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Author Archives: Tessa Timperley
#BookFaceFriday “Floret Farm’s a Year in Flowers” by Erin Benzakein and Chris Benzakein
In full bloom this #BookFaceFriday.
Talk about spring fever, this week’s #BookFace has us prepared to sneeze, and like it. Learn how to expertly style and create seasonal flower arrangements with “Floret Farm’s a Year in Flowers: Designing Gorgeous Arrangements for Every Season” by Erin Benzakein, Jill Jorgensen, Julie Chai, and photographs by Chris Benzakein (Chronicle Books LLC, 2020), available as an eBook in Nebraska OverDrive Libraries. Find this title and many more through Nebraska OverDrive’s curated collection “Wild About Reading: Science and nature nonfiction and memoirs.” Get back into nature in this collection of over 80 titles, available all April.
Libraries participating in the Nebraska OverDrive Libraries Group currently have access to a shared and growing collection of digital downloadable audiobooks and eBooks. 196 libraries across the state share the Nebraska OverDrive collection of 30,262 audiobooks, 46,663 ebooks, and 6,506 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!
“Photography throughout this coffee-table-sized book is stunning, and you can’t help but get lost in the images of flowers in the field and in the vase. If you are thinking about a cutting garden for next year, or just want to create arrangements for your home, A Year in Flowers is a helpful guide.”
Love this #BookFace & reading? Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!
#BookFaceFriday “Ain’t Nobody’s Fool” by Martha Ackmann
This #BookFace is working 9 to 5.
We hope everyone had a good April Fool’s Day, unless you’re the indomitable Dolly Parton, who ain’t nobody’s fool. “Ain’t Nobody’s Fool: The Life and Times of Dolly Parton” by Martha Ackmann (St. Martin’s Press, 2025) is available as an eBook and audiobook in Nebraska OverDrive Libraries. Ackmann is a journalist who writes about women who have changed America. 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. 196 libraries across the state share the Nebraska OverDrive collection of 30,262 audiobooks, 46,663 ebooks, and 6,506 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!
“This smart, sparkly, and fun biography is as irresistible as Parton herself.”
―Library Journal, starred review
Love this #BookFace & reading? Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!
#BookFaceFriday “Rebound” by Kwame Alexander
Buh-buh-buh-buh-buh #BookFace!
Gimme gimme gimme gimme the ball, because I’m gonna, dunk it! This week’s #BookFaceFriday was the perfect choice for March Madness. “Rebound” by Kwame Alexander (Clarion Books, 2021), is the prequel to Alexander’s Newbery Award–winning novel The Crossover. You can find it as an eBook on Nebraska OverDrive Libraries. Kwame Alexander is a New York Times bestselling author and along with the Newbery Award has also received the Coretta Scott King Award. You can find the entire Crossover series in the Nebraska OverDrive collection, along with six other titles by Kwame Alexander.
As in his previous novels in verse, Alexander shows off his expert command of the format, employing staccato breaks with smooth rhymes that mimic the bounce and flow of the sport.”
— School Library Journal, STARRED review
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. 194 libraries across the state share the Nebraska OverDrive collection of 26,174 audiobooks, 36,611 ebooks, and 5,210 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 “The Girl in the Green Dress” by Mariah Fredericks
This #BookFace has us green with envy!
Nobody in this week’s #Bookface is going to get pinched! Part of our reading challenge for March is to read a book with Green in the title. So we picked, “The Girl in the Green Dress: A Mystery Featuring Zelda Fitzgerald” by Mariah Fredericks (St. Martin’s Publishing Group, 2025) a 1920s murder mystery featuring Zelda Fitzgerald and Morris Markey. It’s available as a as an ebook and audiobook through Nebraska OverDrive Libraries. We’d love to know what titles you picked to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.
“[A] riveting standalone… Fredericks brings the period to life beautifully, and the often-caricatured Zelda never feels less than three-dimensional. Add in an enthralling investigation and a complex, fame-hungry lead, and it’s undeniable: Fredericks has struck gold.”
— Publishers Weekly (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. 196 libraries across the state share the Nebraska OverDrive collection of 29,164 audiobooks, 45,416 ebooks, and 6,269 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!
