Title Discussed: The Blue Death: Disease, Disaster and the Water We Drink by Robert D. Morris Environmental epidemiologist Morris chronicles the at times frightening story of our drinking water. He recounts the epidemics that have shaken cities and nations, the scientists who reached into the invisible and emerged with controversial truths that would save millions of lives, and the economic and political forces that opposed these researchers in a ferocious war of ideas. Participants: Layne Pierce, Carol Swanson

Title Discussed: Deadline by Chris Crutcher Ben Wolf is 18, just had his physical for his senior year of high school, and learned he has a fatal disease and about one year to live. Ben decides to keep this information private, and to live a lifetime's worth in the year he has left. Participants: Sally Snyder, Richard Miller

Title Discussed: Tantalize by Cynthia Leitich Smith When multiple murders in Austin, Texas, threaten the grand re-opening of her family's vampire-themed restaurant, seventeen-year-old, orphaned Quincie worries that her best friend-turned-love interest, Keiren, a werewolf-in-training, may be the prime suspect. Participants: Sally Snyder

Title Discussed: Crazy Horse: The Strange Man of the Oglalas by Mari Sandoz Crazy Horse, the legendary military leader of the Oglala Sioux whose personal power and nonconformity set him off as "strange," fought in many famous battles, including the Little Bighorn. He held out tirelessly against the U.S. government's efforts to confine the Lakotas to reservations. Finally, in the spring of 1877 he surrendered, only to meet a violent death. More than a century later, Crazy Horse continues to hold a special place in the hearts and minds of his people. Mari Sandoz offers an evocation of the long-ago world and enduring spirit of Crazy Horse. [Note: Crazy Horse by Mari Sandoz is the 2007 One Book One Nebraska selection.] Participants: Paul Olson, Fran Reinehr, Kit and John Keller, Mary Jo Ryan [Also available in a variety of other editions and formats.]

Special 1-hour episode discussing the 2007 One Book -- One Lincoln selection: The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan Following a dozen families and their communities through the rise and fall of the region, Egan tells of their desperate attempts to carry on through blinding black dust blizzards, crop failure, and the death of loved ones in the darkest years of the Depression. Participants: Layne Pierce [Also available in format.]

Title Discussed: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle Meg Murry and her friends become involved with unearthly strangers in a search for Meg's father, who has disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government. Newbery Award winner. Participants: Sally Snyder, Nancy Smith [Also available in audiotape, book-on-cd [abridged or unabridged], and Large Print formats.]

Title Discussed: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini Mariam and Laila are born a generation apart but are are brought together by war and fate. Together they endure the dangers surrounding them and discover the power of both love and sacrifice. Participants: Fran Reinehr, Kit Keller, Mary Jo Ryan, Sally Snyder [Also available in book-on-cd and Large Print formats.]

Title Discussed: Where Have all the Leaders Gone? by Lee Iacocca The legendary auto executive and #1 bestselling author of "Iacocca: An Autobiography" sets America straight and trumpets a return to common sense. He writes with wit, warmth, and unflinching honesty about the issues foremost on every American's mind, from job security and global competition to the war in Iraq and the problems faced by the auto industry. Participants: Lisa Voss, Layne Pierce

Title Discussed: The River Wife by Jonis Agee When the earthquake brings Annie Lark's Missouri house down on top of her, she finds herself pinned under the massive roof beam, facing certain death. Rescued by French fur trapper Jacques Ducharme, Annie learns to love the strong, brooding man and resolves to live out her days as his "River Wife." More than a century later, in 1930, Hedie Rails comes to Jacques' Landing to marry Clement Ducharme, a direct descendant of the fur trapper and river pirate, and the young couple begin their life together in the very house Jacques built for Annie so long ago. When, night after late night, mysterious phone calls take Clement from their home, a pregnant Hedie finds comfort in Annie's leather-bound journals. But as she reads of the sinister dealings and horrendous misunderstandings that spelled out tragedy for the rescued bride, Hedie fears that her own life is paralleling Annie's, and that history is repeating itself with Jacques' kin. Among the family's papers, Hedie encounters three other strong-willed women who helped shape Jacques Ducharme's life - Omah, the freed slave who took her place beside him as a river raider; his second wife, Laura, who loved money more than the man she married; and Laura and Jacques' daughter, Maddie, a fiery beauty with a nearly uncontrollable appetite for love. Their stories, together with Annie's, weave a haunting tale of this mysterious, seductive, and ultimately dangerous man, a man whose hand stretched over generations of women at a bend in the river where fate and desire collide. Participants: Jonis Agee, Mary Jo Ryan [Also available in downloadable audio and book-on-cd formats.]

