Tuesday, May 15 / 6:30 p.m. The International Intrigue Book Group will discuss The Coroner’s Lunch by Colin Cotterill (Soho, $13.00). Laos, 1975. The Communist Pathet Lao has taken over this former French colony. Dr. Siri Paiboun, a 72-year-old Paris-trained doctor, is appointed national coroner. Although he has no training for the job, there is no one else; the rest of the educated class has fled. He is expected to come up with the answers the party wants. But crafty and charming Dr.Siri is immune to bureaucratic pressure. At his age, he reasons, what can they do to him? And he knows he cannot fail the dead who come into his care without risk of incurring their boundless displeasure. Eternity could be a long time to have the spirits mad at you.

Thursday, May 17 / 6:30 p.m. The As the Worm Turns Book Group will discuss Straight Man by Richard Russo (Vintage, $15.95). William Henry Devereaux, Jr., spiritually suited to playing left field but forced by a bad hamstring to try first base, is the unlikely chairman of the English department at West Central Pennsylvania University. Over the course of a single convoluted week, he threatens to execute a goose, has his nose slashed by a feminist poet, discovers that his secretary writes better fiction than he does, suspects his wife of having an affair with his dean, and finally confronts his philandering elderly father, the one-time king of American Literary Theory, at an abandoned amusement park. Robert Runyon will facilitate the discussion. Space is limited, so please call to reserve your place.

Saturday, May 19 / 9 a.m. to noon Paths to Publication, session 3 — Alex Kava and Joe Starita will discuss their experiences following the traditional path to getting published by major publishing houses. Alex Kava is the author of the New York Times bestselling Maggie O’Dell mystery series, published by Mira Books, Random House and Brilliance Audio. Visit her website at www.alexkava.com. Joe Starita has his books published by Macmillan, Penguin, and the University of Nebraska Press. His I Am a Man is the 2012 One Book, One Nebraska selection. His biography is at http://journalism.unl.edu/cojmc/about/bios/starita.shtml. Those interested in participating should contact Ellen Scott at ellen.scott@bookwormomaha.com.

Saturday, May 19 / 1 p.m. Joe Starita will sign the One Book, One Nebraska selection for 2012, I Am a Man: Chief Standing Bear's Journey for Justice (St. Martin’s Press, $15.99). In 1877, Chief Standing Bear's Ponca Indian tribe was forcibly removed from their Nebraska homeland and marched to what was then known as Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). I Am a Man chronicles what happened when Standing Bear set off on a six-hundred-mile walk to return the body of his only son to their traditional burial ground. Along the way, it examines the complex relationship between the United States government and the small, peaceful tribe and the legal consequences of land swaps and broken treaties, while never losing sight of the heartbreaking journey the Ponca endured. It is a story of survival---of a people left for dead who arose from the ashes of injustice, disease, neglect, starvation, humiliation, and termination. On another level, it is a story of life and death, despair and fortitude, freedom and patriotism. A story of Christian kindness and bureaucratic evil. And it is a story of hope---of a people still among us today, painstakingly preserving a cultural identity that had sustained them for centuries before their encounter with Lewis and Clark in the fall of 1804.

Sunday, May 20 / 11 a.m. The book group Books and Bagels will discuss Mudbound by Hillary Jordan (Algonquin Books, $13.95). It is 1946, and city-bred Laura McAllan is trying to raise her children on her husband's Mississippi Delta farm a place she finds foreign and frightening. In the midst of the family's struggles, two young men return from the war to work the land. Jamie McAllan, Laura's brother-in-law, is everything her husband is not charming, handsome, and haunted by his memories of combat. Ronsel Jackson, eldest son of the black sharecroppers who live on the McAllan farm, has come home with the shine of a war hero. But no matter his bravery in defense of his country, he is still considered less than a man in the Jim Crow South. It is the unlikely friendship of these brothers-in-arms that drives this powerful novel to its inexorable conclusion. The men and women of each family relate their versions of events and we are drawn into their lives as they become players in a tragedy on the grandest scale.

