Preview Shelf -- Lots Going On Downtown

As the Crawfordsville Library tends its summer reading programs, it's time to finish the list of local businesses donating prizes to the adult program, "Color My World". China Inn, Elaine's Tea Shop & Catering, John Stevens, Johnny Provolone's Pizza, Kwik-Kopy Printing, La Rose on Main, Little Mexico, Subway Sandwiches & Salads, Vanity Theater-Sugar Creek Players, and Wendy's have made generous contributions. This weekend, as Indiana Plein Air Painters visit to work among us, their new book "Painting Indiana II" is ready to borrow presenting scenes from simple farming to a global industry. With texts by Gary & Kathleen Truitt, the paintings illustrate the state's rural history, and the book is worth a long look. Other new nonfiction covers other kinds of art. David Michaelis' "Schulz and Peanuts" is the biography of a barber's son growing up from modest beginnings to create perhaps the world's favorite contemporary child characters; Charles Schulz chose themes never before attempted – like loneliness, isolation, melancholy, and the unending search for love, mingling old fashioned sweetness with adult awareness. Next, Country Living magazine offers "500 Quick & Easy Decorating Projects & Ideas" with colorful photographs and minimal descriptions. Kitchen art is represented by five new issues. "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian" by Mark Bittman contains 900 pages of simple meatless recipes. Robin Robertson's "One-Dish Vegetarian Meals" offers dairy-free options. "A Baker's Odyssey" by Greg Patent celebrates time-honored recipes from America's rich immigrant heritage and includes a DVD. Southern combinations of all kinds are found in "Paula Deen's Kitchen Classics". She is the proprietor of The Lady & Sons restaurant in Savannah, and is seen on the Food Network. Basketball is the next art. The legendary coach and student of Dr. James Naismith John McLendon is featured in "Breaking Through" about the history of integrated basketball. Steve Friedman's "The Agony of Victory" tells about champions in various sports and the prices they pay for glory; all were driven by a burning need to prove themselves, along with their realizations that no victories can bring lasting happiness. A group of stories makes up "Sunstroke" by Ivan Bunin, the first Russian to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, capturing momentary impressions of the fleetingness of life. "Bryson City Tales" by Walt Larimore tells experiences during a doctor's first year of practice in the Smoky Mountains. "Writing Motherhood" by Lisa Garrigues shows ways to save experiences as they come along, showing that mothering provides endless material for writing, just as writing brings clarity and wisdom to mothering. "Chasing the Flame" by Samantha Power, Pulitzer winner, tells about Sergio Vieira de Mello, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and representative in Baghdad, who died in the 2003 attack in Iraq, and also gives background of this perilous and thorniest episode of recent history. "Unchristian" by David Kinnaman shows the major criticisms leveled against Christians and how to best represent Jesus. Charles Grodin's "If I Only Knew Then…Learning from our Mistakes" tells stories from celebrities with their insights that could keep readers from suffering in the future.

New Local History Database

We have a new database for genealogists and local historians -- the Waynetown Masonic Cemetery. Look for the link on our Local History page: http://www.cdpl.lib.in.us/lh

This database contains records of 6,125 burials in this cemetery. It also includes links to more than 4,000 obituaries and more than 1,000 burial/transit permits.

Waynetown, Indiana's Masonic Cemetery is located just on the west side of Waynetown on 136. At a stated meeting of the local Waynetown Masonic Lodge on 23 Jan 1872, a committee consisting of Joseph S. Henry, George Small, Nathaniel Blackford, John R. Thomas, and George D. Brown reported that they could purchase four acres of ground from Matthias Brant at $200.00 per acre; four acres from Simon Armantrout for $100.00 per acre and four acres from George Small for $125.00 per acre. The proposal was accepted. William Ridger, who passed away in 1921, bequeathed $5,000.00 to the cemetery on condition that an equal amount be raised. This imposed condition was met by popular subscription, and the entire amount of $10,000.00 become an endowment fund for the permanent upkeep of the cemetery. The cemetery was incorporated in1921. Trustees in 1930 were John W Shuler, C. C. Westfall and William E Rider. As of 2007, the cemetery now has grown to approximately 80 acres with 11 acres plotted for burials. The other 69 acres is on farm ground that later on can be plotted for more burial ground. In 2007 Donald Proctor donated the burial permits from 1948 to 2006 to the Crawfordsville Public Library. These papers were arranged, copied, and indexed by library page Adam Rice. These papers have been bound and are shelved under RL 929.5 Proctor in the Cemetery book section.

