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Lincoln Journal Star Book Reviews – 2015
Every 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.
last updated December 28, 2015
2015 Selections
Books reviewed in December
Seasons of the Tallgrass Prairie: A Nebraska Year
by Paul Johnsgard
Non-Fiction – 577.44 Joh
Between the World and Me
by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Non-Fiction – 305.8 AfrYc
Stalin’s Daughter: The Extraordinary and Tumultuous Life of Svetlana Alliluyeva
by Rosemary Sullivan
Non-Fiction – Biography Allilueva
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania
by Erik Larson
Non-Fiction – 940.451 Lar
Read Sandy W.’s review of the audiobook version of Dead Wake in the October 2015 Staff Recommendations here on BookGuide.
The Light of the World
by Elizabeth Alexander
Non-Fiction – Biography Alexander
The Wright Brothers
by David McCullough
Non-Fiction – Biography Wright
A Little Life
by Hanya Yanagihara
Fiction – Yanagihara
The Tsar of Love and Techno: Stories
by Anthony Marra
Fiction – Moody
The Story of the Lost Child
by Elena Ferrante
Fiction – Ferrante
Purity
by Jonathan Franzen
Fiction – Moody
A Manual for Cleaning Women
by Lucia Berlin
Fiction – Berlin
Andy and Don: The Making of a Friendship and a Classic American TV Show
by Daniel de Vise
Non-Fiction – [ On Orrder ]
Killers
by Howie Carr
Fiction – Carr
The Explorers Guild (Volume One): A Passage to Shambala
by Jon Baird and Kevin Costner
Fiction – Baird
Friday Night Lights: 25th Anniversary Edition
by H.G. Bissinger
Non-Fiction – 796.332 Bis
Hotels of North America
by Rick Moody
Fiction – Moody
Finale
by Thomas Mallon
Fiction – Mallon
The Dead Lands
by Benjamin Percy
Fiction – Groff
Books reviewed in November
Forever Red: More Confessions of a Cornhusker Fan
by Steve Smith
Non-Fiction – Smith
Fates and Furies
by Lauren Groff
Fiction – Groff
The Organ Broker
by Stu Strumwasser
Fiction – Strumwasser
My Life on the Road
by Gloria Steinem
Non-Fiction – Biography Steinem
Pudge: The Biography of Carlton Fisk
by Doug Watson
Non-Fiction – Biography Fisk
1944: FDR and the Year That Changed History
by Jay Winik
Non-Fiction – 940.53 Win
Golden Age
by Jane Smiley
Fiction – Smiley
Cultivating the Spirit: How College Can Enhance Students’ Inner Lives
by Alexander W. Astin, Helen S. Astin and Jennifer Lindholm
Non-Fiction – Astin
On the Move: A Life
by Oliver Sacks
Non-Fiction – Biography Sacks
Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town
by Jon Krakauer
Non-Fiction – 362.882 Kra
The Witches: Salem, 1692
by Stacy Schiff
Fiction – Schiff
Ruthless
by John Rector
Fiction – Rector
Books reviewed in October
A Strangeness in My Mind
by Orhan Pamuk
Fiction – Pamuk
Rogue Lawyer
by John Grisham
Fiction – Grisham
Come Rain or Come Shine
by Jan Karon
Fiction – Karon
Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights
by Salman Rushdie
Fiction – Rushdie
Killing Reagan: The Violent Assault That Changed a Presidency
by Martin Dugard and Bill O’Reilly
Non-Fiction – Biography Reagan
Mr. and Mrs. Doctor
by Julie Iromuanya
Fiction – Iromuanya
Two Sons of China
by Andrew Lam, M.D.