Sunday, May 20 / 1 p.m Teryl Oswall will sign Luck of the Draw and Still Kickin’ (both Highland Press, $12.95). In Luck of the Draw, an anonymous lottery winner decides to give away a $200-million jackpot. Failed entrepreneur Amanda Cash is tapped by the winner to select deserving persons to receive the windfall. If the benefactor agrees with Amanda's choices, she will be awarded more than enough money to fund her dying mother's heart transplant. In Still Kickin’, the wealthiest man of the Harmony Hills Retirement Village dies in his penthouse apartment. The police rule the death accidental, but resident Kay Powers knows it's murder. Guided by memories of great television sleuths, Kay and her friends, Audrey Campbell and Vita Orsi bungle through their investigation to find hard evidence and bring the murderer to justice.

Monday, May 21 / 2 p.m. The World War II History Book 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, $21.95). This highly regarded war memoir was a best seller in both Japan and the United States during the 1960s and 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."

Tuesday, May 22 / 6:30 p.m. The Crime Through Time Book Group, formerly the History/Mystery Book Group, will discuss Dissolution by C. J. Sansom (Penguin, $15.00). The year is 1537, and England is divided between those faithful to the Catholic Church and those loyal to the king and the newly established Church of England. When a royal commissioner is brutally murdered in a monastery on the south coast of England, Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII's feared vicar general, summons fellow reformer Matthew Shardlake to lead the inquiry. Shardlake and his young protege uncover evidence of sexual misconduct, embezzlement, and treason, and when two other murders are revealed, they must move quickly to prevent the killer from striking again.

Thursday, May 24 / 6 p.m. Janet Laird (writing as Maggie Montclair) will sign Surviving Widowhood (Pick a Daisy Press, $14.95). It is true—there really is life after the death of a spouse. Just ask advice columnist, Maggie Montclair, who is here to help widows of all ages rediscover joy and zest for life, even without their beloved husbands. Along with her ornery friend Gertie whose amusing personal experiences with widowhood include burying four husbands whom she swears all died from natural causes, Maggie offers gentle support and candid guidance that encourages widows to step outside their comfort zones, conquer loneliness, find new friends, and ultimately embrace a new chapter in their lives filled with laughter, promise, and fun.

Saturday, May 26 / 10 a.m. The Civil War Book Group will discuss by Stealing Secrets: How a Few Daring Women Deceived Generals, Impacted Battles, and Altered the Course of the Civil War by H. Donald Winkler (Cumberland House, $18.99). During America's most divisive war, both the Union and Confederacy took advantage of brave and courageous women willing to adventurously support their causes. These female spies of the Civil War participated in the world's second-oldest profession-spying-a profession perilous in the extreme. The tales of female spies are filled with suspense, bravery, treachery, and trickery. They took enormous risks and achieved remarkable results-often in ways men could not do. Winkler uses primary Civil War sources such as memoirs, journals, letters, and newspaper articles, plus the latest in scholarly research, to make these incredible stories come alive.

Monday, May 28 The Bookworm will be closed for Memorial Day.

Thursday, May 31 / 6 p.m. Craig Johnson will sign As the Crow Flies (Viking, $25.95). The Wyoming lawman returns after staking his claim on the New York Times bestseller list. Sheriff Walt Longmire has a more important matter on his mind than cowboys and criminals. His daughter, Cady, is getting married to the brother of his undersheriff, Victoria Moretti. Walt and old friend Henry Standing Bear are the de facto wedding planners and fear Cady's wrath when the wedding locale arrangements go up in smoke two weeks before the big event. The pair set out to find a new site for the nuptials on the Cheyenne Reservation, but their scouting expedition ends in horror as they witness a young Crow woman plummeting from Painted Warrior's majestic cliffs. It's not Walt's turf, but the newly appointed tribal police chief and Iraqi war veteran, the beautiful Lolo Long, shanghais him into helping with the investigation. Walt is stretched thin as he mentors Lolo, attempts to catch the bad guys, and performs the role of father of the bride.

