“Indian Heroes and Great Chieftains” by Charles A. Eastman is now available on cartridge and for download on BARD, the Braille and Audio Reading Download service. BARD is a service offered by the Nebraska Library Commission Talking Book and Braille Service and the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled at the Library of Congress.
The author presents biographical vignettes of fifteen great Indian chiefs, most of them Sioux. Some of them, like Red Cloud and Rain-in-the-Face, were friends and acquaintances of Eastman. This book was originally issued on cassette, but is now available on BARD!
TBBS borrowers can request “Indian Heroes and Great Chieftains” DBC02192 or download it from the National Library Service BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) website. If you have high-speed internet access, you can download books to your smartphone or tablet, or onto a flash drive for use with your player. You may also contact your reader’s advisor to have the book mailed to you on cartridge.
Hear about a ‘Community Literacy Treasure Hunt: The Fun Way to Increase Literacy!’ on this week’s NCompass Live webinar on Wednesday, July 15 at 10am CT.
The Community Literacy Treasure Hunt started out of concern for TCAP literacy rates within the county. Getting the larger community and all the libraries involved, children no longer read books for just minutes, but for comprehension, producing book reviews shared with others at their home libraries.
Started as part of Summer Reading Program, this lightens the load on the libraries, and while it has children reading fewer books, they are spending more time with those books, reading for comprehension and understanding, often choosing books that challenge rather than provide a fast read.
Various businesses and offices participate by offering free books to the children who finish the book reviews. This is mutually beneficial for the families and the businesses, getting the whole community involved in increasing literacy rates and getting families out to the larger community they might never have been to before.
Aug. 12 – United for Libraries – Trustees, Advocates, Friends, and Foundations: The Voice for America’s Libraries
Aug. 19 – How to Start & Sustain a Health & Fitness Literacy Program in Your Library
To register for an NCompass Live show, or to listen to recordings of past shows, go to the NCompass Live webpage.
NCompass Live is broadcast live every Wednesday from 10am – 11am Central Time. Convert to your time zone on the Official U.S. Time website.
The show is presented online using the GoTo Webinar online meeting service. Before you attend a session, please see the NLC Online Sessions webpage for detailed information about GoTo Webinar, including system requirements, firewall permissions, and equipment requirements for computer speakers and microphones.
My personal collection of books isn’t very big, just filling two shelves. The genres vary, with some books being more recent finds and others being books I’ve had for most of my life. This book falls into that latter category. Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg by Gail Carson Levine was one of my favorite books as a young girl who loved fairies. The illustrations by David Christiana are absolutely magical, the bright colors and soft quality really draws the reader into the world of Never Land, with new illustrations every few pages and some full spreads placed in between chapters.
The book itself is the first in what became the Disney Fairies series, of which I’ve also kept several from my childhood collection, though this one stands above the rest with it’s hardback print and larger pages, leaving more room for the illustrations to shine. These books are eventually what became the Disney Fairies movie series as well.
The premise takes Tinkerbell from Peter Pan, and places her into the world of Pixie Hollow where every fairy is meant to have a talent. There are nature fairies who are good with plants, water fairies who can manipulate water, fast-flying fairies who are quicker than the others… the list goes on. “Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg” follows brand-new fairy Prilla who doesn’t know what her talent is, but must join a mission to save the Never egg while finding out her place in the world. It’s a fun read that’s got emotional beats and an interesting look into the world of Disney Fairies.
Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Eggby Gail Carson Levine, 2005, Disney Press
We’re keeping the America 250 theme rolling, weaving a nation, if you will, with this week’s #BookFaceFriday, “Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants” by Robin Wall Kimmerer, adapted by Monique Gray Smith, and Illustrated by Nicole Neidhardt (Zest Books, 2022). This title is available as an eBook through Nebraska OverDrive Libraries, and is a part of the “Made By Us: Voices that Shape America” collection on the Nebraska OverDrive Libraries main page. This is a collection that defines, challenges, and re imagines the American experience — across generations, cultures, and genres. Kimmerer’s book “Braiding Sweetgrass,” is also a part of this OverDrive collection, it’s available as both and eBook and Audiobook, along with a Spanish Audiobook version.
“[F]illed with legends, reminiscences, bits of history, sidebars, drawings, and gentle challenges to readers, encouraging them to consider making changes in their actions, beliefs, and values. Truly, a lovely, calming addition for collections.”
―Booklist
Libraries participating in the Nebraska OverDrive Libraries Group currently have access to a shared and growing collection of digital downloadable audiobooks and eBooks. 194 libraries across the state share the Nebraska OverDrive collection of 26,898 audiobooks, 36,794 ebooks, and 5,133 magazines. As an added bonus it includes 130 podcasts that are always available with simultaneous use (SU), as well as SU ebooks and audiobook titles that publishers have made available for a limited time. If you’re a part of it, let your users know about this great title, and if you’re not a member yet, find more information about participating in Nebraska Overdrive Libraries!