Non-Fiction – Lam
The Reluctant Pilgrim
by Roger Welsch
Non-Fiction – Biography Welsch
See the Nebraska Author Roger Welsch resource page here on BookGuide
The Fishermen
by Chigozie Obioma
Fiction – Obioma
Hemingway in Love: His Own Story
by A.E. Hotchner
Non-Fiction – Biography Hemingway
Nebrasketball: Coach Tim Miles and a Big Ten Team on the Rise
by Scott Winter
Non-Fiction – Winter
The Last American Highway: A Journey Through Time Down Ul.S. Route 83: Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma
by Stew Magnuson
Non-Fiction – 917.8 Mag
The Lightning Stones
by Jack Du Brul
Non-Fiction – Biography Didion
Books reviewed in September
Leaving Berlin
by Joseph Kanon
Fiction – Kanon
Last Night at the OR: A Transplant Surgeon’s Odyssey
by Bud Shaw
Non-Fiction – Biography Didion
Signal
by Patrick Lee
Non-Fiction – Biography Didion
Team of Teams: New Rules for Engagement for a Complex World
by General Stanley McChrystal
Non-Fiction – McChrystal
January 1973: Watergate, Roe v Wade, Vietnam and The Month That Changed American Forever
by James Robenalt
Non-Fiction – Biography Didion
Purity
by Jonathan Franzen
Fiction – Franzen
Glitter and Glue
by Kelly Corrigan
Non-Fiction – Biography Corrigan
Coming Soon…
Books reviewed in August
Big Red Recipes: What’s Cooking in Former Nebraska Football Players’ Kitchens
edited by ???
Non-Fiction [link to official website]
The Last Love Song: A Biography of Joan Didion
by Tracy Daughterty
Non-Fiction – Biography Didion
Manhattan Mayhem
edited by Mary Higgins Clark
Non-Fiction – 813.08 Cla
Fortune Smiles: Stories
by Adam Johnson
Fiction – Johnson
Katrina: After the Flood
by Gary Rivlin
Non-Fiction – 363.349 Riv
Voracious: A Hungry Reader Cooks Her Way Through Great Books
by Cara Nicoletti
Non-Fiction – 641.013 Nic
In Cold Storage: Sex and Murder on the Plains
by James W. Hewitt
Non-Fiction – 364.152 Hew
The State We’re In: Maine Stories
by Ann Beattie
Non-Fiction – 362.882 Kra
We Believe the Children: A Moral Panic in the 1980s
by Richard Beck
Non-Fiction – Beck
Walking With Abel: Journeys With the Nomads of the African Savannah
by Anna Badkhen
Non-Fiction – Badkhen
The Art of Baking Blind
by Sarah Vaughn
Non-Fiction – Vaughn
Movie Star by Lizzie Pepper
by Hilary Liftin
Fiction – Liftin
Ashley’s War: The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield
by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
Non-Fiction – Biography White
Hemingway in Love: A Memoir
by A.E. Hotchner
Non-Fiction – Hotchner
Did You Ever Have a Family
by Bill Clegg
Non-Fiction – 362.882 Kra
My Southern Journey
by Rick Bragg
Non-Fiction – Bragg
The Assassins
by Gayle Lynds
Fiction – Lynds
Barefoot to Avalon: A Brother’s Story
by David Payne
Non-Fiction – Biography Payne
Books reviewed in July
Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town
by Jon Krakauer
Non-Fiction – 362.882 Kra
House Rules
by Mike Lawson
Fiction – Lawson
Between the World and Me
by Ta-Nehisis Coates
Non-Fiction – 305.8 AfrYc
The Girl in the Spider’s Web
by David Langecrantz
Fiction – Langecrantz
Loving Day
by Mat Johnson
Fiction – Johnson
Natural Born Heroes
by Christopher McDougall
Non-Fiction – 940.534 McD
The Wright Brothers
by David McCullough
Non-Fiction – Biography Wright
Sick in the Head: Conversations about Life and Comedy
by Judd Apatow
Non-Fiction – Biography Apatow