Volume 1 contains burial permits 1959-1986
Volume 2 contains burial permits 1986-1996 and burial transit permits 1948-1959
Volume 3 contains burial permits 1995-2000
Volume 4 contains burial permits 2001-2006
Volume 5 contains miscellaneous records arranged by state of issue 1949-2006 and a cumulative index

Donald and Peggy Proctor have been working for several years to gather as many obituaries as possible for persons buried in Waynetown Masonic Cemetery. They provided the obituaries and the burial permits.

Preview Shelf -- Adults Invited to Summer Reading Challenge

Adult patrons are signing up for "Color Your World", this year's adult summer reading program at the Crawfordsville District Public Library. Carol Bennett, Brooke Myers and the circulation staff are already busy registering readers' books. Here are more of the local businesses generously offering prizes: Ace Hardware, Bal-Hinch Scrapbooking, Chad Budreau-State Farm Insurance, Chase Bank, Creek Jewelers, Flowers 'n Things, heathcliff, Moon Dance Cafe, Papa John's Pizza, Rancho Bravo, Steak 'n Shake, and Wright Implement."The Year of Living Biblically" is A. J. Jacobs' humble quest to follow the Bible as literally as possible, to "be fruitful and multiply", to love his neighbor, and to avoid wearing clothes made of mixed fibers as he travels the country. "From Eden to Exile" is Eric Cline's work unraveling mysteries of the Bible including Noah's Ark and the Ten Lost Tribes. Christopher Hitchens offers "God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything". "God did not make us," he writes; "We made God." "Plain Secrets" is Joe Mackall's story as an outsider among the Amish in Ohio for 16 years, the most traditional and insular of the Amish sects, and his story of his unusual friendship and his nephew. Fascinating ideas continue. "Be the Change" by Zach Hunter is "your guide to freeing slaves and changing the world"; Zach is proving that one person can make a difference, revealed in this book. Gustavo Arellano's "Ask a Mexican!" was an assignment given by his newspaper boss and it became this interesting book so that he now speaks at universities and answers lots of mail. "Letters from the Front Lines: Iraq and Afghanistan" by Rear Admiral Stuart Platt offers 13 chapters by 13 members of our Armed Forces. TV personality Studs Terkel's memoir at age ninety-five is "Touch and Go" a review that is "youthful, vivacious, and enormous fun". Then opposite this is "The Jamestown Project" by Karen Kupperman, detailing how the settlement become the model for all successful English colonies including Plymouth. From the kitchens of Martha Stewart Living comes "Great Food Fast" from the "Everyday Food" magazine featuring 250 recipes with illustrations that make any reader hungry at any time of day. "Street Food" is Tom Kime's equally tempting trip through recipes of the "Eastern" continents. To travel by armchair, "The Rough Guide to Egypt" by Dan Richardson is a thoroughly indexed companion, and "Ancient Rome on Five Denarii a Day" by Philip Matyszak is a wonderful review as well as helpful pre-trip preparation.Three new books have waiting lists. "The Nine" Jeffrey Toobin's testament inside the secret world of the U. S. Supreme Court, is told through interviews of all the parties involved. "Beyond the White House" by Jimmy Carter is subtitled "Waging Peace, Fighting Disease, Building Hope" and is the story of his post-presidency work for The Carter Center. Alan Greenspan's "The Age of Turbulence" is part detective story as he attempts to understand the nature of the post 9/11 world, conjecturing the world economy in 2030 from his vantage point at the Federal Reserve. Let's conclude with a few novels. In the Montana Territory of 1880 a seamstress must change her safe life in the Lori Wick novel "Cassidy". "The Courtship" by Gilbert Morris is a chase shortly after the Great Depression that requires Christian patience and trust. A father is trapped in a submarine accident, while a son is desperate to save him and a digital readout is ticking toward explosion in the Caribbean Sea during a church-couples' cruise in John Bevere's "Rescued".

