New non-fiction DVDs!

Recently CDPL has received many DVDs on such non-fiction topics as NASCAR, travel, opera, and so on. Here is a partial list, in no partucular order, of what you can find! (These DVDs will be on the 2nd floor in the non-fiction area; they are not shelved with our regular DVD movies).

• Carmen
• The B-2 Stealth Bomber: America's deadliest weapon
• Auschwitz--inside the Nazi state
• Africa live: the Roll Back Malaria concert: a film
• The 2003 encyclopedia of boating tips: from anchors to zincs.
• The boys of Baraka
• Fastpitch
• The fantastic world of M.C. Escher
• Washington, D.C.
• Dan Burstein's Secrets of angels demons & masons
• Cyrano de Bergerac
• The crucible
• The Color of paradise
• Children of Heaven
• Guitarra!: the guitar in Spain
• Half past autumn: the life and works of Gordon Parks.
• Hollow city = Na cidade vazia
• How to marry a millionaire
• An introduction to Chinese brush painting
• Kentucky
• La Sylphide: ballet in two acts
• The life of Leonardo da Vinci
• Lost boys of Sudan
• Nascar
• New York
• Swan Lake
• Speedo: a demolition derby love story
• Rigoletto
• Visions of France
• The Traditional art of making Japanese pottery: bond with the earth
• Capote
• Whispers of angels: a story of the Underground Railroad
• The art of hitting slow-pitch softball

Preview Shelf -- Adult Summer Reading

Coast to Coast is the name of the Crawfordsville District Public Library's
summer reading contest program for registered patrons 16-years old and up. It begins July 1st and ends September 1st, and it's a dilly. Each of us can pick one of four routes across the U.S. and read a library book either about or set in each state along the route, finally reading one book about Indiana. Patrons may use 5 books on cassette or CD, and the rest in print, of which at least 3 must be nonfiction. A notebook at the circulation desk contains a suggested reading list. There will be weekly drawings, and 20 chances at an additional grab bag drawing for for those who've crossed the Mississippi by August 14th. The Grand Prize is a night for two in a Turkey Run cabin along with dinner and breakfast! Carol Bennett and Katie Myers have worked hard to make this summer an adventurous experience. On your mark, get set, start your engines. Motor over to the circulation desk for your map.

As you know, the library is open seven days a week; but July 4 it will be closed for the national commemoration of Independence Day. A new book by Leo Damrosch (labeled National Book Award Finalist) is a novel-like biography of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Restless Genius integrating his extraordinary writings with his tumultuous life experience as the late-18th century literary genius who so greatly influenced his readers. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America by Allen Guelzo is a powerful narrative of the Civil War's greatest moment, documented by unpublished letters and documents, and little-known accounts from newspapers, Congressional memoirs, and correspondence. Kabul in Winter by Ann Jones, authority on women and violence, reveals Afghanistan's complicated history of disastrous struggles. The Arts of Asia by Meher McArthur has chapters on jade, silk, porcelain, lacquer, ivory, bamboo, paper, bold, wood and stone. David Campbell's A Land of Ghosts studies the people and forests of the western Amazon region, called the last frontier, as wild a west as Earth has ever known. Taylor Branch's Pillar of Fire about America in the Martin Luther King, jr. era (1963-65) is part biography, part history, and part elegy. Courage After Fire by Keith Armstrong et al, is their blueprint of problem-solving techniques for veterans returning home, and it would be useful for anyone recovering from trauma. Author and journalist Oriana Fallaci's The Force of Reason uses historical punishments to make her points and she has become the symbol of Resistance to Islamo-fascism, a warrior in the cause of human freedom. Three new books champion poetry. John Crowley's The Translator is a novel about an exiled Russian poet and his American translator during the Cuban missile crisis. Summer Lake comments about daily living as David Huddle forms paragraph-like segments of humor and commonness that read like small but special happenings. The Collected Poems of Wilfred Owen holds what are considered the finest poems about war in English literature, (according to C. Day Lewis). The reading is made all the more entertaining by annotations about his various drafts of composition. Vita (Victoria) Sackville-West portrays fashionable society in The Edwardians (first published in 1930) as she shows the elements that lead to its downfall. City of Shadows by Ariana Franklin is a novel of historical suspense set in Germany during the decadent and turbulent years of the 1920s and 1930s.

Scrapbooking Class Planned for July

Have you ever done any scrapbooking? This class is for beginners and advanced alike!

July 22, Saturday 9:30 a.m. -- 4:30 p.m. (Fee: $5.00)

You are invited to come and join others who are working on their scrapbooks. Whether you are brand new or have been scrapbooking for years, you will enjoy the day of preserving your photos and memories. Beginners will learn the four steps to completing their albums and everyone will learn tips and be inspired with examples of borders and page layouts with chances of winning prizes.