Dreams to Remember: Otis Redding, Stax Records and the Transformation of Southern Soul
by Mark Ribowsky
Non-Fiction – Music 781.644 Red
Seveneves
by Neal Stephenson
Fiction – Stephenson
Go Set a Watchman
by Harper Lee
Fiction – Lee
Read Kim J.’s review of Go Set a Watchman in the August 2015 Staff Recommendations here on BookGuide
More Than Cowboys
by Tim Slessor
Non-Fiction – 978 Sle
In the Unlikely Event
by Judy Blume
Fiction – Blume
The President’s Shadow
by Brad Meltzer
Fiction – Meltzer
Books reviewed in June
Becoming Madison: The Extraordinary Origins of the Least Likely Founding Father
by Michael Signer
The Quartet, Orchestrating the Second American Revolution, 1783-1789
by Joseph J. Ellis
Non-Fiction – 973.318 Ell
The Meaning of Human Existence
by Edward O. Wilson
Non-Fiction – 128 Wil
’89 Walls
by Katie Pierson
Fiction — YA Pierson
Our Souls at Night
by Kent Haruf 
Fiction — Haruf
See the Nebraska Author Kent Haruf resource page here on BookGuide
A Woman in Arabia: The Writings of the Queen of the Desert
by Gertrude Bell
Non-Fiction — Biography Bell
Talk
by Linda Rosenkrantz
Non-Fiction — Rosenkrantz
Famous for Fifteen Minutes: My Years With Andy Warhol
by Ultra Violet
Non-Fiction — Biography B Ul8
The Ordinary Spaceman
by Clayton Anderson
Non-Fiction — Biography Anderson
Read Charlotte M.’s review of The Ordinary Spaceman in the July 2019 Staff Recommendations here on BookGuide
Radiant Angel
by Nelson DeMille
Fiction — DeMille
The Wright Brothers
by David McCullough
Non-Fiction — Biography Wright
Books reviewed in May
A Lucky Life Interrupted
by Tom Brokaw
Non-Fiction — Biography Brokaw
H is for Hawk
by Helen Macdonald
Fiction — Macdonald
Ruins of War
by John A. Connell
Fiction — Connell
The Secret History of Wonder Woman
by Jill Lepore
Non-Fiction — 741.59 Lep
Past Crimes
by Glen Erik Hamilton
Fiction — Hamilton
Being Mortal
by Atul Gawande [Call]
Non-Fiction — 362.175 Gaw
Hold Still
by Sally Mann
Fiction — Mann
The Book of Strange New Things
by Michael Faber
Fiction — Faber
Gathering Prey
by John Sandford
Fiction — Sandford
The Buried Giant
by Kazuo Ishiguro
Fiction — Ishiguro.
Memory Man
by David Baldacci
Fiction — Baldacci.
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania
by Erik Larson
Non-Fiction — 940.451 Lar.
Read Sandy W.’s review of the audiobook version of Dead Wake in the October 2015 Staff Recommendations here on BookGuide.
Two Gun Hart: Lawman, Cowboy and the Long Lost Brother of Al Capone
by Jeff McArthur
Non-Fiction — McArthur
See the Nebraska Author Jeff McArthur resource page here on BookGuide.
Books reviewed in April
Dorothy Parker Drank Here
by Ellen Meister
Fiction — Meister.
The Stranger
by Harlan Coben
Fiction — Coben
@war: The Rise of the Military-Internet Complex
by Shane Harris
Non-Fiction — 355.343 Har.
Nebraska Presence: An Anthology of Poetry
edited by Greg Kosmicki and Mary K. Stillwell
Non-Fiction — 811.08 Kos.
Unmanned
by Dan Fesperman
Fiction — Fesperman.
Dataclysm
by Christian Rudder
Non-Fiction — 155.2 Rud.
The Narrow Road to the Deep North
by Richard Flanagan
Fiction — Flanagan.
Endangered
by C.J. Box
Fiction — Box.
The Harder They Come
by T.C. Boyle
Fiction — Boyle.
[brcl]
Stonewalled: My Fight for the Truth Against the Forces of Obstruction, Intimidation, and Harrassment in Obama’s Washington
by Sharyl Attkinson
Non-Fiction — 323.445 Att.
[brcl]
Cuba Straits
by Randy Wayne White
Fiction — White.
