New Business Reference Work

The Indiana 2009-2010 Business Directory has been added to the library's reference collection. This work lists businesses by city, businesses by category, major employers, and employers by standard industrial classification. Why is this such a great resource? Search for potential employers, by town, complete with contact names and addresses; look for a list of car dealerships for the entire state; search for nursing homes statewide or only major employers with more than 100 employees. As always, questions are welcomed by the library's reference staff, so feel free to ask for assistance with this or any other reference item.

Michael Jackson 1958-2009

Famously referred to as the King of Pop, American entertainer Michael Jackson began his career at the age of eleven as the lead singer of the Jackson 5. The Jackson 5 produced hits such as "I Want You Back", "ABC", and "I'll Be There". Jackson launched his solo career in 1971 with the popular songs "Ben" and "Rockin' Robin". 1982's album Thriller cemented Jackson's fame throughout the 1980s. Although Jackson was mostly known for his personal and legal woes in the 1990s, he was planning a comeback in July of 2009 with 50 sold out concerts scheduled until March 2010. Michael Jackson died June 25, 2009 after suffering cardiac arrest.

Wikipedia Biography on Michael Jackson

Check out Michael Jackson Resources at CDPL:
Michael Jackson Biographies

Moonwalk by Michael Jackson

Dancing the Dream: Poems and Reflections by Michael Jackson

Author Birthday: Pearl S. Buck

American-born author Pearl S. Buck (born June 26, 1982 in West Virginia, died March 6, 1973) was the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1938. Raised in China and tutored by a Confucian Scholar, Buck's writing often reflected her Chinese background. Themes dealt with in Buck's writing include women's rights, immigration, war, and Asian culture. Some of Buck's most noteworthy works are The Good Earth, Sons, A House Divided, Peony, Letter from Peking, The Big Wave, and Imperial Woman.

Wikipedia Biography on Pearl S. Buck

Check out the author at CDPL: Pearl S. Buck

Preview Shelf -- CDPL Offers A Variety of Summer Reading

The Crawfordsville District Public Library will be closed on July 4th. Here are two interesting books of poetry. Richard Wilbur, once our country's Poet Laureate, who has written five children's books and numerous works of prose and translations, now has his name on his 17th collection called "Collected Poems 1943-2004". Ginger Andrews, winner of the Nicholas Roerich Prize has a book of poems called "An Honest Answer". "Battlefield of the Mind" by Joyce Meyer helps destroy negative thoughts in order to achieve freedom and peace. "Love Smart: Find the One You Want, Fix the One You Got" is Phil McGraw's treatise that everyone deserves a committed relationship, and that it is within everyone's control to have it. "Bad Childhood, Good Life" by Laura Schlessinger shows how to blossom and thrive in spite of an unhappy childhood. Stephanie Staal discusses living with the legacy of parents' divorce in "The Love They Lost". "Speaking of Divorce" by Roberta Beyer shows how to talk with kids and help them cope. Constance Ahrons' "We're Still Family" is the result of a two-decade landmark study about what grown children have to say about their parents' divorce. "You Don't Have to Take It Anymore" by Steven Stosny tells how to turn resentful, angry, or emotionally abusive relationships into compassionate, loving situations."Lucky Science" by Royston and Jeanie Roberts offers discoveries with experiments like "What do Silly Putty, Velcro, a three-million-year-old woman named Lucy, and corn flakes have in common?" Colin Sargent's novel "Museum of Human Beings" is about the Lewis and Clark friend Sacagawea's son, Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau, his education at court to be a European-touring concert pianist, and his return to the American wilderness. "Deadly Night" by Heather Graham is the first "chapter" in the Flynn Brothers Trilogy about a New Orleans plantation they inherited in 1863, to be followed by "Deadly Harvest" and "Deadly Gift". Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel's new novel "A Mad Desire to Dance" shows a life shaped by the worst horrors of the 20th century and one man's attempt to reclaim happiness. As a stringer in liberated Europe writing among the ruins of London, Warsaw, Paris, Prague, and Madrid after World War II, Paula Fox offers "The Coldest Winter". Jonathan Kaplan's nonfiction “Contact Wounds” tells of his self-discovery and survival, and the making of a career devoted to saving people caught in the crossfire of war as a surgeon in Angola, taking charge of a combat-zone hospital, and in Baghdad treating civilian casualties amid gunfights for control of hospitals. "The Shia Revival" by Vali Nasr studies how conflicts within Islam will shape the future. "Mahammad" by Eliot Weinberger is an essay derived from the Quran, from sections of non-Quranic writings known collectively as the Hadith, and from other early writings. In "From Baghdad, With Love" by Lt. Col. Jay Kopelman, a U. S. Marine reports things learned by the military in their search work, even finding a pitiful little dog and caring for it. "Fiasco" by Thomas Ricks tackles the American military's tragic experience in Iraq. "Warlord" by U. S. Marine Ilario Pantano recounts his courageous military career and courtroom success proving that he killed two Iraqi insurgents in self-defense. "Mere Christianity" is C. S. Lewis' series of radio lectures addressing the central issues of Christianity in 1943 England, when all hope was threatened by the inhumanity of war. In "Lockout" Michele Wucker writes her ideas why America keeps getting immigration wrong when our prosperity depends on getting it right.

