Thursday, May 23 / 4 p.m. Glen Frankel will sign The Searchers: The Making of an American Legend (Bloomsbury, $28.00). In 1836 in East Texas, nine-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker was kidnapped by Comanches. She was raised by the tribe and eventually became the wife of a warrior. Twenty-four years after her capture, she was reclaimed by the U.S. cavalry and Texas Rangers and restored to her white family, to die in misery and obscurity. Cynthia Ann's story was adapted into one of Hollywood's most legendary films, The Searchers, directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne. Frankel, beginning in Hollywood and then returning to the origins of the story, creates a rich and nuanced anatomy of a timeless film and a quintessentially American myth.

 

Thursday, May 23 / 7 p.m. David Sedaris will sign Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls (Little Brown, $26.99). A new collection of essays from the #1 New York Times bestselling author who has been called "the preeminent humorist of his generation" (Entertainment Weekly). From the unique perspective of David Sedaris comes a new book of essays taking his readers on a bizarre and stimulating world tour. From the perils of French dentistry to the eating habits of the Australian kookaburra, from the squat-style toilets of Beijing to the particular wilderness of a North Carolina Costco, we learn about the absurdity and delight of a curious traveler's experiences. Whether railing against the habits of litterers in the English countryside or marveling over a disembodied human arm in a taxidermist's shop, Sedaris takes us on side-splitting adventures that are not to be forgotten. The following guidelines will be in effect for the David Sedaris appearance on Thursday, May 23..

· A new “David Sedaris purchase” must be made in order to obtain a Line Number for autographs.

· Books purchased prior to May 23, will require a Bookworm receipt.

· A Line Number is required for a place in the autograph line.

· We will begin handing out Line Numbers on Monday, May 20 at 9 a.m.

· Books brought from home must be stickered at the door.

· Chairs are available on a first-come, first-seated basis. No chair saving!

· Per author’s request, no cameras…including camera phones. Penalty includes PUBLIC RIDICULE or PUBLIC STONING.

· We encourage you to come early, bring a good attitude and have a fun evening!

Saturday, May 25 / 10 a.m. The Civil War Book Group will discuss Standing Firmly by the Flag: Nebraska Territory and the Civil War, 1861-1867 by James Potter (University of Nebraska Press, $29.95). From a pool of nine thousand men of military age, Nebraska sent more than three thousand soldiers to the Civil War. They fought and died for the Union cause, were wounded, taken prisoner, and in some cases deserted. But Nebraska's military contribution is only one part of the more complex and interesting story that Potter tells in Standing Firmly by the Flag, the first book to fully explore Nebraska's involvement in the Civil War and the war's involvement in Nebraska's evolution from territory to thirty-seventh state on March 1, 1867. Potter explores the war's impact on Nebraskans and shows how, when Nebraska Territory sought admission to the Union at war's end, it was caught up in political struggles over Reconstruction, the fate of the freed slaves, and the relationship between the states and the federal government.

Monday, May 27 / 2 p.m. The World War II Book Group will discuss In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson (Broadway, $16.00). The time is 1933, the place, Berlin, when William E. Dodd becomes America's first ambassador to Hitler's Germany in a year that proved to be a turning point in history. A mild-mannered professor from Chicago, Dodd brings along his wife, son, and flamboyant daughter, Martha. Enamored of the "New Germany," Martha has one affair after another, including with the first chief of the Gestapo, Rudolf Diels. But as evidence of Jewish persecution mounts, confirmed by chilling first-person testimony, her father telegraphs his concerns to a largely indifferent State Department back home. Dodd watches with alarm as Jews are attacked, the press is censored, and drafts of frightening new laws begin to circulate. As that first year unfolds and the shadows deepen, the Dodds experience days full of excitement, intrigue, romance--and ultimately, horror, when a climactic spasm of violence and murder reveals Hitler's true character and ruthless ambition.

