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.