Friday, June 1 / 6 p.m. The 20th Century Wars group will discuss George, Nicholas and Wilhelm: Three Royal Cousins and the Road to World War I by Miranda Carter (Vintage Books, $19.00). In the years before the First World War, the great European powers were ruled by three first cousins: King George V of Britain, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. Together, they presided over the last years of dynastic Europe and the outbreak of the most destructive war the world had ever seen, a war that set twentieth-century Europe on course to be the most violent continent in the history of the world. Through brilliant and often darkly comic portraits of these men and their lives, their foibles and obsessions, Carter delivers the tragicomic story of Europe's early twentieth-century aristocracy, a world preposterously out of kilter with its times.

Saturday, June 2 / 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 Andrew Jackson by Sean Wilentz (Times Books, $23.00). Jackson, the charismatic general who had defeated the British at New Orleans and who embodied the hopes of ordinary Americans, brought American politics into a new age. Wilentz recounts the fiery career of this larger-than-life figure, a man whose high ideals were matched in equal measure by his failures and moral blind spots, a man who is remembered for the accomplishments of his eight years in office and for the bitter enemies he made. It was in Jackson's time that the great conflicts of American politics--urban versus rural, federal versus state, free versus slave--crystallized, and Jackson was not shy about taking a vigorous stand. It was under Jackson that modern American politics began, and his legacy continues to inform our debates to the present day.

Saturday, June 2 / 1 p.m. Lisa Knopp will sign What the River Carries: Encounters with the Mississippi, Missouri, and Platte (University of Missouri Press, $19.95). In this informed and lyrical collection of interwoven essays, Lisa Knopp explores the physical and cultural geography of the Mississippi, Missouri, and Platte, rivers she has come to understand and cherish. At the same time, she contemplates how people experience landscape, identifying three primary roles of environmental perception: the insider, the outsider, and the outsider seeking to become an insider. Viewing the waterways through these approaches, she searches for knowledge and meaning. What the River Carries asks readers to consider their own relationships with landscape and how one can most meaningfully and responsibly dwell on the earth’s surface.

Saturday, June 2 / 1 p.m. Twyla Hansen will sign Dirt Songs: A Plains Duet (Backwaters Press, $16.00). In these poems Twyla Hansen and Linda Hasselstrom reflect on the influence of the Great Plains. These seasoned poems celebrate clouds, water and the earth; as well as their love of all things farm and ranch, green and blooming, feathered and furred, wild and domesticated, warm and breathing. "Two of the most significant poetic voices in our region, our nation--together at last. The music they create is a miracle, born of the generations, of soil and sky, wildflowers and birdsong, flesh and spirit. This book is a song to help reorient our relationship to the earth and to each other.”

Monday, June 4 / 6:00 p.m. Benjamin Busch will sign Dust to Dust (Ecco, $26.99). Dust to Dust is an extraordinary memoir about ordinary things: life and death, peace and war, the adventures of childhood and the revelations of adulthood. Busch weaves together a vivid record of a pastoral childhood in rural New York; Marine training in North Carolina, Ukraine, and California; and deployment during the worst of the war in Iraq, as seen firsthand. But this is much more than a war memoir. Busch writes with great poignancy about the resonance of a boyhood spent exploring rivers and woods, building forts, and testing the limits of safety. Most of all, he brings enormous emotional power to his reflections on mortality: in a helicopter going down; wounded by shrapnel in Ramadi; dealing with the sudden death of friends in combat and of parents back home.

Monday, June 4 / 6:30 p.m. The I Should Have Read That in School classics group will discuss To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf (Harvest Books, $15.00). In her novel centering on the Ramsay family and their visits to the Isle of Skye in Scotland between 1910 and 1920, Woolf skillfully manipulates temporality and psychological exploration. The novel includes little dialogue and almost no action; most of it is written as thoughts and observations. The novel recalls the power of childhood emotions and highlights the impermanence of adult relationships. Among the book's many themes are those of loss, subjectivity, and the problem of perception. In 1998, the Modern Library named To the Lighthouse No. 15, on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.

Saturday, June 9 / 10 a.m. The Sherlock Holmes Book Club will discuss “The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist” from The Return of Sherlock Holmes. These stories are included in Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories, volume I by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Bantam Classics, $6.95). All Sherlock Holmes fans are welcome.

