Tag Archives: University of Nebraska Press

Book Briefs: New University of Nebraska Press Books at the Nebraska Publications Clearinghouse

The Nebraska Publications Clearinghouse receives documents every month from all Nebraska state agencies, including the University of Nebraska Press (UNP).  UNP books, as well as all Nebraska state documents, are available for checkout by libraries and librarians for their patrons.

Here are the UNP books the Clearinghouse received in March and April, 2025:

The Bears of Grand Teton: a Natural and Cultural History, by Sue Consolo-Murphy. Series: America’s Public Lands

The Bears of Grand Teton is the first comprehensive history of bears, black and grizzly, and their interactions with people in Grand Teton National Park and the surrounding area of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It is also a personal account by Sue Consolo-Murphy, who spent thirty years as a wildlife manager for the National Park Service.

Consolo-Murphy focuses on the natural, cultural, and administrative histories of bears in and around Grand Teton National Park and the nearby John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway, paying particular attention to bears’ interactions with livestock. Entertaining and educational, The Bears of Grand Teton also explores the phenomenon of social media celebrity bears—such as Grizzly 399, the world’s most famous bear—and the challenges of listing and removing grizzly bears from Endangered Species Act protection.

A Grammar of Nakoda (Assiniboine), by Linda A. Cumberland. Series: Studies in the Native Languages of the Americas

A Grammar of Nakoda (Assiniboine) is the first complete grammar of the Native American language Assiniboine, also known by the endonym Nakoda, a member of the Siouan language family. It addresses all major grammatical categories, including phonology, nouns, verbs, adverbs, enclitics, determiners, syntax, and kinship terminology. It also includes groundbreaking analysis of motion verbs of coming and going, demonstrating that such verbs compose a closed system that is consistent in varying degrees across all Siouan languages.

Over the past century and a half, the classification of the Assiniboine language has suffered due to a complicated history regarding the Dakotan branch of the Siouan language family. Once spoken over a vast contiguous area of the northern plains, Assiniboine/Nakoda is used today among the Assiniboine people in and around Fort Belknap and Fort Peck in Montana and in five reserves in Saskatchewan. A Grammar of Nakoda (Assiniboine) establishes the singular basis of the language while also relating its unique features to other Great Plains American Indian languages.

Locomotive Cathedral, by Brandel France de Bravo. Series: The Backwaters Prize in Poetry Honorable Mention

With wit and vulnerability, Brandel France de Bravo explores resilience in the face of climate change and a global pandemic, race, and the concept of a self, all while celebrating the power of breath as “baptism on repeat.” Whether her inspiration is twelfth-century Buddhist mind-training slogans or the one-footed crow who visits her daily, France de Bravo mines the tension between the human desire for permanence and control, and life’s fluid, ungraspable nature. Poem by poem, essay by essay, she builds a temple to the perpetual motion of transformation, the wondrous churn of change and exchange that defines companionship, marriage, and ceding our place on Earth: “not dying, but molting.”

Memories of Buffalo Bill, by Louisa Frederici Cody. Series: The Papers of William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody

Written with the help of Courtney Ryley Cooper, Memories of Buffalo Bill offers an idealized account of William F. Cody’s life from the perspective of his wife, Louisa. True to its origins, this account offers many more details about Cody’s domestic life, including his children, than any other preceding work. Although William and Louisa’s real-life marriage was marred by some high-profile scandals, it endured until her husband’s death in 1917.

Memories of Buffalo Bill, the first biography of William F. Cody to appear after his death, strikes a celebratory tone in narrating highlights of his life and enterprises. Through its introduction, notes, and appendixes, this edition offers a broader context for the Codys’ marriage, evidencing its private realities and the collaboration required to preserve the Buffalo Bill image in the public eye. Out of print since its first publication, Louisa Cody’s memoir highlights the processes involved in crafting and preserving a national myth. Both for what it does and does not say, it was the first step in laying a foundation for the enduring legacy of Buffalo Bill as an American icon.