Noteworthy Birthday: Lou Gehrig

Lou Gehrig (born June 19, 1903, died June 2, 1941) was an American baseball player for the New York Yankees in the 1920s and 1930s. He played in 2,130 consecutive games, accumulated 1,995 runs batted in (RBI), a batting average of .340, and a slugging percentage of .632. Gehrig was awarded as the American League's Most Valuable Player in 1927 and 1936. The baseball player's impressive career was tragically cut short by the fatal disease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (now commonly known as Lou Gehrig's Disease).

Baseball fans, check out our Baseball display on the second floor in July!

Wikipedia Biography on Lou Gehrig

Check out the baseball player at CDPL: Lou Gehrig

Check out the sport at CDPL: Baseball

Author Birthday: Salman Rushdie

Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie (born June 19, 1947 in Bombay, India) is an award-winning yet controversial author who often incorporates political and religious themes while examining the relationship between the Eastern and Western world. Since his debut in 1975, Rushdie has contributed novels, short stories, and works of non-fiction. Some of his more famous works include Midnight's Children (1981), Shame (1983), The Jaguar Smile (1987), The Satanic Verses (1988), East, West (1994), and Shalimar the Clown (2005)

Wikipedia Biography on Salman Rushdie

Check out the author at CDPL: Salman Rushdie

Author Birthday: Joyce Carol Oates

American author Joyce Carol Oates (born June 16, 1938 in Lockport, New York) has been an influential writer of novels, short stories, poetry, and non-fiction since her debut in 1963 titled With Shuddering Fall. Some of her more famous works include the short story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?", the 1970 National Book Award winner Them, the essay "On Boxing", and the Oprah's Book Club pick We Were the Mulvaneys.

