Preview Shelf by Janice Clauser

Library News and Notable New Books

Still Time to Join Adult Summer Reading - "Take Your Chances at the Library" is the summer reading challenge for adults at the Crawfordsville Library on 205 SouthWashington Street. The first prize winners have been notified; they are Chris A., Angela B., and Debra W. Weekly prizes will lead up to the Grand Prize. The winner will be chosen from those finishing ten books by July 29th. Throwing dice results in the kind of book to be read, such as fiction, CD or tape, or non-fiction in one of the following genres: suspense, fantasy, western, romance, comedy, or your choice of subject. This way the book selection becomes a creative challenge too.

"Examined Lives" by James Miller contains short lively biographies of 12 famous philosophers from Socrates to Nietzsche confirming the continuing relevance of learning about philosophy and especially about what it means to live a good life. Ralph Keyes' "Euphemania" discusses "mild or indirect expressions instead of those that are harsh or unpleasantly direct (euphemisms)", and he writes about the surprising and inventive ways these phrases are created and enter our language. According to Guy Kawasaki, "Enchantment" is the art of changing hearts, minds, and actions, converting hostility into civility, and changing skeptics and cynics into believers. In "The Social Animal" David Brooks takes a couple from infancy to school, through adulthood to leadership, revealing the social aspect of the mind and exposing the bias in modern culture that influences individualism and IQ, while also trying to demolish conventional success by looking toward a culture based on trust and humility. A look at the four points of the compass, the high Arctic to Antarctica and across the tropics from the Caribbean to the west Pacific looking at the natural world of Eskimos, bears, and reefs, "The View from Lazy Point" by Carl Safina reveals the importance of human progress seeing the world as a sacred place.

"Masters of the Game" by Kim Eisler takes us inside the world's most powerful law firm, Williams & Connolly, focusing on five members and their cases like David Kendall's winning acquittal for President Clinton in the impeachment saga. "Cricket Radio" is John Himmelman's discussion of the creatures that lure and warn, hearing each other, attracting potential mates, warning off competitors, and evading predators.

Several new novels with Amish plots are "Rachel's Garden" by Marta Perry, "The Bridge of Peace" by Cindy Woodsmall, and "The Journey" by Wanda Brunstetter. The Amana Colonies are featured in "Somewhere to Belong" and "More than Words" by Judith Miller. "The Raven's Bride" by Lenore Hart is a novel that adds to the legend of Edgar Allan Poe and his ill-fated marriage. "Letters from Home" by Kristina McMorris is a World War II Greatest Generation romantic fiction.

"Miles to Go" by Richard Evans finds an injured former-executive kept from his plan to walk cross-country; a lady befriends him and they both search for hope to heal each other. "The Farm" by Walter Honsinger is about some destitute acreage where communal effort at a rural market might save it. Daniel Abraham's "The Dragon's Path" is book one of the Dagger and the Coin, a fantasy about Free Cities and the Severed Throne.

Interesting studies include "Oceana" which is Ted Danson's well-illustrated essay about endangered bodies of water and what we can do to save them. "The Complete Book of Mustang: Every Model Since 1964 1/2" is a suave and colorful catalog of automobile history. Another gem is "Weaponry: An Illustrated History" by Chuck Wills in association with the Berman Museum of World Art in Anniston, Alabama, featuring the vast collection of Colonel Farley Berman (1910-1999).