Search the Blog
Categories
- Books & Reading
- Broadband Buzz
- Census
- Education & Training
- General
- Grants
- Information Resources
- Library Management
- Nebraska Center for the Book
- Nebraska Memories
- Now hiring @ your library
- Preservation
- Pretty Sweet Tech
- Programming
- Public Library Boards of Trustees
- Public Relations
- Talking Book & Braille Service (TBBS)
- Technology
- Uncategorized
- What's Up Doc / Govdocs
- Youth Services
Archives
Subscribe
Tag Archives: Nebraska Authors
Book Club Spotlight – You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey
Yesterday (June 19th) was the second time in Nebraska’s history that Juneteenth was celebrated as an official state holiday. And to honor the celebrations, today’s Book Club Spotlight features Nebraska Native and host of her own Peacock late-night talk show, Amber Ruffin! Ruffin has talked extensively about Juneteenth, its history, and misconceptions in a fantastic segment on her show called How Did We Get Here, which is absolutely worth the watch. Ruffin has had an incredible career as a comedian, writing for Seth Meyers, the Golden Globes, and of course, The Amber Ruffin show. Her book, You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey, co-authored with her sister Lacey Lamar, a worker in the health and human services field, consists of short but absurd stories recounted by Lamar of racism, from micro to macroaggressions in their hometown of Omaha.
You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey is a collection of real stories told by Ruffin and Lamar, primarily focusing on Lamar’s life as a Black woman in Omaha and the unintentional (or intentional!) racism that she faces daily. While Lamar’s stories can get pretty bleak, the book’s goal is not wholly serious. The stories are wild and addicting, and it’s easy to get sucked in and finish the book in one sitting. The sisters are natural comedians who bounce off each other like they’re gossiping with you about a ridiculous thing that happened to them while getting your nails done together. And that’s part of the goal! To show the absurdity of racism when it’s filed down to the smallest moments of touching a Black woman’s hair to being stopped by the police for skipping down the street. Even the smallest moments build up over a lifetime of experience and paint a larger picture of racism that’s normalized in our culture.
“I have never been able to understand why white people have such a low tolerance for hearing about racism. I mean, we have to live it! The least you could do is nod your head.”
Amber Ruffin
Picked as the 2021 Omaha Reads title, the goal of You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey is different for each reader. For white readers, Ruffin hopes they will walk away with a new perspective on what it’s like to be a modern Black American. And she hopes Black readers will recognize themselves and know they’re not alone. It is both parts, a book of revelation and validation. Their second book, The World Record Book of Racist Stories, is a collection much like You’ll Never Believe. It includes stories from their parents, siblings, and other family members to bring even more laughs and gasps of horror from the wildest things people say and do.
If you’re interested in requesting You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey for your book club, you can find the Book Club Kit Request form here. There are 7 copies available. (A librarian must request items)
Ruffin, Amber; Lamar, Lacey. You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey. Grand Central Publishing. 2021.
Posted in Books & Reading
Tagged Black Voices, book club spotlight, Juneteenth, Nebraska Authors
Leave a comment
Book Club Spotlight – The Loren Eiseley Reader
It’s finally the best week of the year- National Library Week! Hosted by the American Library Association, this year’s motto is “More to the Story.” Like we discussed in our last Spotlight, The Reading List, libraries are more than just book depots; they are places for community and social engagement. And today, we’ll look at a different aspect of “More to the Story,” in how a book can be greater than the sum of its parts and live on long past its author. Published posthumously The Loren Eiseley Reader is a collection of essays by celebrated Nebraskan anthropologist and philosopher Loren Eiseley. This collection includes a foreword by his friend and fellow author Ray Bradbury, who closes by musing on the longevity of the written word: “The essays you’ve written and the books that you’ve created are children, so your heritage will go on to the end of this century and to the centuries beyond. You have children, Loren Eiseley, and you will live forever.”
