Preview Shelf by Janice Clauser

Library News and Notable New Books

As the month of January concludes, and the activity comes to a close, "membership" in the Children's Winter Reading Program at the Crawfordsville Library numbers 120. For a few more days, visitors can see their individual snowman posters built part-by-part by reading books.

Past Indiana Secretary of Commerce Michael Maurer's "19 Stars of Indiana: Exceptional Hoosier Women" is a new book offering unusual and stimulating biographies of achievers you'd like to know personally.

The rest of this column is about fiction. Edward Cline's "Sparrowhawk: Caxton" focuses on two Englishmen who come to colonial Virginia as dedicated revolutionaries. "A Measure of Mercy" is Lauraine Snelling's first volume of Home to Blessing that begins in June, 1903. Francine Rivers' "Her Daughter's Dream" spans the period from the 1950s to present day, recalling the Cold War and the counterculture of San Francisco, as it concludes the Christian series called Her Mother's Hope. In "On Folly Beach" by Karen White a woman buys a South Carolina bookstore to distract her from the loss of her husband in Afghanistan.

"Hell's Corner" by David Baldacci (in large print) deals with a bomb detonated in Lafayette Park in front of the White House the night of a state dinner honoring the British prime minister. Lee Child's Reacher novel "Worth Dying For" exposes deadly trouble connected with an unsolved decades-old case of a missing child in the corn country of Nebraska. "The Confession" by John Grisham answers how a man can convince lawyers, judges, and politicians that he's guilty and that they're about to execute an innocent man.

Iain Banks' "The Crow Road" is a "boisterous tale of exotic family secrets, torturous love affairs, and what it really means to become your own man".
Robyn Carr's "The House on Olive Street" shows four close friends drawn together while sorting through the personal effects of their recently lost friend. Jan Karon's "In the Company of Others" is a Father Tim novel based in Ireland when a retiring priest takes his wife to the home of his ancestors. Monica Ferris' "Sins and Needles" shows a sleuth and a needlework shop owner working to solve a murder by using an old knit pillow full of clues. The large print "A Thread So Thin" is a Cobbled Court novel by Marie Bostwick about a Connecticut quilt shop.

Nora Roberts' "Happy Ever After" is Book Four in the Bride Quartet about two friends who run a wedding planning company. Sophie Kinsella's "Mini Shopaholic" tells a hilarious tale of married life, toddlerhood, and the perils of trying to give a fabulous surprise party on a budget. "Bones of Contention" a Dinah Pelerin mystery by Jeanne Matthews takes place in the Australian outback at a country house party attended by Americans.

Stephen Donaldson's modern fantasy "Against All Things Ending" is the 3rd and final part of The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. "Fragile" by Lisa Unger is a thrilling story of a quaint town outside New York City, where a young girl disappears in circumstances similar to another disappearance years ago, and investigations reveal, yes, a long-buried town secret.

Preview Shelf by Janice Clauser

Library News and Notable New Books

Becky M., Busy New Reference Librarian - Becky has been duly welcomed to the Reference Department staff at the Crawfordsville Library, having volunteered in tech services as well as among the book shelves. A native of Lafayette, she has loved reading as long as she can remember. She earned her BA degree at Purdue University in creative writing, and now has completed her Master of Library Science degree at IUPUI. Becky's special reading choices are fiction, history and biography, and more recently science fiction and fantasy. You'll enjoy having her help you upstairs.

The heaviest book I've weighed to date (6 1/2 pounds) is "Insects: Their Natural History and Diversity" with a photographic guide to those of eastern North America written by Stephen Marshall. "Field Guide to Insects and Spiders of North America" comes from Arthur Evans published by the National Wildlife Federation. The National Audubon Society's "Field Guide to Rocks and Minerals" is compact yet complete. (Kind of interesting: heavy books about insects and spiders, a little book about rocks.) The library has also received two new anthologies: "The Princeton Encyclopedia of Birds" and "of Mammals", the latter a huge catalog with enormous amounts of really interesting information.

Medical books begin with the 2010 edition of The Complete Test Preparation for "Medical Assistant" from Learning Express which includes a practice exam. "Beating Gout" comes from Victor Konshin. "The Truth about Obamacare" is written by Sally Pipes. Annie Paul's new book is "Origins: How the Nine Months before Birth Shape the Rest of Our Lives".

"Dream Walker" is a journey of achievement and inspiration by Bernard Harris, Jr. the first African-American to walk in space (February 9, 1995); He takes the reader from his formative years in the Navajo Nation into outer space and back to Earth. His medical work and his Harris Foundation are helping to improve American education. Wes Gehring's biography "Steve McQueen: The Great Escape" follows the actor from a troubled youth into becoming one of Hollywood's top box-office stars in the 1960s and 70s.

Michael Korda's life and legend of Lawrence of Arabia called "Hero" recounts the extraordinary, mysterious, and dynamic Englishman's daring exploits and romantic profile made him fascinating and famous the world over. Edmund Morris has completed the third part of a trilogy; "Colonel Roosevelt" follows "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt" and "Theodore Rex". This third part recounts the last decade of "perhaps the most amazing life in American history. What other president has written forty books, hunted lions, founded a third political party, survived an assassin's bullet, and explored an unknown river longer than the Rhine?"

