Thursday, October 29, 2009

Some New Titles in the Heritage Room--October, 2009

This is the first of several notices sampling new books we received over the last several months. Among them are:

Nonfiction:

Michael Forsberg, (with Dan O'Brien, David Wishart and Ted Kooser), Great Plains: America's Lingering Wild. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, copyright 2009 by Michael Forsberg. A photograpic exploration of the wild places of the Great Plains by Lincoln photographer Michael Forsberg, with a forword by Ted Kooser, chapter introductions by David Wishart, essays by Dan O'Brien, and essays and field notes by Forsberg. Like Forsberg's earlier book on the Sandhill Cranes, this work has received rave reviews in the national press. Its jacket includes high praise from such luminaries as poet Jim Harrison and writer Larry McMurtry. The Heritage Room will welcome Michael Forsberg as our Ames reader in January, 2010.

Lane Van Ham, Capitol Punishment and Other Ordeals: A History of Punk in Lincoln, '78-'86. Lincoln native Van Ham surveys Lincoln bands and musicians in the Punk genre.

John Sorenson and Judith Sealander, ed., The Grace Abbott Reader. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2008. Grace Abbott (1878-1939) of Grand Island, Nebraska along with her sister Edith, pioneered social reform and helped to shape the agenda of social work in the early twentieth century. Grace Abbott's career took her from work at Jane Addam's Hull House in Chicago, to the Chicago Immigrants' Protective League and on to head the Children's Bureau of the Labor Department under Presidents Harding, Hoover, and Roosevelt. When she left this post she remained an advisor to Roosevelt's Labor Secretary and served on Roosevelt's Council on Economic Security. This is a collection of her most influential writing, accompanied by a biographical introduction and timeline.

Don Holst, Famous Football Players in Their 4th Quarter. Chadron: Don Holst Art and Books, 2009. Chadron author Don Holst bases his book on face-to-face interviews with great players of the past, exploring how they look back on their careers and what they think about today.

Poetry:

William Kloefkorn, Out of Attica. Omaha: The Backwaters Press, 2008. A collection of poems inspired by the poet's youth in Attica, Kansas, by Kansas born Nebraska State Poet Bill Kloefkorn.

Fiction:

Sally J. Walker, Letting Go of Sacred Things. Corvalis: The Fiction Works, 2005 (2002). The book follows its heroine's trials of love and loss from 1910-1981 in a series of episodes.

Sally J. Walker, Desert Time. Corvalis: The Fiction Works, 2009. A historical romance novel situated in St. Louis and New Mexico in the 1850s and 1860s.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Sunday, October 18th Ames Reading by Amil Quayle

Amil Quayle was born and raised near Henry's Fork on the Snake River in Idaho. He earned a degree in sociology from the University of Utah, ranched in Nebraska for seven years, and then got his M.A. and Ph.D. in English from the University of Nebraska. He is a poet with a deep appreciation for the land and the natural world gained from years of working on the farm and ranching. Grand Canyon and Other Selected Poems is his latest work. We welcome him as our October Ames Reader on Sunday, October 18 at 2:00 P.M. in the Heritage Room on the third floor of Bennett Martin Public Library

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Some Upcoming Lincoln Events for October

Those readers familiar with Lincoln's literary history will know that some of Lincoln's most interesting literary conversations have taken place among the graves at Wyuka Cemetery. Wyuka will celebrate its 140th Anniversary Celebration on Sunday, October 4, with a free day of fun family activities, to include walking tours, living history vignettes by the Flatwater Shakespeare Company, a photography contest, old fashioned toys and games, and a concert by the Southeast Nebraska Community Band. The entire Wyuka property is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Time is 1:00-5:30 PM, Sunday, 10-4-2009. Tel: (402) 416-5056 or 474-3600
Wyuka Funeral Home & Cemetery
3600 O Street, Lincoln, NE 68510, USA

On a very closely related topic, Nebraska author Alan Boye's book, The Ghosts of Lincoln, is the most frequently stolen item at Lincoln City Libraries. Any librarians present will be looking sideways at folks who show up for the Ghosts of Lincoln Bus Tour on October 6th and 7th. Ghosts of Lincoln Tour Director Dale Bacon will tell stories about ghosts and what people saw. Lots of new ghost stories plus the best of the old. The tour is family friendly, but please do not bring small children, toddlers and babies. Do not bring purloined copies of the above mentioned book, either.
Cost:$10 per person. Times: 6:45-9:10 p.m., 10/6/09 - 10/7/09.
Telephone:(402) 770-8604 or 580-1402
Tour will depart from and return to: Here and Back Again, Indian Village Shopping Center, 3219 S. 13th Street, Lincoln, NE 68502, USA (View Map)
Phone:(402) 817-4177 No alcoholic beverages allowed.