Start the weekend off with a bang with this week’s #BookFaceFriday, “Bicentennial Summer” by Chris Poore (Fourth Chance Press, 2024). This young adult, coming-of-age novel is available as a book club kit for your library.
It’s a new addition to the book club kit collection, thanks to a donation. Our Book Club Kit collection has 2,491 titles, and is bolstered by generous donations from book clubs and libraries across Nebraska. If you want to find out what titles have been recently added to the collection, you can find a search in the Browse Options section for New Additions.
“Bicentennial Summer is everything I want in a small town coming-of-age story; sweet, melancholy, and as Proustian as the smell of cornfields in July. Chris Poore is a welcome new voice in midwestern fiction.”
―Sean Doolittle, Device Free Weekend
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
If summertime travel is in your future, you could enjoy some small talk with an outgoing stranger while on your way to your destination—and what would be the harm in that? Well, Patricia Highsmith is happy to remind you, behind that charming face, there could be more than just a hot mess who seems to want to “share” the armrest. They might also want to “share” some murder.
Highsmith’s novels have been made into many enjoyable, uncomfortable movies and shows—the character of Tom Ripley alone has attracted several adaptations. Strangers on a Train was her first published novel, and was made into a movie by Alfred Hitchcock a year later, and remains a wonderful cautionary tale about how a little bit of weakness can be exploited to completely ruin someone’s life. Both Hitchcock and Highsmith were equal-opportunity haters, and their loathing extended to their own identities. This most famous movie adaptation of the novel does change some things—it takes advantage of the architecture of Washington, DC, for one thing, to provide stark contrasts. In the book, our “hero,” Guy, is an architect, not a tennis player; on film, his athleticism is an obvious attraction for the stranger on the train. On the page, Guy knows he can build a life he knows he should want, but the structure cannot hold on shaky ground.
Somehow, the novel is even less generous towards the female characters, if you can believe it; but Highsmith had a low opinion of everyone, after all–especially those she knew she was not supposed to like as much as did. Cold war paranoia combines with the darkness before one of the dawns of society’s acceptance of diversities, and shows how living in the shadows can be dangerous and damaging to our perspectives of what we are willing to accept in others, and in ourselves. A quick read, and a story you might be familiar with from the movie, Strangers on a Train will remind you how much you can lose as a person, and as a member of society. Thank goodness humanity got all this sorted out since then, right?
Highsmith, Patricia. Strangers on a Train. Penguin, 1950.
Here are the UNP books the Clearinghouse received in May and June, 2026:
Emancipation War: the Fall of Slavery and the Coming of the Thirteenth Amendment, by Damon Root. Imprint: Potomac Books.
Speaking to a fractured country for the first time as president, Abraham Lincoln endorsed a constitutional amendment designed to permanently safeguard slavery in every state in which the institution already existed. If that proslavery provision had been ratified, it would have become the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Three years later, Lincoln again threw his support behind a constitutional amendment to address slavery: this time to abolish it. Formally ratified in 1865, this is the Thirteenth Amendment we know today.
What happened in those intervening years that led Lincoln to switch from supporting a proslavery amendment to embracing the antislavery provision that ultimately became enshrined in the Constitution? Why did the Thirteenth Amendment of 1864–65 win out over that of 1861? Lincoln himself provided a key to understanding: “I claim not to have controlled events,” he said, “but confess plainly that events have controlled me.”
In Emancipation War award-winning journalist Damon Root chronicles the great legal, political, and military struggle to amend the U.S. Constitution to outlaw slavery once and for all. It is the story of canny political tacticians and unyielding radicals; of famous orators and unsung pamphleteers; of liberty-minded Union officers and enslaved persons who liberated themselves by following the North Star to freedom, and who then, in some cases, donned uniforms and took up arms against their former enslavers. It was this wide-ranging movement against slavery—operating both inside and outside the halls of government power, fighting both on and off the battlefield—that made an antislavery constitutional amendment possible.
Telling the story from both the top down and the bottom up, Emancipation War provides a gripping and revealing new history of the Thirteenth Amendment.
Through the winter of 1862 and spring of 1863, the U.S. Army and Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia clashed along the Rappahannock River in two major battles. Both demonstrated the height of power for the Confederacy in the Eastern Theater. The Battle of Fredericksburg was a tactically defensive triumph for Lee over the Army of the Potomac. The Battle of Chancellorsville, often described as Lee’s masterpiece, was a surprisingly aggressive response to Joseph Hooker’s operational flanking maneuver, as Lee sent Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson on a flanking maneuver of his own, dividing an army that already was substantially smaller than its Union counterpart to deliver a crushing blow at a decisive spot. It was in the latter stages of that blow that Jackson was mortally wounded by his own men. The battles, failed campaigns with high casualty rates for the Union, were a lead-up to the armies’ meeting at Gettysburg in July 1863.
Civil War historian Brian K. Burton provides a clear, concise narrative of the battles and offers a stop-by-stop guide through Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. Illustrated with numerous maps and filled with stories of the people and tactics of both battles, this indispensable guidebook will direct battlefield visitors and armchair historians through the events of these pivotal campaigns.
