow in our Book Club Kit collection, and you can also find it in eBook format in the Nebraska OverDrive LibrariesJoy Revolution” curated collection.

“Wonderful…a significant lesson in what storytelling has to do with memory and inheritance.”

San Francisco Chronicle

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 “Attack of the Black Rectangles” by Amy Sarig King

This #BookFaceFriday can handle the truth!

Celebrate intellectual freedom with this week’s BookFace title, “Attack of the Black Rectangles” by Amy Sarig King (Scholastic, Inc, 2022,).
When 6th grader Mac opens up his assigned classroom reading, he finds some words blacked out. He and his classmates set out to get the full story. This book is one of the 2024-25 Golden Sower Award nominees in the Meadowlark (grades 6-8) category, and is available in Nebraska OverDrive Libraries as an ebook and audiobook.

“Sixth graders stand up against censorship and systemic bias… The protagonists clarify the various issues for readers who may not be aware of them, and the story skillfully encourages keeping open minds and extending grace to the oblivious and hostile alike… A searingly relevant opus to intellectual freedom.”

— Kirkus Reviews

Libraries participating in the Nebraska OverDrive Libraries Group currently have access to a shared and growing collection of digital downloadable audiobooks and eBooks. 194 libraries across the state share the Nebraska OverDrive collection of 26,898 audiobooks, 36,794 ebooks, and 5,133 magazines. As an added bonus it includes 130 podcasts that are always available with simultaneous use (SU), as well as SU ebooks and audiobook titles that publishers have made available for a limited time. If you’re a part of it, let your users know about this great title, and if you’re not a member yet, find more information about participating in Nebraska Overdrive Libraries!

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

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#BookFaceFriday “New Year’s Eve Murder” by Leslie Meier

Ringing in a new #BookFaceFriday!

Happy New Year from the Nebraska Library Commission! Ring in the New Year with all new reading goals, like read 100 books this year, try a new genre each month, or even to save some dough by reading free books at your library. Make sure you get the Libby App downloaded on that brand-new Kindle or iPad you got for Christmas; all you need is a library card to read all the amazing books available on Nebraska OverDrive Libraries. One of those great titles is “New Year’s Eve Murder: A Lucy Stone Mystery” by Leslie Meier (Kensington Pub Corp, 2005,) available as an ebook and audiobook. It’s the twelfth novel in the Lucy Stone Mystery series, with 31 books total, and you can find them all on OverDrive!

“In Meier’s solid 12th cozy to feature Tinker’s Cove, Maine, reporter Lucy Stone (after 2004’s Star Spangled Murder), Lucy and her oldest daughter, Elizabeth, travel to New York City after winning an all-expenses-paid mother-daughter makeover from Jolie magazine. But after arriving in the Big Apple, the duo find the contest is fraught with cattiness, tension and mistrust, complicated by the magazine’s haughty editor and bickering staff. The outing turns into a nightmare after Jolie’s controversial fashion editor suddenly dies and Elizabeth falls ill from what turns out to be exposure to anthrax. Dividing her time between her daughter’s bedside and sleuthing, Lucy discovers a host of misdeeds involving real estate deals, animal rights and long-held secrets. Fans won’t mind that Meier’s light tone is sometimes at odds with the serious hot-button issues she raises.”

— Publishers Weekly

Libraries participating in the Nebraska OverDrive Libraries Group currently have access to a shared and growing collection of digital downloadable audiobooks and eBooks. 194 libraries across the state share the Nebraska OverDrive collection of 26,898 audiobooks, 36,794 ebooks, and 5,133 magazines. As an added bonus it includes 130 podcasts that are always available with simultaneous use (SU), as well as SU ebooks and audiobook titles that publishers have made available for a limited time. If you’re a part of it, let your users know about this great title, and if you’re not a member yet, find more information about participating in Nebraska Overdrive Libraries!