Nebraska Government and Politics, edited by Robert Blair, Christian L. Janousek, and Jerome Deichert. Series: Politics and Governments of the American States

Nebraska Government and Politics offers an in-depth examination of the connection between the political culture, traditions, and heritage of Nebraska and its governmental institutions. This new edition discusses federalism, constitutionalism, and the continuing American frontier, paying special attention to the effects and frameworks of Nebraska’s political culture. The contributors emphasize enduring trends and issues through Nebraska’s history as they examine the cultural foundations of the state’s political institutions, the major governmental structures in the state, and the political and administrative relationships at play. The chapters cover periodic populism, the state constitution, nonpartisanship and direct democracy, budgeting and financial policies, the unicameral, the executive branch, local government, political culture, and capital punishment.

Robert Blair, Christian L. Janousek, and Jerome Deichert provide a long view of Nebraska, a state whose unique political culture is reflected in its institutions.

Old Rags and Iron: New and Selected Poems, by R.F. McEwen. Series: Ted Kooser Contemporary Poetry

Old Rags and Iron is a collection of narrative poems about the life experiences of working-class people with whom the author, R. F. McEwen, is not only acquainted but whose lives he has shared. McEwen supplemented his income as a teacher while working as a professional logger and tree trimmer, and he writes with great love and respect for blue-collar families.

Set primarily in the back-of-the-yard neighborhood of South Side Chicago, where McEwen grew up, as well as Pine Ridge, South Dakota, western Nebraska, Ireland, and elsewhere, the poems celebrate many voices and stories. Utilizing tree-trimming as a central metaphor, these poems of blank verse fictions reverberate like truth.

Silence in the Quagmire: The Vietnam War in U.S. Comics, by Harriet E.H.Earle. Series: Encapsulations: Critical Comics Studies

Old Rags and Iron is a collection of narrative poems about the life experiences of working-class people with whom the author, R. F. McEwen, is not only acquainted but whose lives he has shared. McEwen supplemented his income as a teacher while working as a professional logger and tree trimmer, and he writes with great love and respect for blue-collar families.

Set primarily in the back-of-the-yard neighborhood of South Side Chicago, where McEwen grew up, as well as Pine Ridge, South Dakota, western Nebraska, Ireland, and elsewhere, the poems celebrate many voices and stories. Utilizing tree-trimming as a central metaphor, these poems of blank verse fictions reverberate like truth.

Tell Me About Your Bad Guys: Fathering In Anxious Times, by Michael Dowdy. Series: American Lives

Michael Dowdy perceives the world as a poet, one with an anxiety disorder. As a result he has rarely experienced fathering or his relationship with his daughter, A, as a linear narrative. Rather, his impressions of fathering coalesce in encounters with the conditions of our time, producing intense flashes of awareness and emotion. Critiquing his own fathering practices, Dowdy’s essays move between simplicity—being present for his daughter—and complexity—considering the harrowing present of entrenched misogyny, school shootings, climate change, and other threats to childing and fathering with love, optimism, and joy.

The essays in Tell Me about Your Bad Guys do not provide easy answers. They follow instead an interrogative mode, guided by A’s unruly questions and Dowdy’s desire to avoid fatherhood literature’s traps: false modesty, antic ineptitude, and defensive clowning. This means understanding fathering not as an ironclad identity or a cohesive story but as a process of trial and error, self-reflection, and radical openness. With measures of dark humor, the essays take seriously the literary, material, and political stakes of fathering and in doing so challenge patriarchal norms and one-dimensional accounts of fatherhood.

Thank You for Staying with Me: Essays, by Bailey Gaylin Moore. Series: American Lives

Urgent, meditative, and searching, Thank You for Staying with Me is a collection of essays that navigates the complexities of home, the vulnerability of being a woman, mother-daughter relationships, and young motherhood in the conservative and religious landscape of the Ozarks. Using cosmology as a foil to discuss human issues, Bailey Gaylin Moore describes praying to the sky during moments of despondency, observing a solar eclipse while reflecting on what it means to be in the penumbra of society, and using galaxy identification to understand herself. During a collision of women’s rights, gun policy, and racial tension, Thank You for Staying with Me is a frank and intimate rumination on how national policy and social attitudes affect both the individual and the public sphere, especially in such a conservative part of the United States.