Title Discussed: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak Trying to make sense of the horrors of World War II, Death relates the story of Liesel--a young German girl whose book-stealing and story-telling talents help sustain her family and the Jewish man they are hiding, as well as their neighbors. Participants: Mary Jackson, Lucy Jackson, Sally Snyder [Also available in book-on-cd format.]

Title Discussed: Dead Ex by Harley Jane Kozak When David Zetrakis, the producer of a popular soap opera, is found shot to death the day after Christmas, Wollie Shelley finds herself caught up in the murder investigation. Zetrakis was one of the many Mr. Wrongs in Wollie's career as a serial dater, and her friend Joey has emerged as the media's prime suspect. A hot-tempered celebrity who had dated Zetrakis and was fired from his show some years ago, Joey has inherited a million-dollar Klimt from him. But Joey is not the only potential suspect. Zetrakis left lots of nice bequests to the cast and crew of the show. And as the dating correspondent on a talk show called SoapDirt, Wollie, who's required to dine and dish with the stars, quickly discovers that the behind-the-scenes intrigues of television soaps are as highly charged as the onscreen shenanigans. When Wollie is not trying to protect Joey from an onslaught of predatory reporters, she's helping her brother make the transition from a mental hospital to a halfway house and negotiating her relationship with Simon, her FBI-agent boyfriend. Dead Ex is another full-out romp of a mystery sure to please Kozak's many fans - and win her many new ones too. Participants: Harley Jane Kozak (phone-in), Fran Reinehr, Kit Keller and Mary Jo Ryan [Also available in book-on-cd format.]

Recorded Show -- Big Read CD: My Antonia by Willa Cather Participants: Mary Jo Ryan [Available in a variety of different formats and editions.]

Title Discussed: Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs by Ken Jennings One day back in 2003, Ken Jennings and his college buddy Earl did what hundreds of thousands of people had done before: they auditioned for Jeopardy! Two years, 75 games, 2,642 correct answers, and over $2.5 million in winnings later, Ken Jennings emerged as trivia's undisputed king. Brainiac traces his rise from anonymous computer programmer to nerd folk icon. But along the way, it also explores his newly conquered kingdom: the world of trivia itself. Participants: Layne Pierce

Recorded Show: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald Participants: Kit and John Keller [Also available in a variety of additional formats and editions.]

Title Discussed: Every Man for Himself: Ten Short Stories About Being a Guy compiled by Nancy E. Mercado From Walter Dean Myers to Mo Willems to Terry Trueman, some of today's most exciting writers offer teen readers a great selection of honest and real stories about everyday guys who get pummeled by some life lessons and still manage to come out on top. Participants: Richard Miller, Sally Snyder

Will Thomas call-in interview Participants: Kit Keller

Title Discussed: The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan Following a dozen families and their communities through the rise and fall of the region, Egan tells of their desperate attempts to carry on through blinding black dust blizzards, crop failure, and the death of loved ones in the darkest years of the Depression. [NOTE: Selected as the 2007 One Book -- One Lincoln title.] Participants: Carol Swanson, Layne Pierce [Also available in book-on-cd format.]

Title Discussed: The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella Samantha Sweeting is desparate to make partner in her law firm in London. She makes a devastating mistake, and walks out of her life. The train takes her to nowhere, where she becomes a housekeeper -- she who cannot cook, clean, or sew. Participants: Diane Henninger, Sally Snyder [Also available in book-on-cd format.]

Title Discussed: Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian Participants: John Keller

Title Discussed: Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Acorss Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert At the age of thirty-one, Gilbert moved with her husband to the suburbs of New York and began trying to get pregnant, only to realize that she wanted neither a child nor a husband. Three years later, after a protracted divorce, she embarked on a yearlong trip of recovery, with three main stops: Rome, for pleasure (mostly gustatory, with a special emphasis on gelato); an ashram outside of Mumbai, for spiritual searching; and Bali, for "balancing." These destinations are all on the beaten track, but Gilbert's exuberance and her self-deprecating humor enliven the proceedings: recalling the first time she attempted to speak directly to God, she says, "It was all I could do to stop myself from saying, 'I've always been a big fan of your work.'" Participants: Fran Reinehr, Mary Jo Ryan, Kit Keller, John Keller [Also available in unabridged book-on-cd format.]

