Preview Shelf by Janice Clauser

Library News and Notable Newer Books

There is a new blog developed by the Crawfordsville Library's reference department. Find local history gems on the library's website at www.cdpl.lib.in.us and then click on the line below "Local History@ CDPL". You'll find an original letter by Susan Elston Wallace, and if you click twice on that image, the writing will look large enough to read. This is just the first step in the unique adventure. Have fun.

Here are new commentaries available for borrowing. "Hack the Planet" by Eli Kintisch talks about science's best hope, or worst nightmare, for averting climate catastrophe. He explains some risky ideas of "geoenginering" research that could be quick and cataclysmic: collapsing ice sheets, megadroughts, a methane release, and a slowing of the global ocean conveyor belt. On a different bent, "Ark of the Liberties" examines our country's history to influence the way we think about our place in this century's world; Ted Widmer explains the direction we must take to be true to our ideals and regain the respect we've lost. "The Rational Optimist" by Matt Ridley argues against the automatic pessimism that prevails in intellectual life. How wealth, mental as well as material, evolves and spreads is a fundamental question for our times. Robert Nagel's "Unrestrained" argues that the problem with modern America's legal entities is cultural and political, that justices have degraded our political discourse, intensified social conflict, and drained moral confidence. "The Beauty Bias" is Deborah Rhode's essay on the injustice of appearance in life and law; she explores our cultural preoccupation with attractiveness, the costs it imposes, and the responses it demands, and says we can do far more to promote realistic and healthy images of attractiveness.

William Irvine's "A Guide to the Good Life" is the ancient art of stoic joy; he says that despite all our effort many of us discover at the end that we have wasted our life. He shows how to attain tranquility. "Absence of Mind" by Marilynne Robinson talks about the tension between science and religion and how our concept of mind determines how we understand and value human nature. She champions individual reflection. "Making your Education Work for You" by Gordon Green offers his proven system for success in school and for getting the job of our dreams. In "The Necessity of Art" Ernst Fischer writes that he likes art for the magic inherent in it.

This week's first fiction, "The Island" by Elin Hilderbrand, tells about a summer of upheavals and revelations when the mother-of-a-bride, after all her intricate preparations, finds the girl has canceled her engagement. After several disturbing events, the family comes together on a remote island where lots of truths are uncovered amid heartache, laughter, and surprises. "The Choice" by Suzanne Fisher is Book 1 of Lancaster County Secrets and uncovers the sweet simplicity of the Amish world and how it's never too late to find God. "Father of the Rain" by Lily King spans three decades of a family dealing with divorce, especially an independent daughter's change of attitude towards her charismatic but alcoholic father.

A murderous game of cat and mouse, a complex plot, and a commentary on social justice combine in Stieg Larsson's "The Girl Who Played with Fire". "Lucy" by Laurence Gonzales takes us to the Congo where a primatologist studying pygmy chimpanzees is running for her life when a civil war explodes. "The Long Ships" by Frans Bengtsson is epic historical fiction adventure on land and sea resurrecting the Tenth Century AD when the Vikings roamed and rampaged from northern Scandinavia down to the Mediterranean. "Savages" by Don Winslow pits young kingpins against a Mexican drug cartel.

Preview Shelf by Janice Clauser

Library News and Notable New Books

A study of Indiana feathered friends is now available at the Crawfordsville Library. John Castrale's "Atlas of Breeding Birds in Indiana" is the result of many participants' observations over a six-year period. Statistics show the presence of many species in each county, and a state map is used to show populations. You can check up on your favorite bird. For instance, the Pileated Woodpecker prefers wooded areas and its "centers of occurrence" are reported around Turkey Run and Shades State Parks.

New books featured this week are historical in coverage and contemporary in subject. It's always fun to start with books about books. Margaret Willes' "Reading Matters" covers five centuries of the discovery of books. It recalls how until recently, books were luxury items, and the author examines how people acquired and read books from the 16th century forward, (early examples of "shopping and reading"), and her ideas are entertaining. Next comes Charles Hill's "Grand Strategies" about literature, statecraft, and world order and it demonstrates how certain key issues have driven planning and statecraft. Believing that a grand strategist needs to be immersed in classic texts, he discusses books from Homer to Rushdie, "Gulliver's Travels" to "A Tale of Two Cities".