Turning the Power: Indian Boarding Schools, Native American Anthropologists, and the Race to Preserve Indigenous Cultures, by Nathan Sowry. Series: Critical Studies in the History of Anthropology

In Turning the Power Nathan Sowry examines how some Native American students from the boarding school system, with its forced assimilationist education, became key cultural informants for anthropologists conducting fieldwork during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Salvage anthropologists of this era relied on Native informants to accomplish their mission of “saving” Native American cultures and ultimately turned many informants into anthropologists after years of fieldwork experience.

Sowry investigates ten relatively unknown Native American anthropologists and collaborators who, from 1878 to 1930, attended a religiously affiliated mission school, a federal Indian boarding school, or both. He tells the stories of Native anthropologists Tichkematse, William Jones, and James R. Murie, who were alumni of the Hampton Institute in Virginia. Richard Davis and Cleaver Warden were among the first and second classes to attend the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. Amos Oneroad graduated from the Haskell Indian Industrial Training School in Lawrence, Kansas, after attending mission and boarding schools in South Dakota. D. C. Duvall, John V. Satterlee, and Florence and Louis Shotridge attended smaller boarding and mission schools in Montana, Wisconsin, and Alaska Territory, respectively.

Turning the Power follows the forced indoctrination of Native American students and then details how each of them “turned the power,” using their English knowledge and work experience in the anthropological field to embrace, document, and preserve their Native cultures rather than abandoning their heritage.

**Pictures and Synopses courtesy of University of Nebraska Press.

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Discovering State Docs: “There Once Was a Man from Nebraska…”

An offset stack of books, all by the poet and author Ted Kooser

Happy National Poetry Month! When you hear “state government documents” do you immediately think of poetry? Me neither! The Nebraska Publications Clearinghouse receives documents every month from all Nebraska state agencies, including the University of Nebraska Press, which recently sent us Ted Kooser’s “The Windflower Home Almanac of Poetry.” It is a reprint of his original 1980 book, and one of many of his titles we have in this collection.

Cover of Ted Kooser's book The Windflower Home Almanac of Poetry

“The Windflower Home Almanac of Poetry is an anthology of poems originally selected by Ted Kooser in 1980 and published by his Windflower Press, a small, independent publisher that specialized in poetry from the Great Plains. The collection contains almost two hundred poems from dozens of poets and was designed to resemble a commonplace farmer’s almanac.

The Windflower Press was the sole operation of Kooser, who was later named the first U.S. poet laureate from the Great Plains. His press gained national recognition for highlighting the work of the region’s young poets, and its Windflower Home Almanac of Poetry earned notice from the Library Journal as one of its era’s best small press books.”

– – Book synopsis from University of Nebraska Press

In the Editor’s Note, Kooser talks about the process of typesetting and pasting the poems together with illustrations he’d collected from old almanacs, long before the advent of software to ease these tasks.

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

Kooser, Ted (Ed.). The Windflower Home Almanac of Poetry. University of Nebraska Press, 2024.

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Great Plains Recipe Book Available on BARD!

Wild Seasons: Gathering and Cooking Wild Plants of the Great Plains” by Kay Young 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.

For nature lovers as well as cooks, there’s plenty to whet the appetite in this unique field guide-cum-cookbook. Starting with the first plants ready for eating in the early spring (watercress and nettles) and following the sequence of harvest through the late fall (persim-mons and Jerusalem artichokes), Kay Young offers full, easy-to-follow directions for identifying, gathering, and preparing some four dozen edible wild plants of the Great Plains. And since most of the plants occur elsewhere as well, residents of other regions will find much of interest here.

