Preview Shelf by Janice Clauser

Library News and Notable New Books

The Library offers additional parking space - Crawfordsville Library Director Larry Hathaway has opened the new parking lot for patrons to use, although the signage and landscaping have yet to be added.

A new art book from Indiana University is "T. C. Steele & The Society of Western Artists - 1895-1914" by Rachel Perry. It explores the ways today's Indiana artists are finding success. Besides the text, eleven pages are dedicated to "our" local artist, Steele. One is a photo of him and Selma Steele in their living room at the House of the Singing Winds. One shows that house just after construction. One shows his painting shack in a nearby ravine. Paintings included are "The Mysterious River" "Girl at the Piano", "Lost Cove, Tennessee" "Afternoon at the Ford", "Gordon Hill", "In the Whitewater Valley", "The Old Mill", "Mount San Bernardino", "the Cloud", "An August Morning", and "Zinnias". An appendix lists his paintings exhibited from 1896-1915. By contrast, "Tiny Art Director" by Bill Zeman shows us a toddler and her vision of the best art her father should be making, namely whimsical, cartoon-pictures. The child's instructions and the father's reactions and drawings make this a charming little read.

Here are novels about the past. A religious Sister is thrust into an ancient conflict between the Society of Angelologists and the monstrously beautiful descendants of angels and humans, the Nephilim in "Angelology" by Danielle Trussoni. "The Surrendered" by Chang-rae Lee profiles a successful woman deciding to confront her past in war-ravaged Korea; her story shows the nature of heroism and sacrifice. "The Lotus Eaters" by Tatjana Soli becomes a reminiscence of the past when a couple faces the fall of Saigon in 1975. Two books by Tracie Peterson come from her historical fiction Brides of Gallatin County series; number two is "A Love to Last Forever" set in 1879 and number three is "A Dream to Call My Own" about 1881 on the rugged Montana frontier. "Fields of Grace" by Kim Sawyer shows immigrants on an 1872 Kansas homestead. "Alice I Have Been" is Melanie Benjamin's first historical novel, the life story of "the real Alice" who at ten-years-old urged a grown-up friend to write his fanciful "Alice in Wonderland". "The Hidden" by Tobias Hill is a terror thriller centered in Greece in 2004 when a group of archaeologists searches for buried traces of a formidable ancient power.

Robyn Carr's romance novels, "Moonlight Road" and "Angel's Peak" are segments of her Virgin River series. Susan Wiggs' romance "The Summer Hideaway" comes from her Lakeshore Chronicles; the prologue begins in Korengal Valley, Kunar province, Afghanistan.

"Boulevard" by Bill Guttentag "reveals a dark slice of L.A. life that most have never heard about" according to screenwriter Scott Frank. Joshua Ferris' "The Unnamed" is about a Manhattan lawyer who dotes on his wife and daughter, but suddenly walks away. "Where the God of Love Hangs Out" by Amy Bloom offers groups of connected short stories about families and friendships. "One D.O.A., One on the Way" is Mary Robison's "effortlessly smart and deliriously off-kilter" novel that keeps the reader guessing to the end, focusing on a couple with the names Adam and Eve. In Walter Mosley's "Known to Evil" an experienced NYC cop finds himself the prime suspect in a crime he's trying to solve. "The Ask" by Sam Lipsyte is a novel of many subjects behind a man's responsibility to obtain a huge donation for his university. "American Salvage" by Bonnie Campbell is a group of stories of rural Michigan .