The Loren Eiseley Reader is a collection of short essays and stories taken from Eiseley’s work throughout his life, including his academic work, poetry, and other nonfiction. The essays are organized into three categories: Reflections of a Naturalist, Reflections of a Writer, and Reflections of a Wanderer. A reader can pick up wherever they want and not feel constrained to a linear experience. Even though it’s confined to the first heading, being a naturalist affects all of Eiseley’s work. He saw the Earth as a beautiful mystery and contemplated its meaning and grander scope throughout his writing. Even in the most scientific discussions, such as evacuating fossils, Eiseley takes the reader back in time with him. Not to point out how insignificant we are in the scope of history, but how incredible it is that something came before us and something will come after us.
“I had come a long way down since morning; I had projected myself across a dimension I was not fitted to traverse in the flesh.”
Loren Eiseley
In addition to showcasing Eiseley’s work, The Reader was compiled to introduce secondary students to engaging examples of well-written essays and prose. According to The Loren Eiseley Society, The Reader and its companion Teacher’s Guide can fit seamlessly into any classroom, “Eiseley’s ideas and powerful prose are a perfect fit for students of science, literature, and history, both natural and anthropological. His writing provides profound insight into the workings of the natural world and man’s relationship to that world, and his unique literary style is rich ground for students of literature.” And students might also be excited to learn about the namesake of their local library. A student reader collection might not be your standard book club pick, but there can be a lot of value in reading some naturalist nonfiction as we move into spring and summer, while the Nebraska prairie slowly comes back to life.
If you’re interested in requesting The Loren Eiseley Reader for your book club, you can find the Book Club Kit Request Form here. There are 9 copies available (A librarian must request items)
Posted in Books & Reading
Tagged book club spotlight, books, Nebraska Authors, Reading
Leave a comment
#BookFaceFriday: “My Antonia” by Willa Cather
O! #BookFaceFriday! 
“During that burning day when we were crossing Iowa, our talk kept returning to a central figure, a Bohemian girl whom we had both known long ago.”
This week’s #BookFace title comes from the collection “Nebraska Connections” on Nebraska OverDrive Libraries, it’s compiled from various end-of-the-year lists and has 167 eBooks and Audiobooks, including, “My Antonia” by Willa Cather (Random House Publishing Group, 2020.)
This Nebraska classic is available as an eBook and audiobook, along with many other Cather titles and nonfiction titles about the author and other Nebraskans. Explore the collection today and find your next read. The Nebraska Library Commission also offers a wide selection of Nebraska titles in our Book Club Kit Collection as well, you can find them all by browsing the “Nebraska-Related” section at http://nlc.nebraska.gov/ref/bookclub/.
Find this title and many more through Nebraska OverDrive! Libraries participating in the Nebraska OverDrive Libraries Group currently have access to a shared and growing collection of digital downloadable audiobooks and eBooks. 188 libraries across the state share the Nebraska OverDrive collection of 21,696 audiobooks, 35,200 eBooks, and 3,964 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!
#BookFaceFriday “Three Versions of the Truth”
This week’s #BookFaceFriday will blow you away!
Hang on to your hats, or umbrellas, just like a windy Nebraska spring, this #BookFace has us barely hanging on. A collection of short stories, this week’s selection is by Nebraska author Amy Knox Brown, “Three Versions of the Truth” (Press 53, 2007). This book is a part of our NLC Book Club Kit collection, reserve this collection of short stories for your book club today!
“Her characters are alive and compelling; each story is a satisfying world to be entered and explored. Ms. Brown’s native Nebraskan landscape flourishes on these pages —descriptions you want to read slowly and then again.” —Jill McCorkle
This week’s #BookFace model is Holly Duggan, NLC’s Continuing Education Coordinator!
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!
#BookFaceFriday “Broken For You” by Stephanie Kallos
Happy #BookFaceFriday from the Nebraska Library Commission!