In The Pursuit of Family Thomas Grillot examines how Dakota and Lakota people on the Standing Rock Reservation have lived as families since the 1870s in what is now North Dakota and South Dakota. Grillot examines the collective and individual efforts that made survival possible on Standing Rock, one of the most understudied reservations despite being one of the best-known Native locations in the United States—Sitting Bull died there in 1890, and a protest camp organized there against the Dakota Access pipeline made international news in 2016. Yet this is a book not about famous people or events but about ordinary people confronted with a deceptively simple question: How can we be a family on the reservation? Integrating archival material, oral history, and fieldwork, Grillot tells the history of dozens of reservation-based Dakota and Lakota families from the beginning of the reservation era to today.
The Pursuit of Family reveals how the Dakotas and Lakotas, tied by a common language and way of life, developed under the pressures of settler colonialism and shifted formations of kinship across time and space. It is a story of resistance, negotiation, and adaptation.
Red Woman: My Southern Ute Journey from Poverty to Wall Street, by Pearl E. Casias. Series: American Indian Lives.
In this singular memoir, Pearl E. Casias tells the story of her rise from poverty to chair of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe in rural southwest Colorado. Casias grew up in poverty and was raised by alcoholic parents. She endured domestic violence in one of her marriages. Despite those dire periods in her life, she put herself through college and rose to become a Southern Ute tribal judge. She details her experience in the tribal court, whose jurisprudence is guided by Indigenous knowledge and Ute-centered spiritual rehabilitation. Casias then spent time on the Southern Ute Indian Tribal Council, running the tribe’s political and economic affairs, particularly the development of considerable mineral resources on tribal lands. During her tenure, the Southern Utes attracted a significant investment from Wall Street as the tribe became a leading producer of natural gas. Casias’s eventual election as chair of the Southern Utes, the pinnacle of her accomplishments, made her the tribe’s first woman chair.
With unflinching honesty, Casias lays out the problems confronting Southern Ute people, including the harm that centuries of colonialism have wrought on the reservation. Blending her personal story with that of her tribe, Casias describes how, as a tribal leader, she strove to develop positive cultural values within Ute society.
Tilton and Grace Entokah: an Osage Story, by Anthony Lookout. Series: American Indian Lives.
Tilton and Grace Entokah: An Osage Story offers an episodic history of the Osage Nation of Oklahoma as told through the life narratives of Anthony Lookout’s great-grandparents Tilton and Grace Entokah. Anthony Lookout grew up hearing the stories of his relatives, including those of his great-grandfather Fred Lookout, who served as the principal chief of the Osage Nation in the early twentieth century. Anthony Lookout’s father, Morris Lookout, methodically recorded the oral traditions and tribal stories of Osage elders and relatives on reel-to-reel tapes from 1965 to 1971. The recordings preserved generations of Osage history, religious practices, and cultural traditions reaching back to the mid-nineteenth century. To write this story of his family and Osage history, Anthony Lookout did additional research in archival collections, newspapers, and magazines and interviewed elders.
From the perspective of a participant rather than an observer, Lookout tells the tribal history of the Osage Nation’s removal from their Kansas homelands in 1865 and relocation to Oklahoma’s Indian Territory from 1872 to the early 1940s. The heart of the story revolves around Lookout’s great-grandmother Grace Entokah, who grew up as a traditional Osage woman, and adapted through traumatic and uncertain times, staying true to her Osage culture. She went from riding horses to riding in automobiles, eventually meeting the president of the United States.
Lookout covers the family history of the Entokahs, the Allotment Act of 1906, Oklahoma statehood, the depredations of mining and oil companies on Osage lands, the establishment of tribal government and courts, Principal Chief Fred Lookout’s journeys to Washington, DC, to meet top government leaders, as well as tribal stories of the infamous 1920s Osage murders and other key episodes in Osage history. Tilton and Grace Entokah is not only the story of the Entokahs but also an Osage history written from the collective memory of those on the Osage reservation.
Treaty Ground: Diplomacy and the Politics of Sovereignty, from Roanoke to the Republic, by Charles W. A. Prior.
Charles W. A. Prior offers a new account of the sovereign claims of Native Americans, the Crown, and colonies in early America, arguing that Native American diplomacy shaped how sovereignty was negotiated and contested among all three, from Virginia’s founding to the ratification of the U.S. Constitution. Previous scholars have focused on the contested relationship between the British imperial state and the colonies it established along the Atlantic Coast without addressing how sovereign Native nations shaped the colonial process through warfare, diplomacy, trade, peace-making, and treaty-making.
Prior adopts a new interpretive framework for examining sovereignty in early America, arguing that the Native and colonial spaces of the Northeast were a treaty ground thickly layered with agreements and negotiated rules of interaction. Drawing on an extensive range of treaty records, writings on colonial and imperial affairs, letters, and official documents, Treaty Ground argues that sovereignty was negotiated within diplomacy and shaped the norms of war, the terms of peace and alliances, the rightful ownership of territory, and appropriate responses to treaty violations. This process in turn structured relations between the Crown and colonies and framed initial positions on how the power of congress related to that of the states.
