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Lincoln Journal Star Book Reviews

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ljsEvery Saturday and Sunday morning issue of the Lincoln Journal Star newspaper includes the “The (402) 411” section. Included in that section of the paper each week are regular author profiles and book reviews, by both local reviewers and national review services. Due to the regular popularity of the titles reviewed in the paper, we’ve designed this page of the Lincoln City Libraries’ Web site as a simple listing of the books recently reviewed in the Lincoln Journal Star, with links into the library’s holdings for all the listed books which are currently in the collection. If a title below is not hotlinked, this is an indication that the library does not currently own that book, but you may consider requesting the title through the services of our Interlibrary Loan department, or suggesting that we purchase it via our on-line Suggest-a-Title form.

Note: Although the Lincoln Journal Star is reviewing fewer books in the print edition of the paper, they are including many more syndicated book reviews (from outside sources) on their website. This index on BookGuide is primarily to the reviews that have appeared in the print edition of the Lincoln Journal Star newspaper — UPDATE: Starting in May 2019, we now also provide a list of the titles reviewed by the LJS only on their website as well.

nebauthormini — Book by a Nebraska author

last updated May 24, 2023

2023 Selections

Books reviewed in May

Between the Sundays: Syndicated book reviews published by the Journal Star only on their website (May 29-June 3):


Between the Sundays: Syndicated book reviews published by the Journal Star only on their website (May 22-27):


Six different biographies for kids
from the publisher Little Golden Books (Taylor Swift, Dwayne Johnson, Julie Andrews, Tony Bennett, Simone Biles, Iris Apfel)

Non-Fiction — not currently in the Lincoln City Libraries’ collection


Between the Sundays: Syndicated book reviews published by the Journal Star only on their website (May 15-20):


The Wager
by David Grannm

Non-Fiction — 910.916 Gra


Between the Sundays: Syndicated book reviews published by the Journal Star only on their website (May 8-13):


Wandering Souls
by Cecile Pin

Non-Fiction — not currently in the Lincoln City Libraries’ collection


Between the Sundays: Syndicated book reviews published by the Journal Star only on their website (April 24-29):


Books reviewed in April

Monumental Controversies: Mount Rushmore, Four Presidents, and the Quest for National Unity
by Harriet F. Senie

Non-Fiction — not currently in the Lincoln City Libraries’ collection


Between the Sundays: Syndicated book reviews published by the Journal Star only on their website (April 24-29):


Strega
by Johanne Lykke Holm

Fiction — Holm


Between the Sundays: Syndicated book reviews published by the Journal Star only on their website (April 17-22):


Leo Durocher: Baseball’s Prodigal Son
by Paul Dickson

Non-Fiction — Biography Durocher


Between the Sundays: Syndicated book reviews published by the Journal Star only on their website (April 10-15):


Rough Sleepers
by Tracy Kidder

Non-Fiction — Biography O’Connell


Between the Sundays: Syndicated book reviews published by the Journal Star only on their website (April 3-8):


A Mystery of Mysteries: The Death and Life of Edgar Allan Poe
by Mark Dawidziak

Non-Fiction — ( On Order )


Books reviewed in March

Between the Sundays: Syndicated book reviews published by the Journal Star only on their website (March 27-April 1):


Not the Camilla We Knew
by Rachael Hanel

Non-Fiction — not currently in the Lincoln City Libraries’ collection


Between the Sundays: Syndicated book reviews published by the Journal Star only on their website (March 20-25):


The Masters of Medicine: Our Greatest Triumphs in the Race to Cure Humanity’s Deadliest Diseases
by Andrew Lam

Non-Fiction — not currently in the Lincoln City Libraries’ collection


Between the Sundays: Syndicated book reviews published by the Journal Star only on their website (March 13-18):


Code Name Blue Wren: The True Story of America’s Most Dangerous Female Spy — and the Sister She Betrayed
by Jim Popkin

Non-Fiction — Biography Montes


Between the Sundays: Syndicated book reviews published by the Journal Star only on their website (March 6-11):


Watch the Bear: A Half Century with the Brown Bears of Alaska
by Derek Stonorov

Non-Fiction — not currently in the Lincoln City Libraries’ collection


Between the Sundays: Syndicated book reviews published by the Journal Star only on their website (February 27-March 4):

Longtime Lincoln Journal Star book reviewer Francis Moul passed away on March 4, 2023 — you can read his obituary at this link


Books reviewed in February


The Hero of This Book
by Elizabeth McCracken

Fiction — McCracken


Between the Sundays: Syndicated book reviews published by the Journal Star only on their website (February 20-25):


The Nazi Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill Roosevelent, Stalin and Churchill
by Brad Meltzer

Non-Fiction — 940.53 Mel


Between the Sundays: Syndicated book reviews published by the Journal Star only on their website (February 13-18):


The Good Country: A History of the American Midwest 1800-1900
by Jon K. Lauck

Non-Fiction — not currently in the Lincoln City Libraries’ collection


Between the Sundays: Syndicated book reviews published by the Journal Star only on their website (February 6-11):


Red Winter
by Marc Cameron

Fiction — Cameron


Between the Sundays: Syndicated book reviews published by the Journal Star only on their website (January 30-February 4):


Books reviewed in January


The Presence of Absence
by Simon Van Booy

Fiction — Hoopla E-book and E-audiobook


Between the Sundays: Syndicated book reviews published by the Journal Star only on their website (January 23-28):


The Magic Kingdom
by Russell Banks

Fiction — Banks


Dancing with Welk: Music, Memory, and Prairie Troubadours
by Christopher Vondracek

Non-Fiction — Music 781.66 Von


Between the Sundays: Syndicated book reviews published by the Journal Star only on their website (January 16-21):


Local reviewer Francis Moul shared “A Winter’s Reading List”, featuring a number of authors both from Nebraska, and elsewhere. This list included: Mari Sandoz, Willa Cather, John Neihardt, John Janovy Jr. (specifically his Back in Keith County, Walter Prescott Webb (specifically his The Great Frontier and The Great Plains), Alvin M. Josephy Jr.’s The Indian Heritage of America, David McCullough’s The Pioneers, Dan O’Brien’s The Indian Agent, the works of South Dakota poet Linda Hasselstrom, the Jack Reacher novels of Lee Child, Earth: The Sequel by Fred Krupp and Miriam Horn, The Grasslands of North America and American Indians of the Great Plains by Loretta Fowler, and Red Stilts or anything else by former U.S. Poet Laureate and Nebraska native Ted Kooser. Nebraska Authors

Note: Moul also suggested you “check the library for a copy of Local Nebraska History by Myrtle D. Barry,” but we regret to inform you that such a volume does not exist in the Lincoln City Libraries collection, nor can we find any reference to it in other libraries, either local or elsewhere.


Between the Sundays: Syndicated book reviews published by the Journal Star only on their website (January 9-14):


Hester
by Laurie Lico Albanese

Fiction — Albanese


Between the Sundays: Syndicated book reviews published by the Journal Star only on their website (January 2-7):


Sinister Graves
by Marcie R. Rendon

Fiction — Rendon


American Midnight: The Great War, A Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis
by Adam Hochschild

Non-Fiction — 973.91 Hoc


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nebauthormini — Book by a Nebraska author