Preview Shelf: Notable New Books by CDPL Volunteer, Janice Clauser

A special service at the Crawfordsville Library is the Military Collection. It resides on the east end of the New Nonfiction bookcase on level two, located on your left when you walk straight ahead out of the elevator. The books, CDs, and DVDs have been furnished by the Red Cross and are made available by the library, including a binder and printed lists of everything available on all sorts of helpful subjects for military families. Examples are “Chicken Soup for the Military Wife’s Soul”, “Armed Forces Guide to Personal Financial Planning”, “The Soldier’s Night before Christmas”, “Heroes at Home”, and “Women in the Line of Fire”. All military, veterans, and their families are invited.

English history can be recalled if you read about Henry VIII when he became disenchanted with Anne Boleyn and she is ensnared in a web of conspiracy involving the “other wives” in Hilary Mantel’s novel “Bring up the Bodies”. “Trauma Plan” by Candace Calvert is a kind of medical romance because a nurse and a doctor have to fight hard to save a free clinic. Laura Moriarty’s “The Chaperone” goes back in time to the silent-film era, when a beautiful young woman’s older companion finds new possibilities for herself in1920s New York. “Agent Garbo” by Stephan Talty tells about the “brilliant, eccentric secret agent who tricked Hitler and saved D-Day”. The agent was really Juan Pujol, a Barcelona poultry farmer, who tried four times before the British would trust him, then as Agent Garbo he created a fictional network to get Nazi trust and convince our enemy that the D-Day attack would hit Calais. This is a thriller.

“The Omnivorous Mind” is John Allen’s study of our historic relationship with food like “crispy” for excitement or “fried” for illicit pleasure. “American Canopy” is a study of our history with trees and their place in our products and societies. He notes the importance of Liberty Trees, Central Park, Walden Pond, Wisconsin’s Fire of 1871, and other significant items of interest.

New biographies look interesting. “Leak” is Max Holland’s story of Deep Throat (alias Mark Felt). Ruth Rosen’s “Called to Controversy” is about her father Moishe Rosen, the international founder of “Jews for Jesus” who successfully delivered the gospel to those who believed their very identity depended on not believing in Jesus. Brian Wills offers General “George Henry Thomas” a Virginian who sided with the north in the Civil War. Even though biographers have been hampered by Thomas’s lack of personal papers, contemporary documents offer new insights into his battlefield action, relationship with Grant, and his interactions with other Union commanders when he was known as the Rock of Chickamauga. “I Am Spartacus!” is Kirk Douglas’ story as producer, philanthropist, and author, as well as movie star. “I Got a Name: The Jim Croce Story”, by his wife Ingrid, is the personal biography of the talented songwriter that also captures the rise of the burgeoning counterculture of the 60s and early ‘70s, revealing the man behind hits like “Time in a Bottle” and “Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown”. The autobiography “The Long Walk” is Brian Castner’s story as the leader of a military bomb disposal team. He recounts his deployment to Iraq and exposes crucial truths about that particular conflict.

James Gelvin writes what he thinks everyone needs to know in “The Arab Uprisings”; David Crist offers “The Twilight War” the secret history of America’s thirty-year conflict with Iran.