Saturday, June 9 / 1 p.m. Sherri Shackelford will sign Winning the Widow’s Heart (Love Inspired, $5.75). When Texas Ranger Jack Elder stormed the isolated Kansas homestead, he expected to find a band of outlaws. Instead, the only occupant is a heavily pregnant woman--and she's just gone into labor. A loner uneasy with emotion, Jack helps deliver widow Elizabeth Cole's baby girl and can't get back on the trail fast enough. The robber and murderer he's after killed one of Jack's own, and he vows to catch the man. But when he returns to check on Elizabeth and her little one, he discovers that she may hold the key to his unsettled past--and his hoped-for future.

Sunday, June 10 / 11 a.m. The book group Books and Bagels will discuss The Well and the Mine by Gin Phillips (Riverhead Books, $15.00). In a small Alabama coal-mining town during the summer of 1931, nine-year-old Tess Moore sits on her back porch and watches a woman toss a baby into her family's well without a word. This shocking act of violence sets in motion a chain of events that forces Tess and her older sister Virgie to look beyond their own door and learn the value of kindness and lending a helping hand. As Tess and Virgie try to solve the mystery of the well, an accident puts their seven-year-old brother's life in danger, forcing the Moore family to come to a new understanding of the power of love and compassion.

Sunday, June 10 / 1 p.m. Peter Mayeux will sign Dear Mr. Musemeche: The Early Years (Tate, $12.99). In his reflective and moving book, Mayeux captures the events, emotions, thoughts, and experiences that made his young life full, colorful, and worth living by tracing the close connection that developed between the author when he was a youngster and his favorite store keeper, Mr. Musemeche. Now, many years and miles removed, Peter tells Mr. Musemeche observations about life, death, dangers, heartaches, disappointments, and triumphs that he never got to tell him in person. The stories are told from the author’s current adult perspective, but show how every childhood memory can affect the development of each person’s beliefs, lifestyle, and connections to fellow travelers in life.

Tuesday, June 12 / 6 p.m. Laura Moriaty will sign The Chaperone (Riverhead, $26.95). Only a few years before becoming a famous actress, fifteen-year-old Louise Brooks leaves Wichita to make it big in New York. Much to her annoyance, she is accompanied by a thirty-six-year-old chaperone. Cora Carlisle is a complicated but traditional woman with her own reasons for making the trip. For Cora, New York holds the promise of discovery that might prove an answer to the question at the center of her being, and even as she does her best to watch over Louise in a strange and bustling city, she embarks on her own mission. And while what she finds isn't what she anticipated, it liberates her in a way she could not have imagined. Over the course of the summer, Cora's eyes are opened to the promise of the twentieth century and a new understanding of the possibilities for being fully alive.

Saturday, June 16 / 9 a.m. to noon Paths to Publication, session 4 — Illustration and photography questions will be discussed by Preston McDaniels and David Nieves. Preston McDaniels wrote and illustrated The Perfect Snowman, published by Simon & Schuster, and illustrated books by Cynthia Rylant and Frances O’Roark Dowell, published by Simon & Schuster. See http://authors.simonandschuster.com/Preston-McDaniels/16951409 for more information. David Nieves’ career as a research herpetologist takes him to many amazing places to study and photograph these incredible creatures. David’s photographs are in his two children’s books: Reptiles Up Close and More Reptiles Up Close. See www.angelfire.com/mo2/reptilesupclose for more information. Those interested in participating should contact Ellen Scott at ellen.scott@bookwormomaha.com

Tuesday, June 19 / 6:30 p.m. The International Intrigue Book Group will discuss The Ghosts of Belfast by Stuart Nevillie (Soho, $14.00). Fegan has been a "hard man," an IRA killer in northern Ireland. Now that peace has come, he is being haunted day and night by twelve ghosts: a mother and infant, a schoolboy, a butcher, an RUC constable, and seven other of his innocent victims. In order to appease them, he's going to have to kill the men who gave him orders. As he's working his way down the list he encounters a woman who may offer him redemption; she has borne a child to an RUC officer and is an outsider too. Now he has given Fate--and his quarry--a hostage. Is this Fegan's ultimate mistake?

