Crawfordsville Library Hosts Federation Conference by Janice Clauser

The Crawfordsville Library will be closed tomorrow; it is the site for the Indiana Library Federation District 2 Conference. Between 8:30 and 4:10 lectures and workshops will take place featuring four conference sessions.

“Shadow Warrior” by Randall Woods is a biography of William Colby and his era of the CIA. As a World War II commando, Cold War spy, and CIA director under presidents Nixon and Ford, he played a critical role in some pivotal events of the twentieth century. “All the Best, George Bush” is the travelogue of an observant president George H. W. Bush. “His writings cover affairs of state and affairs of spaniels on equal footing. The short takes on a long life reveal an underlying sense of duty to office, family and morality.” (Jennifer Harper, the Washington Post). 

“A Belief in Providence” by Julie Young is the life of Theodora Guerin, a pioneer on the Indiana frontier and recently Indiana’s first saint in 2006.  From France she came to the United States in 1840, and founded the Sisters of Providence and Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, the oldest Catholic women’s liberal arts college in the U.S. Debbie Reynolds’ “Unsinkable” a memoir, gives her a unique perspective on Hollywood and its elite, from the earlier era of MGM to the present.

Bob Knight’s “The Power of Negative Thinking” is his unconventional approach to achieving positive results. He makes the case that negative thinking can actually produce more positive results than unrealistic optimism. “The Captain” is Ian O’Connor’s report on the long journey of Derek Jeter using some materials from his 200 interviews to reveal how this biracial kid from Michigan became New York’s most beloved sports figure, and the example of a steroid-free athlete.

“This Explains Everything” edited by John Brockman quotes the world’s most influential minds on physics, economics, psychology, and neuroscience, with 150 brilliant theories about our minds, societies, and universe. Amy Brann has written “Make Your Brain Work” to maximize efficiency, productivity and effectiveness. A simpler book by Ron Fry is “Improve Your Reading” for students. “Your Survival Instinct is Killing You” is Marc Schoen’s treatise on retraining our brains. How to get help with addiction is found in “Inside Rehab” by Anne Fletcher.

 

“My Last Empress” by Da Chen is a story of passion and obsession set against the upheavals of nineteenth-century imperial China. Erec Stebbins’ “The Ragnarok Conspiracy” fills a traditional terrorist thriller with engaging characters, great conflicts, and profound thoughts, with twists and turns around every corner. Clare Clark’s “Beautiful Lies” takes us to London in 1887 where a proclaimed Chilean heiress educated in Paris is torn between her love of poetry and the new art of photography, besides at the same time being chased by a notorious newspaper editor; it’s a take on the true story of a politician’s wife who lived a double life for decades.  

Newly requested books begin with Karen Kingsbury’s “The Chance” featuring a teenage girl and her best friend, a boy, who wrote letters to each other and buried them in an old box. The plan was to return eleven years later from wherever they were. Meanwhile they both had disappointments in their lives. So what will happen when they meet on schedule? C. J. Box offers “Breaking Point” a Joe Pickett novel in which Joe’s friend disappears; there are obvious reasons why, but proving them and finding him is the challenge.