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

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#BookFaceFriday “First Dog’s White House Christmas” by J. Patrick Lewis and Beth Zappitello

You can keep the Christmas lights up till January with this #BookFaceFriday!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the Nebraska Library Commission! As you’re setting up all those new tablets, Ereaders, and phones that were unwrapped on Christmas morning, don’t forget to download the Libby App and link your Library Card. You’re whole family can have access to free books through your library, and that includes picture books for your youngest kids like this week’s #BookFace “First Dog’s White House Christmas” written by J. Patrick Lewis and Beth Zappitello, and illustrated by Tim Bowers (Sleeping Bear Press, 2010). It’s available as a an eBook through Nebraska OverDrive Libraries: Kids & Teens, and can be found in the specially curated collection “Get Wrapped Up in a Good Book??: Juvenile Holiday Reads,” which is filled with holiday themed titles for kids and teens.

“In this wonderful picture book, the authors give readers a delightfully dog-centric picture of a Christmas gala at the White House. Readers will learn about Christmas traditions from many lands around the world, and they will also come to appreciate that though traditions might be different, the meaning of Christmas is the same the world over, if you are human or canine.”

Marya Jansen-Gruber, Through the Looking Glass

Libraries participating in the Nebraska OverDrive Libraries Group currently have access to a shared and growing collection of digital downloadable audiobooks and eBooks. 194 libraries across the state share the Nebraska OverDrive collection of 26,898 audiobooks, 36,794 ebooks, and 5,133 magazines. As an added bonus it includes 130 podcasts that are always available with simultaneous use (SU), as well as SU ebooks and audiobook titles that publishers have made available for a limited time. If you’re a part of it, let your users know about this great title, and if you’re not a member yet, find more information about participating in Nebraska Overdrive Libraries!

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

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#BookFaceFriday “All Wrapped Up” by Holly Smale

Don’t get your tinsel in a tangle it’s #BookFaceFriday!

Winter break is almost upon us and it’s the perfect time to get your kids set up to check out ebooks and audiobooks while they’re at home for holiday break. Even if winter weather ruins your regular trip to the library you and your kids can still enjoy new books like “All Wrapped Up: A Geek Girl Special” by Holly Smale (HarperCollinsChildren’sBooks, 2022). It’s available as an eBook through Nebraska OverDrive Libraries: Kids & Teens, and can be found in the specially curated collection “Get Wrapped Up in a Good Book??: Juvenile Holiday Reads,” which is filled with Holiday themed titles for kids and teens.

“A feel-good satisfying gem that will have teens smiling from cover to cover, and walking a little taller after reading”

Books for Keeps

Libraries participating in the Nebraska OverDrive Libraries Group currently have access to a shared and growing collection of digital downloadable audiobooks and eBooks. 194 libraries across the state share the Nebraska OverDrive collection of 26,898 audiobooks, 36,794 ebooks, and 5,133 magazines. As an added bonus it includes 130 podcasts that are always available with simultaneous use (SU), as well as SU ebooks and audiobook titles that publishers have made available for a limited time. If you’re a part of it, let your users know about this great title, and if you’re not a member yet, find more information about participating in Nebraska Overdrive Libraries!

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

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#BookFaceFriday “Unlucky 13” by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro

This #BookFaceFriday can see the writings on the wall!

This week’s #BookFaceFriday isn’t superstitious at all! Happy Friday the Thirteenth, if you’re avoiding black cats, walking under ladders, or opening umbrellas indoors, this BookFace is not for you! Check out “Unlucky 13” by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro (Grand Central Publishing, 2015) it’s the thirteenth installment in Patterson’s “Women’s Murder Club” series. San Francisco Detective Lindsay Boxer is hoping the luck is on her side in this murder mystery thriller. We think your luck is changing because it’s available as a an eBook and Audiobook through Nebraska OverDrive Libraries, and can be found alongside the entire twenty four book “Women’s Murder Club” series all on OverDrive.

“Those who haven’t read any of the novels in the Women’s Murder Club series are cheating themselves.”

