Preview Shelf by Janice Clauser

Library News and Notable New Books

New Book by Former Coach Now Available - A recent gift to the Crawfordsville Library is "The Battle of Waikiki" written by Thomas Speaker of West Lafayette who was coach for the Linden Bulldogs crowned Montgomery County Champs in 1971. His novel is dedicated "to every senior citizen that is starting a new career". It is a story of a young teenager growing into a responsible adult through his experiences while serving in the United States Army, reflecting Speaker's own military career. The novel tells of the young man's religious growth with appreciation of Father Damien and James Michener's "Hawaii" where Speaker also served. Another new novel is "The Nearest Exit" by Olen Steinhauer, which Stephen King writes is" the best spy novel I've ever read that wasn't written by John le Carre". "American Taliban" by Pearl Abraham depicts a typical upper-middle-class family snared by the forces of history, politics, and faith, with provocative and unsettling consequences.

"Enlightening the World" by Yasmin Khan tells about the creation of the Statue of Liberty, conceived in the aftermath of the American Civil War and the grief that swept France over the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and unveiled in 1886 on Bedloe's Island in New York harbor. "The Great American University" is Jonathan Cole's study of the American research university, arguably the world's most powerful engine of innovation and discovery, yet widely misunderstood and in danger of losing its capacity to improve our lives. Purdue University is included.

"Globish" by Robert McCrum tells how the English language became the world's language, and was "England's greatest contribution to the world. The empire may be gone, but the book explains why the language still rules." (Quote by Malcolm Gladwell) Gail Sheehy's "Passages in Caregiving" offers eight stages, with insight for successfully navigating each one with empathy and intelligence. "To Change the World" is James Hunter's writing about the irony, tragedy, an possibility of Christianity in the late Modern World through "faithful presence" instead of political theologies that often worsen the problems they are designed to solve. "Intellectuals and Society" by Thomas Sowell shows how as a class they affect opinion, how often they've been proved wrong, and how little their views have changed in response to empirical evidence of the dangers of those views.

2009 Man Booker International Prize winner Alice Munro has issued "Too Much Happiness", a group of 10 stories with complex and difficult events, showing "unpredictable ways people accommodate and often transcend what happens in their lives." "Breaking the Rules" by Barbara Bradford takes the reader to New York, Paris, and London, even Hong Kong and Istanbul in a gripping story of courage and revenge. "The Lacuna" by Barbara Kingsolver invites us to the Mexico City of artists Rivera and Kahlo, and to the America of Pearl Harbor, FDR, and J Edgar Hoover, to learn about a man pulled between two nations. "The Dewey Deception" by Ralph Raab includes scenes at the Morgan Library in New York.

"Drink the Tea" by Thomas Kaufman has won the PWA Best First Private Eye Novel competition for his story about seeking one missing person and discovering a ruthless multinational corporation, a two-faced congressman, and a young woman desperate to conceal her past. Another PWA winner Michael Wiley's new book is "The Bad Kitty Lounge" that begins when an unassuming bookkeeper hires a PI to dig up dirt on his wife and her lover. In Lisa Jackson's "Without Mercy", behind an elite boarding school's idyllic veneer is an evil force on a brutal and terrifying mission. Last, "Nashville Noir" a Murder She Wrote mystery by Donald Bain based on the TV series, takes Jessica Fletcher to Music City, USA only to discover that some songs end on a fatal note.