We love highlighting Nebraska authors, especially those we offer in our Book Club Kits, like Stephanie Kallos’s “Broken For You” (Grove Press, 2004)! This national bestseller was a 2006 One Book One Lincoln finalist and a Today Show Book Club selection.
Love this #bookface & reading? We suggest checking out all the titles available for book clubs at http://nlc.nebraska.gov/ref/bookclub.
Our #BookFaceFriday model is Nebraska Library Commission’s Accountant, Tan Ngo. Check out our past #BookFace photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!
Posted in Books & Reading, General
Tagged Book Club, Book Club Kits, Book Covers, bookface, bookfacefriday, Facebook, literature, Nebraska, Nebraska Authors, Photos, Reading
Leave a comment
It’s #bookfacefriday!
If you’re on social media (Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter) and interested in libraries, you may have come across the hashtags #bookface or #bookfacefriday.
According to the New York Times “bookface involves strategically lining up your face or another body part alongside a book cover that features a matching body part so that there appears a melding of life and art.”
To highlight some of the Nebraska 150 books, we’ve been posing Library Commission staff (and sometimes their kids!) for our own Bookface Fridays. It’s trickier than you’d think! Fortunately we have a photographer with a great eye, and some good-natured staff!
You can see past bookface photos on the Center for the Book’s Facebook page, or check in every Friday to see the latest shot!
Has anyone at your library posted a #bookfacefriday?
Posted in Books & Reading, General
Tagged bookface, bookfacefriday, Facebook, Nebraska Authors
Leave a comment
Governor Ricketts Proclaims 2017 One Book One Nebraska: Black Elk Speaks
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
January 11, 2017
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Rod Wagner
402-471-4001
800-307-2665
Governor Ricketts Proclaims 2017 One Book One Nebraska: Black Elk Speaks
On Jan. 9, 2017 Governor Pete Ricketts signed a proclamation honoring 2017 One Book One Nebraska: Black Elk Speaks by John G. Neihardt. In this year people across Nebraska are encouraged to read this novel. The story of the Oglala Lakota visionary and healer Nicholas Black Elk (1863-1950) and his people, offers readers much more than a glimpse of a vanished time. Black Elk’s searing visions of the unity of Humanity and Earth, conveyed by John G. Neihardt, have made this book a classic that crosses multiple genres and generations. The 2017 One Book One Nebraska selection is among 150 books chosen to highlight the 150th year celebration of Nebraska’s statehood. Rod Wagner, Director of the Nebraska Library Commission, presented the governor with a copy of the book. “The John G. Neihardt Foundation and State Historic Site in Bancroft is honored to take part in sharing this story, as well as our heritage and history, together with Nebraskan readers and beyond,” said Amy Kucera, Executive Director at the John G. Neihardt State Historic Site. “This transcendent tale is a true gift – created from a remarkable past so we might better understand the present, it continues to inform and inspire the future as each generation takes its turn through the pages.”
Photos of the proclamation-signing ceremony are available online.
The One Book One Nebraska reading program is entering its thirteenth year and is sponsored by the Nebraska Center for the Book, Nebraska Library Commission, John G. Neihardt Foundation & Nebraska State Historical Society, University of Nebraska Press, Humanities Nebraska, and Nebraska libraries and regional library systems. It encourages Nebraskans across the state to read and discuss one book, chosen from books written by Nebraska authors or that have a Nebraska theme or setting. Libraries across Nebraska will join other literary and cultural organizations in planning book discussions, activities, and events to encourage Nebraskans to read and discuss this book. Support materials to assist with local reading/discussion activities are available on the 2017 One Book One Nebraska web page. Updates and activity listings will be posted there and on the NCB Facebook page.
The Nebraska Center for the Book is housed at the Nebraska Library Commission and brings together the state’s readers, writers, booksellers, librarians, publishers, printers, educators, and scholars to build the community of the book, supporting programs to celebrate and stimulate public interest in books, reading, and the written word. The Nebraska Center for the Book is supported by the Nebraska Library Commission.