BookReporter.com

Libraries participating in the Nebraska OverDrive Libraries Group currently have access to a shared and growing collection of digital downloadable audiobooks and eBooks. 194 libraries across the state share the Nebraska OverDrive collection of 26,898 audiobooks, 36,794 ebooks, and 5,133 magazines. As an added bonus it includes 130 podcasts that are always available with simultaneous use (SU), as well as SU ebooks and audiobook titles that publishers have made available for a limited time. If you’re a part of it, let your users know about this great title, and if you’re not a member yet, find more information about participating in Nebraska Overdrive Libraries!

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 “Stormbreaker” by Anthony Horowitz

Saving the world one #BookFace at a time!

It’s Friday, #BookFaceFriday, with “Stormbreaker” by Anthony Horowitz (Philomel Books, 2001), the first book in the The Alex Rider Series, a British Spy novel series for kids. Even better, it’s a brand new addition to the Book Club Collection.
We love it when book clubs and libraries donate their book sets to us after they’re done reading, making them available to all the other book clubs across the state. Thanks to the Central Plains Library System, we have ten copies of this title available as your next book club read. You can also find it in eBook and Audiobook format in Nebraska OverDrive Libraries Kids and Teens collection.

“Readers will cheer for Alex Rider, the 14-year-old hero of British author Horowitz’s spy thriller (the first in a projected series). When his guardian and uncle, Ian, is mysteriously killed, Alex discovers that his uncle was not the bank vice-president he purported to be, but rather a spy for the British government.”

Publishers Weekly

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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Friday Reads & BookFace Friday: “Be Ready When the Luck Happens” by Ina Garten

If you can’t find a fresh, locally grown #BookFace, that’s fine. Store bought will do.

Celebrity home cooks Martha Stewart and Ina Garten evoke strong opinions. As for me? I love them both. I came to know Ina from her show on the Food Network, which has evolved to a series that now puts her in the interview seat, talking and cooking with celebrities in a show called Be My Guest. Ina doesn’t do anything by halves. She believes in buying the best and freshest ingredients available and never compromising on quality. Easy for her to say with multiple homes in East Hampton, New York City, and Paris. Still, in this book, she reveals this hasn’t always been the case. She married her famous trade, finance, and business expert husband Jeffrey at the age of 20, and moved out of her childhood home and away from her abusive parents who never encouraged her. During a gap in Jeffrey’s military career, Ina and Jeffrey traveled for a summer in Europe on a strict budget of $5.00 a day and slept in a little orange tent. As she evolved personally and professionally, she and Jeffrey separated for a time. This was one of the surprising details of her memoir along with the fact that she’s always owned a convertible and is also a bit of a real estate addict, buying, restoring, and sometimes flipping homes in the various places she’s lived.

I also learned that she is, in her own words, an adrenaline junkie. If she isn’t challenged by something or trying to solve a particular problem, she is bored. From buying her specialty food store, The Barefoot Contessa, with zero small business experience, to creating and writing her first cookbook over 25 years ago, she has challenged herself repeatedly. While she may sound a little obsessive, I found her business and management style to be completely practical, reasonable, and full of common sense. I also found the story of her marriage not at all saccharine, but one where each person “thought they got the better deal.” All you need is one person to believe in you. For Ina, that person is Jeffrey.

Garten, Ina. Be Ready When the Luck Happens: Crown, 2024

This title is also available as an audiobook and eBook through Nebraska OverDrive Libraries. Libraries participating in the Nebraska OverDrive Libraries Group currently have access to a shared and growing collection of digital downloadable audiobooks and eBooks. 194 libraries across the state share the Nebraska OverDrive collection of 26,898 audiobooks, 36,794 ebooks, and 5,133 magazines. As an added bonus it includes 130 podcasts that are always available with simultaneous use (SU), as well as SU ebooks and audiobook titles that publishers have made available for a limited time. If you’re a part of it, let your users know about this great title, and if you’re not a member yet, find more information about participating in Nebraska Overdrive Libraries!

Love this #BookFace or #FridayReads? Check out our past posts on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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#BookFaceFriday – “Thanks for This Riot” by Janelle Bassett

We’re not gonna take it with #BookFaceFriday!

