Preview Shelf -- Toby Herzog Donates Works

Wabash College Professor of English Tobey Herzog has given the Crawfordsville District Public Library a copy of his book "Tim O'Brien". In several intriging ways the subject (O'Brien) and author (Herzog) have lead parallel lives, besides both serving in Vietnam. Herzog writes, "The moral and physical terrain of Vietnam serves as a heightened setting in which O'Brien explores the nature of truth, the function of memory and imagination, the possibility of moral courage, and the power of love." Herzog's second gift, his new book, "Writing Vietnam, Writing Life" reflects interviews and examines the compositions of four of his contemporary Vietnam-involved authors Philip Caputo, Larry Heineman, O'Brien, and Robert Olen Butler. Both Herzog's books thoughtfully consider the larger questions of that war era. Other additions to the library's collection begin with "The Insider's Guide to the Colleges". This 2008 edition from the staff of the Yale Daily News has comments from students on campuses. "Acing the College Application" is Michele Hernandez' advice to maximize chances for admission to the college of choice. "Paying for College Without Going Broke" is from The Princeton Review and shows how new federal laws affect this situation. There are also "1001 Ways to Pay for College", and "Adult Students: a Painless Guide to Going Back to College" with stories of success from these students and admission officers, both books by Gen & Kelly Tanabe. Requested novels are historical this time. "The Scandal of the Season" by Sophie Gee takes the reader to London high society in 1711, observed by Alexander Pope, who fashions the daring poem "The Rape of the Lock" that will catapult him to fame and fortune. "The Notorious Mrs. Winston" by Mary Mackey is full of accurate historical detail and vibrant characters during the American Civil War when an abolitionist falls for a Confederate soldier. "A Passion Most Pure" by Julie Lessman is the first volume of The Daughters of Boston fastening on the year 1916 during World War I, and extending the scene to the green hills of Ireland. Here are requested mysteries. "Killer Heat" by Linda Fairstein is a Manhattan serial killer search. Margaret Coel's "The Girl with Braided Hair" presents a vivid picture of the Native American, past and present, capturing the rugged atmosphere of Wyoming, and concentrating on a thirty-year-old murder.."Three Sisters" by James Doss is his 12th Charlie Moon story, a Colorado murder case, tracked by a Ute shaman, the tribal investigator's aunt. M.C. Beaton's "Death of a Gentle Lady" is a Constable Hamish Macbeth story about the meddling elderly favorite of Lochdubh, Scotland who turns up dead, and the issue of closing his beloved police station. "Malice" by Robert Tanenbaum is his most suspense-filled book yet as a New York district attorney takes on a cartel that uses terrorists to further its criminal empire. Here's requested nonfiction. "Come On People" by Bill Cosby and Alvin Poussaint presents personal accounts of setbacks and rebuilding of lives in the face of adversity. "Legacy of Ashes" is Tim Weiner's history of the CIA. In "Loving Natalee" Beth Holloway writes about her daughter's 2005 kidnapping in Aruba and its aftermath. "Write It When I'm Gone" holds Thomas DeFrank's off-the-record conversations with President Gerald R. Ford, which could not be released until after his death. Jonathan Aitken's biography "John Newton; From Disgrace to Amazing Grace" describes the man who not only wrote one of the greatest hymns of all time, but lived one of the greatest stories of salvation by helping abolish the slave trade, altering the course of western history.