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.