Treaty Ground offers historical depth to our understanding of how Native nations articulated Indigenous power within colonialism, cuts settler colonialism down to size, and expands contemporary understandings of the sovereign relationships between Native nations in the United States and Canada.
The Twenty-Second Mental Measurements Yearbook, edited by Janet F. Carlson, Kurt F. Geisinger, Jessica L. Jonson, and Nancy A. Anderson. Series: Buros Mental Measurement Yearbook
Charles W. A. Prior offers a new account of the sovereign claims of Native Americans, the Crown, and colonies in early America, arguing that Native American diplomacy shaped how sovereignty was negotiated and contested among all three, from Virginia’s founding to the ratification of the U.S. Constitution. Previous scholars have focused on the contested relationship between the British imperial state and the colonies it established along the Atlantic Coast without addressing how sovereign Native nations shaped the colonial process through warfare, diplomacy, trade, peace-making, and treaty-making.
Prior adopts a new interpretive framework for examining sovereignty in early America, arguing that the Native and colonial spaces of the Northeast were a treaty ground thickly layered with agreements and negotiated rules of interaction. Drawing on an extensive range of treaty records, writings on colonial and imperial affairs, letters, and official documents, Treaty Ground argues that sovereignty was negotiated within diplomacy and shaped the norms of war, the terms of peace and alliances, the rightful ownership of territory, and appropriate responses to treaty violations. This process in turn structured relations between the Crown and colonies and framed initial positions on how the power of congress related to that of the states.
Treaty Ground offers historical depth to our understanding of how Native nations articulated Indigenous power within colonialism, cuts settler colonialism down to size, and expands contemporary understandings of the sovereign relationships between Native nations in the United States and Canada.
The new database, Biography Reference Ultimate, is now live in NebraskAccess. It replaces Biography Reference Bank and Biography Reference Source.
Biography Reference Ultimate contains over 1,750,000+ full-text biographical entries pulled from respected, recognizable classic and contemporary sources of biographical information. It offers comprehensive searching as well as a greatly enhanced browsing experience to help users find, narrow down, and focus their research. For more information, see EBSCO’s product description page.
Those libraries with their own EBSCO accounts and links to the databases will have until July 31 to make the switch.
EBSCO Interface Changes
On July 7, 2026, EBSCO will be updating their database interfaces. This will impact all of the EBSCO databases that are available through NebraskAccess. The primary change is moving the navigation from the left side of the screen to the top of the page. Items will be regrouped so important tools, including subject authorities and the language selector, are more convenient.
Another exciting change is the return of paginated search results. This will allow users to move easily between result pages and can be useful when librarians and teachers are working with patrons and students.
For those libraries with their own EBSCO accounts and administrative access, see Navigation Updates for EBSCO Interfaces for additional options in the redesign.
The best review for any book is when it makes you laugh out loud. This one delivers. Like David’s other audio books, The Land and Its People is a collection of recorded readings in front of live audiences.
The shared laughter is a bonus if not a balm. I was very grateful that this book’s release date was less than a week after the final episode of the Late Show, as it helped ease that loss.
One of the essays in this book published earlier in the New Yorker revealed that David and his longtime boyfriend Hugh Hamrick were secretly married in 2016. He didn’t even share this news with his family and revealed it was at his banker’s recommendation for financial reasons. Another essay features Hugh preparing for hip replacement surgery. With the upcoming Christmas holiday and David’s lack of culinary skills, how would Hugh be able to prepare his usual feast of two entrees and various side dishes to accommodate everyone’s dietary requirements? Could Hugh cook from a wheelchair if he couldn’t recover fast enough?
As a Sedaris fan I have added listening to David’s Santaland Diaries, broadcast every Christmas on NPR, to my holiday traditions. I’ve also been fortunate enough to see David read his essays in person a couple of times and the crowd is an inimitable community. The last time I saw him, my seat mate said I looked familiar. After a few unsuccessful guesses at our connection, she said, “justgive me your phone” so we could become Facebook friends, and then it all became clear.
What I love most about David are his conversations with people, real or imagined. He sometimes mirrors my own thoughts and I can’t decide if that’s a good thing or not. David and Hugh’s rants and reactions to missed flights or a friend whose house rules don’t allow cell phone use on the first floor are hilarious. Our shared humanity is easier to laugh at when it happens to someone else. If you’d like to sample something by Sedaris, click here for several free essays and short stories. The world might need another Sedarian.
The Land and Its People: Essays by David Sedaris, 2026, Little, Brown & Company
Start the celebration early for America’s 250th birthday with this week’s #BookFaceFriday, “John Adams” by David McCullough ( Simon & Schuster, 2002). You can find this title as well as McCullough’s “1776” and “The American Spirit” as a book club kit for your library. It’s also available as an Audiobook through Nebraska OverDrive Libraries. If you want to find more titles related to this topic check out the “America 250: Revolutionary Reads” collection on the Nebraska OverDrive Libraries main page.
