Preview Shelf by Janice Clauser

Library News and Notable New Books

Trivia Can Be Significant - New at the Crawfordsville Library is "The Indiana Book of Trivia" by Fred Cavinder listing facts by subjects alphabetically. The chapter "Letters" tells "Ben-Hur", famed novel by Lew Wallace, sold only 2,800 copies in the first seven months after it was published, but six years later, in 1886, sales were 4,500 a month, and by 1911 sales had surpassed one million. In 1913 "Sears Roebuck ordered one million copies at thirty-nine cents each for catalog sales." In Football, "In 1967 Indiana State University at Terre Haute became the first college in the nation to install artificial turf on its outdoor football stadium." In War and Warriors, "George Fruits, buried in the Stonebraker Cemetery in Montgomery County, is believed to have been the oldest survivor of the Revolutionary War when he died in 1876 at…114 years, 7 months, and 4 days. He had moved to near Alamo, Indiana in the 1820s and was married to Catherine Stonebraker."

"Building Strong Nonprofits" tells about organizations that can profit from new strategies for growth and sustainability; the group of essays is edited by John Olberding and Lisa Williams.

"Matterhorn" is a novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes who served as a Marine there and was awarded many medals including two Purple Hearts. "A Reliable Wife" by Robert Goolrick tells of a man advertising for a good spouse and a responder claiming to be "a simple, honest woman". Turns out she was planning to kill him and become a wealthy widow. But then, he had a plan of his own (too). "The Patience Stone" (a Persian folklore phrase) by Atiq Rahimi shows a wife caring for a brain-dead husband, hoping he hears her confession under the oppressive weight of Islamic fundamentalism. "By Accident" by Susan Kelly portrays a year in the life of a woman after the accidental death of her teenage son, and how the year provides her with new relationships. Anne Lamott's "Imperfect Birds" finds a "perfect" daughter has lied to her parents, and illustrates how life's traps require us to make new connections. "Elliot Allagash" by Simon Rich is his debut novel about high school, focusing on a transfer student, evil heir to America's largest fortune, full of rampant delinquency and boredom, who decides to transform the school's shyest boy into a popular hero; the story is about all the incredible things money can buy, and the one or two things it can't.

The 1200-page "Christianity" by Diarmaid MacCulloch surveys the "first three thousand years" The book's jacket says "Once in a generation a historian will redefine his field, producing a book that demands to be read… It ranges back to the origins of the Hebrew Bible and covers the world, following the three main strands of the Christian faith." Paul Verhoeven's "Jesus of Nazareth" "breaks down the gospels…and reassembles them into a unique and fascinating reconstruction of the historical Jesus".

Finally, in the large picture book "A Shadow Falls" Nick Brandt says "Photography stokes and channels our fascination and wonder, our curiosity and response to whatever strikes us as exotic, our respect for fearsome power, and our awe in the face of such strange beauties." His own "beauties" are large black-and-white images of the majestic creatures of East Africa.