Thanks for This Riot: Stories” by Janelle Bassett (University of Nebraska Press, 2024) is a part of the Raz/Shumaker Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction and is available as a part of our Nebraska State Documents Collection.

The Prairie Schooner journal selects one short story collection from contemporary writers each year for this prize series. The series is sponsored and vetted by the staff of Prairie Schooner and a venerable committee of judges, and the selected volumes are published each year by UNP with Kwame Dawes as series editor.

One of the most prestigious academic presses in the country, the University of Nebraska Press sends us around 75 select titles per year, which are added to the Nebraska Publications Clearinghouse, also known as the Nebraska State Documents Collection. This collection is comprised of publications issued by Nebraska state agencies, ensuring that state government information is available to a wide audience and that those valuable publications are preserved for future generations. University of Nebraska Press books, as well as all state documents, are available for checkout by libraries and librarians for their patrons.

“Janelle Bassett’s voice is one I can’t get enough of. The stories in Thanks for This Riot are fresh and unique and wickedly off-kilter but also burn with a wry, age-old, ironic wisdom. This collection is bitingly funny but sincerely so, with little lies and harmless untruths taking on an edge and inflicting irresistible damage.”

― Timothy Schaffert, author of The Perfume Thief and The Titanic Survivors Book Club

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

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#BookFaceFriday “Five Stories” by Willa Cather

We’re among the wild flowers with this #BookFaceFriday!

Is there anything more iconically Midwestern than Willa Cather? We love highlighting Nebraska authors in our NLC collections; this week’s #BookFace selection, “Five Stories” by Willa Cather (Random House, 1956), is available on cartridge and for download on BARD, the Braille and Audio Reading Download service, from our Talking Book & Braille (TBBS) collection. It’s a part of our collection of Nebraska books and publications made available to Nebraska TBBS customers. Originally recorded on cassette by NLC in 1982, and narrated by Peggy Johnson, it was digitized and added to the National Library Service collection in 2023. For our non-TBBS users, we have many Cather titles, as well as biographies and nonfiction titles about the author, available on Nebraska OverDrive Libraries. We also have ten of Willa Cather’s novels available for check out in our Book Club Kit collection.

“These five stories span almost the entire length of Willa Cather’s career and juxtapose her two worlds: the Nebraska prairie and the world of art. Five short stories; The Enchanted Bluff, Tom Outland’s Story, Neighbor Rosicky, Paul’s Case, and The Best Years, along with an article by George N. Kates on Miss Cather’s last unfinished, and unpublished Avignon story.

— From the BARD description

This week’s #BookFace model is long TBBS narrator Connie Healy! A volunteer with TBBS for over ten years, Connie has narrated more than eleven books and countless magazines in her time with us, including three One Book One Nebraska titles: “Dancing with the Octopus” by Debora Harding, “The Bones of Paradise” by Jonis Agee, and “Prairie Forge” by James J. Kimble. You can find all of the books she’s narrated on the National Library Service website.

TBBS borrowers can request “Five Stories” DBC02016 or download it from the National Library Service BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) website. If you have high-speed internet access, you can download books to your smartphone or tablet, or onto a flash drive for use with your player. You may also contact your reader’s advisor to have the book mailed to you on cartridge.

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 Chronicles of DOOM: Unraveling Rap’s Masked Iconoclast” by S.H. Fernando Jr.

Who is that masked #BookFaceFriday?

It’s your favorite #BookFace’s favorite #BookFace! Check out “The Chronicles of Doom: Unraveling Rap’s Masked Iconoclast” by S.H. Fernando Jr.(Astra House, 2024). “MF Doom” was one of several alter-egos adopted by Daniel Dumile Jr., a prolific hip-hop artist that never appeared in public without a mask. It’s available as an eBook through Nebraska OverDrive Libraries, and is only one of more than 100 biographies and memoirs about musicians.

“Fernando provides a comprehensive look at DOOM’s life and career, meticulously researched through interviews with the rapper’s many collaborators and those closest to the man behind the mask. His track-by-track breakdowns of DOOM’s albums will have sample spotters diving into their record collections. A perfect pairing with Dan Charnas’s Dilla Time (2022), this is an essential exploration into the world of ‘your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper.”