Bring your photos, albums and scrapbook materials and have a day to start or finish your projects. Supplies will be available for purchase if needed. Please reserve your space by July 20, 2006 (765-362-2242 ext. 2). Payment is required the day of registration. (Kathy Peck, Creative Memories Consultant)

Preview Shelf -- Good Reads by Barnes, Cloncs, Lingeman, and Quirk

Wabash professor of history James Barnes and researcher Patience Plummer Barnes have published a study of the role and fate of German party members and British sympathizers called Nazis in Pre-War London 1930-1939. With suspense it answers who they were, what they were doing, whether they were professional espionage agents or simply residents, and when war broke out, if they were interned or expelled. The excitement includes one conclusion that "The British must be seen as having been very effective as well as very lucky in curbing attempts at espionage on the part of the Third Reich."

Michael E. Cloncs, retired German and history teacher, has composed his first story called Hominids in Hoosierland: Along the Creek. Recalling childhood time on his aunt and uncle's farm between Crawfordsville and Darlington when he fished and hunted, his writing pretends that a survivor like homo erectus (Big Foot) dwelled along Sugar Creek. The plot about a young boy and elder protector in ancient times is enhanced with his own photographs, sketches, and artifact images. He states, Even though it's a work of fiction, it also has historical accuracy (Wade Coggeshall, Journal Review, October 21, 2005). Richard Lingeman, who grew up here and graduated from Crawfordsville High School has issued Double Lives about American writers' rich and volatile friendships. Studs Terkel notes, "He comes through as a major literary critic, revealing surprising truths in the celebrated friendships and feuds of writers whose lives and art intersected." He explores friendships between notables like Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville, Henry James and Edith Wharton, Theodore Dreiser and H. L. Mencken, even F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. He begins with Rainer Maria Rilke's quote, Love consists in this: that two solitudes protect and touch and greet each other. Bob Quirk, Wabash College graduate, is retired in Wingate after 24 years of teaching and 10 years in administration, including service at Pleasant Hill Elementary School. He collected 43 of his articles in the Fountain County Neighbor (Attica, Indianaereere a) in 2001 and added a few unpublished pieces in Real American Stories. His final story begins, "It has been said that everyone's favorite style of music is the music they grew up with." Others are full of observations about windmills, outhouses, basketball, the Horse Thief Detective Association, his great uncle's diary as a Civil War soldier, and other interesting reminiscences we all can enjoy.

Here are other new books to borrow: Spell of the Highlander by Purdue graduate Karen Moning is her latest romance bringing together a Celtic warrior trapped in time and an archaeology student who'll pay the price for freeing him. A Little Love Story by Roland Merullo is classic with a modern twist as a governor's aide meets a carpenter/portrait painter with a shadow over his romantic history. The Truth About Diamonds by Nicole Richie, star of the TV show The Simple Life portrays a typical Hollywood child with a life of glitz, who becomes spokes-model for a national compaign. Magic Hour by Kristin Hannah finds a six-year-old girl emerging speechless and alone from the heart of the Olympic National Forest in the Washington state. The plot of course is to figure out her past.

Preview Shelf -- Summer Reading @ CDPL

Yes, children and students to 18 years, get ready for the exciting summer reading programs which will begin next Monday at the Crawfordsville District Public Library and which will include reading (of course), prizes, crafts, movies, and much more! Sign up at the Youth Services desk.

Here's a special local book. Inaugural Addresses, W. H. Taft to G. W. Bush is the 2005 Lakeside Classic issued by R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company, and edited by Henry Graff. Another new book is The President's House, 1800 to the Present, Margaret Truman's trip behind the scenes to the deep recesses and airiest balconies, revealing what it feels like to live in The White House. Stories of rambunctious children, tragedies, and rescues of icons, make the reader feel at home there too. The Little Book of Celtic Myths & Legends is a stroll among the heroes and heroines, wizards, witches, fairy folk, and enchantment of Ireland, Wales, and Scotland by Ken and Joules Taylor, each speech accompanied by an action photo. A Concise History of the Russian Revolution by Richard Pipes tells of the violent and disruptive acts that created the first modern totalitarian regime. The Dolls' Dressmaker is a complete pattern book by Venus Dodge showing the intricacies of the historically-correct finished products. In Memory Quilts in the Making Rhonda Richards includes classic patterns and some new ideas, enhanced by poems, quotes, and passages. Quick & Easy Scrap Quilting in Mix and Match Sets includes wearables and other non-coverlet projects. From National Geographic come up-to-date learning books. On Assignment USA by Priit Vesilind holds up a mirror to America, reprinting pictures from the magazine's most popular stories about our land, people, journeys, cities, heroes, and disasters. From the same source, Photographs Then and Now is the mirror of our world from its archives past and present showing people and places as they were once, and as they are today. The third, by Sylvia Earle and Wolcott Henry, is Wild Ocean about America's parks under the sea, marine sanctuaries of the ocean's bounty in the North Atlantic, South Pacific, the Florida Keys, Monterey Bay and fossil beds of the Gulf of the Farallones. An Illustrated History of the First World War by John Keegan is almost like watching a movie of that period with some photos new to books. Katharine Graham's Washington tells about her personal collection of 100 essays, articles, and book excerpts covering her life period, 1917 to 2001. Some writers are Henry Kissinger, David Brinkley, Rosalynn Carter, Art Buchwald, and Nancy Reagan, a real potpourri. Another gem is The Complete Lyrics of Irving Berlin containing the words of more than 1,200 songs (400 of which have never before appeared in print) along with commentary and dozens of photos. Arrogance is Bernard Goldberg's treatise about rescuing America from the media elite, the culture of denial as he calls it, where contrary views are not welcome. Joy Fielding's novel Mad River Road is the place where a former prisoner seeks vengeance from his ex-wife, as other family members plan a road trip there for other reasons. Consent to Kill by Vince Flynn finds the fearless counter-terrorism operative Mitch Rapp directly in the line of fire when the father of a dead terrorist demands eye-for-an-eye vengeance. Stephen King's Cell (cell rhymes with hell) deals with crime involving all cell phones. Danielle Steel's The House is her 66th story, this time about a young woman's answer to an inheritance challenge - to use it for something wonderful and daring.