The imperial expansion of Europe across the globe was one of the most significant events to shape the modern world, as the dramatic clash of peoples and beliefs led to the "Protestant Empire" by Carla Pestana. Heroes, martyrs, and the rise of modern mathematics are combined in Amir Alexander's "Duel at Dawn" which argues that not even the purest math can be separated from its cultural background.

Another book that considers the past and explains the confusion of debate is "Coming Climate Crisis?" by Claire Parkinson. Eight centuries of financial folly are surveyed by Carmen Reinhart & Kenneth Rogoff in "This Time is Different"; they give a roadmap of how things are likely to pan out in the years to come. Eric Dolin records the history of American fur trade in "Fur, Fortune, and Empire". Arnaldo Testi's "Capture the Flag: The Stars and Stripes in American History" uses diverse sources like Walt Whitman and Jimi Hendrix and events like the American Revolution, the moon landing, and September 11th to show the importance of the flag while illustrating the often conflicting meanings different Americans give it. "Colossus" by Michael Hiltzik tells about the Hoover Dam and the making of the American century by putting thousands of men to work in a remote desert canyon. Corralling the raging Colorado River was a symbol of national pride needed during the Great Depression. Last is "Afghanistan" a cultural and political history by Thomas Barfield from its Mughal Empire in the 16th century to the Taliban resurgence today.

One of three new novels is much-honored David Mitchell's "The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet". In 1799 to Nagasaki, Japan's single port and only window onto the world, comes Jacob who has five years to earn a fortune in the East in order to win the hand of his wealthy fiancee back in Holland. "So Cold the River" by Michael Koryta (part-time Bloomington resident) finds a documentary artist investigating a domed hotel just restored to its former grandeur where hallucinations draw him into an evil history.

"Mr. Lincoln's Forts" by Benjamin Cooling III and Walton Owen II is a guide to the Civil War defenses of Washington. The symbol of Union determination, as well as a target for the Confederates, the capital had a shield of fortifications, 68 enclosed forts, 93 batteries, miles of military roads, and endless support structures guarded by thousands of troops, all described in detail.

Preview Shelf by Janice Clauser

Library News and Notable New Books

Winners Drawn to Conclude Adults' "Readopoly" - Prizes were awarded to a few lucky participants in the 2010 Crawfordsville Public Library Adult Summer Reading Club titled "Readopoly". The first place winner was awarded tickets to the Vanity Theater and dinner at The Iron Gate, both in Crawfordsville, Indiana. The grand prize winner was thrilled to take home tickets to the Myers Dinner Theater with an overnight stay at the Victorian House in Hillsboro. The whole program was a big success. CDPL Staff and summer reading club winners alike extend their thanks to the businesses and organizations whose prize donations helped make this year’s summer reading club such a big success.

The Library has just received the 11th edition of Frommer's "USA" travel guide, and a group of 2010 Mobil Travel Guides to "Coastal Southeast", "Florida", "Hawaii", "New England", "Mid-Atlantic", "New York", "Northern California", "Northern Great Lakes", "Northwest", "Southern California", and "Texas". There is also Forbes 2010 travel guide labeled "City Guide Chicago". "Golden Gate" by Kevin Starr is the life and times of "America's greatest bridge".