Carlos Orellana, Booklist (starred review)

Libraries participating in the Nebraska OverDrive Libraries Group currently have access to a shared and growing collection of digital downloadable audiobooks and eBooks. 194 libraries across the state share the Nebraska OverDrive collection of 26,898 audiobooks, 36,794 ebooks, and 5,133 magazines. As an added bonus it includes 130 podcasts that are always available with simultaneous use (SU), as well as SU ebooks and audiobook titles that publishers have made available for a limited time. If you’re a part of it, let your users know about this great title, and if you’re not a member yet, find more information about participating in Nebraska Overdrive Libraries!

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 “Five Presidents” by Clint Hill with Lisa McCubbin

#BookFace for President!

“Decisions are made by those who show up,” quoting Josiah Bartlet, and ultimately Aaron Sorkin, we want to reiterate the sentiment to get out there and vote. With election day next week, we thought we’d give you a run down on a few of the resources available at the Nebraska Library Commission. Whether your looking for voter information like overseas voting, early/absentee voting, voter check, or just need help finding your polling place check out our NebraskAccess: Election and Politics webpage for helpful links. If you love a good presidential biography or memoir we have a large selection in the Nebraska OverDrive Libraries collection, just search President! Or if you’re just looking to get away from it all we have a specially curated collection in OverDrive for “Political Fantasy.” Not to forget our large collection of book club kits includes many autobiographies, biographies, and memoirs, like this week’s #BookFace, “Five Presidents: My Extraordinary Journey with Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford” by Clint Hill with Lisa McCubbin (Gallery Books, 2017.)

“Hill’s humanity shines in the rich descriptions of the history he witnessed. The book gives nonpartisan insight about the human side of three Republican and two Democratic presidents. It discloses the huge protective challenges secret service agents face around the clock. Hill also reports many titillating personal events and shares candid views of the swarms of personalities that swirled around the White House.”

—Joseph H. Carter Sr. For The Oklahoman

Need a hand searching our collection? Here are some tips! You can browse our collection by genre or grade level, or use a keyword search to find exactly what your looking for. Still can’t find what you are looking for? Let us know and we’re happy to help.

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 “A Grim Reaper’s Guide to Catching a Killer” by Maxie Dara

This #BookFaceFriday is a graveyard smash!

This week’s #BookFaceFriday is fully embracing spooky season! Join in with “A Grim Reaper’s Guide to Catching a Killer” by Maxie Dara (Berkley, 2024). This off-beat and humorous murder mystery is the first part in the author’s SCYTHE Mystery Series. It’s available as a an eBook and Audiobook through Nebraska OverDrive Libraries, and can be found in the specially curated collection “Monster Mash,” which is filled with Halloween, monster, or horror themed titles.

“Fun and lighthearted despite the presence of death, the characters are relatable and funny, and the paranormal aspects are balanced with the ordinariness of Kathy’s messy life. The ending fleshes out this creative premise and sets the book up for the next in a heartwarming series.”

Booklist

Libraries participating in the Nebraska OverDrive Libraries Group currently have access to a shared and growing collection of digital downloadable audiobooks and eBooks. 194 libraries across the state share the Nebraska OverDrive collection of 26,898 audiobooks, 36,794 ebooks, and 5,133 magazines. As an added bonus it includes 130 podcasts that are always available with simultaneous use (SU), as well as SU ebooks and audiobook titles that publishers have made available for a limited time. If you’re a part of it, let your users know about this great title, and if you’re not a member yet, find more information about participating in Nebraska Overdrive Libraries!

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 “Breaking Rank” by Kristin D. Randle

Don’t let this #BookFace strong arm you!

Are your younger readers looking for a great book? Let us lend you a (tiny) hand in finding the right title! The Library Commission has a large collection of book club kits for children and young adults. Like this week’s #BookFace ,”Breaking Rank” by Kristen D. Randle (Turtleback Books, 2001), perfect for readers ages 12 and up; it’s a part of our Book Club Kit collection, with thirteen copies available for checkout. Diving into themes of peer pressure and independent thinking, this novel has been compared to The Outsiders, West Side Story, and Romeo and Juliet.