‘This is not a survival book,” writes the author; “only those plants whose flavor and availability warrant the time and effort to collect or grow them are included.” The nearly 250 recipes range from old-time favorites (poke sallet; catnip tea; horehound lozenges; hickory nut cake; a cupboardful of jams, jellies, and pies) to enticing new creations (wild violet salad, milkweed sandwiches, cattail pollen pancakes, day-lily hors d’oeuvres, prickly-pear cactus relish).
Synopses courtesy of University of Nebraska Press

“Kay Young knows more than anyone else I know about wild plants and their uses. . . . If you are interested in wild plants, the Plains, and good eating, you will want a copy of Wild Seasons in your library.” — Roger Welsch, Roger, Over and Out

TBBS borrowers can request “Wild Seasons: Gathering and Cooking Wild Plants of the Great Plains” DBC02011 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.

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

We’re not gonna take it with #BookFaceFriday!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Nebraska Cookbook Available on BARD!

The “Nebraska Pioneer Cookbook” by Kay Graber 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.

Nebraska’s pioneer food tells us much about how our forebearers lived, and in compiling this cookbook the aim was to achieve a balance between recipes and descriptions of the way of life the pioneers exemplified. Interspersed with the recipes are descriptions of food preparation and fare which tell us much about how our forebears lived—industriously, ingeniously, and sometimes very well. Although many of the recipes could not be duplicated in today’s kitchens, there is plenty here to challenge and stimulate amateur and professional chefs—and plenty of food for thought for social historians. Published by University of Nebraska Press.

TBBS borrowers can request the “Nebraska Pioneer Cookbook,” DCB02022 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.

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#BookFaceFriday “Might Kindred” by Mónica Gomery

An ode to #BookFaceFriday!

April is National Poetry Month, and we wanted to celebrate by highlighting some of the amazing poetry NLC has in its collection. Like this week’s #BookFaceFriday, “Might Kindred” (University of Nebraska Press, 2022) is a winner of the Raz/Shumaker Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry.

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

“These generous and sensitive meditations on belonging and the first-generation experience cast intimate light on shared human experiences.”
Publishers Weekly
Love this #BookFace & reading? Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!
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#BookFaceFriday – “Louise Pound: Scholar, Athlete, Feminist Pioneer” by Robert Cochran

This #BookFaceFriday is a hole in one!

March is Women’s History Month and we’re shining a light on the impressive Nebraska women featured in our collection. Like this week’s #BookFace,Louise Pound: Scholar, Athlete, Feminist Pioneer” by Robert Cochran (‎University of Nebraska Press; Illustrated edition, 2009.) You can find this title in the Nebraska Library Commission’s permanent collection; the Nebraska Publications Clearinghouse receives documents every month from all Nebraska state agencies, including the University of Nebraska Press (UNP). UNP books, as well as all Nebraska state documents, are available for checkout by libraries and librarians for their patrons. Find great reads to celebrate Women’s History Month in all of NLC’s collections, including Book Club Kits, and Nebraska OverDrive Libraries.

“Cochran’s well-researched and well-written book places Louise Pound securely in her time and place and reveals much about the plight of women in higher education in a not-so-distant  past. . . . It is an invaluable work on the history of women in the professions in the early twentieth century.”

—Shirley Anne Leckie, Journal of American History

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

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#BookFaceFriday – “Cotton Candy” by Ted Kooser

That one looks like a…#BookFaceFriday!

There is something so sweet about this week’s #BookFaceFriday, “Cotton Candy: Poems Dipped Out of the Air” by Ted Kooser (‎University of Nebraska Press; 2022.) Kooser was the U.S. poet laureate from 2004-2006, and won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 2005. You can find this title and many more of his works in the Nebraska Library Commission’s permanent collection; the Nebraska Publications Clearinghouse receives documents every month from all Nebraska state agencies, including the University of Nebraska Press (UNP). UNP books, as well as all Nebraska state documents, are available for checkout by libraries and librarians for their patrons.