Dynamic Duet - Ashby & Ashby: Art & Photography

Though born in very different parts of the country, Joseph L. and Deborah K. Ashby recognized early, and separately, their passion for all things natural. The internal glow of this early passion has never dimmed, through their marriage and business careers, but has blossomed profusely in the clear light of day.

How were these multi-talented artists from Brownsburg, Indiana discovered? Just after Christmas 2005, while delivering the Hoosier Salon Traveling Exhibit to its' next venue in Plainfield Indiana's Public Library Art Gallery, I was mesmerized by the photography of Deborah and Joseph Ashby, still hanging in the Art Gallery. I knew immediately that I needed to meet these two artists and convince them to exhibit in our Library's Gallery, and soon!

Little did I know how enamored I would be by their exhibited art, and that of others, as I entered their "Artistic Designs Gallery" of Custom Framing, Fine Art, Posters & Reproduction, Art Classes, Artist Materials, Original Paintings, Limited Edition Prints and Sculpture on Green Street in Brownsburg Indiana. With bated breath, I asked if they would be open to displaying in Crawfordsville. In spite of the distance and delivery difficulties, they agreed wholeheartedly to come and share their passionate interpretation of nature in all its glory with the Crawfordsville community. HURRAY!

So, from Wednesday, May 31 until Thursday, June 29, during regular library hours, you will be treated to A DYNAMIC DUET: the Art and Photography of Debbie and Joe Ashby in the Mary Bishop Memorial Art Gallery at the new Library.

DEBORAH K. ASHBY was born and raised in the beautiful rolling hills of the Finger Lakes region of New York State. There was no way that Debbie could not have been influenced by the beauty that was free for the looking, every single day! Wishing to capture and share the essence of that beauty, Debbie began her photographic quest at the age of 13. It only took a few snapshots to ignite the passion within her to capture what she had seen, but to evoke her response in others who could not have her daily heritage and perhaps change their lives.

Complete with program distinction honors, Debbie received her BS Degree in Biomedical Communications (Photography) at Stockton State College in Pomona, New Jersey and since coming to Indiana, she has pursued her passion by taking workshops with well credentialed nature photographers.

Through her photography, Deborah has developed a fascination with natural abstractions. She seeks and finds intriguing compositions that create images that capture the imagination. She often combines these single images into multiples and creates unbelievable abstractions. She names these images "Kaleidoscopes of Nature".

Although an Illinois native, JOSEPH L. ASHBY has spent most of his life in Indiana. From an early age Joseph was attracted to everything in nature and was inspired to create unforgettable natural images with his 35 mm camera, purchased when he was 17. He developed an avid interest in nature, particularly birds, though birds are not to be found in his photography. He spends numerous hours hiking through and photographing natural areas. Some of his best images have been used in creating master plans for Indiana Nature Preserves.

Joe is essentially self-taught, though he participates in photographic workshops to better his technical skills and concentrate on composition, an area which he feels is too often neglected. Through his research in the area of composition, Joe has developed a slide presentation through which he has taught other photographers since 1995.

While the couple spends many hours exploring and shooting side by side, each has his/her own vision. Each spring, the couple is drawn to the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, where they search for hidden floral treasures and hike through the hills looking for a waterfall just begging to be photographed. Annually they travel to Glacier National Park where the landscape is beyond magnificent and they are provided with endless and true inspiration.

Don't let yourself miss these passionate interpretations, of nature in the raw,
as interpreted by the DYNAMIC DUET of Ashby & Ashby Art and Photography.