Tag Archives: Reading

#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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Book Club Spotlight – The Joy Luck Club

cover for The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. Two mirrored Chinese dragons border the title.

Amy Tan’s debut novel, The Joy Luck Club, drifts between the stories of mothers and daughters like the four winds of mahjong. Originally written as disconnected pieces, Tan evolved her work into a sweeping novel of generations, loss, and perseverance. Today’s Book Club Spotlight is extra special because the author is in Lincoln tonight! “A Conversation with Amy Tan” will be hosted at the Lied Center for Performing Arts for free with an accompanying live-stream at 7:30 pm. Her talk is a part of “The 29th Annual Governor’s Lecture in the Humanities”, hosted by Humanities Nebraska and the E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues. Tickets and the live stream can be accessed, here: https://tickets.liedcenter.org/3342

The Joy Luck Club, a group of Chinese immigrant women who gather for mahjong and community, grow their lives and families together in 1980s San Francisco. When matriarch Suyuan Woo passes away, her daughter Jing-mei is invited to take her mother’s spot at the table. And there she learns a hidden truth about her mother- she never stopped searching for the children she had to abandon in China decades ago, and only now have they been found. Jing-mei struggles with the loss of her mother, someone she feels as if she hardly knew, and the sudden reunification with her resurrected sisters. And in turn, like Suyuan, each daughter and mother of The Joy Luck Club, have kept themselves secret to their loved ones. Hiding difficult and life-defining events as an act of piety or restraint, that could ultimately grow and foster their fraught relationships. 

“Then you must teach my daughter this same lesson. How to lose your innocence but not your hope. How to laugh forever.”

AMy Tan

The Joy Luck Club, while not an all-encompassing narrative of the Chinese Immigrant experience, shows four distinct paths taken. Suyuan Woo who fled from the war and left behind two children and her past. Lindo Jong, who escaped from a tyrannous marriage, believes in personal strength to her daughter’s detriment. An-mei Hsu, a passive player for most of her life, fears that she has bestowed those characteristics on her daughter. And Ying-ying St. Clair, a woman of means and wealth, is forced into poverty and silence, teaches her daughter to expect the same. All women with stories in equal measure, display their unresolved trauma to their daughters through words and actions, creating an endless cycle that must be broken. Tan’s work is essential to American literature (and media!), earning her the National Humanities Medal for “expanding the American literary canon. By bravely exploring experiences of immigrant families, heritage, memories, and poignant struggles”.  Book Club Groups from High School to Adulthood can discuss her dissection of the immigrant experience, womanhood and perseverance, generational trauma, and what do we share with our loved ones? 

If you’re interested in requesting The Joy Luck Club for your book club, you can find the Request Form here. There are 14 copies. (A librarian must request items)

Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club. Ballantine Books. 1989

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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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What’s Up Doc? New State Agency Publications at the Nebraska Library Commission

New state agency publications have been received at the Nebraska Library Commission for July and August, 2024.  Included are Annual Reports from the Nebraska Department of Health and human Services, reports from the Nebraska Auditor of Public Accounts, the Nebraska State Treasurer, the Nebraska Department of Revenue, the Nebraska Department of Transportation, and the Nebraska Public Employees Retirement System, to name a few.

With the exception of University of Nebraska Press titles, items are available for immediate viewing and printing by clicking directly in the .pdf below. 

The Nebraska Legislature created the Nebraska Publications Clearinghouse in 1972 as a service of the Nebraska Library Commission. Its purpose is to collect, preserve, and provide access to all public information published by Nebraska state agencies.  By law (State Statutes 51-411 to 51-413) all Nebraska state agencies are required to submit their published documents to the Clearinghouse.  For more information, visit the Nebraska Publications Clearinghouse page, contact Mary Sauers, Government Information Services Librarian; or contact Bonnie Henzel, State Documents Staff Assistant.

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Book Club Spotlight – You Don’t Know Everything, Jilly P!

This month is National Deaf Awareness Month, which includes International Week of Deaf People from Sept 23rd through the 29th! Each day of the week is themed with ways to get involved and learn about the deaf community worldwide!  Today’s Book Club Spotlight, You Don’t Know Everything Jilly P!, by Alex Gino, features a young girl learning about the Deaf community and beyond, when her sister is unexpectedly born Deaf. Best known for their debut novel, Melissa, Gino is a member of We Need Diverse Books and PEN America; two organizations with the mission to uplift marginalized voices and secure the right to read.

