Preview Shelf by Janice Clauser

Library News and Notable New Books

Recent past Crawfordsville residents Cinnamon Catlin-Legatko and Stacy Klingler have edited six workbooks called “Small Museum Tool Kit” about managing small museums. They were respectively director of the Lew Wallace Study and assistant director of the Montgomery County Historical Society. Their colorful booklets cover leadership, financial resources, management, audience outreach, programs, and stewardship. The articles and pictures might be of practical interest to local volunteers in our own museums.

Practical instructions now available are the Chilton Service Manuals, two volumes for Chryslers, three volumes for General Motors cars, and two volumes for Fords. Randy Fenoli’s beautiful study is called “It’s All About The Dress” with “savvy secrets, priceless advice, and inspiring stories to help you find “The One”, showing outfits made special by the photography of Francois Dischinger. Conversely, “This is Gonn Hurt” is a book about music, photography, and life through the distorted lens of Nikki Sixx, author of “The Heroin Diaries”.

A book we’ve all wanted to see available is “The American Sign Language Handshape Starter” complete with a new DVD, featuring more than 1,900 sign illustrations, even 327 new signs, written by Richard Tennant and Marianne Brown. “The Journal of Best Practices” is a memoir of marriage, asperger syndrome, and one man’s quest to be a better husband by David Finch. “Nothing Daunted” by Dorothy Wickenden tells of two Eastern society girls who travel west in 1916 to teach in Colorado.

Next are recent requests. Chris Matthews’ “Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero” tackles “that elusive, unforgettable man” (quote from his wife) asking what he was really like. It also remarks, “He was a far greater hero than he ever wished us to know”. Debbie Nathan’s “Sybil Exposed” is the story behind the famous multiple personality case of Shirley Mason, upon whom her psychiatrist forced all kinds of scary drugs and truth serums to provoke fantasies.

New fiction by Orson Card, “Shadows in Flight”, is a continuation to the Ender series and features Bean’s family leaving Earth’s wars, taking a ship to the stars; as generations pass, their ship’s life support begins to fail and they must save themselves. The mystery “Left for Dead” by J. A. Jance finds a deputy sheriff gunned down and left to die; at first he’s assumed to be an innocent victim, but facts quickly change. Parnell Hall’s “$10,000 in Small, Unmarked Puzzles” is the 12th Puzzle Lady mystery recommended to puzzle-minded readers. “Home Front” by Kristin Hannah is a clever “today” story with three hints: “All marriages have a breaking point. All families have wounds. All wars have a cost.” The Old West comes alive in “Lucky Penny” by Catherine Anderson, another Coulter Family Historical Novel. Lauraine Snelling’s “Valley of Dreams” is part one of her Wild West Wind series. It’s about a girl whose father had promised to take her to the Black Hills, but died before keeping his promise.

Liu Xiaobo’s “No Enemies, No Hatred” is a group of selected essays and poems providing insight into all aspects of Chinese life by this 2010 Nobel Peace Prize recipient who was imprisoned for “incitement to subvert state power”; his book helps readers to understand his dedication to helping his homeland.