Keith Richards, the cofounder of the Rolling Stones, writes "This is the Life. Believe it or not, I haven't forgotten any of it." inside the cover of his biography "Life". Robert Coram offers "Brute: the Life of Victor Krulak, U.S. Marine" who according to the author is the most important officer in the history of the U. S. Marine Corps, going on daring spy missions during the second Sino-Japanese War, helping develop the landing craft that General Eisenhower proclaimed "won the war for us" (WWII) and continually thriving in the thick of military life.

Preview Shelf by Janice Clauser

Library News and Notable New Books

The Library is Keeping Children Busy - Children's Librarian Karen Record reports that in the first week of its First Annual Winter Reading Program, the Youth Services Department at the Crawfordsville Library has signed up 79 children, toddlers through 5th graders. The goal is to read 14 books, winning prizes on the way, and building a snowman part-by-part on the three huge posters which offer each participant display space. Come any time through January to participate. Library hours are 9-9 Mondays through Thursdays, 9-5 Fridays and Saturdays, Sundays 1-5.

New books take us back to our American leaders. In "There I Grew Up: Remembering Abraham Lincoln's Indiana Youth" President Lincoln's skills are revealed through the words of those who knew him. This Indiana Historical Society Press book comes from William Bartelt from his years of experience with the Lincoln Boyhood Memorial and service as Vice Chair of the Indiana Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission.

Ron Chernow's "Washington: A Life" has "a breadth and depth matched by no other one-volume life" of our First President, Chernow sees his "fraught relationship with his crusty mother, his youthful infatuation with the married Sally Fairfax, and his often conflicted feelings toward his adopted children and grandchildren". But Chernow also respects his political genius to inspire people, which was so important in shaping the new nation.

How about reading "Pops" a biography of Louis Armstrong, by author and Wall Street Journal drama critic Terry Teachout? Publishers Weekly says the "portrait reminds us why we fell in love with Armstrong's music in the first place." "Condoleezza Rice" is the former Secretary of State's autobiography of her extraordinary, ordinary family, with memories addressed to young people. "Hollywood's Original Rat Pack" by Stephen Jordan gives us a view of the group that included John and Lionel Barrymore, Errol Flynn, W. C. Fields, Anthony Quinn, Ben Hecht, John Carradine and Burgess Meredith. They became known as the Bundy Drive Boys for their individuality, uniqueness, sentimentality, and carefree and reckless activities as Tinseltown's original troublemakers.

A far earlier individual who wrote free-roaming explorations of his thoughts unlike anything written before, perhaps because of his bizarre upbringing and travels, is a study of French literary giant Michel Eyquem de Montaigne in Sara Bakewell's "How to Live". There's also Marlo Thomas' "Growing up Laughing", her autobiography as daughter of TV and nightclub star Danny Thomas, and as actress-comedienne wife of Phil Donahue.

Then there's serious stuff with brilliant thoughts about the universe in Stephen Hawking's "The Grand Design". "Kubrick's Hope" is Julian Rice's study of Stanley Kubrick's optimism given in his film "2001", and whose "Eyes Wide Shut" questioned the world of logic.

Other kinds of books begin here. Gregory Benford and editors of Popular Mechanics have made the entertaining "The Wonderful Future That Never Was" a book about flying cars, mail delivery by parachute, and other predictions from the past.

"The Warmth of Other Suns" is Isabel Wilkerson's epic story of one of America's great migrations, this time the story of black citizens who from 1915 to 1970 fled the South for northern and western cities in search of a better life. She writes of general experiences and of certain individuals' thriving through their courageous and sustained work ethic.

Preview Shelf by Janice Clauser

Library News and Notable New Books

The circulation department of the Crawfordsville Library is offering a new service. Lighted, hand-held magnifiers are now available to our patrons as a gift from The Friends of the Library. Some have 3X (3-times), some 3.5X and some 4X magnification. You can use your library card to check one out for 28 days, and you are allowed one renewal. Each one is light-weight, approximately 6 to 6 1/2 inches long with a 3-inch diameter magnifier. There are no electrical cords to be bothered with as each one is battery-operated. So, if you have difficulty reading regular or large print, talk to one of the Circulation staff or call 362-2242, extension 2. How fortunate that the Friends of the Library and the library staff are working together to provide ever more helpful services.

Here's an old book I never knew about! Louisa May Alcott wrote "Little Women and Werewolves" and we now have a paperback copy to loan. Alcott's first draft of "Little Women" has been exhumed in which the March girls learn some biting lessons, just as their neighbors transform from gentlemen into blood-thirsty werewolves! "This rejuvenated classic will be cherished and beloved by those who enjoy a lesson in virtue almost as much as they relish a good old-fashioned dismemberment."