“This novel challenges stereotypes and stigmas when an unprecedented friendship develops between two teens of rival high school groups. “Randle is adept at conveying ingrained prejudices as well as the frustration and alienation that leads some youths to forsake the `straight’ world for a more friendly and accepting one of their own making.”

—Publishers Weekly

Need a hand searching our collection? Here are some tips! You can browse our collection by genre or grade level, or use a keyword search to find Golden Sower nominees and winners. If you need a large number of books for a whole classroom, limit your search to only those sets with enough books to meet your needs. Still can’t find what you are looking for? Let us know and we’re happy to help.

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 “Healer & Witch” by Nancy Werlin

We’ll cast a spell on you with this #BookFaceFriday!

We’ve been at the Nebraska Library Association Conference this week connecting with Nebraska’s librarians and Library staff! Sally Snyder, NLC’s Children and Youth Services Coordinator, also had a table there full of her giveaway books, all available for libraries to take home with them. One of those books is this week’s #BookFace, “Healer & Witch” by Nancy Werlin (Candlewick Press, 2022). Perfect for middle grade readers, this  coming-of-age YA novel is a fantasy and historical fiction story all rolled into one. All in all the perfect October read!

Werlin’s first foray into middle grade is a thrilling and suspenseful experience; there are twisting reveals and adventure aplenty, though the story isn’t afraid to stop for lovely moments of
quiet contemplation and recollection along the way. A budding, respectful romance and hints of deeper powers will have readers hoping for a sequel. It’s well worth joining kind and clever Sylvie on her harrowing journey of discovery.”

Booklist (starred review)

This title comes from our large collection of children’s and young adult books sent to us as review copies from book publishers. When our Children and Young Adult Library Services Coordinator, Sally Snyder, is done with them, the review copies are available for the Library System Directors to distribute to school and public libraries in their systems.

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

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#BookFaceFriday “Unthinkable” by Helen Thomson

This #BookFace will blow your mind!

Free your mind, and the rest will follow. If you love learning through reading or just nonfiction books in general check out this week’s #BookFaceFriday, “Unthinkable” by Helen Thomson, it’s a nonfiction journey through some of the biggest mysteries of the human brain. You can find this title as an Audiobook through Nebraska OverDrive Libraries, it’s a part of the “Talk Nerdy to Me” curated collection in Overdrive.

“Thomson has a gift for making the complex and strange understandable and relatable. Oliver Sacks is noted as an inspiration and, indeed, this book will appeal to his many fans.”

Library Journal (starred review)

Libraries participating in the Nebraska OverDrive Libraries Group currently have access to a shared and growing collection of digital downloadable audiobooks and eBooks. 194 libraries across the state share the Nebraska OverDrive collection of 26,898 audiobooks, 36,794 ebooks, and 5,133 magazines. As an added bonus it includes 130 podcasts that are always available with simultaneous use (SU), as well as SU ebooks and audiobook titles that publishers have made available for a limited time. If you’re a part of it, let your users know about this great title, and if you’re not a member yet, find more information about participating in Nebraska Overdrive Libraries

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

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#BookFaceFriday “The Miseducation of Cameron Post” by Emily M. Danforth

This #BookFace is outstanding in its field!

Freed between the lines! That’s the theme of this year’s #BannedBooksWeek. We are celebrating with a banned #BookFace! The Nebraska Library Commission supports readers and the freedom to read so we make sure our various collections reflect that. “The Miseducation of Cameron Post: A Novel” by Emily M. Danforth (Balzer + Bray, 2013) has been banned or challenged in the US since 2014, less than a year after it’s publication, cited for “inappropriate language, not appropriate for middle school age students.” It won The Montana Book Award and was a finalist for both the Morris Award and a Lambda Literary award. Emily Danforth was born in Montana and received her Ph.D in English-Creative Writing from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln! A book is considered challenged when calls are made for it to be banned or removed from the public’s access. This is one of many banned or challenged titles NLC has available in our Book Club Kit Collection, titles like The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, Looking For Alaska by John Green, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle, Beloved by Toni Morrison, and the Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling, just to name a few.  This week’s #BookFace and other banned books can be found on the NLC Book Club Kit webpage. This service allows libraries and school librarians to “check out” multiple copies of a book without adding to their permanent collections, or budgets. NLC also has several banned or challenged titles available to our Nebraska OverDrive Libraries.