Here are three powerful biographies. Frank McLynn has written "Marcus Aurelius" about the philosopher, soldier, and Emperor (121-180 AD) whose "Meditations" has been compared by John Stuart Mill to the Sermon on the Mount. His life represented the fulfillment of Plato's famous words that mankind will prosper only when philosophers are rulers and rulers are philosophers. Tim McGrath's "John Barry, An American Hero in the Age of Sail" portrays the first Captain of the United States Navy. From County Wexford, Ireland, he arrived in Philadelphia just before the American Revolution and volunteered to fight for the Continental Cause, capturing the first enemy warship and fighting the last battle of the Revolution. Later he opened trade with China. The book cites primary source documents. "High Financier" by Niall Ferguson is the biography of the German refugee to London, banker Siegmund Warburg, whose philosophy of finance was the antithesis of the debt-fueled banking of our own time, and who contributed to the healing of postwar Europe. His business methods and strict ethical code set him apart from speculators and traders, and the book adds his idiosyncrasies gleaned from hitherto unavailable letters and diary entries.

"The Ninth" is Harvey Sachs' research about composer Ludwig Von Beethoven and the world in 1824. Part history, part memoir, this book shows how his then unorthodox music brought forth the power of the individual while celebrating the collective spirit of humanity; it is the work most often used to solemnize an important event like the opening of the United Nations, the signing of peace treaties, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the opening of new concert halls.

S. C. Gwynne's "Empire of the Summer Moon" spans two stories: the rise and fall of the Comanche Indians, and the saga of the pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker and her mixed-blood son Quanah, last and greatest chief of the Comanches. With their greatest fighting abilities, the tribe forced the creation of the Texas Rangers and the advent of the new six-gun weapon designed to fight them.

Two new fictions were requested by patrons. "The Three Weissmanns of Westport" by Cathleen Schine is a novel about a couple who divorce in their seventies. The story is a "playful, devoted, loose-jointed homage to Jane Austen's beloved 'Sense and Sensibility'". Jude Deveraux's Virginia-situated "Scarlet Nights" revolves around the search for a notorious woman criminal in a romantic atmosphere.

Preview Shelf by Janice Clauser

Library News and Notable New Books

Newly Requested Books to Request Online - This is a column of new books requested by Crawfordsville District Public Library patrons. Here's hoping the brief descriptions interest you enough to request them (which you can do online at www.cdpl.lib.in.us > "Search our catalogue"> "Place request").

Nevada Barr's 17th novel "Burn" takes place at the New Orleans Jazz National Historic Park; she always picks these settings for her plots. "The Lake Shore Limited" by Sue Miller is a playwright's story about an imagined terrorist's bombing of that particular train as it pulls into Union Station in Chicago. Another thriller is Iris Johansen's "Shadow Zone", the search for a mysterious lost city much like Atlantis deep in the Atlantic Ocean guarded by hundreds of dolphins. In regular and large print, James Patterson's "Private" the world's most powerful investigation firm, takes on three almost unsolvable crimes by using advanced forensic tools.

The next request "In the Name of Honor" by Richard Patterson tempts us thus: "Home from Iraq, a Lieutenant kills his commanding officer - was it self-defense or premeditated murder?" "The Search" by Nora Roberts shows a canine search-and-rescue volunteer, the only survivor of a serial killer, who finds peace on an island near Seattle, until she's again hunted down. "Live to Tell" by Lisa Gardner is about a Boston family murder, and how three women's lives are connected in unexpected ways as secrets emerge.

Carla Neggers' "The Whisper" begins with an archaeologist's night on a remote Irish island and continues in Boston with ancient rituals used in modern murder. "The Glass Rainbow" by James Burke tells about the murder of seven women in idyllic New Iberia, Louisiana. "Betrayed" by Robert Tanenbaum features an American Eagle on the cover; it begins when the demagogic founder of a Harlem mosque awaits trial in Manhattan.

Tess Gerritsen's "Ice Cold" is set in Kingdom Come, Wyoming, which visitors find suddenly abandoned when they're stranded in a blizzard during a ski trip. "The Perfect Someone" by Johanna Lindsey is billed as a seductive English adventure in which a detested marriage contract turns childhood enemies into passionate lovers. Susan Albert's Great Depression novel "The Darling Dahlias and the Cucumber Tree" features a back cover that says "The Darling Dahlias - the premier garden club of Darling, Alabama - cordially invite you to stop and smell the flowers, have a cup of tea, and solve a murder or two."

