The annual guide to holiday gift giving for all the readers and pre-readers in your life. Leslie Huerta returns with book suggestions for every interest: fiction, non-fiction, history, cookbooks, sports, and titles for young adults and children.

Carla Ketner’s son came up with the idea when she had difficulty choosing the subject for her first children’s book. Why not tell the life story of fellow Seward resident and friend, Ted Kooser? Hear an interview with author Carla Ketner and Omaha artist Paula Wallace as they collaborated in the creation of “Ted Kooser: More Than a Local Wonder"

Reading to small children is a cherished part of family life, but introducing books to older children can also be a rewarding activity. Guest reader Mary Kay Roth joined host Pat Leach this week to talk about re-reading and discussing favorite books with adult children.

Omaha writer John J. Waters is a former U.S. Marine and Afghanistan and Iraq veteran. His novel, “River City One” follows a former soldier adrift who finds the hardest part of going to war might be coming home. Hear his conversation with host Pat Leach about the novel’s creation.

He travels to schools and libraries across the state presenting poetry, he teaches, writes and finds time to read too. Busy as he is, Nebraska State Poet Matt Mason keeps returning to certain books- find out what they are and how raising kids offeres another opportunity to re-read great books.

As co-host of NPR’s “All Things Considered”, Mary Louise Kelly finds herself in the common conflict between a demanding career and being present for her 2 teen-age children. Their time together before they leave home is running out. The story of this struggle is found in her book, “It Goes So Fast: the Year of No Do Overs.”

New York Times best-selling author Tosca Lee is a Nebraska writer and avid reader. She joins host Pat Leach this week to share the books she keeps returning to and her reasons for doing so.

South Dakota rancher Dan O’Brien knows a lot about bison. He’s operated a bison ranch for decades and was asked by the University Nebraska Press to write a book on the topic. Host Pat Leach talked to O’Brien about his book, "Great Plains Bison" and his appearance in the upcoming Ken Burn’s documentary, “The American Buffalo..”

“In Old God’s Time” by Sebastian Barry is a novel of love, trauma, memory and loss set along the Irish Sea. Hear a review of this novel which was short-listed for the Booker Prize.

Are there books you return to again and again? “All About Books” is asking readers which ones they revisit, and why. Writer, reader… and re-reader, Joanne Young joins host Pat Leach to talk about the books she keeps reaching for and what she’s learned from reading a good book again.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction, “His Name is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and Struggle for Social Justice” reveals the systemic racism that shaped Floyd’s life, his family history, and his tragic end.

He’s interviewed Presidents from Air Force One and followed Syrian refugees fleeing war, “All Things Considered” host Ari Shapiro shares the stories behind the reporting in his first book. “The Best Strangers in the World” Stories from a Life Spent Listening” Hear a review on this week’s “All About Books”

The One Book, One Nebraska selection has been named- “The Mystery of Hunting’s End” by Lincoln native Mignon Eberhart. “All About Books” welcomes Nebraska Wesleyan Professor Rick Cypert to introduce both the novel and life of this very popular early 20th century Nebraska author.

“The Crane Wife: a Memoir in Essays” by C.J. Hauser, are frank and funny reflections on love and intimacy. Incorporating friends, lovers, family and chosen family, it’s a new more expansive definition of love.

The beginning was bleak. There was no dedicated practice space and they had to raise money themselves for uniforms. Nebraska Women’s Volleyball has come a very long way. Hear an interview with journalist and author John Mabry about what happened behind the scenes in this rags to riches sports story. His new book is, “Nebraska Volleyball: The Origin Story”

Since Darwin, evolutionary biologists have described the males of the animal kingdom as dominating and promiscuous, while females are dull, passive, and devoted. A new book takes a fresh look at animal behavior with less bias. Hear a review of “Bitch: On the Female of the Species” by Lucy Cooke

Leading a team of chemists as woman in the corporate world of the 60’s was unusual. Elizabeth Zott is the unusual main character in the novel “Lessons in Chemistry” by Bonnie Garmus. In store for Zott are single motherhood and hosting the countries best-loved cooking show. It's a witty take on mid century feminism.

Bird watching is the starting point for UNL Professor Thomas Gannon to visit other important topics. Enduring childhood poverty and prejudice, Indian Boarding School in South Dakota, and transcendent moments encountering birds of the Great Plains. Hear an interview with Gannon about his new book, “Birding While Indian: a Mixed Blood Memoir”.

“Horse” by Geraldine Brooks is a novel that leaps from 1850 to 1950 and finally to our time. It features an extraordinary race horse and the enslaved groom who helps him win and a painting of them both which haunts a modern art historian.