"Making our Democracy Work" by Supreme Court justice Stephen Breyer discusses how the Court must go forward to maintain public confidence by interpreting the Constitution in a way that works in practice, applying unchanging constitutional values to ever-changing circumstances.

"The Caretaker of Lorne Field" by Dave Zeltserman has a fantasy plot about a field, which if left untended grows a monster capable of taking over the entirety of America in two weeks. Catherine Coulter's "The Valcourt Heiress" is set in medieval England when the Black Demon invades castle walls looking for certain silver pieces. Fact by fact, this plot is explained.

In "The Reversal" by Michael Connelly a convicted child killer, imprisoned for 24 years, is granted a retrial based on new DNA evidence, and a defense attorney crosses the aisle to work for the prosecution. The book jacket says this thriller has "the nerve and timing of a whole SWAT team". Another thriller is "American Assassin" by Vince Flynn. It begins, "Before he was considered a CIA superagent, before he was thought of as a terrorist's worst nightmare, and before he was both loathed and admired by the politicians on Capitol Hill, Mitch Rapp was a gifted college athlete without a care in the world…and then tragedy struck." Steven Havill's "Race for the Dying" set in early Washington State finds a newly arrived doctor's mule pitching him into a tidal pool, and his recovery takes place as he finds his would-be physician partner involved in a scam. Robert Parker's "Painted Ladies" is a Spenser novel with a map of the Boston area. Hired to provide protection during a ransom exchange of money for a stolen painting, our hero must enter into a daring game of cat-and-mouse with the thieves.

"The Thorn" by Beverly Lewis is the first volume in her new series called "The Rose Trilogy", about Amish sisters divided by one sister's impulsive marriage to an outsider. "Beachcombers" by Nancy Thayer is about a bittersweet reunion of three very different sisters on Nantucket Island.

New nonfiction offers a workbook called "The Biggest Loser" the program to transform your body, health, and life, featuring stars from the NBC hit show as well as recipes and instructions. "Choosing to See" by Mary Beth Chapman is an inspiring book about raising children, how fears can be overcome with hope, how everyone can walk with a deeper trust that God is good. "Stalling for Time" is Gary Noesner's life story as an FBI hostage negotiator. He's had some powerful adventures.

Preview Shelf by Janice Clauser

Library News and Notable New Books


The Library's New eAudiobook Service - How would you like to download free audiobooks for your computer or your portable device? The Crawfordsville Public Library has just "rolled out" this new service.

Visit the library to set up an account called NetLibrary. First, log in on a library computer or your own laptop using your library card's barcode. On the library's home page, click on the NetLibrary link at the top of the homepage and then click on "Create a Free Account" in the upper right hand corner to create your account. Once you've created your account, you can download eAudiobooks anywhere at anytime.

One way to use this service for the first time is to log on to NetLibrary and click on the Downloads image, which will take you to a page where NetLibrary helps you decide how to download. These books "check out" for three weeks and you can renew them once for an additional three week period. The eAudiobook knows when it is due and will not play beyond the due date without being renewed.

Note: eAudiobooks are not eBooks. EAudiobooks are books you can listen to; they cannot be burned to a CD. The neat thing about these audiobooks is that you don't need to return them once they "expire".

At the library, ready-to-borrow new books begin with "The Best American Short Stories-2010" edited by Richard Russo & Heidi Pitlor, a collection from U.S. and Canadian Magazines. The series began in 1978 and the list of distinguished yearly editors is fun to read; this volume has 20 stories, with biographies of its authors.

"Death by Black Hole: and other Cosmic Quandaries" by Neil Tyson is "full of fascinating tidbit and frequently humourous essays by one of today's best popularizers of science". Bill Bryson's "At Home" is called A Short History of Private Life; it is an intricate history book and his wit and prose fluency make this, like all his books, entertaining. Mark Vonnegut's "Just like Someone without Mental Illness Only More So" is a memoir, a funny account of coping with mental illness and his calling as a pediatrician. "A Dark Matter" by Peter Straub is an intense psychological and intriguing story labeled "a chilling tour de force". Susan Wiggs' "The Mistress" is Volume Two of her Chicago Fire Trilogy. (The library also has the third volume.)

Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose's "The Nature of Space and Time" is the much publicized account of two approaches to some of the greatest unsolved problems of gravitation and cosmology. "Hawking's effervescent sense of humour frequently enlivens the text." Classic literature joins Facebook as Sarah Schmelling writes what favorite characters and authors like Shakespeare, Jane Austen and James Joyce say there. The book is "Ophelia Joined the Group Maidens Who Don't Float".

Let’s finish this column with mysteries. Jayne Ann Krentz’ "Witchcraft" has a cover displaying a red rose with a needle through the blossom. In the plot this was left on the doorstep of a mystery writer who asks a Napa Valley vineyard owner for help with her fear. "A Nose for Justice" is the first novel in a new series from Rita Mae Brown; leaving a Wall Street career for a Nevada ranch, our heroine and her wire-haired dachshund join her great-aunt and her German Shepherd mix to rediscover history in the late 1800s.