Tuesday, May 28 / 6:30 p.m. The Crime Through Time Book Group will discuss Death Comes as Epiphany by Sharan Newman (Forge, $18.99). Catherine LeVendeur is a young scholar come to conquer her sin of pride at the Convent of the Paraclete, famous for learning, prayer, and its abbess, the fabled Heloise. When a manuscript the convent produced for the great Abbe Suger disappears, rumors surface saying the book contains sacrilegious passages and will be used to condemn Heloise's famous lover, Peter Abelard. To save her Order, and protect all she holds dear, Catherine must find the manuscript and discover who altered the text. She will risk disgrace, the wrath of her family and the Church, and confront an evil older than Time itself--and, if she isn't careful, lose her immortal soul. Newman has woven dark mystery and sparkling romance into a fascinating and richly detailed tapestry of everyday life in twelfth-century France, and one of the most moving love stories of all time: Abelard and Heloise.

Friday, May 31 / 7 - 7:30 p.m. Momaha Night Time Story Time for preschoolers, ages 1 – 5. Put the kids in their pajamas, bring along their favorite stuffed animal, and treat them to an early bedtime story. Expect a little singing, dancing and other fun activities. We’ll have the milk and cookies ready. See momaha.com for more information.

Saturday, June 1 / 10 a.m. The U.S. Presidents group reads and discusses concise biographies of past presidents, their leadership abilities and how well their reputations have withstood the test of time. The biography for June is Rutherford B. Hayes by Hans Louis Trefousse (Times Books, $23.00). The disputed election of 1876 between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel Tilden, in which Congress set up a special electoral commission, handing the disputed electoral votes to Hayes, brings the 2000 election into sharp focus. Trefousse explores Hayes's new relevance and reconsiders what many have seen as the pitfalls of his presidency. While Hayes did officially terminate the Reconstruction, Trefousse points out that this process was already well under way by the start of his term and there was little he could do to stop it. A great intellectual and one of our best-educated presidents, Hayes did much more in the way of healing the nation and elevating the presidency.

Monday, June 3 / 6:30 p.m. The I Should Have Read That in School classics group will discuss The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson (Penguin, $16.00). Young Mary Lennox is sent to live with her reclusive uncle, Archibald Craven. All but ignored by Craven, her sickly cousin Colin, and housekeeper Mrs. Medlock, Mary happens upon a secret walled garden. As she starts to work in it, the garden begins to flourish, and so does Mary. Gradually, Mary brings Colin to see the garden, which invigorates him. When moody Uncle Craven returns, he too is cheered by the garden and the friendship that Mary and Colin have formed, and they become an unlikely, but happy, family.

Tuesday, June 4 / 1 p.m. The Art Group will discuss Stealing the Mystic Lamb : The True Story of the World's Most Coveted Masterpiece by Noah Charney (PublicAffairs, $16.99). Jan van Eyck's Ghent Altarpiece is on any art historian's list of the ten most important paintings ever made. It is also the most frequently stolen artwork of all time. Since its completion in 1432, this twelve-panel oil painting has been looted in three different wars, burned, dismembered, forged, smuggled, censored, hidden, attacked by iconoclasts, hunted by the Nazis and Napoleon, used as a diplomatic tool, ransomed, rescued by Austrian double-agents, and stolen a total of thirteen times. In this fast-paced, real-life thriller, art historian Noah Charney unravels the fascinating stories of each of these thefts. Charney also explores psychological dramas that lurk within the history of art crime--and the ideological, religious, political, and social motivations that have led many men to covet this one masterpiece above all others.

Wednesday, June 5/ Noon - 1 p.m. What Are You Reading? book chat. Join us to chat about favorite reads, books that changed your life, or the book you just couldn’t put down. No need to make reservations--just come and enjoy a little conversation about books. Carol Lynch facilitates the discussions.

Saturday, June 8 / 10 a.m. The Sherlock Holmes Book Club will discuss “The Adventure of the Cardboard Box” from The Return of Sherlock Holmes. These stories are included in Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories, volume 2 by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Bantam Classics, $6.95). All Sherlock Holmes fans are welcome.