Our model this week is a new addition to the Nebraska Library Commission! Welcome to Michael Richey, our new Library Technology Support Specialist. He came here from North Platte, Nebraska where he worked as a Technology Assistant at the North Platte Public Library. It was there that he discovered his passion for working with technology as well as designing and creating things. His favorite types of books are fantasy books, specifically ones that go into depth about the ecology of the fictional world and its inhabitants. His current favorite book is A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan. In his free time he can often be found taking pictures with his camera, playing video games, making things, or whatever other hobby of the week he’s fallen into (which lately has been calligraphy). Welcome aboard Michael!
“In tracing Adams’s life from childhood through his many critical, heroic, and selfless acts during the Revolution, his vice presidency under Washington, and his own term as president, the full measure of Adams a man widely regarded in his time as the equal of Jefferson, Hamilton, and all of the other Founding Fathers is revealed. This excellent biography deserves a wide audience.”
―Library Journal
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. 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!
Welcome, Crawler. You have been designated Crawler #4,122,” Carl”. You are assigned the race of Human. You are currently level 1.
New achievement! You’ve entered the World Dungeon.
Reward: None! Haha. You are so dead.
Meet Carl, he’s recently found himself in a bit of a situation… and while this may be some kind of wild fever dream, the consequences seem all too real. As aliens have taken over Earth and subsequently destroyed all surface structures in a matter of moments, everyone that survived the collapse is given the choice to enter stairways down to the “World Dungeon”. A bit ominous, but if you were standing outside in the freezing cold with nothing but your boxers, a leather jacket, and a pack of cigarettes to your name, you’d probably enter the stairwell too. What ensues is a witty, irreverent story of survival and friendship, as former coast guard mechanic Carl, and his ex-girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut, become the unwilling participants in a deadly game. It’s like if Running Man was orchestrated by Aliens, and all of Earths survivors were now the entertainment for entire galaxies. With the entire game being supervised and facilitated by an AI that just might have a bit of a foot fetish. At times devastatingly funny, and at others poignant, this action packed story will leave you immediately putting the next book on your holds list.
Part Dungeons and Dragons, Hunger Games, and Ready Player One, this epic tale is just the beginning. Dungeon Crawler Carl is book one in Matt Dinniman’s series of (so far) eight novels.
Dinniman, Matt. Dungeon Crawler Carl: A Novel. Crown. 2024.
Happy Juneteenth readers! Explore all the African American stories available on Nebraska OverDrive Libraries, like “Something to Say” by Lisa Moore Ramée (HarperCollins, 2020). Recommended for kids in grades 3-7, this chapter book explores the complex social rules of middle school, overcoming fears, and finding friendship. At eleven years old Jenae doesn’t mind being a loner, but a new kid at school might just change all that, unless they let a class debate ruin it all. Find this story, and other African American fiction and nonfiction on Nebraska OverDrive Libraries. “Something to Say” is as both an audiobook and eBook, along with Ramée’s other works, “A Good Kind of Trouble,” and “The Everybody Experiment.”
“Reminiscent in writing style to works by Lauren Myracle and Jason Reynolds, this novel [shows] Shayla’s typical middle school problems, then switches to the very specific problems she faces as a young black girl in America…[For] middle grade readers who aren’t yet ready for Thomas’s The Hate U Give.”
— School 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. 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!
We are getting a head start on the Book Club Spotlight’s 3rd biennial Toni Morrison summer read in honor of America’s Second Independence Day this Friday (June 19th). Like in Nebraska, freedmen made their way out to Oklahoma to homestead often in all Black settlements and farming communities where residents were free from racial violence and segregation laws. In her 1997 novel, Paradise, Morrison presents a fictionalized community of Black Homesteaders in its decline after generations of prosperity. She approaches their self-made isolation and segregation and asks the reader if true “paradise necessitates exclusion.” (x)
“They shot the white girl first. With the rest they can take their time.” This first execution was justified in the early morning raiders’ minds. After all, they were here to save their town from the evil influences that lay inside the old Convent. Ruby, the remnants of a once thriving town of Black Homesteaders split into factions, should have been a haven for its residents. Free from racial violence and a governmental system built against them, they were proud of the safe community they built. When the cracks of the peaceful town begin to show, the men of Ruby turn their eyes to an old convent outside of town, rumored to harbor witches. Who were these women of the Convent? Those that were murdered in the name of safety by their neighbors?
“How exquisitely human was the wish for permanent happiness, and how thin human imagination became trying to achieve it.”