“This finely crafted, sophisticated coming-of-age debut novel is multilayered, finessing such issues as loss, first love, and friendship. An excellent read for both teens and adults.”

— School Library Journal (starred review)

You can find more information about Banned Books Week and the fight against censorship at ALA.org/advocacy/bbooks! What are you doing to celebrate Banned Books Week? Let us know!

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 “Haven’s Wake” by Ladette Randolph & “Hell or High Water” by Joy Castro

When one #BookFace closes, another one opens.

There’s nothing better than supporting Nebraska’s great literary talent by reading their books! This week’s #BookFaceFriday highlights two great Nebraska authors! “Haven’s Wake” by Ladette Randolph and “Hell or High Water” by Joy Castro, both novels are available as Book Club Kits for your library. Find more titles using the Nebraska-Related books located in the Browse Options section of our Book Club Kit Collection which includes fiction, nonfiction, adult, and kids/YA titles. Both “Haven’s Wake” and “Hell or High Water” can also be checked out through Nebraska OverDrive Libraries.

“With prose that vivifies the intricate patchwork of characters and captures the landscape’s simplicity, Haven’s Wake explores ‘the various attempts to explain the unexplainable,’ including family, faith, and death.”

Katharine Fronk, Booklist Online

“A terrific mystery, but Hell or High Water is more than just a mystery; it’s a heartfelt examination of a second America–poor but undaunted–that was swept under the rug but refuses to stay there . . . I can’t wait to see what Joy Castro does next.”

– Dennis Lehane, New York Times bestselling author of Mystic River

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

Libraries participating in the Nebraska OverDrive Libraries Group currently have access to a shared and growing collection of digital downloadable audiobooks and eBooks. 194 libraries across the state share the Nebraska OverDrive collection of 26,898 audiobooks, 36,794 ebooks, and 5,133 magazines. As an added bonus it includes 130 podcasts that are always available with simultaneous use (SU), as well as SU ebooks and audiobook titles that publishers have made available for a limited time. If you’re a part of it, let your users know about this great title, and if you’re not a member yet, find more information about participating in Nebraska Overdrive Libraries!

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

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#BookFaceFriday – “On the Go with Senior Services” by Phyllis Goodman

Listen up, it’s #BookFaceFriday!

The Nebraska Library Commission is hiring! We are looking for a Marketing and Outreach Coordinator for our Talking Book and Braille (TBBS) department to help us recruit, retain, and engage our TBBS patrons.

The Talking Book and Braille Service is a no-cost braille and Audiobook library service for people with temporary or permanent low vision, blindness, or a physical or perceptual disability that prevents them from reading or holding the printed page or a reading disability. It’s one of the NLC’s core services and, while not limited to, is used by many Nebraska senior citizens.

On the Go with Senior Services : Library Programs for Any Time and Any Place” by Phyllis Goodman (Libraries Unlimited, 2020) is a part of NLC’s Library Science Collection, which provides professional and reference materials for Nebraska librarians and library science programs. This includes all librarians and library science students. The checkout period is 4 weeks, and items can be sent through the mail or picked up in person. You can find all of these books and more in our catalog, or reach out to our reference staff for a recommendation!

“Providing programming at senior living facilities may be uncharted territory for many libraries. If you’re looking to begin offering programs for senior residents, start your research with this book. Find inspiration to take seniors to the past or around the world, make everyone an artist or author, empower them to use technology confidently, and connect with people living with dementia.”

― Jennie Fidler, Special Services Coordinator, Oconomowoc Public Library

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

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