Jilly’s aunts say that after her baby sister is born, life will never go back to normal. And they’re right! When Emma is born Deaf, her parents aren’t prepared, but Jilly is way excited to tell her Deaf online friend Derek aka profoundinoaktown, the news. When his excitement doesn’t match hers, she’s confused and hurt. While her parents are busy meeting with audiologists, Jilly begins noticing her own differences and how they impact others. She’s hearing, so she doesn’t have to worry about communication and being left out of conversation. She’s also white and doesn’t have to worry about racism and violence like her Black friends and family do. Jilly’s aunt and her cousins are more than people who are Black, and Derek is more than someone who is Black and Deaf. They’re proud of their identities because each piece of them comes together to make who they are, but sometimes being who they are is unsafe. Jilly has a lot to learn, and even though she messes us up, she keeps trying. So when her sister is ready for the world, she will be too. 

“The hard thing about accidentally saying the wrong thing is that you don’t know it’s the wrong thing until you’ve already said it and hurt someone. And even if you didn’t mean it that way, you can’t take it back.”

Alex Gino

For 3rd-grade readers and up, You Don’t Know Everything, Jilly P, takes on aspects of Gino’s real-life experience of having Deaf and Black family and friends and learning how their life experiences and opportunities differ. In traditional Alex Gino fashion, the book handles some pretty intense topics with care and compassion, from learning and respecting Deaf culture, to spotting racist microaggressions and talking to others about racism. In the author’s note, Gino states that “books and stories are tools for talking about contemporary issues and that young readers need and deserve these tools just as much as the rest of us”. When it comes to discussing these topics with your students or a Book Club Group, don’t fear- the Scholastic Discussion Guide not only includes great questions for readers of all ages- but further resources into Deaf Culture, ASL, Civil Rights, and how to act as an ally, not just a bystander, in your community.  

Interview with Alex Gino by Deaf writer Ann Clare Le Zotte: 

If you’re interested in requesting You Don’t Know Everything, Jilly P!  for your book club, you can find the Request Form here. There are 22 copies. (A librarian must request items)

Gino, Alex. You Don’t Know Everything, Jilly P!. Scholastic. 2019

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Friday Reads : Flight Patterns, by Karen White

I recently picked up Flight Patterns, by Karen White, at a library book sale. And while the author was new to me, what really drew my attention was not just the description of the story, but of the story’s location: Apalachicola, Florida. Apalach, as it’s known to it’s residents, is a town not far from where I grew up and that offers some of the most beautiful homes, gorgeous beaches, and best seafood in the entire South. Flight Patterns tells the story of a woman coming home to the Apalach family she left behind – and to the woman she always wanted to be. In the telling of this woman’s story, Ms. White has done such a magnificent job of describing the beauty of the town, area and people, that it brought back many fond memories of summer days there with my family. As per my usual habit, I both read and listened to this title, and was riveted from beginning to end, as I’m sure you will be too!

Georgia Chambers has spent her life sifting through other people’s pasts while trying to forget her own. But then her work as an expert on fine china – especially Limoges and the mystery surrounding a particular pattern – requires her to return to the one place she swore she’d never revisit: her home town.

It’s been 13 years since Georgia left her family home on the coast of Florida, and nothing much has changed except that there are fewer oysters and more tourists. She finds solace in seeing her grandfather still toiling away with his bees in the apiary where she spent much of her childhood, but encountering her estranged mother and sister leaves her rattled. Seeing them after all this time makes Georgia realize that something has been missing – and unless she finds a way to heal these rifts, she will forever be living vicariously through other people’s remnants. To embrace her own life – mistakes and all – she will have to find the courage to confront the ghosts of her past and the secrets she was forced to keep. **Synopsis courtesy of Audible

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#BookFaceFriday “The Book of Unknown Americans” by Cristina Henríquez

Did you know it’s #BookFaceFriday?

Don’t blame us for judging a book by its cover – this one was just asking to become this week’s #BookFace! But sometimes those first impressions prove to be correct; “The Book of Unknown Americans” by Cristina Henríquez, was “named a New York Times and Washington Post Notable Book, an NPR Great Read, The Daily Beast’s Novel of the Year, and a Mother Jones, Oprah.com, School Library Journal, and BookPage Best Book of the Year.” This title is available as a part of our Book Club Kit collection, and also as an eBook and Audiobook through Nebraska OverDrive Libraries. Will your book club enjoy it? Only one way to know for sure…

“There’s an aura of benevolence in these pages…. Henríquez’s feat is to make the reader feel at home amid these good, likable people.”

