Preview Shelf -- Dot Jones' Book Now Available

"Emilie Todd Helm, Lincoln's Little Sister" by Dorothy Darnall Jones is now part of the local authors collection at the Crawfordsville Library, with a copy for borrowing. Native Montgomery County daughter and retired Crawfordsville High School teacher, Dot completed the biography of Mary Todd Lincoln's half-sister after recently moving to Madison, Indiana, where Emilie lived "just down the street" for several years. It includes Emilie's "background, her family, her education, the Civil War divisiveness and devastation, and her life as a single mother and widow" for 67 years, with a lot of authentic pictures. Earlene Fowler's "Tumbling Blocks" is a Benni Harper mystery taking place in 1996, one month after her last "Delectable Mountains"; this "breezy and humorous" plot involves investigating a death of a member, significantly affecting the "49 Club" of socialites. "Nightshade" by Susan Albert includes 16 years of secrets along with the inquiry into several cold case murders. Joy Fielding's "Charley's Web" tells of an ambitious Florida journalist putting her family in jeopardy by studying the mind of a killer. "No Country for Old Men" by Cormac McCarthy's is the source for the recent movie production. Danielle Steel's latest "Honor Thyself" shows a public figure disabled by terror in Paris with a plot that reviews her life. Mary Higgins Clark's "Where Are You Now?" follows a young woman trying to understand the ten-year-old family tragedy when her college-senior brother disappeared; she must find where and why he is hiding. "Mermaids in the Basement" by Michael West explores the complex bond between a daughter and her father, set in the South, unveiled as the daughter faces ghosts from her past. Tod Wodicka's title,"All Shall Be Well;' and All Shall Be Well; and All Manner of Things Shall Be Well", makes more sense when the reader learns about a modern-day Arthurian tunic-wearing re-enactor being lured to Prague to find his estranged son in a plot moving between past and present. Lethal intrigue with a shocking campaign of terror against key officials rocks the government in "Capitol Conspiracy" by William Bernhardt. "Coal Black Horse" by Robert Olmstead concerns a mother instructing her only child to find his father on a Civil War battlefield and bring him home, causing the son to experience the worst aspects of the conflict. Susan Wiggs' "Snowfall at Willow Lake (in the Catskills)" shows what comes after a woman survives an unspeakable horror in war-torn countries, and finds her way home for a new chance at happiness. Beverly Lewis offers "Summer Hill Secrets 1" containing four stories about a modern fifteen-year-old living in Pennsylvania's Amish country. Requested nonfiction begins with Alan Crawford's "Twilight at Monticello" telling the final years of Thomas Jefferson. Dan Ariely's "Predictably Irrational" discusses the hidden forces that shape our often misguided decisions, even when we think we're in control. Christ Prentiss' "The Alcoholism and Addiction Cure" is a holistic approach to total recovery including healing underlying causes to end relapses and suffering. Suze Orman's "Women & Money" is about owning the power to control our destiny, and includes a five-month "Save Yourself Plan". Last is singer Sandi Patty's "Life in the Blender" about combining families, lives, and relationships with grace.