Title Discussed: Justinian's Flea: Plague, Empire, and the Birth of Europe by William Rosen Surveying the reign of Emperor Justinian of the Byzantine Empire during the years 527-65, Rosen enlists a range of topics from architecture to conquest to bubonic plague. The latter looms largest in his account, for it wreaked havoc in 542. Justinian's ambition to restore the Roman Empire, going great guns at the time under General Belisarius, came to a halt. The calamity's demographic consequences must have been substantial, too, if uncertain, and Rosen salts his text with speculations about the Byzantine seedlings of Europe's future nations. With more surety, Rosen relays eyewitness descriptions of the Justinian plague, with which he integrates the modern scientific understanding of Yersinia pestis and its carrier, the rat. Before the plague arrived in Constantinople, luckily for Justinian's historical reputation, he had already finished building the Hagia Sophia and codifying Roman law. Deeply steeped in the literature of late antiquity, Rosen wears his erudition lightly as he weaves interpretations into a fluid narrative of the era's geostrategic possibilities before the final onset of the Dark Ages. Participants: Carol Swanson, Bill VanderMel

Title Discussed: The Stand by Stephen King Originally published in 1978, this is an epic novel of global catastrophe and survival. Just one small glitch brings the death of 99% of the world population, the survivors must decide how they will cope and which side they will choose. To quote the book jacket, "The Stand is a story of dark wonders and irresistible terror, an epic of final confrontation between Good and Evil." Participants: Sally Snyder, Judd and Andy Smith

Taped interview with author Timothy Schaffert Participants: Mary Jo Ryan and Kit Keller

Title Discussed: The Road by Cormac McCarthy A searing, postapocalyptic novel destined to become Cormac McCarthy's masterpiece. A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. They sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearting, a cart of scavenged food-and each other. The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, "each the other's world entire," are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation. Participants: Layne Pierce, Carol Swanson [Also available in unabridged book-on-cd format.]

Topic Discussed: The works of Kurt Vonnegut Participants: Layne Pierce, Carol Swanson

The 2007 Nebraska Summer Writers Conference Participants: Jonis Agee, Kit and John Keller

Title Discussed: Supreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Control of the Supreme Court by Jan Crawford Greenberg Over the past decade, the central front of America's bitter culture wars has been the titanic battle over the composition and direction of the United States Supreme Court. During this period, no journalist has been closer to the action on the ground - the ideas, the politics, the personalities, the gamesmanship - than ABC News correspondent Jan Crawford Greenburg. Now, in Supreme Conflict, Greenburg draws on all of her formidable reportorial resources to give a brilliant, vivid, astonishingly unvarnished account of the struggle for the soul of the highest court in the land. Participants: Layne Pierce, Bil VanderMel, Carlene Putens

Title Discussed: The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield The enigmatic Winter has spent six decades creating various outlandish life histories for herself - all of them inventions that have brought her fame and fortune but have kept her violent and tragic past a secret. Now old and ailing, she at last wants to tell the truth about her extraordinary life. She summons biographer Margaret Lea, a young woman for whom the secret of her own birth, hidden by those who loved her most, remains an ever-present pain. Struck by a curious parallel between Miss Winter's story and her own, Margaret takes on the commission. Participants: Carol Swanson, Deanne Johnson, Erin Stutzman [Also available in unabridged book-on-cd format.]

Recorded Show from the Big Red: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Participants: Kit and John Keller [Also available in a variety of additional formats and editions.]

Title Discussed: Brother Odd by Dean Koontz Participants: Sally Snyder, Nancy Smith [Also available in downloadable audio, book-on-cd [abridged or unabridged], and Large Print formats.]

Title Discussed: What Becomes You by Aaron Raz Link and Hilda Raz "Being a man, like being a woman, is something you have to learn," Aaron Raz Link remarks. Few would know this better than the coauthor of What Becomes You, who began life as a girl named Sarah and twenty-nine years later began life anew as a gay man. Turning from female to male and from teaching scientist to theatre performer, Link documents the extraordinary medical, social, legal, and personal process involved in a complete identity change. Hilda Raz, a well-known feminist writer and teacher, observes the process as both an "astonished" parent and as a professor who has studied gender issues. All these perspectives come into play in this collaborative memoir, which travels between women's experience and men's lives, explores the art and science of changing sex, maps uncharted family values, and journeys through a world transformed by surgery, hormones, love, and...clown school. Combining personal experience and critical analysis, the book is an unusual - and unusually fascinating - reflection on gender, sex, and the art of living. Participants: John and Kit Keller, Hilda Raz, Aaron Raz Link

Title Discussed: The Usual Rules by Joyce Maynard Participants: Sally Snyder, Mary Jackson, Jeremy Jackson