– Toni Morrison
Aside from the residents of Ruby, races of the characters rarely noted, especially of the women who live in the Convent. This may come as a surprise to readers as they search for meaning behind the townspeople’s actions who believe their hard-fought racial segregation is what will keep them and their families safe. The Covenant’s ambiguous racial makeup allows the novel to take an approach on intersectionality that focuses on how despite one’s race, class, religion, or ability, women are joined together in the never ending struggle for gender equality and safety even from those who have sworn to protect them. As the follow-up novel to her Nobel Prize win, Paradise is Morrison’s final say in the iconic “Beloved Trilogy”, finishing her three-book contemplation on the search for love and belonging in the shadow of human tenderness and generational trauma. Set in 9 parts, Paradise is ripe for discussion, and Adult Book Club Groups who are fans of Morrison will continue to be stunned by her beautiful prose and heart wrenching characters.
If you’re interested in requesting Paradise for your book club, you can find the Request Form here. There are 12 copies. (A librarian must request items)
Join us for some hands on historical exploration on next week’s NCompass Live webinar, ‘Unlocking Nebraska’s Stories: Introducing the Nebraska Literary & History Escape Room Kits’, on Wednesday, June 17 at 10am CT.
This presentation will introduce librarians to a new suite of four free, ready to use escape room kits developed by the Nebraska Center for the Book and the Nebraska Library Commission, through a Teaching with Primary Sources Grant from the Library of Congress. Inspired by the One Book One Nebraska selections, each kit immerses participants in a different facet of Nebraska’s past – Willa Cather’s History, Voices of the Plains, Wartime in Nebraska, and Cold War Espionage – using puzzles grounded in authentic primary sources.
The session highlights what each kit contains, how the themes connect to Nebraska history and literature, and the ways libraries of all sizes can incorporate them into programming for youth, adults, families, and intergenerational groups. Attendees will hear directly from the three creators about setup, facilitation tips, accessibility considerations, and strategies for adapting the kits for local audiences. Participants will leave with practical ideas for hosting their own escape room programs and engaging their communities through hands on historical exploration.
Presenters: Tessa Timperley, Communications Coordinator; Miranda Shreves, Marketing and Outreach Coordinator, Talking Book and Braille Service (TBBS); Bailee Juroshek, Office Specialist, Nebraska Library Commission.
Upcoming NCompass Live shows:
June 24 – Pretty Sweet Tech
July 8 – Library Compliance with the ADA Title II Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Rule
July 15 – Community Literacy Treasure Hunt: The Fun Way to Increase Literacy!
To register for an NCompass Live show, or to listen to recordings of past shows, go to the NCompass Live webpage.
NCompass Live is broadcast live every Wednesday from 10am – 11am Central Time. Convert to your time zone on the Official U.S. Time website.
The show is presented online using the GoTo Webinar online meeting service. Before you attend a session, please see the NLC Online Sessions webpage for detailed information about GoTo Webinar, including system requirements, firewall permissions, and equipment requirements for computer speakers and microphones.
Don’t have a cow about this week’s #BookfaceFriday. Summer is the perfect time to start a teen/YA bookclub to help keep kids reading and engaged until school starts, because reading for pleasure and not just grades is what makes a lifelong reader. Check out “Going Bovine” by Libba Bray (Ember, 2010), recommended for kids in grades 9-12, is a YA novel that explores the meaning of life, even if it turns out it’s going to be a short one. When 16-year-old Cameron finds out he’s sick, and that he’s probably not going to make it. The dark, fantastical, and comedic journey that follows goes right to the heart of what matters most. It’s available as a Book Club Kit from the Nebraska Library Commission, with 16 copies for your reading group to borrow. You can also find “Going Bovine” as both an audiobook and eBook through Nebraska OverDrive Libraries: Kids & Teens. You can read more about “Going Bovine” in our Book Club Spotlight post.
“An unforgettable, nearly indefinable fantasy . . . wholly unique, ambitious, tender, thought-provoking, and often fall-off-the-chair funny.”
— Booklist, 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!
Commonly listed among suggested readings for America250, David McCullough’s 1776 is a history of the American Revolution focused on the pivotal year identified in the book’s title – the year of the Declaration of Independence, when the outcome of the struggle depended largely on military success. While the book is a military history, it is also a study of leadership, perseverance, devotion, and commitment to the cause of independence.
McCullough’s research draws upon both American and British archival sources. Letters, journals, and other contemporary records tell the human story through the experiences and observations of participants on both sides of the conflict. On the American side were farmers, teachers, laborers, and others, young and old alike, drawn into the struggle for independence.
1776 recounts the many hardships and missteps that preceded the Revolution’s eventual success. In late 1775, Britain prepared to crush the rebellion by sending additional troops, including well-trained and experienced Hessian mercenaries. At the same time, George Washington assumed command of the Continental Army, inheriting a force that was ill-equipped and largely unprepared.
Central to the book’s narrative is the leadership of George Washington. Much of what is commonly remembered about Washington involves his heroism and military accomplishments. McCullough does not portray him as flawless. Washington began his command with limited military experience, occasional uncertainty, and some notable mistakes. McCullough emphasizes his dignity, intelligence, perseverance, and ability to inspire confidence in others.
American soldiers faced significant disadvantages compared with the well-supported and formidable British military. The hardships were severe with hunger, disease, expiring enlistments, and frequent desertions. Critical supplies were lacking, clothing and food were often inadequate, training was inconsistent, and pay was unreliable. Morale was a persistent challenge.
Despite these overwhelming obstacles, and despite major defeats in New York and New Jersey, Washington’s army endured. Through determination, adaptability, and several important successes, the revolutionary forces continued the fight that would ultimately lead to British defeat. As McCullough observes, the Revolution survived because Washington refused to surrender.
Although Washington is the dominant figure, McCullough also profiles others who performed significant roles in the fight for independence, as well as key leaders among the British forces. Notable are Henry Knox and Nathanael Greene, whose intelligence, determination, and leadership McCullough’s recognizes. Their contributions, along with those of many other participants, reinforce one of the book’s central themes: that the Revolution’s success depended not only on great leaders but also on the perseverance and sacrifice of many individuals committed to the cause of independence.
Other notable David McCullough American history books for America250 reading and bookdiscussions include John Adams, The American Spirit, and The Pioneers.
“Dog on Fire” by Terese Svoboda is now available on cartridge and for download on BARD, the Braille and Audio Reading Download service. BARD is a service offered by the Nebraska Library Commission Talking Book and Braille Service and the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled at the Library of Congress.
Out of a Shakespearean-wild Midwest dust storm, a man rises. “Just a glimpse of him,” says his sister; “every inch of him,” says his guilt-filled lover. “Close your eyes,” says his nephew. “What about it?” asks his father. The cupboard is filled with lime Jell-O, and there are aliens, deadly kissing, and a restless, alcoholic mother who carries a gun. “Every family is this normal,” insists the narrator. “Whoever noticed my brother, with a family as normal as this?” the beleaguered sister asks. Against the smoky prairie horizon and despite his seizures, a brother builds a life. Imbued with melancholy cheer, Dog on Fire unfolds around a family’s turmoil, past loves, and a mysterious death.
TBBS borrowers can request “Dog on Fire” DBC02061 or download it from the National Library Service BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) website. If you have high-speed internet access, you can download books to your smartphone or tablet, or onto a flash drive for use with your player. You may also contact your reader’s advisor to have the book mailed to you on cartridge.
If any young men come for Mary or Kitty, send them in, for I am quite at my leisure this #BookFaceFriday.
If you’re a fan of the book to screen pipeline, and you’ve finished Hamnet, Wuthering Heights, and Bridgerton, might I suggest this week’s BookFaceFriday? “The Other Bennet Sister: A Novel” by Janice Hadlow (Macmillian Audio, 2020) is a regency era novel centered on the Jane Austen’s character, Mary Bennet and is now a drama series streaming on BritBox. It’s available as an Audiobook through Nebraska OverDrive Libraries. If you want to find out what’s new check out the “Latest 500 Titles Added” collection on the main page, updated monthly with what’s been added to Nebraska OverDrive Libraries.
“[A] spectacular debut. . . . Writing in prose with the crisp liveliness of Austen’s own, Hadlow remains true to the characterizations in Pride and Prejudice without letting them limit her. . . . This will delight Janeites as well as lovers of nuanced female coming-of-age tales.”
―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. 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!
Visitors to the Louvre often have very polarizing impressions. Some immediately fall in love, and treasure the experience. Others feel rushed. Overwhelmed by the crowds and expansive collection, visitors may leave disappointed. In Adventures in the Louvre: How to Fall in Love with the World’s Greatest Museum, Elaine Sciolino explores the Louvre’s more than 200-year history, and dives into the stories of the art, the caretakers, and the complex issues surrounding this massive museum collection. As an experienced journalist, Sciolino knows how to find and tell compelling stories, uncovering intriguing and personal stories from the people who have unrivaled behind-the-scenes access, including curators, gardeners, window washers, and firefighters. Sciolino also delves into topics the Louvre and many museums face, including ethical questions surrounding ownership, acquisition, and representation. A delightful and thought-provoking read for museum lovers, even stanch Louvre detractors will likely find interest in learning more about its history and the complex issues facing the Louvre today.
Sciolino takes readers behind-the-scenes to reveal the inner workings of this massive institution, and the people that run it. Did you know that the Louvre has a particle accelerator used to identify the composition and provenance of artwork? Have you ever thought about how they clean the glass in the Louvre Pyramid? Spoiler: it involves a Swiss robot named Gecko. These are interesting stories on their own, but the interviews with museum workers are particularly moving. Window cleaners or members of the fire brigade may not have started their careers with a love of art, but they thoughtfully describe the personal connections they have made through their work.
“Even if you don’t really know the sculptures and paintings, you are carried away by the architecture itself. Like you are alone in the world, traveling through these huge rooms. It’s really this feeling of being really small in an absolutely immense world.”