The Wall Street Journal

“Unfailingly well written and entertaining…. [Henríquez’s] stories illuminate the lives behind the current debates about Latino immigration.”

– The New York Times Book Review

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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Book Club Spotlight – The Invisible Man

cover of the Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison.  The title is shown in cursive impact font surrounded by green rectangles

A man of many passions, from music, art, to class consciousness, and social theory, Ralph Waldo Ellison (named after the leader of the Transcendentalist movement), is best known for his contributions to the American literary canon. His sharp satirical works and his contemporary exploration of the varied lives of African Americans pre-Civil Rights earned his place as the first African-American to win the National Book Award for Fiction for his 1952 novel, Invisible Man.

When we meet our narrator, the eponymous Invisible Man, he is living in an abandoned basement of a whites-only apartment in New York City. He reassures us that this is no hovel, as it glows with a thousand lights of promise (and siphoned electricity). Before he was in this shelter, he lived a life full of promise. As a young man, his academic prowess awarded him a chance to speak in front of the town’s white elites. But instead of a simple speech, he is forced into a blinded battle royale with other Black youth; and only once he is debased and beaten bloodless is he allowed to speak. As his life’s journey takes him from his home in the south to New York City, he is struck by how this promised land holds the same prejudices and obstacles to self-actualization. As a disillusioned young man stuck in the perpetual cycle of fighting for liberation, he must put on a respectable front to exist in a world that is systemically works against him. 

“I was pulled this way and that for longer than I can remember. And my problem was that I always tried to go in everyone’s way but my own. I have also been called one thing and then another while no one really wished to hear what I called myself.”

― Ralph Ellison

Not to be confused with the science fiction book of the same name- the invisibility in Ellison’s Invisible Man, is theoretical and social, rather than a physical condition. His unnamed narrator, a bright young Black man in the Jim Crow South, has a promising future that depends on him making himself inoffensive, and inconsequential to the white men who hold power over him. It’s also important to remember that these Black men who had to be “invisible” to the white society, were absolutely not invisible to the women and children in their lives. As we discussed in The Bluest Eye, Pecola Breedlove’s situation is informed by those around her and their treatment by society. Invisible Man was a large influence on Morrison’s work- acting as a conversation point to where she would take those deemed “invisible” and show them in the light that their contemporaries would have seen them. Here, her perspective is just as valuable as Ellison’s.

Invisible Man, while an important piece of American literature, is not an easy read. Taught in AP Literature courses and College-Level Classes, this book demands dissection and close reading. When working with your class, or dedicated Book Club Group, I highly recommend taking advantage of the Cliffs Notes. (Did you know that the founder, Clifton Hillegass, was a lifelong Nebraskan?) Study tools, like Cliffs Notes, are a great accessible tool for modern readers who might lack context for classic literature, and content thoughtful analysis that assists, not hinder the reading experience. 

If you’re interested in requesting Invisible Man for your book club, you can find the Request Form here. There are 10 copies. (A librarian must request items)

Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. Random House. 1952

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#BookFaceFriday “The White House: A Meet the Nation’s Capital Book” by Lindsay Ward

This #BookFaceFriday is in Washington D.C.!

There’s so much to learn in this week’s #BookFace! “The White House: A Meet the Nation’s Capital Book” by Lindsay Ward (HarperCollins, August 2024) is a fun, interactive picture book that’s perfect for educating kids on the inner workings and different people who work inside of the White House.

“An expansive reminder that our government is of, as well as by and for, the people.” —Kirkus Reviews

We couldn’t resist bringing this week’s bookface with us to the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C.! The Nebraska Center for the Book has selected one youth book and one adult book by Nebraska authors to represent the state at the 2024 National Book Festival: “Eat Your Woolly Mammoths!: Two Million Years of the World’s Most Amazing Food Facts, from the Stone Age to the Future” by James Solheim and “Dancing with the Octopus: A Memoir of a Crime” by Debora Harding. Both titles will be part of the National Center for the Book’s Great Reads from Great Places program. Check out the festival schedule, featured authors, and highlights for past events on the Library of Congress’s event page!