“That Kooser often sees things we do not would be delight enough, but more amazing is exactly what he sees. Nothing escapes him. Everything is illuminated. ―Library Journal

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

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#BookFaceFriday – “Black Print with a White Carnation” by Amy Helene Forss

#BookFaceFriday celebrates Black History Month!

Extra, extra, read all about it with this week’s #BookFaceFriday,Black Print with a White Carnation: Mildred Brown and the Omaha Star Newspaper, 1938-1989” by Amy Helene Forss (‎University of Nebraska Press; Illustrated edition, 2014.) You can find this title in the Nebraska Library Commission’s permanent collection; the Nebraska Publications Clearinghouse receives documents every month from all Nebraska state agencies, including the University of Nebraska Press (UNP). UNP books, as well as all Nebraska state documents, are available for checkout by libraries and librarians for their patrons. Find great reads to celebrate Black History Month in all of NLC’s collections, including Book Club Kits, and Nebraska OverDrive Libraries.

“In addition to its well-researched look at Brown’s career, the book provides an informative description of the history of black-owned newspapers in North America, going back to the founding in 1853 of the Provincial Freeman, an antislavery newspaper in Canada.” ―Omaha World-Herald

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

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#BookFaceFriday – “Emily Hamilton & Other Writings” by Sukey Vickery

Sit a spell with this week’s #BookFaceFriday.

Get your thoughts down on paper just like this week’s #BookFaceFriday, “Emily Hamilton & Other Writings (Legacies of Nineteenth-Century American Women Writers)” by Sukey Vickery, edited by Scott Slawinski (University of Nebraska Press, 2009.) The Nebraska Library Commission’s Collection is always growing; the Nebraska Publications Clearinghouse receives documents every month from all Nebraska state agencies, including the University of Nebraska Press (UNP). UNP books, as well as all Nebraska state documents, are available for checkout by libraries and librarians for their patrons.

The careful editing and cogent and engaging introduction to this volume will guide students and scholars alike, thus helping Sukey Vickery’s work to receive the attention that it deserves.”

—Amy E. Winans, Women’s Studies

“Sukey Vickery’s Emily Hamilton is an epistolary novel dealing with the courtship and marriages of three women. Originally published in 1803, it is one of the earliest examples of realist fiction in America and a departure from other novels at the turn of the nineteenth century. From the outset its author intended it as a realist project, never delving into the overly sentimental plotting or characterization present in much of the writing of Vickery’s contemporaries. Emily Hamilton explores from a decidedly feminine perspective the idea of a woman’s right to choose her own spouse and the importance of female friendship. Vickery’s characterization of women further diverges from the typical eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century didactic of the righteous/sinful woman and depicts, instead, believable female characters exhibiting true-to-life behavior.”

from the book jacket

Our model this week is a new addition to the Nebraska Library Commission! Welcome to Laura Mooney, our new Federal Documents Staff Assistant. She joins us from the History Nebraska Museum in Lincoln, as their Senior Objects Curator. Laura enjoys reading nonfiction; she’s currently reading a book about Julia Child. She prefers to read physical books, as it gives her a chance to take a break from screens. Along with reading and spending time with her 17 year old cat named Allie, her hobbies include gardening, vintage clothing, and anything related to food (experimenting in the kitchen, learning about food history, etc!) Welcome Laura!

“I’m thrilled to be joining the Nebraska Library Commission, and delighted to be part of the team that is making publications accessible online through digitization. In my first few weeks here I have been digitizing materials from the Nebraska Department of Agriculture and Department on Aging. It’s been fascinating to learn about the depth of information within these collections. There are so many resources that will be useful for scholars, historians, genealogists and more.”

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

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#BookFaceFriday – “Millennial Cervantes” by Bruce R. Burningham

We’re tilting at windmills with this week’s #BookFaceFriday.

