Wednesday, July 28 / 6 p.m. Michelle Hoover will sign The Quickening (Other Press, $14.95). Enidina Current and Mary Morrow live on neighboring farms in the flat, hard country of the upper Midwest during the early 1900s. This hardscrabble life comes easily to some, like Eddie, who has never wanted more than the land she works and the animals she raises on it with her husband, Frank. But for the deeply religious Mary, farming is an awkward living and at odds with her more cosmopolitan inclinations. But as the Great Depression threatens, the delicate balance of their reliance on one another tips, pitting neighbor against neighbor, exposing the dark secrets they hide from one another, and triggering a series of disquieting events that threaten to unravel not only their friendship but their families as well.

Saturday, July 31 / 1 p.m. Jeffrey Martin will sign Deadly Demented (Vanilla Heart, $13.95). Homicide Detective Kelli Jordan is called to investigate a grisly murder at a local gentleman's club, where the woman's death is only the beginning. Detective Jordan discovers a truth so revealing, it leads her to seek out someone who is familiar with how the killer operates. Will her newfound friend be able to help her end the madman's reign of terror, or does Lucifer, once again, slip away into the night?

Wednesday, August 4 / Noon - 1 p.m. What Are You Reading? book chat. Join us to chat about favorite reads, books that changed our lives, or the book we just couldn’t put down. No need to make reservations--just come and enjoy a little conversation about books. Carol Lynch will facilitate the discussion

Saturday, August 7 / 1 p.m. Chloe Neill will sign Twice Bitten (New American Library, $15). Shapeshifters from across the country are convening in the Windy City, and as a gesture of peace, Master Vampire Ethan Sullivan has offered their leader a very special bodyguard: Merit, Chicago's newest vampire. Merit is supposed to protect the Alpha, Gabriel Keene-and to spy for the vamps while she's at it. Oh, and luckily Ethan's offering some steamy, one-on-one combat training sessions to help her prepare for the mission. Unfortunately, someone is gunning for Gabriel, and Merit soon finds herself in the line of fire. She'll need all the help she can get to track down the would-be assassin, but everywhere she turns, there are rising tensions between supernaturals-not least between her and a certain green-eyed, centuries-old master vampire.

Sunday, August 8 / 11 a.m. The new book discussion group Books and Bagels will discuss The Help by Kathryn Stockett (Penguin, $24.95). In Jackson, Mississippi, in 1962, there are lines that are not crossed. With the civil rights movement exploding all around them, three women start a movement of their own, forever changing a town and the way women--black and white, mothers and daughters--view one another. Please sign up at the sales desk or by phone, 402-392-2877.

Thursday, August 12 / 6 p.m. Amiable Adult Readers Discussing Books Almost Always Read by Kids (Aardbaark) will discuss 100 Cupboards by N .D. Wilson (Yearling, $6.99). Twelve-year-old Henry York wakes up one night to find bits of plaster in his hair. Two knobs have broken through the wall above his bed and one of them is slowly turning . Henry scrapes the plaster off the wall and discovers cupboards of all different sizes and shapes. Through one he can hear the sound of falling rain. Through another he sees a glowing room-with a man pacing back and forth! Henry soon understands that these are not just cupboards, but portals to other worlds.

Thursday, August 12 / 6 p.m. Jon Cotner and Andy Fitch will sign Ten Walks/Two Talks (Ugly Duckling Press, $14). Ten Walks/Two Talks updates the meandering and meditative form of Basho's travel diaries. Mapping 21st-century New York, Cotner and Fitch tap their predecessor's collaborative tendencies in order to construct a descriptive/dialogic fugue. The book combines a series of sixty-minute, sixty-sentence walks around Manhattan and a pair of dialogues about walking--one of which takes place during a late-night philosophical ramble through Central Park.

Saturday, August 14 / 10 a.m. The Sherlock Holmes Book Club will discuss "The Blue Carbuncle", a short story from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Penguin, $14). All Sherlockians, old or new to the canon, are welcomed. And if you don't know the difference between the canon and a pastiche, don't worry, just an enjoyment of the game is all that's needed.

Sunday, August 15 / 1 p.m. A new book discussion group International Intrigue will discuss The Corpse in the Koryo by James Church (Minotaur, $14.95). Church weaves a story with beautifully spare prose and layered descriptions of North Korea and a people he knows well after decades as an intelligence officer. This chilling portrayal leaves readers wondering if what at first seems unknowable may simply be too familiar for comfort. Date and time for future meetings and books to read will be discussed. Please sign up at the sales desk or by phone, 402-392-2877.