#BookFaceFriday – “Notes of a Native Son” by James Baldwin
Notes on a #BookFaceFriday
Celebrate Black History Month with this week’s #BookFaceFriday, “Notes of a Native Son” by James Baldwin with an introduction by Edward P. Jones (Beacon Press, 2012.) You can find this title in the Nebraska OverDrive Libraries curated collection “Black History: Paying tribute to black history, culture, and contributions” created to help users find great reads to celebrate Black History Month. Its over 100 titles consist of literature, fiction, nonfiction, autobiographies, and biographies. Nebraska OverDrive has several James Baldwin titles available for readers, in both ebook and Audiobook format. You can also browse the Nebraska Library Commission’s Book Club Kits collections for African American voices!
“The wonderful thing about writers like Baldwin is the way we read them and come across passages that are so arresting we become breathless and have to raise our eyes from the page to keep from being spirited away.”
―Edward P. Jones“He named for me the things you feel but couldn’t utter . . . articulated for the first time to white America what it meant to be American and a black American at the same time.” ―Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Libraries participating in the Nebraska OverDrive Libraries Group currently have access to a shared and growing collection of digital downloadable audiobooks and eBooks. 196 libraries across the state share the Nebraska OverDrive collection of 29,164 audiobooks, 45,416 ebooks, and 6,269 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!
Posted in Books & Reading, General
Tagged Black History, Black History Month, Black Voices, Book Covers, bookface, bookfacefriday, ebooks, James Baldwin, OverDrive
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Friday Reads: “All the Colors of the Dark” by Chris Whitaker
Set in 1975, fellow outcasts, Saint and Patch are best friends, navigating high school in small town Missouri. Girls have been going missing, are they runaways, tired of small town life, or is it something much more sinister? When Patch witnesses an attack and attempted abduction of the local golden girl, Misty, he becomes a town hero with consequences that will last a lifetime. While trying to stop the abduction, Patch himself is wounded and taken, leaving Saint alone and reeling. The local police chief may have given up on finding Patch and the missing girls, but Saint can’t. Little does Saint know that looking for Patch and his kidnapper will shape her entire future. After being taken, Patch is kept in total darkness, his only companions are his own thoughts and Grace, a girl that brings him food and nurses him back to health. She tells him stories of the outside world, but while she seems so real to Patch, could she be just a figment of his fevered imagination? In this story, small town dynamics intersect with the secrets people keep, and how lives lived so close together can become inextricably intertwined, yet the question remains, do we ever really know our neighbors. Filled with tragedy and loss, survivor’s guilt and obsession, this novel follows Patch and Saint as they search for answers after that one fateful day where everything changed. A story that spans decades and told from the point of view of multiple characters, All the Colors of the Dark will take the reader on a journey of redemption, love, and loyalty.
Whitaker, Chris. All the Colors of the Dark. Crown. 2024.
Posted in Books & Reading, Friday Reads, General
Tagged All the Colors of the Dark, Book Review, books, Chris Whitaker, Friday Reads, Novel, Reading
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#BookFaceFriday “Grant” by Ron Chernow
There’s nothing fictional about this #BookFaceFriday!
With President’s Day this week we took a deep dive into the many presidential or political autobiographies and biographies available in the Nebraska OverDrive collection. This week’s #BookFace, “Grant” by Ron Chernow (Penguin Press, 2017) is hailed as vast and panoramic biography of a complicated man. This nonfiction read is available as an ebook and Audiobook from Nebraska OverDrive Libraries. We also have Chernow’s books about George Washington, Mark Twain, Titan, and his biography of Alexander Hamilton that inspired the hit Broadway musical “Hamilton.”
“[A] beautifully written portrait . . . . Chernow doesn’t gloss over Grant’s struggle with alcoholism or his tendency to trust shady operators. However, his willingness to protect the gains of freemen and to fight the KKK was an example of the moral courage he consistently displayed. This is a superb tribute to Grant, whose greatness is earning increased appreciation.”
— 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. 196 libraries across the state share the Nebraska OverDrive collection of 29,164 audiobooks, 45,416 ebooks, and 6,269 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!
Posted in Books & Reading
Tagged Audiobook, book cover, bookfacefriday, Ebook, Grant, Nebraska OverDrive Libraries, nonfiction, OverDrive, President's Day, Reading, Ron Chernow
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#BookFaceFriday “Modern Romance” by Aziz Ansari
This #BookFace has excellent comedic timing!