Go on an adventure with this week’s #BookFaceFriday, “Millennial Cervantes: New Currents in Cervantes Studies (New Hispanisms)” edited by Bruce R. Burningham (University of Nebraska Press; Illustrated Edition, 2020.) The Nebraska Library Commission’s Collection is always growing, the Nebraska Publications Clearinghouse receives documents every month from all Nebraska state agencies, including the University of Nebraska Press (UNP). UNP books, as well as all Nebraska state documents, are available for checkout by libraries and librarians for their patrons.

“Millennial Cervantes explores some of the most important recent trends in Cervantes scholarship in the twenty-first century. It brings together leading Cervantes scholars of the United States in order to showcase their cutting-edge work within a cultural studies frame that encompasses everything from ekphrasis to philosophy, from sexuality to Cold War political satire, and from the culinary arts to the digital humanities.”

Book jacket

“This collection of nine provocative, beautifully elaborated essays explores the impact of Cervantes’s writings in their own time and place, and well beyond.”

—E. H. Friedman, Choice

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

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#BookFaceFriday “Private Way” by Ladette Randolph

We’re all wrapped up in this week’s #BookFaceFriday!

We like everything about this week’s #BookFaceFriday, the book, the author, the publisher, and the model! “Private Way: A Novel is the latest book by famed Nebraska author, Ladette Randolph (University of Nebraska Press, 2022). One of the most prestigious academic presses in the country, the University of Nebraska Press sends us around 75 select titles per year, which are added to the Nebraska Publications Clearinghouse, also known as the Nebraska State Documents Collection. This collection is comprised of publications issued by Nebraska state agencies, ensuring that state government information is available to a wide audience and that those valuable publications are preserved for future generations. University of Nebraska Press books, as well as all state documents, are available for checkout by libraries and librarians for their patrons. Our model this week is a new addition to the Nebraska Library Commission! Welcome to Mackenzie Marrow, our new Information Services Technician. They completed their Masters in Library and Information Science from Simmons University last August. When asked about what they like to read, Mackenzie says, “I love any book that has an ensemble cast that is really fleshed out, especially if it’s sci-fi or fantasy.” Mackenzie’s two favorite series right now are “The Locked Tomb” by Tamsyn Muir and “Wayfarers” by Becky Chambers, “I could talk for ages about either one!” Outside of reading, their hobbies include playing DND, and trivia nights at The Happy Raven. They also recently adopted an 11-year-old cat named Mittens! “She’s my first cat, I grew up with dogs, and I love her to death.” So if you get the chance, say hello to Mackenzie!

“A wonderfully wise, vividly written, and deeply absorbing novel that delves into Willa Cather’s question about what is required of ‘a civilized society.’ By turns funny, reflective, and harrowing . . . Private Way is that rare novel that acknowledges the real hazards of civic life while also celebrating its transformative power.”

Suzanne Berne, author of The Dogs of Littlefield: A Novel

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

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#BookFaceFriday “Moving Out: A Nebraska Woman’s Life” by Polly Spence

 This #BookFace is all about the good life!

Honor the rich history of women in our state with this week’s #BookFaceFriday, “Moving Out: A Nebraska Woman’s Life (Women in the West) by Polly Spence, edited by Karl Spence Richardson (Bison Books, 2002). This book is one of the hidden treasures of our collection, it’s “an intimate portrait of small-town life in the mid-twentieth century,” written by a native Nebraskan about her own life. Bison Books is an imprint of the University of Nebraska Press, they send us around 75 select titles per year, which are added to the Nebraska Publications Clearinghouse, also known as the Nebraska State Documents Collection. This collection is comprised of publications issued by Nebraska state agencies, ensuring that state government information is available to a wide audience and that those valuable publications are preserved for future generations. University of Nebraska Press books, as well as all state documents, are available for checkout by libraries and librarians for their patrons.

“Not only does Spence relate her own story, but also the stories of people around her, making Moving Out a collection of humorous and touching narratives.”

Utah Historical Society

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

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#BookFaceFriday “Women Made Visible” by Gabriela Aceves Sepúlveda

 #BookFaceFriday, we see you!

