Library News and Notable New Books

With best wishes to all, the Crawfordsville District Public Library will be closed Friday, Dec. 24, Saturday, Dec. 25, and Sunday Dec.26.

Here are books to consider on Monday. Wes Gehring's "Carole Lombard: The Hoosier Tornado" is the inaugural volume in The Biography Series from the Indiana Historical Society Press. The third in the series "James Dean: Rebel with a Cause" by Gehring is also available.

John Le Carre's "Our Kind of Traitor" is a novel expressing understanding of the world we live in, and studying where power really lies, as a couple's casual new acquaintance involves them in a world-wide chase involving the British Secret Service. "American Vampire", a cartoon story, contains two intertwined tales about a new kind of vampire, a species born in the American West and powered by the sun, a monster more powerful and vicious than anything before; authors Scott Snyder and Stephen King join artist Rafael Albuquerque, colorist Dave McCaig, and letterer Steve Wands in this production. "Devil Dog" by David Talbot is the amazing true story of the man "who saved America", a "pulp history" "that leaps off the page" bringing the life of Smedley Butler forward with text-history and some pages of cartoons.

Two new books about World War II are "The Hitler I Knew" memoirs of the Third Reich's Press Chief Otto Dietrich, and "Deathride" - Hitler vs. Stalin: The Eastern Front, 1941-1945" by John Mosier; the German invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941 began a war that lasted almost four years and created by far the bloodiest theater of that war.

"Successful Dog Breeding' is the complete handbook of canine midwifery by Chris Walkowicz and Bonnie Wilcox.

In Laura Lippman's "I'd Know You Anywhere" a convicted kidnapper/killer writes to his victim who feels she must respond because he's extra-dangerous when ignored. This tale is labeled a "psychological manipulation". "The Athena Project" by Brad Thor announces that the world's most elite counterterrorism unit has just been challenged at a new level as a Delta Force female quartet must hunt down a Venetian arms dealer who has explosives in Rome." The Spider's Web" by Margaret Coel combines history and mystery as an Arapaho attorney and a mission priest find themselves on opposite sides of an investigation. "Port Mortuary" by Patricia Cornwell begins when Kay Scarpetta finds herself ensnared in a gruesome case of hate crimes against two Americans in South Africa.

The cover of "Edge" by Jeffery Deaver shows a ripped rope. The CIA/FBI is challenged when a ruthless "lifter" seeking information by whatever means necessary faces a federal protection officer who is protecting the family he's chasing, and the officer must plan their meeting.

An autistic boy who's bullied is defended by a cheerleader in "Unlocked" by Karen Kingsbury. Two New Hampshire girls who share their birthday work to find their places in the world and learn who they are during the period from the 1950s to today in "The Good Daughters" by Joyce Maynard. Book III of Marta Perry's Pleasant Valley Series is "Anna's Return" in which an Amish girl returns home with a baby after three years in the English world. "Summer's Child" by Diane Chamberlain takes us to a North Carolina beach home challenged when an eleven-year-old's family adopts an abandoned newborn baby.

Preview Shelf by Janice Clauser

Library News and Notable New Books

New Christmas Books in 2010 - This Annual December Column features the year's new Christmas books now available for borrowing at the Crawfordsville Public Library. They're collected upstairs in the second stack beyond the elevator. (Children's holiday books are displayed on the east wall in the youth department.)

"The Battle for Christmas" is a cultural history of the holiday, a Pulitzer Prize finalist by Stephen Nissenbaum. "The History of the Snowman" by Bob Eckstein tells who made the first snowman, who first came up with snowballs on top of each other, who decided to use a carrot for a nose; you'll also see illustrations, from the Dark Ages' first such creation to today's cartoons, toys, and ads. "The True Saint Nicholas: Why He Matters to Christmas" is William Bennett's story featuring legends from around the world.

Phyllis Good's "Fix-It and Forget-It Christmas Cookbook" shares 600 slow-cooker holiday recipes while "Christmas All Through the House" from Gooseberry Patch has 600 food and decorating tips. Kerry Greenwood's "Forbidden Fruit" mystery features a bakery owner who detests Christmas. The cover of a book of Texas hill country recipes called "The Pastry Queen Christmas" by Rebecca Rather boasts "The IACP Cookbook Awards Winner" seal.