Thursday, June 21 / 6:30 p.m. The As the Worm Turns Book Group will discuss The Art of Comforting: What to Say and Do for People in Distress by Val Walker (Tarcher, $15.95). In this practical, step-by-step guide to what she calls "the art of comforting," Walker draws on numerous interviews with "Master Comforters" to guide readers in gently and gracefully breaking through the walls that those who are suffering often erect around themselves. All of us will, at one time or the other, be called upon to offer warmth and support to another human being who is suffering--this book will show you how to answer the call with an open heart. Kathe Lyons will facilitate the discussion. Space is limited, so please call to reserve your place.

Saturday, June 23 / 10 a.m. The Civil War Book Group will discuss Bloody Crimes: The Funeral of Abraham Lincoln and the Chase for Jefferson Davis by James Swanson (Harper Perennial, $16.99). As the Yankees approached Richmond on April 2, 1865, Jefferson Davis fled the capital, setting off an intense and thrilling chase in which Union cavalry hunted the Confederate president. Two weeks later, President Lincoln was assassinated, and the nation was convinced that Davis was involved in the crime. Preparing for the largest and most magnificent funeral pageant in American history, soldiers placed Lincoln's corpse aboard a special train to Springfield, Illinois. Along the way, several million mourners watched the funeral train roll by. The saga that began with Manhunt continues as Swanson masterfully weaves together the stories of the two fallen leaders as they make their final journeys through the bloody landscape of a wounded nation.

Saturday, June 23 / 1 p.m. Dawn Marie will sign Diary of an Online Dating Junkie (WriteLife, $15.95). After more than 15 years of marriage, Dawn Marie's got a divorce, a daughter, and a dilemma. Diary of an Online Dating Junkie chronicles, in hilarious and heartwarming detail, the real life journey of a woman who finds herself looking for love online. The road is bumpy and filled with incredible highs, like a shiny new Porsche, and devastating lows, like an empty bank account and a rock hard bed in a tiny trailer. Dawn takes her experiences in stride and it doesn't take long for her to realize that finding true love might just be the most difficult test of her life.

Monday, June 25 / 2 p.m. The World War II History Book Group will discuss With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa by Eugene Sledge (Presidio Press, $16.00). Sledge became part of the war's famous 1st Marine Division-3d Battalion, 5th Marines. Even after intense training, he was shocked to be thrown into the battle of Peleliu, where "the world was a nightmare of flashes, explosions, and snapping bullets." By the time Sledge hit the hell of Okinawa, he was a combat vet, still filled with fear but no longer with panic. Based on notes Sledge secretly kept in a copy of the New Testament, With the Old Breed captures with simplicity and honesty the experience of a soldier in the fierce Pacific Theater. Here is what saved, threatened, and changed his life. Here, too, is the story of how he learned to hate and kill--and came to love-his fellow man.

Tuesday, June 26 / 6:30 p.m. The Crime Through Time Book Group, formerly the History/Mystery Book Group, will discuss City of Shadows by Ariana Franklin (HarperCollins, $14.99). In 1922 Berlin, one of the troubled city's growing number of refugees, Esther Solomonova survives by working as secretary to the charming, unscrupulous cabaret owner. She's being drawn against her will into his scheme to pass a young asylum patient off as Anastasia, the last surviving heir to the murdered czar of all Russia. But their found "princess," Anna Anderson, fears that she's being hunted--and this may turn out to be more than paranoia when innocent people all around her begin to die.

Wednesday, June 27 / 6 p.m. Larry Baker will sign Love and Other Delusions (Ice Tea Books, $14.95). This is the story of a married woman's long-term affair with a younger man as told by two women, one of whom is crazy. In Alice's world, it all made sense. She told her husband, "I stopped cheating on you when I started sleeping with Danny." He finally understood, but too late. Alice Marcher is dying, but she is still trying to understand her life. She was thirty when she met Danny Shay. He was eighteen. Two years later, they were sleeping together. Twenty years later, they parted. Alice insisted, "It lasted so long, so it must have meant something, right? We weren't a cliche, were we?"