Wikipedia Biography on Joyce Carol Oates

Check out the author at CDPL: Joyce Carol Oates

Preview Shelf -- Library Offers Bicentennial Darwin Reading

This year is Charles Darwin's bicentennial, and three new books at the Crawfordsville library explain his importance. "Darwin's Sacred Cause" by Adrian Desmond shows how a hatred of slavery shaped the scientist's views on human evolution and restored the moral core of his motivation. In the huge book, "On the Origin of Species" (the illustrated edition), David Quammen begins by saying it is "a surprising, peculiar work in many ways, but among all its peculiarities my favorite is this: Seldom in the history of English prose has such a dangerous, disruptive, consequential book been so modest and affable in tone...because its author...was himself a modest and affable man". Sketches complete the full picture. "Born to be Good" uses Darwin's work on uncontrollable and fleeting facial expressions as the point of departure as Dacher Keltner weaves together insights from new studies of positive emotions in neuroscience, evolution, and philosophy.
The library also has new American history books. "Crossing the Continent 1527-1540" is Robert Goodwin's story of the first African-American to explore the American South, facts based on groundbreaking research in Spanish archives; Esteban Dorantes and three Spanish noblemen survived shipwreck, famine, disease, and Native American hostility from Florida to the Gulf of California. "A Short History of the United States" by Robert Remini, Historian of the United States House of Representatives, contains the essential facts about our country's development. Ronald Walker's "Massacre at Mountain Meadows" is the account of a one of the darkest events in Mormon history and a key event in American religious history; on September 11, 1857, Mormon militia and Piaute allies killed 120 men, women and children, all unarmed emigrants. Robert Roper writes of Walt Whitman and his brothers in the Civil War in "Now the Drum of War". Two significant biographies are Stefan Kanfer's "Somebody" telling the reckless life and remarkable career of Marlon Brando, and Fidel Castro's own "spoken autobiography" called "My Life" organized for the book by Ignacio Ramonet. New art books include the colorful "The Lion Companion to Christian Art" by Michelle Brown, who embraces much of the history of art in the West and in parts of the Middle East, Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australasia from antiquity to the present day showing Christianity's central role in shaping Western culture. The photography collection "America at Home" is a close-up look at how we live, created by Rick Smolan and Jennifer Erwitt, another in the series of collections made in seven days by photo-journalists fanning out in the United States to produce 250,000 digital photos of "home". Kaffe Fassett offers 25 quilt designs in "Glorious Patchwork". On to the future. Howard Rosenberg & Charles Feldman discuss the menace of media speed and the 24-hour news cycle in "No Time to Think". "Paranoia" the 21st-century fear is the menace analyzed by Daniel and Jason Freeman. "The Universe in a Mirror" is Robert Zimmerman's saga of the Hubble Telescope and the visionaries who built it. "Siesta Lane" describing one cabin, no running water, and a year living green, is Amy Minato's own Walden Pond story in Oregon. "Why We Make Mistakes" how we look without seeing, forget things in seconds, and are all pretty sure that we are way above average, is the work of Joseph Hallinan, who notes our design flaws (we're often in the wrong frame of mind) and suggests ways we can do better the next time.

In the Gallery -- June 2009

Dynamic Duo in the Gallery for June
For most of her life, PAT MYERS PARIS has had a passion for detail that has only intensified with the passage of time. When she is dissatisfied with one of her drawings and needs a little something extra, her passion for detail clicks in and she is able to define a whole new texture or use waves of light to inject new drama into her piece. After successfully investigating several other art mediums, Pat became enamored with the powerful potential of using charcoal and pencil in the creation of her exquisitely detailed images. She prefers to start with something that is already outrageous then pushes it to the limits until it is almost "microscopic"! Since these adventures are so labor intensive, (up to two hundred hours each), there is always the risk of getting "too much of a good thing"! The payoff for all these hours of work comes during the photographic and enlargement process when she begins to "see" things she didn't even realize were there. "It has to be magic", she says. Pat finds herself in love with the whole wonderfully stimulating process of being emotionally gratified, soothed and excited by the masterful drama found in her work. Her fondest hope is to continue to improve with age, just like a fine wine! Pat is an active part of Thorntown's Sugar Creek Art Center, home to over 40 working artists. She is also taking classes from a very talented and well known artist, Bill Pattison, who recently completed a film special for PBS. The creative learning opportunities available are endless.

