Preview Shelf by Janice Clauser

Library News and Notable New Books

Theodore Roosevelt’s “Letters to His Children” brings the reader joy and laughter at his affection for his four sons and the care he took in writing them about what he was doing, whether hunting, hiking, or waging war with Spain. “How to Hike the A.T.: the nitty-gritty details of a long-distance trek” by Michelle Ray would have delighted T.R. as she helps the neophyte or experienced hiker with all the details to make a long-distance hike on the Appalachian Trail pleasant. Tom Brokaw’s “The Time of Our Lives: A Conversation about America” discusses “who we are, where we’ve been and where we need to go to recapture the American dream”. Simon Winchester tells all about the “Atlantic”, its great sea battles, heroic discoveries, titanic storms, and a million stories. “This is a biography of a tremendous space that has been central to the ambitions of explorers, scientists, and warriors, and continues profoundly to affect our character, attitudes, and dreams.”

“Coach Wooden” by Pat Williams, lists the seven principles that shaped this outstanding man’s life, and they will happily influence yours. This is a book we can all benefit from. From that small volume we move on to Zara Steiner’s “The Triumph of the Dark” which is European international history from 1933-1939; she shows that the era of Hitler’s rise to power, an ascent bent on war, was founded on ideologies which democratic perceptions could neither penetrate nor arrest. It’s a powerful1200 pages. “Socrates: A Man for Our Times” by Paul Johnson explores fifth-century B.C. Athens, the geopolitics of the time, the wars, and Socrates’ service as a soldier, his family, and his wide range of acquaintances. “Gluten-Free Makeovers” has 175 recipes by Beth Hillson; she admonishes, “Substitute boldly and eat well!

The novel “Count to a Trillion” by John Wright is the kind of “space opera” to fill our minds with intriguing possibilities, ideas that blend mythology, machine and human evolution, mathematics, space travel, and theories of human survival and potential. A novel of the near future by Will McIntosh is “Soft Apocalypse” about a group of ordinary people confronted by the fall of their own civilization. Dean Koontz’ “77 Shadow Street” harbors nightmare visions in The Pendleton, at the highest point of an old city, a Gilded Age palace built as a tycoon’s dream home. Rechristened in the 1970s as a luxury apartment building and a place of peace, later mysterious things happen like elevators plunging into unknown depths, and not-quite-humans in the basement.

The brutal realities and grinding poverty of life on the isolated archipelago of St. Kilda in the 1830s comes back as a powerful story in Karin Altenberg’s “Island of Wings”. “Death Benefit” by Robin Cook is a medical thriller of cutting edge research that will absorb you.

Novels requested by patrons begin with “The Dead Witness”, a collection of Victorian detective stories edited by Michael Sims, gathering together adventures of private investigators and police detectives from the 19th and early 20th centuries. ”Kill Shot” by Vince Flynn features the Arc de Triomphe on the cover; a CIA trained hotshot is killing the monsters responsible for the Pan Am Lockerbie attack one by one.

Preview Shelf by Janice Clauser

Library News and Notable New Books

Crawfordsville District Public Library librarians Jodie Steelman Wilson, Emily Griffin Winfrey, and Rebecca McDole have co-authored a book titled “Hidden History of Montgomery County.” The book introduces obscure local characters, including a vaudeville actor, a record-holder for highest altitude in a hot air balloon, and a special firedog. A display highlighting their book can be seen on the second floor of the library.

A new world history book is Simon Montefiore’s “Jerusalem” which names the city “the shrine of three faiths, the prize of empires, the site of Judgment Day and the battlefield of today’s clash of civilizations” and “the only city that exists twice – in heaven and on earth.” “Killing Lincoln”, retelling the shocking assassination that changed America forever, is Bill O’Reilly’s historical thriller. “Fire on the Horizon” reviews the Gulf Oil Disaster of 2010; in it John Konrad takes us on a journey around the world, and then gives us an up-close view of one of the worst environmental disasters in recent history. Jon Winokur’s “The Garner Files” is an intimate memoir of the actor John Garner’s six-decade career, including being the first Oklahoma draftee of the Korean War, for which he received two Purple Hearts.

“Boomerang” by Michael Lewis explains and illustrates how cheap credit between 2002 and 2008 tempted entire societies to indulge without limit. Susannah Charleson’s “Scent of the Missing” is about a partnership with a search-and-rescue dog. “The American Bird Conservancy Guide to Bird Conservation” by Daniel Lebbin identifies species and environments.

