Nancy Hopkins began her career in science in the 1960s. By 1999, she and other female scientists at MIT gave detailed evidence of the college’s flagrant favoritism and discrimination. Their speaking out led to a historic admission by MIT and resulting changes. Their story is in the book “The Exceptions: Sixteen Brilliant Women at MIT and the Fight for Equality in Science” by Kate Zernike

John Stevens Berry is probably best known as a lawyer with a Lincoln practice since 1965. But he’s also a Vietnam veteran and poet. This week Pat Leach talked with Berry about his book, “Foot Soldier: New and Selected Poems”

Editorial cartoonist Darrin Bell was six years old when his mother had “the “talk” with him. For Darrin, who is mixed-race, the talk was about the reason he couldn’t have a realistic-looking water gun was for his own safety. Bell’s graphic novel, “The Talk” uses sharp humor to examine this talk that shaped his understanding going forward.

They are an almost a mystical creature due to their rarity, size and beauty. The tallest bird in North America and rarest crane in the world. Nebraska photographer Michael Forsberg gives a rare glimpse into the world of the Whooping Crane.“Into Whooperland: A photographer's journey with whooping cranes by Michael Forsberg”

Molly Gray’s flair for cleaning and proper etiquette sees her excel at her job as a maid at the Regency Grand Hotel. It’s her remarkable eye for detail that helps her solve mysteries. That’s exactly what’s in store for Molly in the new Nita Prose novel, “The Mystery Guest”

The Roaring Twenties might be remembered for jazz, style and excitement, but it was also the decade that saw the rise of the hate group, the Ku Klux Klan. Their center of power was not the old Confederacy, but the Heartland and West. A new history of the group reveals the con man who rose as its leader, and the woman who stopped him. “A Fever in the Heartland” Timothy Eagans

“The Biography of X” by Catherine Lacey is a novel adventure. When a polarizing artist and writer known as “X” dies unexpectedly, her widow goes on a quest to write a biography only to discover a life filled with deceptions.

Ava Chin was confused that the stories her grandparents told her did not match the history she learned in school. Her research into family history and the father she never met, led to a single building in New York’s Chinatown where many of her ancestors lived. “Mott Street” by Ava Chin

Like others, author Amy Tan was becoming discouraged by a world filled with fear and strife. She turned to nature for relief, specifically the birds that visited her backyard. “All About Books” host Pat Leach talked with the author of the “Joy Luck Club” about her new book, “The Backyard Bird Chronicles” written and illustrated by Amy Tan

“The Berry Pickers” by Amanda Peters is a novel revealing the lives of migrant workers in Maine. It’s a harrowing story of Indigenous family separation and trauma.

Safiya Sinclair grew up in Jamaica with an oppressive Rastafarian father who thought women’s highest virtue was their obedience. She escaped this limited world through her mother’s gift of books, poetry, and education. Her memoir is “How to Say Babylon”

The Kaw River runs from the high plains of Colorado, through Nebraska, all the way to Kansas City. The prairie environment and the life the river sustains is the focus of the book “In the Country of the Kaw: A Personal Natural History of the American Plains” by James H. Locklear, director of conservation at Lauritzen Gardens.

A construction project uncovers a human skeleton in Pottstown Pennsylvania. The mystery of who this person was uncovers the history of a dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived together. Learn more about this New York Times bestseller, “The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store” by James McBride.

What can you learn from tapeworms and lice? A good deal according to Dr. John Janovy emeritus professor of biology at UNL. His new book, “Life Lessons from a Parasite” shows how these remarkable creatures can teach us how to deal with some of humanity’s most difficult problems.

A ready-to-retire CIA officer stationed in the Middle East has one final mission- which ends up going dangerously awry. That’s the plot of this year’s Edgar Award for Best First Novel, “The Peacock and the Sparrow” by J.S. Berry, who was herself a CIA officer.