This week’s #Bookface goes out to everyone who just wants someone who can make them laugh. Celebrate Valentines Day with Aziz Ansari’s offbeat tales of dating in the modern world, “Modern Romance” ( Penguin Press, 2015) will have you laughing and shaking your head the entire read. It’s available as a as an ebook and audiobookthrough Nebraska OverDrive Libraries, and is the perfect addition to any February reading list.
“With his first foray into the literary sphere, Ansari handedly accomplishes what he set out to do. Modern Romance provides insight into what people do to find love. He infuses their stories with his sass and parallels their shame with much of his own. On top of that, Ansari’s advice is easy to follow and backed with science and research. Modern Romance is the pinnacle of romantic guides—at least until a new dating app makes it obsolete.”
— VOX
Libraries participating in the Nebraska OverDrive Libraries Group currently have access to a shared and growing collection of digital downloadable audiobooks and eBooks. 196 libraries across the state share the Nebraska OverDrive collection of 29,164 audiobooks, 45,416 ebooks, and 6,269 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!
Posted in Books & Reading, General
Tagged Aziz Ansari, Book Covers, bookface, bookfacefriday, books, Comedy, Modern Romance, Nebraska OverDrive Libraries, Reading, romance
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#BookFaceFriday “Some Like it Cold” by Elle McNicoll
Brrr it’s #BookFace in Here!
This this week’s #BookfaceFriday is for all those people who love the winter and the cold. “Some Like It Cold” by Elle McNicoll (Wednesday Books, 2024). Recommended for high school readers, this romance novel is Hallmark movie meets will-they-won’t-they rom com. It’s available as a as an audiobook through Nebraska OverDrive Libraries: Kids & Teens. If you are not one of those people who enjoy the cold, please wrap up in your coziest blanket with a hot beverage and disassociate from the frigid temps outside with a good read. (This is what I will be doing.)
“Some Like It Cold is a heartfelt romance that is sweeping in its scope and tender in its emotional depth. McNicoll has crafted a powerful ode to love in all its forms: of community, of home and of ourselves – as well as the genre of romance itself. A clever, poignant and healing love story”
— Bea Fitzgerald, Sunday Times bestselling author of Girl, Goddess, Queen
Libraries participating in the Nebraska OverDrive Libraries Group currently have access to a shared and growing collection of digital downloadable audiobooks and eBooks. 196 libraries across the state share the Nebraska OverDrive collection of 29,164 audiobooks, 45,416 ebooks, and 6,269 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!
#BookFaceFriday “Prairie Lotus” by Linda Sue Park
Happy trails it’s #BookFaceFriday!
We hope no one dies of dysentery in this week’s #BookfaceFriday, it’s “Prairie Lotus” by Linda Sue Park (Clarion Books, 2022). Recommended for kids in grades 5-7, is a kids historical fiction novel that explores the hardships and adventures of American frontier life especially for a young half-Asian girl. It’s available as a Book Club Kit from the Nebraska Library Commission, with 10 copies for your reading group to borrow. You can also find “Prairie Lotus” as both an audiobook and eBook through Nebraska OverDrive Libraries: Kids & Teens. Linda Sue Park is an award winning author with a large collection of work, and you can find many of her titles on OverDrive, NLC also has “A Long Walk to Water” and “When My Name was Keoko” available for checkout in our Book Club Kits collection. You can read more about Prairie Lotus and how in our Book Club Spotlight post.
“Strongly reminiscent of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s novels in its evocative, detailed depictions of daily frontier life….[Hanna’s] painful experiences, including microaggressions, exclusion, and assault, feel true to the time and place, and Park respectfully renders Hanna’s interactions with Ihanktonwan women. An absorbing, accessible introduction to a troubled chapter of American history.”
— Publishers Weekly, starred review
Book Club Kits Rules for Use
- These kits can be checked out by the librarians of Nebraska libraries and media centers.
- Circulation times are flexible and will be based upon availability. There is no standard check-out time for book club kits.
- Please search the collection to select items you wish to borrow and use the REQUEST THIS KIT icon to borrow items.
- 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. 196 libraries across the state share the Nebraska OverDrive collection of 29,164 audiobooks, 45,416 ebooks, and 6,269 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!
#BookFaceFriday – “Big Dumb Eyes: Stories from a Simpler Mind” by Nate Bargatze
Have a laugh with #BookFaceFriday!