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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Friday Reads – The Mona Lisa Vanishes by Nicholas Day

Did you ever wonder why the Mona Lisa is so famous? Surely it’s because Leonardo Da Vinci was such a talented artist. Or perhaps the actual Mona Lisa was so beautiful and beloved that artists clamored to paint her portrait? Or… perhaps the painting gained its stature as one of the most recognizable pieces of art worldwide because of a little incident that took place 113 years ago this week, on August 21, 1911. A mysterious man in a white smock hid inside a closet at the Lourve until the museum was closed, and when the coast was clear, he took the Mona Lisa off its wall, removed its frame, and walked out the door.

And thus begins Nicholas Day’s “The Mona Lisa Vanishes: a Legendary Painter, a Shocking Heist, and the Birth of a Global Celebrity.” Curious to find out more? I certainly was!

Day weaves a compelling tale of how lax security at the Lourve and a bungled police investigation led to an international fascination with a small painting most of the world had never seen. Intertwined with the intrigue of the art heist is the rather absurd life story of Da Vinci himself and how he came to paint the Mona Lisa – one of the few endeavors he seems to have carried out to completion. Brilliant but easily distracted, Leonardo Da Vinci was famous for his flakiness as much as his talent.

Aimed at middle-grade readers, this fast-paced work of narrative nonfiction should hold the attention of mystery-lovers of all ages. Fans of the “A Series of Unfortunate Events” books by Lemony Snicket may recognize the illustrations of Brett Helquist throughout.

Day, Nicholas. (2023). The Mona Lisa Vanishes. Random House Studio.

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#BookFaceFriday “Murder on a School Night” by Kate Weston

We did our homework- it’s #BookFaceFriday!

Don’t let the first few week’s of school push you over the edge! Back to school can be stressful, but finding great books for your kids to read doesn’t have to be. Whether its through our Book Club Kits collection, eBooks and Audiobooks in Nebraska OverDrive Library, picking up a title from our giveaway books. there is something for everyone in at all reading levels. Like this week’s #BookFace!  “Murder on a School Night” by Kate Weston (Katherine Tegen Books, 2023) this funny, witty murder mystery for teens is written by a former stand up comedian and bookseller.

“Mean Girls meets Midsomer Murders with a dash of Louise Rennison in this genre-blending story that centers girls’ friendships and two ambitious best friends. Kerry and Annie are self-absorbed friends whose obsession over their lack of popularity results in hysterically funny dialogue and a lighthearted tone. Kerry’s crush on newcomer Scott offers sweet diversions. However, what really elevates the goofy capers and over-the-top scheming is how well Kerry and Annie know both themselves and each other. Secrets add depth and complexity to this insightful parody of teenage life. A nuanced, hilarious page-turning romantic mystery.” —Kirkus Reviews

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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Book Club Spotlight- The Bluest Eye

Cover for The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison.  A young Black girl stands with her arms crossed in a white shirt and wide-brimmed straw hat looks off to the right in an expression of contemplation.

It’s no secret that here at the Book Club Spotlight, we adore Toni Morrison. After visiting her novel Sula two years ago- we’re back and reading her debut novel The Bluest Eye. Before her writing career, Morrison was a senior editor at Random House and amplified Black authors, like the incomparable Angela Davis during her tenure. The first Black woman recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Morrison’s lyrical novels explore what it is like physically and emotionally to exist in a world that does its best to harm you through race, gender, and class. The Bluest Eye was born out of her need to express the realities of racism and its effects on the most vulnerable- young Black girls. 

The marigolds must grow, and Pecola Breedlove is pregnant. The marigolds must grow, and eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove is pregnant by her father. The marigolds never came, and Pecola Breedlove’s baby has died. Before the marigolds, and before her baby dies, Pecola yearns for one thing more than anything else in the world. To have beautiful blue eyes. To have beautiful blue eyes to keep her safe from the world. Eyes as blue as the blonde-haired baby doll that Claudia MacTeer despises. Claudia MacTeer despises the blue-eyed, blond-haired baby doll because others say she must love it. And she has not yet learned to hate her eyes. Who taught Pecola Breedlove to?

“Certain seeds it will not nurture, certain fruit it will not bear and when the land kills of its own volition, we acquiesce and say the victim had no right to live”

Toni Morrison 

The Bluest Eye is a harrowing journey of young Pecola Breedlove as the systems and people around her fail time and time again. It is a story long taught in literature classes around the country to educate readers on empathy, internalized racism, the importance of community, and the consequences of unchecked hatred and abuse towards the other as perpetuated by the “Master Narrative”. Like most of Morrison’s novels, The Bluest Eye can be read in an afternoon on one’s own. However, the subject matter and encouragement to dig deep into one’s internal predilections and biases let it thrive under discussions by literary-focused classrooms and Book Club Groups. In the Afterword (included in all of our copies), Morrison discusses how the intimate and cruel nature of the story is critical to sharing these taboo “cultural secrets”, and to put the story in the hands of the victims was a radical act of release and exposure. 