The most meaningful moments many museum workers describe take place in quiet contemplation. Due to the museum’s popularity, the average person visiting the Louvre fights crowds instead of finding contemplative spaces. Sciolino explores the challenges visitors face when viewing the Mona Lisa. One curator put it this way: “She is made for contemplation. For dialogue. To appreciate her, you must be alone with her. To look at her face to face as I look at you. . . We can’t see her because she is hung way too high and way too far away. . . Sad to say, but for reasons of security and climate control, we have to keep her that way. There is also her coloring, she is bathed in muted tones and unrestored, and must co-exist with the bright-colored, restored finishing paintings that hang nearby. . . Finally, there is the long wait. It takes a long time to approach her. . . and then you see her, very small and in the distance, and you never really see her well, and so she may seem trivial.”
So how can museums like the Louvre create any meaningful experiences for visitors if they are the victim of their own success? Due to politics and the resistance to change, the Mona Lisa experience is unlikely to change anytime soon, but Sciolino explores a little-known way that visitors can see original artwork from storage up close and personal. She also looks at how the Louvre’s branch museum in Lens is doing things differently to engage its local audience in a former coal mining region. Outreach and creating community spaces are major parts of their mission. But then there is also the Louvre Abu Dhabi, a museum created through a thirty-year licensing agreement and partnership between France and the UAE. Sciolino explores the museum’s successes and controversies, and examines accessibility issues for the UAE’s large population of immigrant workers.
The book also explores many ethical challenges the museum faces including representation, ownership controversies, and acquisition issues. The Louvre, for example, possesses fragments of the Parthenon and looted sites from other countries. Other chapters explore gender, race, and religion. Sciolino discusses where representation is lacking, and ponders that if excellence in our world today means that you engage your audience, “Who is the Louvre for? How have ethnic groups like people of color been excluded and what steps are being taken to include them? How can the museum be a place of empathy? Of emotional connections?”
These are just a few of the topics explored in this expansive look at the Louvre. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to it as an audiobook, but Adventures in the Louve is also available as an eBook in Nebraska Overdrive.
Elaine Sciolino has had a long career as a journalist, and is a contributing writer for The New York Times. She joined the Times in 1984, where she has held positions including chief diplomatic correspondent, United Nations’ bureau chief, CIA correspondent, and Paris bureau chief. She is also the author of The Seine: The River That Made Paris and The Only Street in Paris: Life on the Rue des Martyrs.
Adventures at the Louvre: How to Fall in Love with the World’s Greatest Museum,by Elaine Sciolino, 2026, W.W. Norton & Company.
June is a month of celebration and reflection for ourselves, and our community. For today’s Book Club Spotlight, we’ll be revisiting an author who is not only a friend to Nebraska Libraries, but an active member in our state’s literary tradition. Winner of the Nebraska Book Awards for Fiction in 2022and previously featured author of the Swan Gondola, Timothy Schaffert’s novel The Perfume Thief takes his readers to the cold, destitute Paris of World War II. But underneath lies a beautiful community of artists who choose to love fiercely, and celebrate each other even in the darkest of times.
Paris, 1941. Notorious thief of perfumes both valuable and rare, Clementine, has hung up her hat and lives life in semi-retirement creating perfumes for the ladies of Paris. With Nazi forces controlling daily life, the once vibrant and lush city is haunted by shuttered restaurants, empty stores, and struggling nightclubs. Residents do what they must to get from one day to the next alive, including Clem, who has enough on her mind keeping loved ones safe before being pulled out of retirement for one last heist. A Francophile Nazi bureaucrat has come to the city in search of a famous perfumer’s notebook, and Clem must infiltrate his confidence to steal the diary before the deadly secret of a cabaret star is exposed.
“For the perfume to work, the wearer has to believe what I tell them .”
– Timothy Schaffert
Pantomiming a performance of the once great city to appease the Nazi soldiers who were promised The City of Lights, artists and those on the margins who were once embraced had to tread carefully to survive. Featuring a protagonist in their 70s, the novel’s acts of bravery and rebellion are not as loud and explosive as other stories of heroes facing Nazis may be, but the subtlety and cunning employed by those not on the front lines is no less important or deadly. There is much to learn from the beautiful and colorful characters who grace the page of The Perfume Thief, and Adult Book Groups who are fans of Historical Fiction will enjoy this look into a world of espionage and perfume resulting from Schaffert’s dedicated research.
Like all countries ravaged by the war, France is still coming to terms with the devastation caused and the effects it still has on its people and culture today. In 2025, Paris unveiled a memorial to the LGBTQ+ victims of the holocaust of a giant metallic star with one side a matte black of the dark and painful history it remembers, and a bright mirror on the other, reflecting back hope and light of a bright future onto the viewer.
If your readers are fans of Schaffert, you’re in luck! He will be speaking at Norfolk Public Library on June 20th, followed by a reception at the Norfolk Arts Center featuring his work.
If you’re interested in requesting The Perfume Thief for your book club, you can find the Request Form here. There are 11 copies. (A librarian must request items)
Schaffert, Timothy. The Perfume Thief. Anchor. 2021