Start your Women’s History Month with this week’s #BookFaceFriday, “Women Made Visible: Feminist Art and Media in Post-1968 Mexico City by Gabriela Aceves Sepúlveda (University of Nebraska Press, 2019). One of the most prestigious academic presses in the country, the University of Nebraska Press sends us around 75 select titles per year, which are added to the Nebraska Publications Clearinghouse, also known as the Nebraska State Documents Collection. This collection is comprised of publications issued by Nebraska state agencies, ensuring that state government information is available to a wide audience and that those valuable publications are preserved for future generations. University of Nebraska Press books, as well as all state documents, are available for checkout by libraries and librarians for their patrons.

“Timely and necessary, Women Made Visible advances the field of Latin American, Chicanx, and Latinx art history.”

—Teresa Eckmann, Woman’s Art Journal

This week’s #BookFace was shot on location at the Nebraska Library Association‘s annual Library Advocacy Day. This event gives Nebraska librarians an opportunity to meet with their state legislators to showcase the outstanding work done in Nebraska libraries!

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

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#BookFaceFriday – “The Blue Tattoo” by Margot Mifflin

It’s the wild west with this week’s #BookFaceFriday.

Take a trip back in time with this week’s #BookFaceFriday, “The Blue Tattoo: The Life of Olive Oatman (Women in the West)” written by Margot Mifflin (University of Nebraska Press; Illustrated Edition, 2011.) The Nebraska Library Commission’s Collection is always growing, the Nebraska Publications Clearinghouse receives documents every month from all Nebraska state agencies, including the University of Nebraska Press (UNP). UNP books, as well as all Nebraska state documents, are available for checkout by libraries and librarians for their patrons.

The Blue Tattoo is well-researched history that reads like unbelievable fiction, telling the story of Olive Oatman, the first tattooed American white woman. . . . Mifflin weaves together Olive’s story with the history of American westward expansion, the Mohave, tattooing in America, and captivity literature in the 1800s.”—Elizabeth Quinn, Bust

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

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#BookFaceFriday – “Maria Czaplicka: Gender, Shamanism, Race” by Grażyna Kubica

We tip our hat to this week’s #BookFaceFriday.

If expanding your worldview or knowledge through reading was on your list of New Year’s goals, check out “Maria Czaplicka: Gender, Shamanism, Race (Critical Studies in the History of Anthropology)” written by Grażyna Kubica, translated by Ben Koschalka (University of Nebraska Press; Illustrated Edition, 2020.) The Nebraska Library Commission’s Collection is always growing, the Nebraska Publications Clearinghouse receives documents every month from all Nebraska state agencies, including the University of Nebraska Press (UNP). UNP books, as well as all Nebraska state documents, are available for checkout by libraries and librarians for their patrons.

“Grazyna Kubica examines Maria Czaplicka’s unfinished scientific legacy in this page-turner history of anthropology during wartime Britain. One review of Czaplicka’s account of her 1915 Siberian expedition proclaimed that she ‘could not be dull if she tried.’ Kubica offers a full and fitting tribute to Czaplicka’s indomitable spirit, her contributions to continuing debates, and the meaning of a truncated life in anthropology.”Sally Cole, professor of sociology and anthropology at Concordia College and author of Ruth Landes: A Life in Anthropology

This week’s #BookFace model is Mary Sauers, NLC’s Government Information Services Librarian. Mary writes the monthly Book Briefs blog post showcasing the latest UNP books that the Clearinghouse has received.

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

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#BookFaceFriday 2020 Challenge

It’s been quite a year with #BookFace!

Our 2020 challenge, #BookFace style! We decided to jump on the meme bandwagon and share some classic NLC #BookFace photos. Because no matter what’s happening out in the world, we’ve still got your back. Check out a few of our great services like:

And these are just the services we promote with #BookFaceFriday. Visit the Nebraska Library Commission main page to explore everything we offer!