Adult Summer Reading 2008

June 16-August 31

Read the books!
Play the colors!
Win the Prizes!


How it works: This program is open to adult library card holders 18 or older.

Register at the Circulation Desk starting June 16th.

Patrons will fill out an entry form for each book read between Monday and Sunday for the Weekly Prize drawing.

Weekly Prize drawings will be held on Wednesdays and the winners will be notified by phone.

Patrons will get an additional chance at the Weekly Prize drawing by writing a review about the book.

Read 12 books before August 31 to be eligible for the Grand Prize drawing.

Grand Prize drawing will be held on Sept. 3, 2008.
The winner will be notified by phone.

For more information, contact Circulation Desk at the Crawfordsville District Public Library, 205 S. Washington Street, Crawfordsville, IN 47933, 765-362-2242 ext. 2, circ@cdpl.lib.in.us

Preview Shelf -- Adult Summer Reading Program

The Crawfordsville District Public Library announces its summer reading program June 16 to August 31 for patrons 18 years and older. "Color Your World" is the theme. The challenge will be reading 12 books to complete the game board; the four categories are mystery, romance & historical fiction, fantasy and science fiction, and non-fiction. Just sign up at the circulation desk. There will be weekly drawings and a grand prize, incentives to find new reading pleasure. Local businesses are generously joining the Friends of the Library to sponsor prizes. Here are a third of them: Random House, El Rinconcito Veracruzanao, Serenity Hair Studio & Spa, Kasey Hoffman–Crawfordsville Chiropractic, Country Hearts & Flowers, Good to Go Xpresso, Corbin Insurance, Dari-licious, Fountain Trust Company, Homestead Greetings, Jennifer McGaughey-Visible Changes, and Pizza Hut. Walter Mosley's "Blonde Faith" is his tenth Easy Rawlins thriller putting him on the streets of L. A. to solve a case that threatens the lives of his closest friends. Martha Grimes' "Dakota" is the sequel to "Biting the Moon" and the amnesiac and drifter is still running through the Western plains hunted by a stalker she doesn't remember. The Stone Barrington novel "Shoot Him If He Runs" by Stuart Woods concerns the CIA driven crazy by a certain fugitive hiding on the island of St. Marks. Margaret Truman's "Murder on K Street" takes us on a fast trip through the U.S. capital she knows so well, solving the murder of an Illinois senator's wife. "Dead Time" by Stephen White explores a long-ago camping trip when a young woman disappeared from the Grand Canyon floor, causing trips to NYC and LA to unearth secrets and deceptions. "Blood Dreams" a Bishop/Special Crimes Unit novel by Kay Hooper is a hunt for a serial killer no cops can stop, whose last victim was a powerful U.S. senator's daughter. "Bloodline" is a Repairman Jack novel by Paul Wilson in which the criminal has connections to a facility researching DNA. In "Fast Track" The Sisterhood, sisters who go to great efforts to exact justice, are launched by author Fern Michaels to occupy a new home on Big Pine Mountain in North Carolina, where they are pressed into a dauntng assignment with a small chance to succeed. Michaels' "Hokus Pokus" then calls them to help the Supreme Court Chief Justice who's being blackmailed. The beginning of the tea shop mystery, "The English Breakfast Murder" by Laura Childs, involves the proprietor helping Charleston's Sea Turtle Protection League shepherd hundreds of tiny green loggerheads safely into the sea, during which she spots a dead body bobbing in the waves. "Everlasting" by Kathleen Woodiwiss creates an historical romance after the Crusades when a lovely lady must marry one of scandalous repute to save her stepfather from debtor's prison. "The Elevator" by Angela Hunt holds three women trapped while they conceal shattering secrets, little knowing they center on the same man, and they're forced to unite to fight for their lives. In the Oregon Territory of the 1800s a woman is raised in a strict religious colony, and after an epidemic she takes surviving orphans back East encountering a suitor she's unprepared to face. In the Montana Territory of 1880 a seamstress also must change her safe life in the Lori Wick novel "Cassidy". A father is trapped in a submarine accident, while a son is desperate to save him and a digital readout is ticking toward explosion in the Caribbean Sea during a church-couples' cruise in John Bevere's "Rescued".