The new edition of “Fundamentals of Nursing: Standards & Practice” by Sue DeLaune is now available. Other healthy books are “1-2-3 Magic for Christian Parents: Effective Discipline for Children 2-12” by Thomas Phelan, a well-researched report on the deadly pathogen “Superbug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA” by Maryn McKenna, and the guide for teens called “Take Control of ADHD” by Ruth Spodak.

Common sense is stressed in “Who Says Bullies Rule?” by Catherine DePino, “You are Not so Smart” by David McRaney (about ways we delude ourselves), and “Terrorists in Love: The Real Lives of Islamic Radicals” by Ken Ballen.

New knitting books are “Knitting Scarves from Around the World” with 23 patterns edited by Kari Cornell, and “Spin Control”, Amy King’s techniques for spinning the yarn you want. How about “Origami Architecture”? This book includes models of the world’s most famous buildings made of paper, showing how to create three-dimensional paper structures!

A pair of travelogues are “The Rough Guide to Kenya” from Rough Guides, and “Pawnee: The Greatest Town in America” by Leslie Knope, deputy director of the hit television show “Parks and Recreation”.

Three new mysteries have just arrived. Patricia Cornwell’s “Red Mist”, a Scarpetta novel, is her 19th novel featuring chief medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta. In this installment, Kay, while driving through Savannah’s Low country, agrees to meet with an inmate at the Georgia Prison for Women to learn how her former deputy chief had died. In Michael Connelly’s “The Drop” LAPD detective Harry Bosch faces two murder investigations at once. Stephen Cannell’s “Vigilante” concerns a crime with ties to the world of reality TV.

Preview Shelf by Janice Clauser

Library News and Notable New Books

New historical research comes from Linden (Indiana) author Ruby Gwin. Her third book release is “World War II: Two Different War Fronts, Two Sets of Brothers”. Perhaps her husband’s reunion in 2001 with some 250th Field Artillery “brothers” motivated her to document family war records now available for borrowing at the Crawfordsville Library. Ruby’s husband Carl served in the European Theater as a surgical medic, first in General Patton’s Third Army, later transferred to the Seventh Army under General Patch, while his brother Bill was a hospital medic in The Pacific Theater. Experiences in the Pacific also belonged to her uncles: Wilson (Willie) Brummett in the 38th Infantry Division of the Indiana National Guard, and Alfred Brummett in the U. S. Air Force. Other local names are Max Devitt, U.S. combat engineer, and Joe Hinesley (Hinesley Jewelers), captured by the Germans while in the Fifth Army before Omaha Beach. Reading this book re-alerts us to the unexpected experiences facing each combatant in each American war. We learn that “There were 16,354,000 U.S. men and women who served in combat during World War II.” (p. 256). We all need such reminders of the service of our military personnel.

Editor Geraldine Brooks’ “The Best American Short Stories, 2011” holds 20 tightly-crafted tales which connect good characters, universal truths, and humor. She describes this book as “walking into the best kind of party, where you can hole up in a corner with old friends for a while, then launch out among interesting strangers.”

“A Strange Wilderness” by Amir Aczel portrays thoughts and lives of the quirky class of geniuses known as mathematicians, aimed at leaving the reader with a newfound appreciation of the tenacity and brilliance of that kind of genius through history. “The Viral Storm” is Nathan Wolfe’s story of the dawn of a new pandemic age. “His provocative vision of the future will change the way we think about viruses, and perhaps remove a potential threat to humanity’s survival.” We can learn why violence has declined in Steven Pinker’s “The Better Angels of Our Nature”. He thinks we may be living in the most peaceable era in our species’ existence. Blake Mycoskie offers “Start Something that Matters” where he tells about TOMS, one of the fastest-growing shoe companies in the world, and offers lessons learned from innovative organizations with stories, ideas, and practical tips that can help anyone get started. “Free Marketing” by Jim Cockrum teaches that the Internet has free tactics for spreading the word about business, and lists what to do.

Four new biographies offer good reading about familiar dignitaries. “Steve McQueen” is revisited by biographer Marc Eliot, as in the quote, “Perhaps his greatest talent was to be able to convince audiences that he was who he really wasn’t”. Florence Henderson explains herself in “Life Is Not a Stage”. Regis Philbin sums himself up in “How I Got This Way”. Ellen DeGeneres recently writes, “Seriously…I’m Kidding”.

David Cordingly writes about the man who was the real “Pirate Hunter of the Caribbean”, Captain Woodes Rogers, appointed governor of the Bahamas by King George I in 1713, when the islands were being plundered by raucous felons.