Preview Shelf by Janice Clauser

Library News and Notable Newer Books

Seeking some new entertainment? At the Crawfordsville Library, DVDs are very popular. Here are some new arrivals: "Bolt" (Walt Disney), "Couples Retreat" (Vince Vaughn), "Year One" (Jack Black), "Angels & Demons"(Tom Hanks), "Public Enemies" (Johnny Depp), "The Taking of Pelham 123" (Denzel Washington), "Appaloosa" (Viggo Mortensen), "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Brad Pitt), "The Secret Life of Bees" (Queen Latifah), and "Zombieland" (Woody Harrelson).

James Patterson's new book "The Murder of King Tut" is a nonfiction thriller reopening that "ultimate" cold case. Mitch Albom's "Have a Little Faith" is a true story about a definition of the word "church".

Iris Johansen's "Blood Game" is an Eve Duncan forensic thriller about a Georgia senator's murdered daughter. "The Scarpetta Factor" by Patricia Cornwell poses a huge challenge for the senior forensic analyst at CNN. "Nine Dragons" by Michael Connelly finds a LAPD detective involved in the murder of a store owner whose motto is "Happy is the man who finds refuge in himself". Danielle Steel's "Southern Lights" offers a D.A. in Manhattan assigned to protect her own threatened daughter from a hardened criminal. In Anne Rice’s “Angel Time”, a seraph teaches a contract killer how to learn salvation from 13th century England. Two families awaken to find their little girls missing in "The Weight of Silence" by Heather Gudenkauf; the answer comes from unspoken family secrets.

In Dorothea Frank's "Return to Sullivan's Island" a new college graduate learns how her loyal family and friends can help her adjustment to a serious change in life experience. "Secrets She Left Behind" by Diane Chamberlain also deals with struggles to be healed after a family crisis. "Beach Trip" by Cathy Holton tells how much rich experience comes from a reunion of four friends that begins at a lavish North Carolina setting.

New fiction is located on the "New Books" shelves east of the library entrance outside the reading room. "Generosity" by Richard Powers explores the happiness of a young Algerian woman in a Chicago creative writing class who is a refugee from perpetual terror. "Shades of Blue" by Karen Kingsbury finds a contented fiance suddenly disturbed that he has left his first love. "Half Broke Horses" is a true-life novel by Jeannette Walls about her own grandmother who began helping her father break horses at age five and went on to run a vast ranch in Arizona, raising two children, one of whom is Jeannette's mother who was portrayed in "The Glass Castle".

"Transition" by Iain Banks is science fiction suspended between the dismantling of the Berlin Wall and the fall of the Twin Towers. "Dracula the Un-Dead" by Dacre Stoker is the sequel to the original classic "that will resonate with readers of the original as well as modern fans." "Hard Rain Falling" by Don Carpenter follows the tough adventures of an orphaned teenager living off his wits in the worst area of Portland, Oregon. Robert Hicks' "A Separate Country" is a post-Civil War novel set in New Orleans and based on the love story of Confederate general John Bell Hood and his wife, Anna Marie. "True Blue" by David Baldacci shows a successful D.C. cop attempting to redeem her status after two years in prison.