So many #BookFace‘s, so little time! If you’re feeling like you didn’t get a chance to read all the amazing books that came out last year, or you just like to wait until the hold lines are shorter, you’ll love this week’s highlighted Overdrive collection. One of those amazing books published in 2025 was “Big Dumb Eyes” by Nate Bargatze (Grand Central Publishing, 2025), the comedian’s first book, full of heart and his classic funny stories. This title is available as an eBook and Audiobook in Nebraska OverDrive Libraries and is a part of the curated collection, “Best Books of 2025.” Find out what you missed last year in this great collection of over 300 titles.
“I Went To Career Day For My Daughter’s School… They Put Me At A Table With A Surgeon… They Asked Him, ‘How Long Do You Have To Go Have To Go To School To Be A Surgeon?’ He’s Like, ’54 Years,’ Or Whatever. They Asked Me, ‘How Long To Be A Comedian?’ I Was Like, ‘You’re Good Now'” —Nate Bargatze
“The Southern comic delivers a good-natured memoir of his years in the trenches… Bargatze never takes himself too seriously, but there’s plenty of grown-up self-awareness here along with the yucks.”
—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. 192 libraries across the state share the Nebraska OverDrive collection of 29,081 audiobooks, 44,746 eBooks, and 6,170 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 “The Christmas Bookshop” by Jenny Colgan
Merry #BookFaceFriday!
Whether you participate in the Icelandic tradition of Jólabókaflóð, or just love gifting books, we can’t recommend shopping at your local bookstores enough and this week’s #BookFace presented the perfect opportunity to highlight one! If you’re just looking for a cozy festive read, check out “The Christmas Bookshop: A Novel” by Jenny Colgan (HarperCollins, 2021) available as an ebook and audiobook in Nebraska OverDrive Libraries. It’s a part of the the curated collection, “Warm Up With Holiday Reading.” Find your perfect winter read in this collection of over 470 titles, available all December.
“Colgan’s new Edinburgh-set Christmas novel is full of references to books, descriptions of the twisty insides of a bookshop, and fun details about Scotland, Quakerism, and the centuries-old Great Yew Tree of Ormiston. Get ready to root for these charming characters as they bungle their way toward a merry Christmas.”
— Library Journal (starred review)
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. 189 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 “Walking in Two Worlds” by Wab Kinew
Watch your step! It’s #BookFaceFriday!
November is National Native American Heritage Month Month, join in paying tribute to the rich ancestry and traditions of Native Americans. Check out “Walking in Two Worlds” by Wab Kinew (Tundra Book Group, 2021). It’s a YA fantasy novel about a teenage girl caught between her gaming life online and the real world. It’s available as an audiobook through Nebraska OverDrive Libraries and is a part of the “Native American Heritage” curated collection. Peruse this collection of over 160 titles that range from YA to nonfiction, available all November.
“With dizzying action set in virtual reality, Walking in Two Worlds is at once exhilarating, clever, and poignant, seamlessly blending traditional knowledge with science fiction for an important entry into the genre of Indigenous Futurism. It doesn’t just walk in two worlds, it sprints.”
— David A. Robertson, award-winning author of the bestselling The Barren Grounds
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!
#BookFaceFriday – Nebraska Book Award Winners
It’s a blue ribbon #BookFaceFriday!
What do all of these #BookFace picks have in common? They’re all 2025 Nebraska Book Award winners and they’ll all be featured at this weekend’s Nebraska Celebration of Books literary festival. “Creative Genius: The Art of the Nebraska Capitol” by by Susanne Shore, Kevin Moser, Drew Davies, received the Design Award. “Animal Climate Heroes!” by Alison Pearce Stevens, and illustrated by Jason Ford received the Cover & Illustration Award. “Isamu’s American Dream” by D.D. Davenport received the Fiction Award. Drew Davies, Alison Pearce Stevens, and D.D. Davenport, will be speaking at author roundtables and available for book signings at the festival.