Debbie Macomber's "Call Me Mrs. Miracle" (a Hallmark movie) shows us a department store owner with a tragic past hoping for a profitable Christmas to keep his business going; with creative skill Mrs. Miracle rescues him and a penniless woman. Richard Evans' "The Christmas List" explores what could happen if you found your own obituary published before dying, by telling a new tale symbolizing the transformation of Ebenezer Scrooge into a man with love in his heart. In Donna VanLiere's "The Christmas Secret" a hard-working divorced mother in the process of losing her home saves the life of an elderly woman.

In "A Dog Named Christmas" Gregory Kincaid writes how one special dog changes the lives of his adoptive family and an entire town. "The Dreaded Feast" is a collection of famous authors' writings about the holidays; one example is "Christmas Shopping: A Survivor's Guide" by Dave Barry.

In "Holly Blues" by Susan Albert an unwelcome holiday guest creates a thorny situation for ex-lawyer and current herbalist China Bayles, known as "a leader among female sleuths". Linda Howard's "Ice" tells of a serviceman home for the holidays who helps his sheriff-dad by braving a storm to aid a former girl friend. James Thompson's "Snow Angels", an Inspector Vaara novel, takes us to Lapland just before the holiday, the bleakest time there above the Arctic Circle, where a Somali immigrant is found dead in a snowfield.

"The Unfinished Gift" by Dan Walsh writes of an old man without his son and a young boy without his father; set in December, 1943, it offers the young boy's prayers, a shoe box of love letters, and a half-carved toy soldier, long forgotten.

Diana Palmer tells two stories in "The Winter Man"; "Silent Night Man" is Millie's Christmas present, as he is able to protect a lady from her stalker, while "Sutton's Way" is about a fortunate meeting between a rancher-single father and a stranger stranded in a blizzard.

Preview Shelf by Janice Clauser

Library News and Notable New Books

Come Shopping! - The final 2010 book sale offered by The Friends of the Library begins at 9 a.m., Saturday, December 11 in the lower level of the Crawfordsville District Public Library. The extensive collection makes holiday gifts available for the price of a donation to the cause, thanks to those in the community who donate books and other items. The project is an achievement of library wisdom, volunteer management, and community generosity, making it a perfect recycling project. You can also purchase good-looking book bags with Velcro envelopes for library cards.

"Democracy, Liberty, and Property" is a new volume donated by the Liberty Fund for the historical American Books collection, and it covers constitutional conventions convened in New York, Massachusetts, and Virginia in the 1820s to address policy issues like suffrage, legislative apportionment, governmental structures, and freedom of religion; the editor is Merrill D. Peterson. Two other additions to this special collection are "A Letter Concerning Toleration and Other Writings" by a writer at the dawn of the Enlightenment and Oxford academic John Locke (1632-1704) and Gordon Wood's "Empire of Liberty", part of The Oxford History of the United States series, a history of our early Republic, 1789-1815.

"Explorers": Great Tales of Adventure and Endurance" is a Smithsonian great-book " taking the reader into the worlds of some of the most intrepid people ever known." Their lives are captured in the context of their times. The smaller square-shaped book "Citizens of the Sea" showing the wondrous creatures from the "census" of marine life written by Nancy Knowlton is issued by National Geographic. "Forest Forensics" is Tom Wessels' field guide to "reading" the forested landscape.

"Abraham Lincoln" by James McPherson marks the two-hundredth anniversary of Lincoln's birth with a short biography, "the best concise introduction to Lincoln in print." "The Making of Hoosiers" is Gayle Johnson's work showing "how a small movie from the Heartland became one of America's favorite films."

