From spending time waiting in airports, sitting poolside or escaping the heat by staying indoors, for Americans, the summer season is the most popular time to read.
If you’re looking for your next book, faculty and alumni from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln have you covered. Spanning genres — poetry, memoir, crime and romance — here’s a list of Husker-written books to enjoy these last weeks of summer.
What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez
Claire Jiménez
Thirteen-year-old Ruthy Ramirez vanished without a trace. But more than a decade later, as the family still feels the weight of her absence, one of her sisters spots a woman who she thinks might be her sister on a reality TV show.
Jimenez earned her doctorate in 2022. “Ruthy Ramirez” won the 2024 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.
The Titanic Survivors Book Club
Timothy Schaffert
A remarkable tale about the life-changing power of books and second chances, this novel follows the Titanic librarian who opens a bookshop in Paris where he meets a secret society of survivors.
Schaffert is the Adele Hall Chair of English and director of creative writing. He is also editor of the University of Nebraska Press’ Zero Street Fiction, a new series committed to LGBTQ+ fiction.
The Spirit of Nebraska
Debra Kleve White
"The Spirit of Nebraska" is an in-depth look at where the Cornhusker fans’ spirit began and how it evolved. Learn the history behind the mascots, the Sea of Red, the Yell Squad, the Blackshirts and more.
White is a 1980 Nebraska alumna, who also was a member of the Yell Squad. She was honored by the Alumni Association with a Distinguished Service Award in 2023.
Your Crib, My Qibla
Saddiq Dzukogi
"Your Crib, My Qibla" interrogates loss, the death of a child, and a father’s pursuit of language able to articulate grief. In these poems, the language of memory functions as a space of mourning, connecting the dead with the world of the living.
Dzukoji is a Nigerian poet and earned his doctorate from Nebraska in 2022. "Your Crib, My Quibla" won the 2022 Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry and was shortlisted for the Nigeria Prize for Literature.
The Killer Inside Me
Jim Thompson
Everyone in the small town loves Lou Ford. But behind the platitudes and glad-handing lurks a monster the likes of which few have seen. The Killer Inside Me was once described as “one of the most blistering and uncompromising crime novels ever written.”
A noir classic, "The Killer Inside Me" published more than 75 years ago, but its popularity remains. Thompson was a university alumnus. Many of his novels were adapted for films, including “The Killing,” which was directed by Stanley Kubrick.
Short Hair Detention
Channy Chhi Laux
As news reports announced that the Khmer Rouge was getting closer to taking control of Cambodia, Channy and her family were forced to relocate to Poipet, a border town to Thailand. From that point forward, Channy lived a life dictated by fear.
Laux, a survivor of the Cambodian genocide, moved to Lincoln as a refugee. She graduated from the university and worked as an engineer in aerospace and biotech companies for 30 years. Now, she spends time educating communities about the Cambodian genocide.
The Road to the Country
Chigozie Obioma
Set in Nigeria in the late 1960s, "The Road to the Country" is the epic story of a shy, bookish student haunted by long-held guilt who must go to war to free himself. When his younger brother disappears as the country explodes in civil war, Kunle must set out on an impossible rescue mission.
Obioma, James Ryan Associate Professor of English, had two of his previous novels shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction.
The Miseducation of Cameron Post
emily m. danforth
When Cameron Post’s parents die suddenly in a car crash, her shocking first thought is relief. Relief they’ll never know that, hours earlier, she’d been kissing a girl. But relief doesn’t last, and she’s forced to move in with her aunt.
After earning her doctorate at Nebraska, Danforth went on to publish “Miseducation of Cameron Post.” The novel was adapted into a 2018 film.
Birding While Indian: A Mixed Blood Memoir
Thomas Gannon
"Birding While Indian" spans more than 50 years of childhood walks and adult road trips to deliver, via a compendium of birds recorded and revered, the author’s life as a part-Lakota inhabitant of the Great Plains.
Gannon, a professor of English and ethnic studies, won the 2024 Stubbendieck Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize for “Birding While Indian.”
One Brilliant Flame
Joy Castro
Key West, 1886. The booming cigar industry makes it the most prosperous city in Florida. As a rebel base for the anticolonial insurgency in Cuba, it’s also a tinderbox for six young friends with ambitious dreams. They all brim with secrets.
Castro, Willa Cather professor of English and director of the Institute for Ethnic Studies, has previously won the International Latino Book Award, the Nebraska Book Award, and was a finalist for the 2022 International Thriller Award.
Landline
Rainbow Rowell
TV writer Georgie McCool can’t actually visit the past; all she can do is call it, and hope it picks up. And hope he picks up — because once Georgie realizes she has a magic phone that calls into the past, all she wants is make things right with her husband, Neal.
Rowell is a Nebraska alumna and spent many years as a columnist with the Omaha World-Herald.
Blue-Skinned Gods
SJ Sindu
In Tamil Nadu, India, a boy is born with blue skin. He tries to be the god everyone tells him he is but over the next decade, his family unravels, and every relationship he relied on starts falling apart.
Sindu earned her master’s at Nebraska, and is co-editor of Zero Street Fiction.
Nebraska: Poems
Kwame Dawes
Dawes explores a theme constant in his work — the intersection of memory, home and artistic invention — in these poems set against the backdrop of Nebraska’s discrete cycle of seasons.
Dawes is the George Holmes Distinguished Professor of English and Glenna Luschei Editor of Prairie Schooner. While on Nebraska’s faculty, he also found the African Poetry Book Fund.