Terri Blackstock's "Predator" presents an online killer, so the victim's sister becomes an online persona to bait the criminal on the social network GrapeVyne, run by a college student. "The Lies We Told" by Diane Chamberlain tells of two physician sisters who become opposites after witnessing their parents' murders; the shy one must later save herself after her own hidden survival in another tragedy.

Other kinds of novels begin with "The Homecoming" by Dan Walsh, a World War II story of a widower and returning European Theater veteran who hires a nanny to attend his son, while he reluctantly travels to sell war bonds accompanied by Hollywood starlets. "Remember Me" by Laura Moore takes place on a Virginia horse farm, where a big city model returns after a family tragedy, to face an earlier love. Robyn Carr's "A Summer in Sonoma" shows four suffering friends seeking happier moments who suddenly need each other more than ever. Fern Michaels' "Game Over" follows the ladies of the Sisterhood who face a friend's challenge qualifying for a high government job.

Preview Shelf by Janice Clauser

Library News and Notable New Books

Labor Day is upon us. The Crawfordsville Library will be closed Sunday, Sept. 5 and Monday, Sept. 6. It will open again Tuesday, Sept. 7 at 9 a.m.

Two new books ready for borrowing celebrate the ratification of the19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States 90 years ago, especially "Woman Suffrage and Women's Rights" by Ellen DuBois. "Dreamers of a New Day" by Sheila Rowbotham is a set of biographies and an introduction to women who "invented" the twentieth century, how women came to be "modern", and how they shaped many of the issues that remain at the forefront of 21st century life.

Thomas Hischak's "The Disney Song Encyclopedia" tells about hundreds of famous and not-so-famous melodies from the 1930s to the present. "The Songs of Hollywood" by Philip Furia examines the way music was integrated into the plots of movies from the silent era through the glory years of musicals.

"Art Matters" is Purdue English professor and 2008 Indiana Professor of the Year Robert Lamb's story of Ernest Hemingway's techniques and formative influences as creator of the modern short story. "Twilight at the World of Tomorrow" by James Mauro deals with the 1939 World's Fair amid all the clashing events just before World War II, "a story as incredible as it is inspiring". Jim McDevitt and Eric Juan offer "A Year of (Alfred) Hitchcock: 52 Weeks with the Master of Suspense", a book about his five-decade directing career with details about his films available on DVD. "You Never Give Me Your Money" is Peter Doggett's look at the Beatles' split, "a real page turner" from tragedy to triumphant return. "Furious Love" is Sam Kashner's view of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton's quarter-century love affair. "The A to Z of African American Cinema" comes from Torriano and Venise Berry. Wendy Burden's "Dead End Gene Pool" is an irreverent and darkly humorous memoir about five generations of Vanderbilts; "The rich are different". As the host of the TV show, No Reservations, Anthony Bourdain's "Medium Raw" kitchen confidential investigates controversial figures in food with shocking fun.

A success book is "Living for the Weekday" by Clint Swindall, who tells what employees and bosses need to know about enjoying work and life. "How to Be a Grown Up" by Stacy Kaiser lists ten secret skills everyone should know; one is "Talk is Cheap…Communication, Priceless". Nance Guilmartin's "Healing Conversations" helps with what to say when you don't know what to say. "The Money Book" helps freelancers, part-timers, and the self-employed with a personal finance system formed especially for those with not-so-regular jobs; Joseph D'Agnese and Denise Kiernan spell it out. "Mike and Mike's Rules for Sports and Life" come from Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic of ESPN morning radio.

"iPad, the Missing Manual" is J. D. Biersdorfer's "book that should have been included in the box". A current topic is "At the Crossroads" by Abraham Aamidor tells about Middle America's battle to save the car industry. "The Battle" by Arthur Brooks shows how the fight between free enterprise and big government will shape America's future. In "Murder City" Charles Bowden describes border city Ciudad Juarez and the global economy's new killing fields. Cait Murphy's "Scoundrels in Law" takes us back to the trials of lawyers who served gangsters, cops, starlets, and "rakes" who made the Gilded Age, 1869-1907.