Winners of the 2025 Nebraska Book Awards will be honored at the Nebraska Celebration of Books (NCOB) Literary Festival. Held on Saturday, November 15th, from 10:00am-5:30pm, this literary event will be on the second floor of the UNL City Campus Union and Jackie Gaughan Multicultural Center in downtown Lincoln. The festival will include author roundtables, book signings, and a reception, with the awards ceremony directly after at 4:30. The ceremony will feature short acceptance speeches and readings by the winning authors and illustrators. Book award categories include fiction, nonfiction, children/young adult, poetry, and cover/design/illustration, all winning books have a Nebraska connection and were published in 2024. The ceremony will also feature the presentation of the Mildred Bennett and Jane Geske Awards. For more information about the festival and to stay up to date on the featured authors and speakers visit bookfestival.nebraska.gov.
Love this #BookFace & reading? Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!
Friday Reads: One Book One Nebraska Shortlist Books
I’m breaking with tradition and using my Friday Reads post to talk about the three books on the short list for the 2026 One Book One Nebraska selection. We wanted to give a short overview of each book, some author information, and include comments by the readers on the selection committee. The winner will be announced Saturday, November 15th at the Nebraska Celebration of Books literary festival’s awards ceremony. Let us know which book you would pick to be the next One Book One Nebraska read, or nominate a book to be considered for 2027.
Our Souls at Night, Kent Haruf. Vintage Books/Penguin Random House, 2015. Genre: Fiction
Set in contemporary Colorado, Haruf has crafted a love story between a widow and her widower neighbor. Life has given them a second chance to find happiness despite the nosiness of the townsfolk and a lack of support from family members. Readers found it consistent with Haruf’s previous novels. One evaluator described this love story as “genuine.”
Haruf authored six novels. He previously lived in Lincoln while teaching at Nebraska Wesleyan. He was a finalist for the National Book Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the New Yorker Book Award. He died in 2014. The book was published posthumously and was adapted into a film.
Lisa Kelly previously reviewed this title for Friday Reads, and you can read that review here.
The Antidote, Karen Russell. Knopf, 2025. Genre: Fiction
Set in western Nebraska in the 1930’s, Russell’s novel includes two actual events—the Black Sunday dust storm and the flooding of the Republican River. The main character is the Antidote who magically handles memories. The novel includes a variety of interesting characters whose lives intersect in dramatic ways. One evaluator noted that the book “has lots of good topics for discussion.”
Russell has authored six books of fiction. She was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2012 for her novel Swamplandia! She also received the Shirley Jackson Award and the 2024 Mary McCarthy Prize. The Antidote is on the long list for the 2025 National Book Award for Fiction. Russell lives in Portland, Oregon.
Rod Wagner previously reviewed this title for Friday Reads, and you can read that review here.
Nebraska: Under a Big Red Sky, Joel Sartore. Nebraska Book Publishing, 1999. Genre: Photography/Nonfiction
This is Joel Sartore’s second book. It contains photographs of Nebraska from every section of the state. Compiled early in his career, it was prompted by his desire to show others the full range of his home state. Photos range from Sandhill cranes to the Sower to small town sports to rodeos to Carhenge to Memorial Stadium–to mention just a few. One committee member liked both the photos and Sartore’s humor, adding “I think there could be some good discussions about living in Nebraska.”
Joel Sartore lives in Lincoln, Nebraska and has been a contributor to National Geographic as well Audubon Magazine, Time, Life, and Newsweek. In 2021, he was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum and received the Ansel Adams Award for Conservation Photography from the Sierra Club. He was named the 2025 Nebraskan of the Year by Lincoln’s Rotary Club.
#BookFaceFriday “Over My Dead Body” by Sweeney Boo
Creepy and cooky, mysterious and spooky, they’re all together ooky, the #BookFace family!
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, “” by Sweeney Book (Candlewick Press, 2022). Aimed at readers grade 8 and up, this witchy graphic novel set at a magical school is sure to round out your YA collection of Halloween and October themed reads!
“Spooky, mysterious, and also full of heart, this graphic novel is an enchanting story of friendship and found family. An exciting fantasy full of mystery and witchcraft.”
—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!
Posted in Books & Reading, General, Youth Services
Tagged Book Covers, bookface, bookfacefriday, Fantasy, Halloween, Over My Dead Body, Reading, Sweeney Boo, YA books
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#BookFaceFriday – “Everyone is Lying to You” by Jo Piazza
Smile pretty it’s #BookFaceFriday!