This week “All About Books” welcomes Dylan Teut, Executive Director of the Plum Creek Literacy Festival to introduce the children’s picture book, “The Yellow Bus” by Loren Long. This New York Times #1 bestseller is about the long journey of a forgotten school bus that finds happiness and purpose in the most unexpected places.

Have you ever stopped to wonder who lived in your house before you or, who will inhabit it after you’ve moved on, that’s the idea behind the inventive novel, “North Woods” by Daniel Mason. Starting with a young couple fleeing a puritan colony, a humble cabin in the New England woods welcomes many inhabitants through the years.

Based on the history of the Black towns that rejected integration as a means of social advancement, the novel “Moonrise Over New Jessup” by Jamila Minnicks follows a family in one of these communities during the late 1950’s.

Last week on All About Books it was “The History of Mysteries”. This Thursday, our genre guide, Scott Clark from Lincoln City Libraries, suggests titles and authors for every mystery category.

An introduction to the Mystery genre with Scott Clark Lincoln City Libraries' resident mystery novel expert. In part 1, we look at origins and the many sub-genres of the mystery story.

For best-selling author Anne Lamott, “Love is our only hope”. That’s the subject of her 20th book, “Somehow: Thoughts on Love”. Drawing on her life and experience, it’s a tour through the many types of love: unexpected, bruised and sustaining. Hear a review this week on

It’s 1914, and World War I is destroying a generation of youth across Europe. For two young men safely at an idyllic boarding school in the English countryside, the war is heroic and far away. “In Memoriam” by Alice Winn is an epic story about the devastation of war and a forbidden romance that blooms in its midst.

In the winter of 1978, 14-year old Debora Harding was abducted from an Omaha church parking lot at knife point. “Dancing with the Octopus: A Memoir of a Crime” is her account of the assault and ransom. It’s this year's "One Book - One Nebraska” selection.

It’s a book born of the first complete cataloging of the Capitol’s Art. “Creative Genius: The Art of the Nebraska Capitol” reveals the themes driving the art and the people who created it. One of the book’s authors, Kevin Moser, joins host Pat Leach on this week’s program.

When there doesn’t seem to be a lot of promising news about our environment, data scientist Hannah Ritchie’s new book makes the case we’re positioned to achieve true sustainability. Hear a review of the book, “Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet” by Hannah Ritchie

"The Nebraska Sandhills” is an updated perspective on this extraordinary place. Writers, editors, scientists, and photographers all came together to assemble this photo-rich book. 3 of the creators talked with "All About Books" host Pat Leach about the unusual way this book was made.

Christoffer Carlsson joins the growing list of wildly successful Swedish Crime novelists. His book about serial murders in a small town, “Blaze Me a Sun” is already an international best seller. Hear what “All About Books” host Pat Leach thought about this young author’s work.

For an apprentice librarian working on the luxury liner Titanic, being late for work turned out to be fortunate indeed. In the novel “The Titanic Survivors Book Club” the lucky librarian opens a bookstore in Paris and is invited into a most unusual book club of fellow Titanic survivors. Learn more from the author, UNL Professor of English and Creative Writing, Timothy Schaffert

A new landmark biography of Martin Luther King Jr. reveals him as a deep thinker, a brilliant strategist, and a committed radical who led one of history’s greatest movements. This week a review of “King: a Life” by Jonathan Eig.

The mostly retired members of the “Thursday Murder Club” have a new mystery to solve. This adventure leads them into the antiques trade only to encounter drug dealers and art forgers. “The Last Devil to Die” is the latest in the very popular mystery series from Richard Osman.

Some readers give another chance to that novel which challenged them in school, for others it’s the comfort of the books they loved as a teenager. This week’s program wraps up our series on re-reading with Amy Mather Partnerships Manager for Omaha Public Libraries.

In the novel “Foster” by Claire Keegan, a small girl is sent to live with foster parents on a farm in rural Ireland, without knowing when she will return home. In the strangers' house, she finds a warmth and affection she has not known before. Then a secret is revealed. Hear a review on this week’s “All About Books”

Part memoir, part investigative journalism, “The Exvangelicals” is NPR reporter Sarah McCammon’s story of growing up in the evangelical church only to question these beliefs later in life. Host Pat Leach interviewed McCammon about her experience.

