Preview Shelf by Janice Clauser

Library News and Notable New Books


At the Crawfordsville Library, beginning January 9th, and continuing Jan. 23rd, Feb. 6 and 20th, March 5th and 19th, and April 2nd on the lower level, a series of open meetings on Green Living will be directed by Linda Vernon-Goldman, with no charge involved. She’ll be discussing present-day issues and bringing books for sale.

Remember, too, the invitation to attend beginning knitting classes on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon beginning January 7th. Call the reference desk for particulars, at 362-2242, extension 2.

New fiction is James Patterson's "10th Anniversary" which is announced as follows: "Detective Lindsay Boxer finally gets married. But a missing newborn and a series of violent attacks push the women's murder club back to full throttle before the wedding gifts are unwrapped." "Caleb's Crossing" by Geraldine Brooks takes a shard of little-known history and brings it vividly to life. In 1665, a young man from Martha's Vineyard became the first Native American graduate of Harvard College, and Brooks creates a tale of passion and belief, magic and adventure. "King Arthur's Bones" by Medieval Murderers takes place in 1191 in Glastonbury Abbey where a leaden cross is discovered buried several feet below ground labeled "Here lies buried the renowned King Arthur". Could this be? It’s the central theme that offers a clever and inventive tale.

Molly Peacock's "The Paper Garden" is the biography of Mary Granville Pendarves Delany (1700-1788) who, after a long and active life, created a new art form called mixed-media collage; examples of which then became the cut-paper flower collection called Flora Delanica housed in the British Museum. David McCullough's "The Greater Journey" tells adventures of American artists, writers, doctors, politicians, and architects who set off for Paris in the years between 1830 and 1900 to excel in their work. "A Covert Affair" by Jennet Conant tells about chef Julia Child and her husband Paul Child in the Office of Strategic Services during World War II, recruited by the citizen spy service, slapped into uniform, and dispatched to wage political warfare in remote outposts in Ceylon, India, and China. Julia even went to the mountaintop idyll of Kandy, Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten's headquarters.

Inside stories from America's best cold case investigators, sometimes successful after decades of work are retold in Jack Branson's "Delayed Justice". The memoir "Paper Dollhouse" comes from co-host of the TV show "The Doctors", Lisa Masterson. Ashley Judd's memoir is "All That Is Bitter and Sweet" about her success despite her left-behind childhood, learning forgiveness, interdependence, and activism. "Little Princes" is Conor Grennan's story of fulfilling his promise to save lost children of Nepal who had been taken by child traffickers to an orphanage that abandoned them far from home; he reunited them with their families.

"End Your Addiction Now" is Charles Gant's proven nutritional supplement program to set each of us free from addictions. "Food: The Good Girl's Drug" comes from Sunny Gold who is founder of an online overeating support site. “Strange New Worlds" by Ray Jayawardhana considers life beyond our solar system and the search for alien planets. "Never, Ever, Quit!" about surviving and thriving amidst adversity comes from Jane Hoeppner, widow of the late Indiana University football coach, and designed for anyone who is in need of encouragement.