[brcl]
Living the Secular Life
by Phil Zuckerman
Non-Fiction — Zuckerman.
Books reviewed in March
A Spool of Blue Thread
by Anne Tyler
Fiction — Tyler.
Twelve Days
by Alex Berenson
Fiction — Berenson.
Ha! The Science of When We Laugh and Why
by Scott Weems
Non-Fiction — 152.4 Wee.
[brcl]
Funny Girl
by Nick Hornby
Fiction — Hornby.
[brcl]
Viking Bay
by M.A. Larson
Fiction — Larson.
The Girl on the Train
by Paula Hawkins
Fiction — Hawkins.
Read Marie P.’s review of The Girl on the Train from the June 2015 Staff Recommendations here on BookGuide
The Explorers: A Story of Fearless Outcasts, Blundering Geniuses and Impossible Success
by Martin Dugard
Non-Fiction — Dugard.
The Bricklayer
by Noah Boyd
Fiction — Boyd.
The Accidental Empress
by Allison Pataki
Fiction — Pataki.
[brcl]
30 Lessons for Loving
by Karl Pillemer
Non-Fiction — Pillemer.
Devils and Dust
by J.D. Rhoades
Fiction — Rhoades.
President Lincoln Assassinated! The Firsthand Story of the Murder, Manhunt, Trial and Mourning
by Harold Holzer
Non-Fiction — Holzer. [Note: the Lincoln City Libraries own many other Lincoln-related titles by Harold Holzer – click his name to see them.]
Mourning Lincoln
by Martha Hodes
Non-Fiction — 973.709 Hod.
Lincoln’s Body: A Cultural History
by Richard Wightman Fox
Non-Fiction — Biography Lincoln
John Marshall: The Chief Justice Who Saved a Nation
by Harlow Giles Unger
Non-Fiction — Unger.
[brcl]Books reviewed in February
Timeless: Love, Morgenthau and Me
by Lucinda Franks
Biography — Franks.
The Opposite of Spoiled: Raising Kids Who Are Grounded, Generous and Smart About Money
by Ron Lieber
Non-Fiction — [ On Order ]
Holy Cow
by David Duchovny
Fiction — Duchovny.
Pillar to the Sky
by William R. Forstchen
Fiction — Forstchen.
The Bones of Paris
by Laurie R. King
Fiction — King.
Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America
by Jill Leovy
Non-Fiction — 364.152 Leo.
Books reviewed in January
Deadline
by John Sandford
Fiction — Sandford.
William Wells Brown: An African American Life
by Ezra Greenspan
Non-Fiction — Biography Brown.
The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism
by Edward E. Baptist
Non-Fiction — [only available as downloadable audio].
Empire of Cotton: A Global History
by Sven Beckert
Non-Fiction — 338.476 Bec.
The Fortunes of Africa: A 5,000-Year History of Wealth, Greed and Endeavor
by Martin Meredith
Non-Fiction — 960 Mer.
Empire’s Crossroads: A History of the Caribbean From Columbus to the Present Day
by Carrie Gibson
Non-Fiction — Gibson.
Pay Any Price: Greed, Power and Endless War
by James Risen
Non-Fiction — 973.931 Ris.
Breaking Creed
by Alex Kava
Fiction — Kava.
See the Nebraska Author Alex Kava resource page here on BookGuide
Roughnecks
by James J. Patterson and Quinn O’Connell Jr.
Fiction — Patterson
Bootleggers & Baptists
by Adam Smith and Bruce Yandle
Non-Fiction — 320.6 Smi.
Bourbon: A History of the American Spiri
by Dane Huckelbridge
Non-Fiction — Huckelbridge.
Neil Armstrong: A Life of Flight
by Jay Barbree
Non-Fiction — Biography Armstrong.
Read Charlotte M.’s review of Neil Armstrong: A Life of Flight in the January 2015 Staff Recommendations here on BookGuide
Wyatt in Wichita
by John Shirley
Fiction — Shirley.