  Saturday, June 8 / 2 p.m. The Fierce Reads Tour from Macmillan Publishing feature authors of fantasy, dystopian and science fiction for young adults. Touring together are Anna Banks (Of Poseidon and Of Triton), Leigh Bardugo (Shadow & Bone and Siege & Storm) Jessica Brody (Unremembered) and Emmy Laybourne (Monument 14 and Monument 14: Sky on Fire).

Sunday, June 9 / 11 a.m. The book group Books and Bagels will discuss Park Lane by Frances Osborne (Vintage, $15.95). When eighteen-year-old Grace Campbell arrives in London in 1914, she's unable to fulfill her family's ambitions and find a position as an office secretary. Lying to her parents and her brother, Michael, she takes a job as a housemaid at Number 35, Park Lane, where she is quickly caught up in lives of its inhabitants--in particular, those of its privileged son, Edward, and daughter, Beatrice, who is recovering from a failed relationship that would have taken her away from an increasingly stifling life. Desperate to find a new purpose, Bea joins a group of radical suffragettes and strikes up an intriguing romance with an impassioned young lawyer. Unbeknownst to each of the young women, the choices they make amid the rapidly changing world of WWI will connect their chances at future happiness in dramatic and inevitable ways.

Sunday, June 9 / 1 p.m. Julie Christensen will sign The Truth About Happily Ever After (Createspace, $13.99). Former lonely heart Quinn Malone is poised to begin the next chapter of her life as an adventurous, inspirational, single woman.  Then along comes a man who’s everything her friends said she was too picky to find.  Best of all, his biological clock is ticking as loudly as hers.  Quinn is ready for romance!  She’s ready for poopy diapers!  But is she ready for what happens when the fairytale ends and real life begins?  Love means never feigning sleep when you hear a baby crying in the middle of the night.

Wednesday, June 12/ 6 p.m. Ron Scheidt will sign Am I That Man? How Heroes, Role Models and Mentors Can Shape Your Life (Warrior Spirit, $24.95). This book is about the conscious decisions you make every day as you plan how to move forward with your personal growth and development. It's about how you respond to failure and whether or not you pursue your dreams. It's about the decisions you make about how you are going to treat other people. It's about your life and how you answer the question, "am I that man?"

Wednesday, June 12/ 6:30 p.m. The Wednesday Bookworms will discuss O Pioneers by Willa Cather (Vintage, $9.00). Alexandra Bergson, a young Swedish immigrant girl who inherits her father's farm and must transform it from raw prairie into a prosperous enterprise, is the first of Cather's great heroines--all of them women of strong will and an even stronger desire to overcome adversity and succeed. But the wild land itself is an equally important character in Cather's books, and her descriptions of it are so evocative, lush, and moving that they provoked writer Rebecca West to say of her: "The most sensuous of writers, Willa Cather builds her imagined world almost as solidly as our five senses build the universe around us." Willa Cather, perhaps more than any other American writer, was able to re-create the real drama of the pioneers, capturing for later generations a time, a place, and a spirit that has become part of our national heritage.

Thursday, June 13 / 6 p.m. Craig Johnson will sign Serpents Tooth (Viking, $26.95). It's homecoming in Absaroka County, but the football and festivities are interrupted when a homeless boy wanders into town. A Mormon "lost boy," Cord Lynear is searching for his missing mother but clues are scarce. Longmire and his companions, feisty deputy Victoria Moretti and longtime friend Henry Standing Bear, embark on a high plains scavenger hunt in hopes of reuniting mother and son. The trail leads them to an interstate polygamy group that's presiding over a stockpile of weapons and harboring a vicious vendetta. Walt Longmire stares down his most dangerous foes yet.