In the Gallery this month!

The air blows warm. Fresh green sprouts have turned into flowers, trees and bushes with the most delightful colors. Scintillating scents float lazily on the breath of a breeze while jacket-less kids fly kites and jump curbs on skateboards. Now we know it's finally time to welcome June with open arms. The air inside is cooled. The painting's colors are breath-taking. Beyond beautiful fine art interpretations float on wispy white Gallery walls. Now we know it's time to welcome with open arms fine artist Brad Bernard's exhibit, IMAGES FROM LIFE: Contrasts & Parallels, to the Library's Gallery for the entire month of June. A native of Madison, Wisconsin, Brad Bernard began his formal training at The Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Painting. After completing his undergraduate studies, he worked as a muralist designing murals for schools, churches and community centers and at the same time also worked as an art instructor throughout the Milwaukee community teaching "at risk" youth, the developmentally challenged and elderly populations. Later he received his Master of Fine Arts degree in Painting from the University of Mississippi at Oxford. After receiving his MFA, he taught Advanced Placement Studio Art courses at Oxford High School, also in Oxford, Mississippi. Brad Bernard has an extensive fine arts and art education background. Most notably, one of Brad's many painted murals is featured in: Walls of Heritage/Walls of Pride: African American Murals, by James Prigoff and Robin J. Donitz (2000). This seminal, scholarly work chronicles thirty years of mural art work by such artists as John Biggers, Romeare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence and Brad himself. In speaking of his exhibited works Brad tells us that this body of work represents but a small overview of the art he has created during the past six years, with the exception of two limited edition prints, Mother and Child and Last Supper on Holy Hill, which were created in 1994 and 1996. Each of the series presented is inspired by his personal metaphysical insight, religious images and ritual, and blues/gospel musicians Brad has met and/or seen perform. The larger abstract pieces based on fire are examples of a larger series titled Burning Processions. Different sources of burning within man-made fires (wood, charcoal, and coal) serve as metaphors for the human characteristics and experiences of spirituality, sexuality, and creativity. Images based on lava and/or the surface of the sun represents characteristics of God-made fire to emphasize the idea that all human experience is a microcosm with the God-consciousness of the heavenly creator. The series Praise and Soul is inspired by scenes typically found within the Missionary Baptist denomination of black churches across America. Each piece reflects on a particular aspect of a praise and worship ritual depicting prayer, singing, service, and ritual. The series as a whole serves as a commentary of the black church and the gospel culture as it compares, contrasts and sometimes overlaps into the blues culture. Blues Routes depicts portraits of blues/gospel musicians. Brad uses a patchwork of road maps/signs, symbols and photocopies as a compositional backdrop and to incorporate historical and biographical imagery. Each subject is immersed in a map of their home town or state with intersecting roads, rivers, interstates and highways, with a patchwork quilt design further implying the "comfort of home" idea. Many of the depicted musicians, who toured nationally and internationally, often have their full-time residence in the place of their birth. Brad is the husband of Ravyn Wilson-Bernard, currently an Owen Duston visiting English professor at Wabash College. Since his arrival in Crawfordsville last summer, Brad has exhibited his work in the Art League sponsored Crawfordsville Downtown Art Exhibition last fall and is scheduled to exhibit his work at the Eric Dean Gallery on the Wabash campus from January 19 through February 21, 2009. This fall will begin his tenure as an art professor at Mount Mary College in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Now doesn't that entice you to visit the Library Gallery sometime during the month of June, just to ogle and enjoy? See you there.

Diane Hammill, Coordinator
Mary Bishop Memorial Art Gallery
Crawfordsville Public Library