Three can keep a secret if two of them are dead in this week’s #BookFaceFriday! This social media influencer thriller is sure to keep you on your toes; check out “Everyone is Lying to You: A Thriller” by Jo Piazza (Dutton, 2025.) This title is available as an eBook and Audiobook in Nebraska OverDrive Libraries and is a part of the curated collection, “Scare Up a Good Book: Horror and dark reads.” Find your perfect horror read in this collection of over 250 titles, available all October.
“Jo Piazza dazzles in Everyone Is Lying To You, pairing a witty, inviting tone with a pulpy, seedy mystery full of sharp twists–a combination as fun as it is clever. . . . Add to that Piazza’s deliciously ripped-from-the-headlines plot, and you have the makings of an edgy, juicy thriller that doesn’t let up until its explosive end.”
—Bookreporter
Libraries participating in the Nebraska OverDrive Libraries Group currently have access to a shared and growing collection of digital downloadable audiobooks and eBooks. 192 libraries across the state share the Nebraska OverDrive collection of 29,081 audiobooks, 44,746 eBooks, and 6,170 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 “1984” by George Orwell
Sometimes it feels like #BookFace is watching me!
“Censorship Is So 1984. Read for Your Rights!” is the theme of this year’s #BannedBooksWeek, and 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. “1984” by George Orwell (Signet Classic, 1961) has been challenged and banned for its political themes, particularly being perceived as pro-communist or anti-government, its explicit sexual content, and its portrayal of surveillance and censorship. 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, including “1984” as both an ebook and an audiobook.
“This work remains as powerful, timely, and important now as it was when first published in 1949—even more so as Orwell’s totalitarian vision unfolds disquietingly in the present day. The novel challenges students with thought-provoking ideas that will spark discussion, composition, research, and debate. In one of the original dystopian cautionary tales, past history is changed to serve an agenda and independent thought is outlawed. Orwell’s text guides readers out of complacency so that they never slacken the vigil against oppression.”
— School Library Journal
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
- These kits can be checked out by the librarians of Nebraska libraries and media centers.
- Circulation times are flexible and will be based upon availability. There is no standard check-out time for book club kits.
- Please search the collection to select items you wish to borrow and use the REQUEST THIS KIT icon to borrow items.
- 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. 192 libraries across the state share the Nebraska OverDrive collection of 29,081 audiobooks, 44,746 eBooks, and 6,170 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 – “Tender is the Flesh” by Agustina Bazterrica
You’ll want to devour this #BookFaceFriday!
I ate this #BookFace with some fava beans and a nice Chianti! Spooky season is upon us and nothing sets the vibe like a scary story. This week’s #BookFaceFriday is the perfect way to get your adrenaline flowing; check out “Tender is the Flesh” by Agustina Bazterrica (Scribner, 2020.) This title is available as an eBook in Nebraska OverDrive Libraries and is a part of the curated collection, “Scare Up a Good Book: Horror and dark reads.” Find your perfect horror read in this collection of over 250 titles, available all October.
“From the first words of the Argentine novelist Agustina Bazterrica’s second novel, Tender Is the Flesh, the reader is already the livestock in the line, reeling, primordially aware that this book is a butcher’s block, and nothing that happens next is going to be pretty.”
—New York Times Book Review
Libraries participating in the Nebraska OverDrive Libraries Group currently have access to a shared and growing collection of digital downloadable audiobooks and eBooks. 192 libraries across the state share the Nebraska OverDrive collection of 29,081 audiobooks, 44,746 eBooks, and 6,170 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 “The Book Club for Troublesome Women” by Marie Bostwick
Well behaved #BookFaces rarely make history!
Well bless your heart it’s #BookFaceFriday! September is national Library Card Sign-up Month, this year’s theme is “one card, endless possibilities,” so we thought “The Book Club for Troublesome Women: A Novel” by Marie Bostwick (Harper Muse, 2025) was the perfect fit. This historical fiction novel set in the 1960s, celebrates nostalgia, female friendship, and breaking the mold, and is all about how books can open the door to more than just reading. It’s available as an eBook through Nebraska OverDrive Libraries or you can find other bookish reads featured in our “Library Card Sign Up Month” curated collection.
“Bostwick’s latest is ideal for fans of historical fiction and those who enjoyed Bonnie Garmus’s LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY, Kristin Hannah’s THE WOMEN, or Kate Quinn’s THE BRIAR CLUB, which explore the historical roles of women and the challenges they faced within a society structured to define and limit their roles in and out of the home.”
— 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? 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!
