Library News and Notable New Books

Everyone Enjoyed the Pumpkin People - Congratulations to the patron families who created the Crawfordsville Library’s amazing “Pumpkin People” portraying children’s book characters. If you hurry, you might still get to see a bit of their display.

Some rather different stories appeal for fall reading. "The Man in the Rockefeller Suit" by Mark Seal tells about the astonishing rise and spectacular fall of the serial imposter Christian Karl Gerheitsreiter, who came from Germany and over decades stepped in and out of nine identities, charming his way across the U. S. from 1978-2008. An incredible rescue mission from World War II is "Lost in Shangri-La" by Mitchell Zuckoff, who tells of three survivors of a plane crash in Dutch New Guinea mountains threatened by a tribe of superstitious natives who had never before seen a white man or woman. Keith Greenberg's "Love Hurts" is the sad story of a teen romance resulting in a crime carried out against the girl's parents and siblings.

"The Beekeeper's Lament" by Hannah Nordhaus is a study of honeybees and beekeeper John Miller, who offers his bees to farmers otherwise bereft of natural pollinators. In "Intern Nation" Ross Perlin tells about college graduates and others who work for next to nothing "for experience"; he explains "why that boom is perverting workplace practices in locations all around the world." "India" is a portrait-of-a-place by Patrick French who asks, "Is this nation rich or poor?" "Why has its Muslim population, the second largest on earth, resisted radicalization to such a considerable extent? Why do so many children of Indians who have succeeded in the West want to return ‘home’ despite never having lived in India?"

"No Greater Loss: The Guidebook to Today's Grandparents’ Rights" by Neil Taft, "Why You Should Know about Asthma and Other Lung Diseases" by Nicholas DiFilippo, and "Treat Your Own Back" by Robin McKenzie are specialty books available for borrowing. There's also "iPad for Seniors for Dummies" by Nancy Muir.

Here are short story collections. "Pirates: Predators of the Seas" by Angus Konstam begins with stories in the Ancient World, then the Middle Ages, the Barbary Coast, the Spanish Main, the Golden Age, the Far East, even the last Americans, a fanciful picture of our earth ending with dramas & movies, including the actor Johnny Depp's character Captain Jack Sparrow. "Pulse" by Julian Barnes is made up of fourteen tales from all eras of history. Each one has spark and humor. "Bullfighting" by Roddy Doyle features an array of men taking stock of their past glories while being concerned about their place in their world, 13 stories that begin with the title tidbit about four friends who go off to Spain for a vacation. "Orientation" offers nine stories by Daniel Orozco that are unsettling, boundary-crossing, and well fashioned plots.

Singer-song-writer, actor, activist Steve Earle tells about an addicted doctor fortunate to meet a young Mexican immigrant full of blessings for others in "I'll Never Get Out of this World Alive". "The Arriviste" by James Wallenstein expresses influence, power, and isolation built around its main character's individualism. "Doc" by Mary Russell brings up the year 1878 and the peak of Texas cattle trade in Dodge City, Kansas; the death of a mixed-blood boy shocks the part-time policeman named Wyatt Earp. "To Be Sung Underwater" by Tom McNeal is an appealing love story about a woman who leaves her simple life in Nebraska for a fancy place, yet 25 years later longs for her earlier existence and the man she loved then. The Amish tale "Sarah's Garden" is a novel of the Pennsylvania Allegheny Mountains and a gardener who finds herself tempted to marry an "outsider"; this is the first novel in the Patch of Heaven series by Kelly Long.