Thursday, June 13 / 6 p.m. Amiable Adult Readers Discussing Books Almost Always Read by Kids (Aardbaark) will discuss Grave Mercy: His Fair Assassin by Robin LaFevers (Graphia Books, $9.99). Seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage to the respite of the convent of St. Mortain. Here she learns that the god of Death has blessed her with dangerous gifts and a violent destiny. To claim her new life, she must destroy the lives of others. But how can she deliver Death's vengeance upon a target who has stolen her heart? Packed with love, magic, and deadly games of courtly intrigue and treason, this first book of a fast-paced trilogy set in 15th-century France combines romance with captivating action.

Saturday, June 15 / 1 p.m. Eileen Wirth will sign From Society Page to Front Page: Nebraska Women in Journalism (University of Nebraska Press, $17.95). Eileen Wirth’s years as one of the first women reporters at the Omaha World-Herald, covering gender barriers even as she broke a few herself, give Wirth an especially apt perspective on the women profiled in this book: those Nebraskans who, over a hundred years, challenged traditional feminine roles in journalism and subtly but surely changed the world. The book features remarkable women journalists who worked in every venue, from rural weeklies to TV. They fought for the vote, better working conditions for immigrants, and food safety at the turn of the century. They covered wars from the Russian Revolution to Vietnam. Though Willa Cather may be the only household name among them, all are memorable, their stories affording a firsthand look into the history of journalism and social change.

Tuesday, June 18 / 6:30 p.m. The International Intrigue Book Group will discuss The Skull Mantra by Eliot Pattison (Minotaur, $15.99). A corpse missing its head and dressed in American clothes is found in the high Himalayas by a Tibetan prison work gang. The grisly remains clearly belong to someone too important for Chinese authorities to bury and forget, so the case is handed to veteran police inspector Shan Tao Yun. Methodical, clever Shan is the best man for the job, but he too is a prisoner, deported to Tibet for offending someone high up in Beijing's power structure. Granted a temporary release, Shan is soon pulled into the Tibetan people's desperate fight for its sacred mountains and the Chinese regime's blood-soaked policies. Then, a Buddhist priest is arrested, a man Shan knows is innocent. Now time is running out for Shan to find the real killer.

Thursday, June 20 / 6 p.m. The World War II At Night Group will discuss Japanese Destroyer Captain: Pearl Harbor, Guadalcanal, Midway--The Great Naval Battles as Seen Through Japanese Eyes by Tameichi Hara, U.S. Naval Institute Press, $22.95). This highly regarded war memoir has long been treasured by historians for its insights into the Japanese side of the surface war in the Pacific. The author was a survivor of more than one hundred sorties against the Allies and was known throughout Japan as the "Unsinkable Captain." A hero to his countrymen, Capt. Hara exemplified the best in Japanese surface commanders: highly skilled (he wrote the manual on torpedo warfare), hard driving, and aggressive. Moreover, he maintained a code of honor worthy of his samurai grandfather, and, as readers of this book have come to appreciate, he was as free with praise for American courage and resourcefulness as he was critical of himself and his senior commanders.

Thursday, June 20 / 6:30 p.m. The As the Worm Turns Book Group will discuss Wonder by R. J. Palacio (Knopf, $15.99). August Pullman was born with a facial deformity that, up until now, has prevented him from going to a mainstream school. Starting 5th grade at Beecher Prep, he wants nothing more than to be treated as an ordinary kid--but his new classmates can't get past Auggie's extraordinary face. Wonder begins from Auggie's point of view, but soon switches to include his classmates, his sister, her boyfriend, and others. These perspectives converge in a portrait of one community's struggle with empathy, compassion, and acceptance. In a world where bullying among young people is an epidemic, this is a refreshing new narrative full of heart and hope. Palacio has called her debut novel "a meditation on kindness" --indeed, every reader will come away with a greater appreciation for the simple courage of friendship. Auggie is a hero to root for, a diamond in the rough who proves that you can't blend in when you were born to stand out. Wilma Kuhlman will facilitate the discussion. Space is limited, so please call to reserve your place.

