Linda Villarosa’s new book “Under the Skin” lays out the forces in American healthcare, and society, that cause Black people to “live sicker and die quicker” compared to white Americans.

This week on “All About Books” an interview with History Professor Jim Downs about his research into how modern disease research began and the unsuspected factors that played a role. His book is, “Maladies of Empire: How Colonialism, Slavery, and War Transformed Medicine.”

Only a handful of Jews ever managed to escape the Auschwitz concentration camp. Rudolph Vrba was the first in April of 1944. The remarkable story of how Vrba planned and carried it out is told in the book, “The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World” by Jonathan Freeland. It’s reviewed this week on

12-year old Cassandra is unable to save her young brother from a tragic accident and his body is never found. This event rends the family apart and the grown Cassandra sees her missing brother everywhere in the faces of strangers. “The Furrows” by Namwali Serpell is a noel as elegy dealing with memories and grief.

Alice is just one of the swimmers at the indoor pool who has a private, daily routine. When the pool is shut down for repairs, we learn how valuable this comforting routine was in holding off Alice’s encroaching dementia.,“The Swimmers” a novel by Julie Otsuka.

When Ada Calhoun came across research her father had collected 40 years ago in his unfinished quest to write a biography of his friend the poet Frank O’Hara, she resolved to finish it herself. The book Calhoun wrote, “Also a Poet” combines literary history, memoir and an honest appraisal of her complicated relationship with her father.

It’s an office of intelligence operatives that will never be mistaken for James Bond. This is the cynical and grubby world of best-selling author Mick Herron. His latest installment in the Slough House spy series is called “Bad Actors”

It’s a journey back to small town life through memories, with Nebraska-native Bob Wirz (weerz). He's written a love-letter to the state he grew up in, “My Nebraska: Rich Memories of Growing Up in Rural Nebraska Decades Ago”. Join "All About Books" host Pat Leach for a conversation with the author,

Set in the Nebraska Sandhills, “Pickard County Atlas” is a slow-burning thriller of 6 fateful days that begin at a murdered boy's tombstone. "All About Books" host Pat Leach has a review of this debut novel by Nebraska author Chris Harding Thornton.

Ponca tribal member Cliff Taylor wanted to give back to his community. He collected stories told to him by members of his family resulting in the book, “The Memory of Souls". Cliff joins “All About Books” to share his motivation for writing and his thoughts on the books that best describe Nebraska to him.