Wednesday, August 18 / 6 p.m. John Rector will sign The Cold Kiss (Forge, $24.99). All Nate and Sara want is a new life in a new town, away from the crime and poverty of their past. So, after being approached at a roadside diner by a man offering $500 for a ride to Omaha, they wonder if their luck might be changing. At first it seems like easy money, but within a few hours the man is dead. Now, forced off the road by a blizzard and trapped in a run-down motel on the side of a deserted highway, Nate and Sara begin to uncover the man's secrets. Who he was, how he died, and most importantly, why he was carrying two million dollars in his suitcase. Before they know it, Nate and Sara are fighting for their lives, and in the end, each has to decide just how far they are willing to go to survive.

Thursday, August 19 / 6:30 p.m. The As the Worm Turns Book Discussion Group will discuss Scent of the Missing: Love and Partnership with a Search-And-Rescue Dog by Susannah Charleson (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $26). Scent of the Missing is the story of Charleson and her Golden Retriever Puzzle's adventures together and of the close relationship they forge as they search for the lost. From the earliest air-scent lessons to her final mastery of whole-body dialog, Puzzle emerges as a fully collaborative partner in a noble enterprise. Along the way Susannah and Puzzle learn to read the clues in the field, and in each other, to accomplish together the critical work neither could do alone and to unravel the mystery of the human/canine bond. Patricia Newman will facilitate the discussion. Space is limited, so please call to reserve your place.

Saturday, August 21 / 1 p.m. Jim White will sign The World Is a Safe Place (Twiasp Press, $25). The World Is a Safe Place is a personal journey of self-discovery and triumph of the human spirit, filled with beautiful images and earth-shaking examples of great healing and personal and professional transformation. "Being alive is about being aware of yourself and demonstrating each moment what you choose to be!"

August 23 / 2 p.m. The World War II History Book Discussion Group will discuss OSS: The Secret History of America's First Central Intelligence Agency by Richard Smith (Lyons, $16.95). The Office of Strategic Services, headed by William "Wild Bill" Donovan, fought the good fight against the Axis powers of Germany and Japan, carrying out some of the most fantastic and fascinating operations the U.S. government has ever conducted. Smith, an ex-CIA hand, documents the controversial agency from its conception to reconfiguration as the CIA.

Saturday, August 28 / 2 p.m. Rachel Shukert will sign Everything Is Going to Be Great: An Underfunded and Overexposed European Grand Tour (Harper Perennial, $13.99). When she lands a coveted nonpaying, nonspeaking role in a play going on a European tour, Rachel Shukert--with a brand-new degree in acting from NYU and no money--finally scores her big break. And, after a fluke at customs in Vienna, she gets her golden ticket: an unstamped passport, giving her free rein to find herself on a grand tour of Europe. Traveling from Vienna to Zurich to Amsterdam, Rachel bounces through complicated relationships, drunken mishaps, miscommunication, and the reality-adjusting culture shock that every twentysomething faces when sent off to negotiate the real world--whatever that may be.

Wednesday, September 1 / Noon - 1 p.m. What Are You Reading? book chat. Join us to chat about favorite reads, books that changed our lives, or the book we just couldn’t put down. No need to make reservations--just come and enjoy a little conversation about books. Carol Lynch will facilitate the discussion

Monday, September 6 The Bookworm will be closed for Labor Day.

Tuesday, September 7 / 6:30 p.m. Benjamin Herson will sign The Great Typo Hunt: Two Friends Changing the World, One Correction at a Time (Harmony, $23.99). Armed with markers, chalk, and correction fluid, they circumnavigated America, righting the glaring errors displayed in grocery stores, museums, malls, restaurants, mini-golf courses, beaches, and even a national park. Jeff and Benjamin championed the cause of clear communication, blogging about their adventures transforming horor into horror, it's into ts, and coconunut into coconut. Beneath all those misspelled words and mislaid apostrophes, Jeff and Benjamin unearthed deeper dilemmas about education, race, history, and how we communicate. Ultimately their typo-hunting journey tells a larger story not just of proper punctuation but of the power of language and literacy--and the importance of always taking a second look.

Thursday, September 9 / 6 p.m. Amiable Adult Readers Discussing Books Almost Always Read by Kids (Aardbaark) will discuss The Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages (Puffin, $7.99). In this award-winning debut novel, 11-year-old Dewey Kerrigan is traveling west on a train to live with her scientist father, but no one will tell her exactly where he is. It is 1943 and her destination is New Mexico, where scientists are working on the Manhattan Project.