“I wanted the narrator’s presence of voice to take the hand of the reader to say “You know this is going to be terrible, but don’t worry it’s already happened. I have been there and we can get through it together and it’s going to be fine.

With its dark, yet revealing subject matter, it is no surprise that The Bluest Eye has long been a victim of book banning, and was the 7th most challenged book of 2023. For resources on how to fight book bans and prepare for 2024’s Banned Books Week (Sept 22-28), visit BannedBooksWeek.org.

If you’re interested in requesting The Bluest Eye for your book club, you can find the Request Form here. There are 15 copies. (A librarian must request items)

Morrison, Tony. The Bluest Eye. Vintage Books. 1970

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#BookFaceFriday “Proud” by Ibtihaj Muhammad

En guard! It’s #BookFaceFriday!

On the fence about what to read this weekend? Why not check out one of the many titles about the Olympic Games and athletes available on Overdrive. This week’s #BookFace, “Proud: My Fight for an Unlikely American Dream” by Ibtihaj Muhammad with Lori Tharps, is the memoir of Olympic bronze medalist and Muslim American, Ibtihaj Muhammad. You can find this title as an Audiobook through Nebraska OverDrive Libraries, as well as her Young Readers Edition “Proud: Living My American Dream” which is available as both an eBook and Audiobook.

“Fencing made her who she is today, but fencing isn’t her only narrative. Her journey is one of authenticity at all costs and being unapologetically herself.”

ESPNw

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 “Storm Cursed” by Patricia Briggs

Brace yourself, it’s #BookFaceFriday!

There’s nothing like reading by candlelight, or maybe in this case, by the light of your e-reader. Batten the hatches during the next Nebraska storm with a good book. This week’s #BookFace would be an excellent book to escape into; “Storm Cursed” by Patricia Briggs, is book eleven in Brigg’s Mercy Thompson series. This supernatural shapeshifter series combines adventure, wit, and magic. It’s available as both an eBook and audiobook in Nebraska OverDrive Libraries, along with fourteen other books in the Mercy Thompson series.

“This story brings together a lot of seemingly unrelated plot threads from past novels in a way that feels organic and that doesn’t impede the pacing of the current mystery. Fans of the series will enjoy this solid addition, but new readers might find that there’s too much history to make this story work as an ingress point.” —Publishers Weekly

“Patricia Briggs never fails to deliver an exciting, magic and fable filled suspense story.” – Erin Watt, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Royals series

This week’s model is one of the newer additions to the Nebraska Library Commission. Welcome, Veronica Powell, as our new Cataloging Librarian!

This title is also available as an audiobook 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 & reading? Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

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Book Club Spotlight – The Penderwicks

For this week’s Book Club Spotlight, we are visiting a favorite of mine since I was nine years old, and when my roommate saw the book on our table she ran to grab her own copy- excited to revisit the world herself. The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall immediately draws the reader in with a gorgeous cover; and its pastoral setting is like falling into the world of The Secret Garden. The Penderwick sisters, with their charming wit and a tendency for mischief rivaling the March sisters, culminate in a timeless story that spans five books. Following “a family that believes in truth and honor, yet can’t seem to stay out of trouble” [x], this modern classic has been translated into 30 languages and most deservedly won the 2005 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature.

Mr. Penderwick, a mild-mannered botanist who frequently speaks in Latin to his four young daughters, has booked the clan a summer getaway to a cozy cabin in rural Massachusetts. After getting lost, the Penderwick sisters, Rosalind (12), Skye (11), Jane (10), and Batty (4), discover their small cottage is nestled in a grand estate named Arundel. The rambunctious children are told to behave as the owner, the stuffy Mrs. Tifton, doesn’t take kindly to ruckus. But soon, they are out on an adventure of a lifetime- braving bulls, hiding in the expansive gardens, and enlisting Mrs. Tifton’s son, Jeffery, in their daring escapades.

“And then I’d ask you to have pity on motherless girls brought up without a woman’s gentle influence, which doesn’t really count, because our father is gentle, but I thought it sounded good”

– Jeanne Birdsall 

The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy is a delight that enchants 19 years later. It’s not a tale of growing up but of the present. The responsibilities of an elder sister, young courage, individuality, and the unbreakable family bond. Birdsall revels in character and atmosphere, letting the sisters take her wherever they want to go next. Perfect for a book group of young readers wanting to hold onto the last bit of summer or adults who still feel the magic of inhibition and promise.  