As Nebraska’s state library agency, the Nebraska Library Commission is an advocate for the library and information needs of all Nebraskans. The mission of the Library Commission is statewide promotion, development, and coordination of library and information services-“bringing together people and information.”
###
The most up-to-date news releases from the Nebraska Library Commission are always available on the Library Commission Website, http://nlc.nebraska.gov/publications/newsreleases.
Nebraska Authors to Speak at October 29 Celebration of Nebraska Books
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
October 18, 2016
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Mary Jo Ryan
402-471-3434
800-307-2665
Nebraska Authors to Speak at October 29 Celebration of Nebraska Books
Readers are invited to hear presentations by winning Nebraska writers and book designers at the Nebraska Center for the Book’s October 29 Celebration of Nebraska Books in downtown Lincoln. Presenters will include the following 2016 Nebraska Book Award Winners:
Designers: N. Putens, Rodeo Nebraska.
Fiction Writer: Chigozie Obioma, The Fishermen: A Novel.
Illustrator: Justin T. Sipiorski, The Fishes of Nebraska.
Non-fiction Writers: James W. Hewitt, In Cold Storage: Sex and Murder on the Plains; Summer Miller, New Prairie Kitchen: Stories and Seasonal Recipes from Chefs, Farmers, and Artisans of the Great Plains; Nancy Plain, This Strange Wilderness: The Life and Art of John James Audubon; and Robert A. Hrabik, Steven C. Schainost, Richard H. Stasiak, Edward J. Peters, The Fishes of Nebraska.
Photographer/Writer: Mark Harris, Rodeo Nebraska.
Poets: Lin Brummels, Hard Times, and Charles Peek, Breezes on Their Way to Being Winds.
The celebration, free and open to the public, will also feature presentation of the Nebraska Center for the Book’s 2016 Jane Geske Awards to City Impact (Lincoln), Literacy Center for the Midlands (Omaha), and Platte Valley Literacy Association (Columbus) Community Reading Program for exceptional contributions to literacy in Nebraska. The Nebraska Center for the Book will also present the 2016 Mildred Bennett Awards to Nebraska poets Twyla Hansen and Marjorie Saiser at the Celebration. Hansen and Saiser will be honored for their contributions to Nebraska writing and for their service in support of Nebraska’s writers and readers.
This year the Celebration marks the twelfth year of One Book One Nebraska with a program by Karen Gettert Shoemaker, author of The Meaning of Names, the 2016 One Book One Nebraska book selection
The Nebraska Center for the Book Annual Meeting will be held at 1:30 p.m.—just prior to the 2:30-6:30 p.m. Celebration. An awards reception honoring the winning authors, book signings, and announcement of the 2017 One Book One Nebraska book choice will conclude the festivities. The Celebration of Nebraska Books is sponsored by Nebraska Center for the Book, Nebraska Library Commission, Nebraska State Historical Society’s Nebraska History Museum, and University of Nebraska Press—with support for the One Book One Nebraska presentation from Humanities Nebraska. Celebration information is available at http://centerforthebook.nebraska.gov/programs/celebration.html.
The Nebraska Center for the Book is housed at the Nebraska Library Commission and brings together the state’s readers, writers, booksellers, librarians, publishers, printers, educators, and scholars to build the community of the book, supporting programs to celebrate and stimulate public interest in books, reading, and the written word. The Nebraska Center for the Book is supported by the Nebraska Library Commission.
As the state library agency, the Nebraska Library Commission is an advocate for the library and information needs of all Nebraskans. The mission of the Library Commission is statewide promotion, development, and coordination of library and information services, bringing together people and information.
###
The most up-to-date news releases from the Nebraska Library Commission are always available on the Library Commission Website, http://nlc.nebraska.gov/publications/newsreleases.