Saturday, September 11 / 10 a.m. The Sherlock Holmes Book Club will discuss "The Speckled Band", a short story from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Penguin, $14). All Sherlockians, old or new to the canon, are welcomed. And if you don't know the difference between the canon and a pastiche, don't worry, just an enjoyment of the game is all that's needed.

Saturday, September 11 The Bookworm will sell books at An Evening with Anthony Bourdain at the Holland Performing Arts Center. Call 345-0606 or see http://www.bourdainlive.com/ for more information

Sunday, September 12 / 11 a.m. The new book discussion group Books and Bagels will discuss Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas (St. Martin’s Griffin, $13.99). During World War II, a family finds life turned upside-down when the government opens a Japanese internment camp in their small town. Part thriller, part historical novel, this novel is a riveting exploration of the darkest--as well as the best--parts of the human heart. Please sign up at the sales desk or by phone, 402-392-2877.

Sunday, September 12 / 1 p.m. Nancy Rips will sign High Holiday Stories (Frederick Fell, $14.95). The High Holidays are the most important festivals of the Jewish year, and all Jews have their own memories of these special days. It’s a time to remember, a time to be with families, and a time to tell stories about past generations. And you don’t need to be Jewish to appreciate this, because the 21st century is a much smaller world, with many different faiths coming together. High Holiday Stories is filled with 101 heartfelt holiday remembrances, from famous people, and some only known in their own circle of family and friends. They recount varied Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur experiences, from observing the holiday in the Colorado Rockies to Army bases in Iraq, even online. The stories come from people of all ages, all professions, from New York to California, New Zealand to England.

Thursday, September 16 Discover great new books for your book club during The Bookworm's ANNUAL BOOK CLUB OPEN HOUSE. Representatives from publishing houses will join Diana and The Bookworm staff in sharing great new suggestions for book clubs. Tom Leigh from Macmillan and Jon Mooney from Penguin Putnam will give presentations at 6:30 p.m. Registered book club members will receive 20% off purchases. Please save the date on your calendar and contact Diana Abbott for more information, 402-392-2877.

Thursday, September 16 / 6:30 p.m. The As the Worm Turns Book Discussion Group will discuss Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré (Scribner, $16). A modern masterpiece in which le Carré expertly creates a total vision of a secret world, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy begins George Smiley's chess match of wills and wits with Karla, his Soviet counterpart. It is now beyond doubt that a mole, implanted decades ago by Moscow Centre, has burrowed his way into the highest echelons of British Intelligence. His treachery has already blown some of its most vital operations and its best networks. It is clear that the double agent is one of its own. George Smiley is assigned to identify him. And once identified, the traitor must be destroyed. Lee Myers will facilitate the discussion. Space is limited, so please call to reserve your place.

Saturday, September 18 / 1 p.m. Laura Daniel will sign Web of Truths (Xlibris, $13.95). In Web of Truths, Daniel has woven a plot of secrets held, and secrets revealed, with all of their conflicts and consequences. As the story opens with a tragic shooting and suicide at the local school, conflicts emerge within the Shugate family. When Ethan Shugate learns that his boy, Toby, proves not to be a victim of the shooting, after a case of mistaken identity, he resolves to turn his life around, realizing how fragile life can be.

Wednesday, September 22 / 6 p.m. David Herlihy will sign The Lost Cyclist: The Epic Tale of an American Adventurer and His Mysterious Disappearance (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $26). Frank Lenz dreamed of cycling around the world. In the spring of 1892 he set out west to cover twenty thousand miles over three continents as a correspondent for Outing magazine. Two years later, after having survived countless near disasters and unimaginable hardships, he disappeared in eastern Turkey. Herlihy's gripping narrative captures the soaring joys and constant dangers accompanying the bicycle adventurer in the days before paved roads and automobiles. This untold story culminates with efforts to bring Lenz's accused murderers to justice, even as troubled Turkey teetered on the edge of collapse.

Saturday, September 25 / 1 p.m. Greg Hall will sign Traffic Control (Mokuhina, $7.99). A fatal accident destroys former rock star Carl Patterson's quest to turn his life around and make peace with his estranged daughter. His search for answers uncovers a secret worth killing for, putting him on a collision course with a man that does whatever it takes to win

Monday, September 27 / 2 p.m. The World War II History Book Discussion Group will select books for discussion in future meetings

Thursday, September 30 / 7 p.m. Mary Helen Stefaniak will sign The Cailiffs of Baghdad, Georgia (Norton, $24.95). Gladys Cailiff is eleven years old in 1938 when a new, well-traveled young schoolteacher turns a small Georgia town upside down. Miss Grace Spivey believes in field trips, Arabian costumes, and reading aloud from her ten-volume set of The Thousand Nights and a Night. The real trouble begins when she decides to revive the annual town festival as an exotic Baghdad bazaar, transforming the lives of everyone around her. Populated by unforgettable characters--including three impressive camels--The Cailiffs of Baghdad, Georgia rides a magic carpet from a segregated schoolroom in Georgia to the banks of the Tigris (and back again) in an entrancing feat of storytelling.