When a Lincoln man and his wife realized they were about to deal with Alzheimer’s together, there wasn’t a book that adequately explained everything they were to face. “Dear Judy: a Love Story Rewritten by Alzheimer’s” is the book Michael James wrote to help others make this journey.

The aptly named novel, “Trust” is about a man who accumulated a fortune in the early 20th century stock market. The flimflam nature of the stock market, its collapse in ’29 and even the unreliable nature of the story the author tells, are elements of this book that won the Noble Prize for Literature. “Trust” by Hernan Diaz

“Easy Beauty” is philosophy professor and Pulitzer Prize finalist, Chloe Cooper Jones memoir. It’s a frank depiction of her life with a congenital condition that affects her height, how she moves and her life with continuous pain- both physical, and always being seen as lesser.

In a mysterious, isolated town, motherhood has a different dimension- mothers sometimes disappear. In the novel “Elsewhere” author Alexis Schaitkin has written an allegory exploring motherhood, individual and community identity.

Three good friends leave Alabama to join the Army, eventually they're stationed in the exotic paradise of Manila. Then Pearl Harbor happened. What followed for U.S. servicemen in the Pacific was horrific. Nebraska author Tosca Lee has co-written a work of historical fiction about this time and place, “The Long March Home: A World War II Novel of the Pacific” by Marcus Brotherton and Tosca Lee.

It’s not often host Pat Leach reviews something other than a recently published book, but a novel from 1936 was mentioned to her that tells part of Nebraska’s story “Take All to Nebraska” by Sophus Keith Winter is the first in a trilogy about a family from Denmark who settled in Nebraska and struggled to adjust to a new land and culture.

During a sweltering week in July, we learn about the people who live in the "Rabbit Hutch", a low-cost housing complex in a decaying Indiana town. The novel “The Rabbit Hutch" by Tess Gunty is a beautiful and funny snapshot of contemporary America.

“Seeking Fortune Elsewhere: Stories” by Sindya Bhanoo. A collection of short stories featuring women who’ve emigrated from Southern India. The collection contains themes universal to the immigrant experience- the cost of staying or leaving your home.

Since it's the 150th Anniversary of Nebraska writer Willa Cather's birth, the guest on this week’s program is Rachel Olsen Director of Education and Outreach at the Cather Center. She’ll talk about their upcoming Spring conference which will spotlight both Cather’s story “A Lost Lady” and her essay "Nebraska: The End of the First Cycle."

Molly is a maid at a luxury hotel who struggles with social skills and understanding the intentions of others. She’s also the chief suspect of “The Maid” by Nita Prose, an uplifting murder mystery.

A therapist finds herself caught in the caregiver sandwich of trying to help her elderly mother as well as her college-age son. Both her mother and son refuse to communicate for their own hidden reasons. The novel is “The Blue Window” by Suzanne Berne.

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.

You’ll find realistic and interesting lives in two new graphic novels introduced by Traci Glass Assistant Library Dir for Lincoln City Libraries. “Ducks: 2 Years in the Oil Sands” by Kate Deaton and “Acting Class” by Nick Drnaso

Combining cultural examination and autobiography, Pulitzer-Prize winning author Margo Jefferson’s new book pursues many threads at once- music, beauty, celebrity. Hear a review of her new book, “Constructing a Nervous System”

Online harassment forces a woman offline for a while. She heads to the place she felt safe as a child- to her late Grandmother’s city of Lincoln, Nebraska. This week’s “All About Books” features an interview with Nebraska author Ladette Randolph, she talks to host Pat Leach about her new novel, “Private Way”

This novel is Charles Dicken’s Victorian epic of grim poverty, cruelty and survival brought to the American rural south. “Demon Copperhead” by Barbara Kingsolver is a page turner of a story which follows a resilient boy born into systemic poverty.

Because of extreme weather and drought, landscaping your home with native plants has gone from a niche area of gardening to the sustainable future. Benjamin Vogt, a master gardener and writer here in Nebraska, has just published, “Prairie Up!: an Introduction to Natural Garden Design” It’s a photo-rich guide to reviving plant and wildlife diversity in the neighborhood.

With characters from the past and the distant future, the best-selling novel “Sea of Tranquility” by Emily St John Mandel is a work of speculative fiction playful and puzzling.

The Nebraska National Forest at Halsey is the largest hand-planted forest in the Western Hemisphere. UNL Professor of photography Dana Fritz joins Pat Leach to talk about her new book about this unique ecosystem. “Field Guide to a Hybrid Landscape” is filled with environmental essays, maps as well as historical and contemporary photographs.

Many of the books suggested by listeners which describe Nebraska best for them have been literature or history. This week Don Macke joins host Pat Leach to suggest titles that offer a sociopolitical description of our state as part of the series, "This is Nebraska - Books That Tell Our Story"