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

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#BookFaceFriday – “Midwestern Strange” by B.J. Hollars

The truth is out there… and it’s a #BookFace.

You see a lot of strange things in flyover country, unidentified drones, crop circles, Iowa fans. Learn all about them in “Midwestern Strange: Hunting Monsters, Martians, and the Weird in Flyover Country” (University of Nebraska Press, 2019) by B. J. Hollars. This title is published by the University of Nebraska Press, which we collect from for our state document program.

“Crazy tales, from the turtle the size of a dining room table, which turned an Indiana family’s life upside down, to stories of pancake-flipping visitors from outer space. Hollars meets some fascinating people in this quirky account that contends with the ways such oddities retain cultural footholds.”—Marjie Ducey, Omaha World-Herald

This week’s #BookFace models are Vern Buis, our Computer Services Director, and his trusty lieutenant, Janet Greser, Computer Help Desk Support !

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

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#BookFaceFriday – “Sport, Philosophy, and Good Lives”

Get your fat pants on and get ready to yell at the TV! It’s a football #BookFaceFriday!

Today, all across the state, families will get out the Thanksgiving leftovers and settle in to watch some football! And for those of you who aren’t, may we suggest settling in with a good book, like “Sport, Philosophy, and Good Lives” by Randolph Feezell (University of Nebraska Press, 2013.) The author is a professor of philosophy at Creighton University, who posits, “There’s more to sports than the ethos of competition, entertainment, and commercialism.” As part of our permanent collection, it’s available for check out to anyone. Just ask our amazing Information Services staff! This title is published by the University of Nebraska Press, which we collect from for our state document program.

Sport, Philosophy, and Good Lives provides illuminating discussion for those in sport studies (both undergraduate and graduate students, and scholars too) as well as general readers interested in reflecting on the meaning of sport.”—Douglas Hochstetler, Journal of Sport History

This week’s #BookFace model is Bruce Oorlog, NLC’s Mail/Material Specialist. He also happens to be quite the sports junkie, so we thought he was the perfect choice for this week’s model.

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

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Friday Reads: “Low Mountains or High Tea” by Steve Sieberson

A few years ago, I read and enjoyed Steve Sieberson’s book, The Naked Mountaineer: Misadventures of an Alpine Traveler (University of Nebraska Press). Sieberson renews his adventure writing with an equally delightful Low Mountains or High Tea: Misadventures in Britain’s National Parks. Sieberson explains how he and his wife – lovingly referred to throughout the book as the Italian Woman – found themselves spending a summer in Britain with intention for travel to Britain’s national parks. A rental car, road maps and guidebooks were among the tools for their adventure.

Sieberson grew up in northwest Iowa. A family trip one summer from his rural home in northwest Iowa to Colorado began his lifetime fascination with travel and with high elevations. From there he read books on mountaineering, books that he found at his local library. His boyhood fascination has endured through his adult years. His summer adventure in Britain included mountain experiences, visits to far-flung places, pubs, teahouses, B&Bs, and much, much more.

What I found admirable and especially enjoyable about Sieberson’s book is his wonderful humor. Here’s an example: in conversation with a local about nearby trails, he writes “I said that I wasn’t much interested in the three-peak circuit, but that I just wanted to get to the high point and back in the most direct way possible. The tilt of her head and the lift of an eyebrow suggested that perhaps my slam-bam approach to her magnificent hills did not meet her approval.” Throughout, he pokes fun at British ways and novelties. His characterizations of the many people encountered and interactions are especially memorable.

Sieberson’s book is keenly descriptive and rich in detail. His descriptions of hiking and climbing are nearly photographic in detail. I’d like to know how he captured those many impressions and recorded them with such precision. Sieberson’s commentary on the people, places, customs, and food are more than travel guide worthy.  

Sieberson’s law career provided opportunities for travel throughout the world. In recent years, he has added professor to his resume as a Creighton University Law School faculty member.

Sieberson, Steve. Low Mountains or High Tea. University of Nebraska Press, 2019.

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