Preview Shelf by Janice Clauser

Library News and Notable New Books

The Crawfordsville Library's book club "Deweys Do" will meet Monday, November 8th at 6:30 p.m. to discuss Haven Kimmel's "A Girl Named Zippy", the clever biography-tale by a clever 45-year-old poet-writer with beguiling humor and story-telling abilities. She thinks her epitaph should be "She was ridiculous." She writes this book, set in east-central Mooreland, Indiana, from the viewpoint of her younger self. You're invited to borrow a copy and join the discussion. For more information, please feel free to call the circulation desk at (765)362-2242.

Now comes information about new library books. Making faithful choices about food, energy, and shelter is the theme of "Walking Gently on the Earth" by Lisa McMinn and Megan Neff , listed as a field guide for Christians who want to honor God with every decision as they traverse this world. "Losing My Religion" is William Lobdell's journey of doubt as a religion reporter for a major newspaper, trying to understand the faithful who have bad behavior. Bruce Wilkinson's "You Were Born for This" lists seven keys to a life of predictable miracles. He says almost everyone can point to an event in life that seemed directly orchestrated by Heaven, and he analyzes the value of praising that event and using it to go forward.

"Austin" and "Garrett" are two books about rodeo cowboys from Linda Miller's trilogy called McKettricks of Texas. "Infamous" is Suzanne Brockmann's contemporary romance/suspense story of the filming of a Wild West legend. Kim Sawyer's "A Hopeful Heart" depicts Kansas in 1888 when an Eastern, "dowryless" girl enters a school which will teach her to become a rancher". "Fortunate Harbor" by Emilie Richards is about five women's friendship and their "lifeline-road" in a run-down Florida development called Happiness Key. "Hardball" by Sara Paretsky follows a missing persons investigator tracking down a forty-year-old case of a man lost in a blizzard in the midst of Chicago's racial unrest.

Emily Brightwell's "Mrs. Jeffries Speaks Her Mind" is the product of the "Miss Marple of Victorian Mystery" according to The Paperback Forum. When eccentric Olive is killed after insisting people were trying to harm her, Mrs. Jeffries goes into action. Jamie Freveletti's "Running from the Devil" finds a capable runner thrown unhurt from a plane crash in Venezuela who's able to watch crimes against the other passengers. "The Girl Who Played with Fire" by Stieg Larsson is his second "Girl Who" book where a crusading publisher defends a friend accused of two murders.

Romances are popular too. Keri Arthur's "Moon Sworn" introduces a werewolf-vampire heroine, who, in a normal setting, strives for good answers. In "One Day" by David Nicholls, it is 1988 and for twenty years a man/woman relationship will be analyzed each July 15th. "Rushed to the Altar" by Jane Feather is the first part of a trilogy The Blackwater Brides set in the Georgian period when a surviving nephew must rescue and marry a fallen woman in order to claim his inheritance. "Out of Mind" by Stella Cameron is about her character’s paranormal talents which endanger a business owner being stalked by dark forces in New Orleans.

"Morning's Refrain" by Tracie Peterson is the second installment of Song of Alaska. A new arrival, transplanted from the East, joins a small orchestra but otherwise she feels isolated until a buried secret and two special men enter her life. Part two of Home to Blessing is "No Distance Too Far" by Lauraine Snelling telling about a young missionary who has trouble staying with her dream. "Dead Until Dark" by Charlaine Harris is one of nine Sookie Stackhouse novels about the waitress who can read minds. Then there's the vampire boyfriend. All of it is wrapped up in a rural Louisiana atmosphere.