Friend and fellow-artist KATHLEEN NORTON is comfortably fluent and masterful in many mediums which include drawing, watercolor, oil painting, photography and one-of-a-kind pieces of handmade jewelry. Kathleen has been interested in art as long as she can remember. Growing up she was never without a crayon, pencil or needle and thread in her hands. She remembers being fascinated by coloring books and paper dolls. Betsy, the paper doll from McCall's Magazine, received new clothing and accessories from the magazine every month along with the designs Kathleen created for her. In junior high, she began making her own clothes. When high school rolled around she designed her prom dresses and later, her wedding dress. After high school, Kathleen earned a bachelor's degree in Fashion Design and Business from Woodbury University, an art and business college in Los Angeles, California. After graduation, she was a designer for a sportswear-manufacturing firm. It was the life she had always dreamed of; spending her days sketching and buying fabric samples, submitting designs to the pattern department and seeing the finished garment ready for purchase. When her husband's job brought the family to Crawfordsville, marriage and three daughters became her priority. Personal artistic endeavors were put on the back burner for later. As the children grew more independent, and time permitted, Kathleen completed classes in Fine Arts at Purdue University which enabled her to explore even more new areas of art. As a self-taught artist Kathleen has relished inspiring teachers who came her way; Pat Fay, her first watercolor teacher and Pat Paris, a relaxed pencil artist who helped her fine tune her drawing skills. During this time Pat and Kathleen partnered in teaching adults and home school students multi media art at Campbell's on Main. Kathleen has traveled in the US, Italy, and Provence, France. She discovered that photographing what she was experiencing would provide a "hard copy" memory which she could enjoy later and perhaps use as a theme for her work. Kathleen's studio is located in Thorntown, Indiana's Sugar Creek Art Center where you will find more of her paintings, photography and her line of jewelry.

Preview Shelf -- Jerry Smith's New Book

Art is a popular subject in Montgomery County, as a curriculum in our schools, practiced in businesses and studios, and produced by individuals in many ways. Jerry Smith, whose Green Street Gallery is a favorite destination in downtown Crawfordsville, has issued a new book called "Common Ground", dedicated to his children and grandchildren and to their love of nature and the land. He explains his lifelong love of art and shows his acrylics, watercolors, and oils in his chapters named Hoosier Roots, Water, Snow, Studies, Sketches and Small Paintings, Seacoast, Diversions and New Directions, Flowers, Still Life, Ireland's Dingle Peninsula, and England and Wales. You'll see how hard it is to settle on a favorite painting. This book exudes peace, beauty, and color. His "How To Paint Expressive Landscapes in Acrylic" issued in 2005, is also in the Crawfordsville District Public Library's collection. Other new books about art begin with Jonathan Lopez' "The Man Who Made Vermeers" the legend of master forger Han van Meegeren. "The Forger's Spell" by Edward Dolnick tells the story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the greatest art hoax of the twentieth century. "The Art and Colour of General Motors" provides essays edited by Jonathan Stein on the history of the company's design department from 1927 to the present, showing models including the Corvette, Camaro, and the once-ubiquitous tail fin, the final illustration (prophetic?) being a yellow 2008 Pontiac Solstice GXP. "The Complete Book of Woodcarving" by Everett Ellenwood begins with a history of the craft, followed by colored instructions for many kinds of shapes. Tony Dungy's "Uncommon" discusses what it takes to live a life of significance. In his book "Culture Making" Andy Crouch calls Christians to make culture instead of criticizing it or just consuming or condemning it. He describes the valuable life as one that participates in always-better ideas from the Bible. Thomas Howard's "Dove Descending" studies T. S. Eliot's "Four Quartets". "A Short Life of Jonathan Edwards", the brilliant Colonial theologian, missionary, college president, family man and philosopher, is research by George Marsden. Candy Harrington's "Barrier-Free Travel" is a full guide to going here and there when you need special physical help; it gives accurate and up-to-date advice about planes, trains, buses and ships. There are three significant biographies: Jim Mann's "The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan" a history of the end of the Cold War, "Flannery" Brad Gooch's life of Flannery O'Connor "whose books will live on and on in American literature", and "Let Me Stand Alone" the journal of Rachel Corrie, a charming, busy, State of Washington native and creative writer featuring her growing up years; she was killed at 23, trying to block the demolition of a Palestinian family's home in the Gaza Strip. There's new fiction. "World's Tallest Woman" by Rita Rose is a novel based on the real-life experiences of Sandy Allen, who graduated from Shelbyville High School. Earlene Fowler's "Love Mercy" explores "the knots in family ties" through the experiences of a grandmother estranged from her grandchildren. "While My Sister Sleeps" by Barbara Delinsky fastens on the unique and emotionally complex world of siblings when one of them suffers a life-threatening experience. A couple's supposedly safe adoption of a baby is threatened by the birth father in "Three Weeks to Say Goodbye" by C. J. Box.