Dr. Dolores Simpson-Kirkland, a retired counselor for Lincoln Public Schools, is the guest on this week’s “All About Books”, she talked to host Pat Leach about what titles she rereads for comfort, inspiration, and meditation.

Two books dealing with similar themes are reviewed this week Host Pat Leach looks at two releases recognizing the importance of wonder and awe in our lives. “Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age” by Katherine May and “Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life” by Dacher Keltner

Two women come to Paris in 1938 as foreign correspondents- a shy pacifist Mennonite, the other a brash, American journalist who is soon to become a fascist propagandist. This is the scene for Omaha author Ted Wheeler’s new novel “The War Begins in Paris”. Hear an interview with Wheeler

Like most people, host Pat Leach has a guilty list of important and influential books she’s never gotten around to reading. One of these she recently picked up- the landmark conservation book, “A Sand County Almanac” by Aldo Leopold. First published in 1949, this collection of essays vividly describes the land around the author’s home in Wisconsin.

It’s a psychological cat and mouse thriller set in an unexpected place- a small town public library. “How Can I Help You” by Laura Sims is chilling and darkly humorous. Hear a review from “All About Books” host, and retired librarian, Pat Leach.

Retired history Professor Bruce Pauley has written a readable history of his hometown, “Portrait of a City: Lincoln, Nebraska, at the Turn of the Twentieth Century” The book focuses on the everyday lives of people in Lincoln during an era that saw rapid change in technology and society.

This new biography is aimed at readers of any level of familiarity with the Nebraska author, “Chasing Bright Medusas: A Life of Willa Cather” by Benjamin Taylor, takes readers on an exploration of Cather’s life, poetry, stories, and letters.

Erika Krouse has one of those faces that invite confessions from complete strangers. This led to her becoming a private investigator assisting law firms with their cases. Her book “Tell Me Everything” combines autobiography with True Crime as she details her investigation of a college student’s sexual assault by football players at major university.

The books most people come back to again and again are religious texts. This week “All About Books” welcomes Senior Minister of First Plymouth Congregational Church in Lincoln, Reverend Dr. Jim Keck. He’ll speak to why people re read the Bible in ways similar, and yet different from other books.

A remote village in the Scandinavian tundra is not a place you’d expect a writer to tell an epic love story. This harsh environment, over 150 years ago, is the setting for the novel, “The End of Drum Time” by Hanna Pylväinen. Learn more about this story of a Lutheran minister trying to convert the native reindeer herders with their culture of age-old traditions.

NPR’s long-time legal correspondent Nina Totenberg has written a memoir of her personal successes, struggles, and close relationships, including her friendship of nearly fifty years with the lawyer who would become Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.“Dinners with Ruth: a Memoir on the Power of Friendships.”

Cartoonist Bill Watterson has largely been out of the public eye for nearly 30 years, ever since retiring from his hugely popular "Calvin and Hobbes" comic strip. He’s back with a new and completely different project, “The Mysteries.” described as a fable for grownups. UNL Professor Richard Graham, a graphic novel expert, introduces this mysterious and beautiful work,

Part 2 of our conversation with of Aaron Douglas Professor of English at UNL, Stephen Buhler. He talks about why we re-read and teach certain books. He’ll discuss Shakespeare, how time and age change our reading, and his favorite books to read again.

An English Literature class typically reads classic works as generations of students have before. Why do we re-read these books? We asked this question of Aaron Douglas Professor of English at UNL, Stephen Buhler. He’ll talk about re-reading to teach and how time changes the reader- if not the book.

Not long ago, Beth Moore was filling arenas as a popular speaker and Bible teacher, especially to women in the Southern Baptist church. Her memoir, “All My Knotted Up Life”, reveals her abusive childhood and how evangelicals embrace of Trump eventually led to her leaving the church.