Saturday, June 22 / 10 a.m. The Civil War Book Group will discuss The Killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War by Michael Shaara (Ballantine, $16.00). In the four most bloody and courageous days of our nation's history, two armies fought for two conflicting dreams. One dreamed of freedom, the other of a way of life. Far more than rifles and bullets were carried into battle. There were memories. There were promises. There was love. And far more than men fell on those Pennsylvania fields. Bright futures, untested innocence, and pristine beauty were also the casualties of war. Shaara's Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece is unique, sweeping, unforgettable--the dramatic story of the battleground for America's destiny.

Saturday, June 22 / 1 p.m. Teresa Hamilton will sign It’s Okay - Let's Get Real About This Thing We Call Parenting (Createspace, $12.99). It's Okay is a compilation of 100 stories shared by over 40 contributors. These stories are real. They are honest. And ... some of them are quite funny. This book is intended to make readers see that sometimes life is not all roses. We will at times mess-up. We will at times fail. In the end, though, most things turn out okay!

Sunday, June 23 / 1 p.m. Women’s Author Tea

Monday, June 24 / 2 p.m. The World War II Book Group will discuss Escape from Davao: The Forgotten Story of the Most Daring Prison Break of the Pacific War by John Lukacs (New American Library, $17.00). On April 4, 1943, ten American prisoners of war and two Filipino convicts executed a daring escape from one of Japan's most notorious prison camps. Called the "greatest story of the war in the Pacific" by the War Department in 1944, the full account has never been told until now. A product of years of in-depth research, Lukacs's gripping description of the escape brings this remarkable tale to life, so a new generation can admire the resourcefulness and patriotism of the men who fought in the Pacific.

Tuesday, June 25 / 6:30 p.m. The Crime Through Time Book Group will discuss The Pericles Commission by Gary Corby (Soho, $14.95). Nicolaos walks the mean streets of Classical Athens as an agent for the promising young politician Pericles. His mission is to find the assassin of the statesman Ephialtes, the man who brought democracy to Athens and whose murder has thrown the city into uproar. It's a job not made any easier by the increasing number of dead witnesses. But murder and mayhem don't bother Nico; what's really on his mind is how to get closer (much closer) to Diotima, the intelligent and annoyingly virgin priestess of Artemis, and how to shake off his irritating twelve-year-old brother Socrates.

Thursday, June 27 / 6:30 p.m. The Very Short Introduction Group will read selections from the Very Short Introduction series from Oxford University Press. The series offers concise introductions to a wide range of subjects, giving a readable evolution of the subject in question and demonstrating how it has developed and influenced society. The June meeting will discuss Forensic Science: A Very Short Introduction by Jim Fraser (Oxford, $11.95). The author examines what forensic science is, how it is used in the investigation of crime, and the principles and processes of crime scene management; considers how forensic science serves the criminal justice system and the challenges of communicating complex scientific evidence; demonstrates the techniques that are used to recover evidence and the potential range of methods available for analysis; and highlights the importance of the discovery of DNA profiling, the emergence of the DNA database, and the ethical issues relating to it.  

Friday, June 28 / 7 - 7:30 p.m. Momaha Night Time Story Time for preschoolers, ages 1 – 5. Put the kids in their pajamas, bring along their favorite stuffed animal, and treat them to an early bedtime story. Expect a little singing, dancing and other fun activities. We’ll have the milk and cookies ready. See momaha.com for more information.

Saturday, June 29 / 1 p.m. Marge Saiser will sign Losing the Ring in the River (University of New Mexico Press, $18.95). Spare and incisive, the poems in Losing the Ring in the River deal with three strong women--Clara, Emma, and Liz, women who are tough, often sassy, and have dreams that aren't quelled by the realities they face. Saiser deftly explores the undercurrents connecting three generations and is at her most powerful when she explores how lives are restricted and sometimes painfully damaged by what people cannot or will not share with one another. Saiser's poetry is as harsh as it is beautiful; she avoids resolutions and easy endings, focusing instead on the small, hard-won victories that each woman experiences in her life and in her love of those around her.