Title Discussed: The Crimson Portrait by Jody Shields Spring 1915. On a sprawling country estate not far from London, a young woman mourns her husband, fallen on a distant battlefield." "The isolated and eerie stillness in which she grieves is shattered as her home is transformed into a bustling military hospital to serve the war's most irreparably injured. Disturbed by the intrusion of the suffering men and their caretakers, the young widow finds unexpected solace in the company of a wounded soldier whose face, concealed by bandages, she cannot see. Their affair takes an unexpected turn when fate presents her with an opportunity: to remake her lover - with the unwitting help of a visionary surgeon and an American woman artist - in the image of her lost husband. Participants: Barbara Rixstine, Mary Jo Ryan, Kit Keller

Title Discussed: The Castle in the Forest by Norman Mailer The narrator, a mysterious SS man in possession of some extraordinary secrets, takes the young Adolf Hitler from birth through his adolescence. En route, revealing portraits are offered of Hitler's father and mother, and his sisters and brothers. A tapestry of unforgettable characters, The Castle in the Forest delivers its myriad twists and surprises with insight into the nature of the struggle between good and evil that exists in us all. At its core is a hypothesis that this novel employs with stunning originality. Participants: Layne Pierce, Carol Swanson

Titles Discussed: Eragon and Eldest by Christopher Paolini Discussion will also include the recent (2006) movie adaptation of Eragon. Participants: Sally Snyder, Andy Smith [Both volumes in the Eragon series are also available in other formats, including book-on-tape and book-on-CD.]

Topic Discussed: Tonight's episode focused on the upcoming Mayhem in the Midlands mystery fiction conference, scheduled for May 24-27, 2007 in Omaha, especially the works of Margaret Maron, who will be the conference's Guest of Honor. Participants: Carol Swanson

Topic Discussed: Ted Kooser, famed Nebraska poet, joins Mary Jo Ryan and both Kit and John Keller on a special Valentine's Day episode -- done as live theater!

Title Discussed: 1,000 Places to See Before You Die by Patricia Schultz Around the World, continent by continent, here is the best the world has to offer, 1,000 places guaranteed to give travelers the shivers: sacred ruins, grand hotels, wildlife preserves, hilltop villages, snack shacks, castles, festivals, reefs, restaurants, cathedrals, hidden islands, opera houses, museums, and more. Note: The Travel Channel cable tv network will be premiering a new series, based on the contents of this book, in the Spring of 2007. Participants: Layne Pierce, Scott Clark

Title Discussed: Children of the Great Depression by Russell Freedman Life was hard for children during the Great Depression: kids had to do without new clothes, shoes, or toys, and many couldn't attend school because they had to work. Even so, life still had its bright spots. Take a closer look at the lives of young Americans during this era. Participants: Sally Snyder, Mary Jo Ryan

Topic Discussed: Some of the many books that will soon be available via the Lincoln City Libraries' new OverDrive audiobook downloading service Participants: Scott Clark, Lisa Voss

Title Discussed: Echo Maker by Richard Powers On a winter night on a remote Nebraska road, twenty-seven-year-old Mark Schluter flips his truck in a near-fatal accident. His older sister, Karin, his only near kin, returns reluctantly to their hometown to nurse Mark back from a traumatic head injury. But when he emerges from a protracted coma, Mark believes that this woman - who looks, acts, and sounds just like his sister - is really an impostor. Shattered by her brother's refusal to recognize her, Karin contacts the cognitive neurologist Gerald Weber, famous for his case histories describing the infinitely bizarre world of brain disorders. Weber recognizes Mark's condition as a rare case of Capgras syndrome - the delusion that people in one's life are doubles or imposters - and eagerly investigates. What he discovers in Mark slowly undermines even his own sense of being. Meanwhile, Mark, armed only with a note left by an anonymous witness, attempts to learn what happened the night of his inexplicable accident. The truth of that evening will change the lives of all three beyond recognition. Participants: Carol Swanson

Topic Discussed: The works of Tillie Olsen, the classic Nebraska author (Tell Me a Riddle, Yonnondio and others) who died January 1, 2007 Participants: John and Kit Keller

Title Discussed: Thunderstruck by Erik Larson [364.152 Lar] In Thunderstruck, Erik Larson (author of the 2006 One Book One Lincoln selection, The Devil in the White City) again unites the dual stories of two disparate men, one a genius and the other a killer. The genius is Guglielmo Marconi, inventor of wireless communication. The murderer is the notorious Englishman Dr. H.H. Crippen. Participants: Bill VanderMel, Carlene Putens [Also available in unabridged book-on-cd format.]

Other past KZUM Booktalk pages: