Preview Shelf -- Clements Returns

The Crawfordsville District Library staff is happy to welcome back Angela Clements, who has returned to serve as Electronic Resources Librarian. Angela has been Head Outreach Librarian for the Tippecanoe County Public Library for 3 ½ years, before which she was Head of Children's Services when our library was across Washington Street in its original Carnegie home. Angela says her duties are "Maintaining and updating the library's hardware and software, databases, and website." Her office is on the lower level. Bill Helling has moved from that office to become Head of Reference Services located on the second level.This week's list is devoted to new fiction. "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" by Mary Shaffer and Annie Barrows has to be first because of its title. It is an alibi to protect its members from arrest in World War II. The plot is a good look back at this British island's shocking treatment while occupied by the Nazis. "The Other Queen" by Philippa Gregory, labeled as the "untold story of Mary, Queen of Scots" also looks captivating. "The Third Circle" by Amanda Quick is an Arcane Society story "revealing the passionate - and paranormal - secrets of proper Victorian London." "The Friday Night Knitting Club" by Kate Jacobs describes a quiet storefront on Manhattan's Upper West Side, where the members are just as varied as "the skeins of yarn in the shop's bins". "How to Be Single" is a thirty-something's fictional tour of the world to find out how women are dealing with singlenesss (the author herself made just that tour) and there's humor with the adventure. "More Than It Hurts You" by Darin Strauss illustrates Munchausen (a mother intentionally harming her baby). "The Mercy Rule" by Perri Klass highlights the predicament of a pediatrician, dealing with upper-middle-class working mothers, who must decide whether parents' actions are so incompetent that their children are in danger."Three Girls and Their Brother" by Theresa Rebeck follows sisters with red hair becoming "It" girls photographed by a world-famous glamour maker, and find themselves becoming easy prey for the worst side of show business while their parents are ignorant of the dangers. Kat Martin's "Heart of Fire" is the first volume of a romance series called Heart of Honor which begins in London in January, 1844. "Eighth Shepherd" by Bodie & Brock Thoene transports readers back in time to first century A.D. to critical events in the history of the world. Philip Hensher's "The Northern Clemency" shows ordinary lives shaped by both everyday experience and large forces of history. Toni Morrison's "A Mercy" is described as a powerful tragedy distilled into a jewel of a masterpiece. Randa Jarrar's "A Map of Home" is based on the author's childhood in Kuwait, teenage years in Egypt, and eventual flight to Texas. "Happy Families" by Carlos Fuentes (translated) follows a family and its love across an expanse of Mexican lifestyles. "A Sun for the Dying" by Jean-Claude Izzo (translated) is his last masterpiece about a man's search for human intimacy. "The Wasted Vigil" by Nadeem Aslam tells of war in our time through the lives of five people who come together in post-9/11 Afghanistan. "Ms. Hempel Chronicles" by Sarah Bynum shows a new teacher questioning what she should and should not teach in middle school. "The English Major" by Jim Harrison follows a man who's lost everything, on his "healing" road trip across America to find new names for states and state birds. "Marilynne Robinson's "Home" develops several interesting generations of a brilliant, lovable, and wayward family in Iowa.