Saturday, October 2 / 1 p.m. Sandra Brannan will sign In the Belly of Jonah (Greenleaf, $14.95). Liv Bergen becomes involved in the investigation of the murder of Jill Brannigan, a summer intern at the limestone mine Liv manages near Fort Collins, Colorado, a breathtaking setting that unwittingly becomes an accessory to crime. In doing so, she inadvertently puts her friends, her family, and herself at risk of being swallowed in the belly of a madman bloated with perverse appetites for women, surrealistic art, and renown.

Postponed: Omaha photographers Tracy Raver and Kelley Ryden will sign Sleeping Beauties: Newborns in Dreamland (Sellers Publishing, $29.95). The sister’s photographs of babies at rest, nestled in soft surroundings, are pure magic. Their lens has captured newborns as they inhabit that magical place - a world where past and future dreams come together in an ethereal realm. In most instances, the babies portrayed are brand new and on their way home for the very first time. It is in this state of newness, of transition from their warm cocoon of the past nine months to their journey of a new life, that they capture the newborns as they slumber, dream, and awaken to their new surroundings

Pet adoption programs

The Bookworm welcomes well-behaved pets on leashes. We host the following pet adoption programs with the Nebraska Humane Society http://www.nehumanesociety.org/, Hearts United for Animals, http://www.hua.org/ and local rescue groups http://www.nebraskaanimalrescue.org/.

Golden Retriever Rescue – first Saturdays at 10 a.m.

Doberman Rescue – third Saturdays at 11 a.m.

Greyhound Rescue - fourth Sundays at Noon

Nebraska Humane Society - first, second and fourth Thursdays at 11 a.m.

Children’s Summer Activities at The Bookworm

Wiggleworms (our youngest readers – the under 5 crowd) — Storytime here as always, Thursdays at 10 a.m

Newbery Book Discussion for 4th to 6th graders – Thursdays at 3 p.m. These readers will choose past and present Newberys, Golden Sowers, Battle of the Books and whatever other great reads the group can decide on together! Alternating Thursdays

ARC Book Discussion Groups – The ‘Worm BookClub Room — 3 p.m. Both groups will read Advanced Reading Copies sent by the publishers for upcoming titles. Bookworm staff and publishers are interested in feedback!!

Alternating Wednesdays — Middle School (just out of 6th grade & up)

Alternating Wednesdays beginning June 9 — High School (just out of 8th grade & up)

Tuesdays, August 3 and 10 at 10 a.m. Puppet workshop with Anna and friends. Learn to make puppets and put on a show. Ages 7 and up. Sign up in the store.

Tuesday, August 24: Bagels and Books…….Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins goes on sale. Stop by at 7 a.m. for a bagel and some juice on the way to school and get your copy. Mockingjay is the final book in the Hunger Games Trilogy. You can call any time to reserve your copy of the book.

Friday, August 27: The Wimpy Kid Ice Cream Truck will be stopping by to hand out purple popsicles. The truck will be here from 5 p.m. until 6:30 p.m. You can’t miss the purple truck. At 6:45 p.m. on the very same day, Friday, August 27, we will be hosting Amy Ignatow, author of The Popularity Papers. This fun book has a lot in common with The Wimpy Kid Series. Stop by and meet the author.

September 23, 24, 25….It’s Teacher Weekend. Beginning Thursday, September 23 at 3:30 p.m. We will have lots of free ‘stuff’ for teachers, counselors and librarians. Your teacher discount will apply to anything in the store and we will have a drawing for some special door prizes. Stop by and see us.

September 25-October 2: Banned Books Week. The Bookworm will be hosting a celebration of banned books with a ‘read-in’. Stop by, discover some of the books people have tried to ban in the last few years and join our ‘read-in’. More information to follow.

We realize that family vacations, camp, and any number of other events compete for time in the summer. Please attend whatever you can of the above events! BUT we would love to know which sessions in which you may be interested so we can prepare materials and staff. Please call 392-2877 and talk to us in the Children's Department