Bob Woodward's "Obama's Wars" provides an intimate and sweeping portrait of the young president as commander in chief, drawing on internal memos, classified documents, meeting notes and interviews with many of the key players. Steven Rattner's "Overhaul" is an insider's account of the Obama administration's emergency rescue of the auto industry. Robert Reich's "After-Shock" is a new reading of the economic crisis, and a plan for dealing with the challenge of its aftermath. He thinks the situation is precarious. In "The Treatment Trap" Rosemary Gibson contends that the overuse of medical care is wrecking our health and suggests what we can do to prevent it.
"Shakedown" the continuing conspiracy against the American taxpayer, by Steven Malanga, says the bill is coming due for all our public spending and bigger government. "Bad Sports" is Dave Zirin's essay about how he thinks team owners are ruining the games we love.

Three books from Popular Mechanics editors are "The Boy Scientist: 160 extraordinary experiments & adventures", "The Boy Camper: 160 outdoor projects and activities", and "The Boy Mechanic: 200 classic things to build".

Preview Shelf by Janice Clauser

Library News and Notable New Books

Bob Congleton offers two Bee Days - This Saturday, December 4, is the first-ever Bee Day at the Crawfordsville Library, featuring local owner of hives Bob Congleton, who will teach beekeeping skills. All are invited (8 to 17 year olds accompanied by parent, others to age 120 on their own). From 9 a.m. to noon, he'll also be teaching their history and the current problems of honeybees that he is working to solve. This sweet schedule is also offered Saturday, December 11th. What an opportunity for 4-H members, and those seeking a worthwhile new hobby!

Here we present newly requested books. The historical Tudor England novel "Wolf Hall" by Hilary Mantel takes us to the ruthless arena of King Henry VIII's court, where only one man dares to gamble his life to win the king's favor and ascend to the heights of political power. "The Fort" by Bernard Cornwell is a novel of the American Revolutionary War, recreating the little-known Penobscot Expedition, the worst naval disaster in early American history. "Fall of Giants" by Ken Follett follows the fates of five interrelated families, American, German, Russian, English, and Welsh, through the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the struggle for women's suffrage. Danielle Steel's "Legacy" is a centuries-spanning story weaving together the lives of two women, one a modern academic writer, and the other a daring young Sioux Indian of the 18th century. "The Man Who Ate His Boots" is Anthony Brandt's fictionalized version of the British Admiralty's search for the Northwest Passage.

Nicholas Sparks has issued "Safe Haven" presenting a mysterious young woman struggling with a dark secret, a past that sets her on a terrible journey across the country. Tracie Peterson's "Summer of the Midnight Sun" is Book One of her Alaskan Quest wherein an early "love" returning after many years brings about a crisis. "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert is a book (now a movie) about a woman's sojourns in Italy, India, and Indonesia as she searches for everything. Fern Michaels' "Cross Roads" begins when the Sisterhood receives a presidential pardon. Now their private jet is hijacked leading to a hard choice of assignments. "Wicked Appetite" by Janet Evanovich features a man with great skill and a hunger for the forbidden feeling entitled to possess anything he might desire. Stuart Woods' "Santa Fe Edge" offers a successful New Mexican attorney whose longtime enemy wants to beat him at his game. Anne Tyler's "Noah's Compass" follows a schoolteacher forced to retire at 61 from his fifth-grade career seeking his future. "Freedom" by Jonathan Franzen shows us an environmentally-wise couple, surprised by family decisions and forced to learn how to live in our ever more confusing world.

"Naked Heat" by Richard Castle covers a gallery of suspects with motives for killing the most feared muckraker in Manhattan. Harlan Coben's "Back Spin" is a classic Myron Bolitar story: the sports agent and sometime sleuth studying a teenager's disappearance find a family whose secrets explode into murder. Carolyn Haines' "Bone Appetit" is a Sarah Booth Delaney story that finds Sarah at a spa for pampering, where the top contender in a competition is poisoned and the suspect hires Sarah to clear her name. "Feed" is a science fiction story by Mira Grant taking place in 2014 as a dark conspiracy behind a new infection is the result of curing previous plagues. "Brains" is "a zombie memoir" by Robin Becker and its description says, "College-professor-cum-zombie… is a different breed of undead - he can think. In fact, he can even write. And the story he has to tell is a truly disturbing, yet strangely heartwarming one."