“There is no better feeling than being 10 years old and feeling represented, accepted, and like someone out there knows you are much more mature than the world thinks you are. Even when the Penderwick books end, I can find the same happiness knowing there will always be 10 year olds in the world who want to feel those same things, and the Penderwicks will always be there for them, just as they were for me.”

Delaney Plant

If you’re interested in requesting The Penderwicks for your book club, you can find the Request Form here. There are 11 copies. (A librarian must request items)

Birdsall, Jeanne. The Penderwicks. Random House. 2005

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Friday Reads: “The Essex Serpent” by Sarah Perry

Set in Victorian England, this historical fiction novel perfectly embraces the setting and mystery of its time-period. Filled with unique and interesting characters from beginning to end, Sarah Perry has written a beautiful, intelligent, and charming novel.

Newly widowed, Cora Seaborne is finding her stride again after the death of her domineering husband. Determined to escape the stuffy rules of London society, she takes her son and maid to the English countryside to pursue her studies as a budding naturalist. While tramping the marshes and collecting specimens she becomes fascinated with the local lore of the Essex Serpent, and the possibilities that a Paleolithic species could be resurfacing and prime for discovery. Pushed together with the local reverend in her pursuit of science and discovery, circumstances will lead to a magnetic and clandestine attraction that could ruin them both.

Reverend William Ransom is an unlikely clergyman, young and easy-going, he’s more likely to be assumed a farmer than a reverend. Living in the countryside of Essex with his wife and children, tending to his flock with a more practical and intelligent approach to life, he’s often dismayed and annoyed by his congregation’s flights of fancy and superstitions, especially when a local man drowns and it’s blamed on the mysterious Essex Serpent.

Dr. Luke Garrett is single-minded in his pursuit of knowledge and advancing medicine, especially surgery of the heart. Taciturn and churlish, he’s found himself unexpectedly mesmerized by Cora since tending her dying husband. Striking up an unlikely friendship with her and visiting the countryside as often as his practice allows just to see her. He’s dismayed as her letters at first just mentioned formally, The Reverend Ransom, but now are filled with the familiar, Will.

Perry strings the lives and experiences of these dissimilar characters together with letters and first-person storytelling to create an almost magical whole. 

Perry, Sarah. The Essex Serpent. Mariner Books. 2017.

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#BookFaceFriday “The Boys in the Boat” by Daniel James Brown

This #BookFaceFriday is going for the gold!

As Olympic hopefuls flock to Paris for this year’s games, take a trip back in time to the 1936 Berlin Olympics. This week’s #BookFace, “The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics” by Daniel James Brown, is a #1 New York Times–bestselling story. This epic story of Olympic hopefuls is available as a part of our Book Club Kit collection. This title is also available as an eBook and Audiobook through Nebraska OverDrive Libraries.

“For those who like adventure stories straight-up, THE BOYS IN THE BOAT… is this year’s closest approximation of Unbroken…. It’s about the University of Washington’s crew team: “Nine working-class boys from the American West who at the 1936 Olympics showed the world what true grit really meant.”

New York Times

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 “Creative Genius: The Art of the Nebraska Capitol”

Life imitates art with #BookFaceFriday!

The surprisingly complex task of photographing the surprisingly complex photography of this #BookFaceFriday was a challenge. While nothing can compare to seeing it in person, this week’s #BookFace is an excellent way to bring a little of the Nebraska Capitol’s beauty and history into your own home. “Creative Genius: The Art of the Nebraska Capitol” by by Susanne Shore, Kevin Moser, Drew Davies, with a foreword by Robert C. Ripley, is available as a part of our Nebraska State Documents Collection.

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.

“The Nebraska State Capitol may be the most beautiful capitol building in the United States. From the day it opened, it’s been recognized as an outlier relative to its forty-nine rivals. The influential leaders of American Architect certainly thought so, choosing to feature the Nebraska Capitol in the October 1934 issue soon after the building opened. In the introduction, they wrote: ‘From the engineering standpoint, the building embodies the cumulative results of American energy, inventive skill and organizing ability; and from all combined points of view, it stands as a remarkable interpretation of innumerable events that have shaped the progress of American art, industry, and democratic government.’”

—from the prologue

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

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