All About Books

In her memoir, Deborah Jackson Taffa traces how, as a mixed-tribe native girl growing up in the 70’s and 80’s she came to her own understanding of identity. Hear a review of “Whiskey Tender: A Memoir of Family and Survival on and off the Reservation.”

The Little House on the Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder painted a vivid sense of place with the weather on the Great Plains playing an important role. Dr. Barbara Boustead is a meteorologist and Wilder scholar who researched the accuracy of these stories’ descriptions of blizzards, tornadoes and floods. Hear an interview with Dr. Boustead about her book “Wilder Weather”

On January 28, 1986, a little over a minute into flight, the space shuttle Challenger broke apart over the Atlantic Ocean, killing all seven people on board. The full story of what happened before and after that day is revealed in the new book, “Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space” by Adam Higginbotham.

Beginning with flight from post-World War II North Africa and Paris, right up to our own time; a multi-generational found-family struggles, lives and loves. Best-selling author Amy Bloom’s new novel is, “I’ll Be Right Here".

In mid-life, Jeff Chu left his job as a magazine writer for grad school at Princeton Theological Seminary. The school had a 21-acre farm, the “Farminary”, where Chu worked. Pat Leach talked to Jeff Chu about his experiences and his book “Good Soil: The Education of an Accidental Farmhand”

Winner of the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Literature, “James” by Percival Everett is a retelling of Twain’s Huckelberry Finn from the perspective of the enslaved Jim. The river journey contains the same characters and adventures, but Jim’s intelligence and compassion show them in a radically new light.

No matter how long you’ve lived in your hometown, there's still more to learn. While some of the things you thought were local history, may in fact be myths. Fascinating history, lots of photos, and even some myth-busting are found in “The Unauthorized Biography of Lincoln, Nebraska” by Matt Steinhausen. The author joins host Pat Leach.

The backpacker’s journey from Istanbul to Kathmandu was once known as the “Hippie Trail” A 23-year old Rick Steves made that trip and documented everything- the adventures, getting lost, and the people he met. His journal is the basis for his new book “On the Hippie Trail: Istanbul to Kathmandu and the Making of a Travel Writer”

Having a job during school to help ends meet is pretty typical, but UNL PhD student Linda Pawlenty’s side job was on a different level of different. Pawlenty drove a concrete mixer truck while earning her PhD. Her experiences being a woman in construction, and a working-class laborer in academia, is the subject of her first book “Clutch” An Education at Work”

Peter Wohlleben is a forester and author whose book, "The Hidden Life of Trees" was a best-seller. Now, that title has been given a graphical makeover with all 240 pages having color illustrations in this new adaptation that honors the spirit of the original book.