Preview Shelf -- Ready for Thanksgiving; Remembering Halloween

About two weeks ago, 65 children gathered at the Crawfordsville District Public Library to celebrate Halloween. The Youth Services Department set up bowling for the costumed youngsters with cobs of corn in cups for pins and a pumpkin for the ball. While enjoying brew, "spider legs", and pumpkin morsels, they also heard stories, played "pin the nose on a jack o'lantern", and threw velcro'd balls at a worm in an apple. Squeals accompanied the fun. You can sign up for special events by calling 362-2242. The book "Savage Kingdom" appeals during Thanksgiving season because it is the "true" story of Jamestown, 1607, and the settlement of America. Benjamin Woolley draws on new discoveries, neglected sources, and manuscript collections to reveal the daring enterprise by outcasts of the Old World facing a new culture both ravishing and alien that they had hoped not to face here. This was 14 years before the Mayflower voyage. "For Liberty and Glory" is James Gaines' new book about Washington, Lafayette, and their revolutions. Inside the cover is "They began as courtiers in a hierarchy of privilege, but history remembers them as patriot-citizens in a commonwealth of equals." The book deals with the "sister revolutions" of France and America in a single narrative. "Markings" by Dag Hammarskhjold is a testament of personal devotion by the known peacemaker with his intense recorded inner life of efforts to live his creed, his belief that all men are equally the children of God requiring him to have a life of selfless service to others. "Chasing Life" by Sanjay Gupta offers new ideas from around the world, and sensible decisions for better days. "The Gaslight Effect" holds Robin Stern's instructions to stop letting other people manipulate your thinking and/or your life. Betty Rollin's "Here's the Bright Side" is about the "silver linings in clouds", a funny book about surprising upsides to challenging "low blows". Tony Campolo's "Letters to a Young Evangelical" argues against politically polarized and predominantly secular living. "Think" by Michael LeGault slows us down because he says crucial decisions can't be made in the blink of an eye. Bill Clinton's "Giving" shows how companies, organizations, and individuals are working to solve problems "down the street and around the world" told through the experiences of all kinds of people in different places. "Away" by Amy Bloom tells about a young innocent lady whose family is destroyed in a Russian pogrom, so she comes alone to America, and travels all around the country looking for a daughter who may still be alive. "Frank Lloyd Wright, a Gatefold Portfolio" contains 32 pull-out pages showing 16 of his special home designs like Falling Water, Wingspread, the Guggenheim Museum and the Beth Shalom synagogue, a full evening's entertainment. Leonard Susskind's "The Cosmic Landscape" explains his thoughts about string theory and the illusion of intelligent design. Thorsten Milse's photographs about "Little Polar Bears" from the Wapusk National Park west of Hudson Bay illustrate the protection of the animals while still allowing for controlled visits to the area. "Voyage of the Turtle" by Carl Safina is a pursuit of the earth's last dinosaur. "The Planets" by Dava Sobel divulges her impressive ability to make difficult scientific concepts into compelling explanations of our place in the universe (she wrote "Longitude" and "Galileo's Daughter").