Quintessential Quilt Artist Exhibits Art Quilts at CDPL

Linda Gray grew up around her grandmother and aunts in an environment that embraced all types of crafts and artistic endeavors. One of her aunts was an elementary school teacher. She asked Linda to draw a series of posters on insects and flowers for her science class. Her aunt's colleagues were so impressed with her work; they asked if she would produce similar exhibits for them. This was the first external validation of Linda's creativity, and she was off and running. She learned to knit, crochet and use her grandmother's treadle sewing machine. She made doll clothes, table runners and what she then called 'blankets' for her dolls from scraps of fabric. She absolutely loved working with her hands. From 1981 through 1986, Linda lived and worked in Seoul, Korea. At the end of her stay, she asked each of her new friends to make a quilt block that depicted thoughts about their friendship. She gave each person a square of muslin fabric to use for the project and received about 50 blocks back. She sewed them together with sashing and created a quilt top. After returning to the United States, she realized that she had no idea how to complete the quilt. In 1996, (yes, a full ten years later) she took her first quilting class from Dallas Reed, and has been "hooked on quilting" ever since. Her style has evolved over the years, going from rather traditional to very contemporary. She learned that adhering to strict rules was not comfortable for her. The thought of going to "quilter's jail" for not having a perfect quarter inch seam or cutting a piece of fabric to an exact 1/32 of an inch, led her quickly to doing her own thing. She learned to create her own patterns and designs. She has done some fabric dying and fabric painting in the style of Phil Beaver. Linda uses a lot of beads and other embellishments to enhance her projects. Her subject matter changes with her mood, consequently, she has a wide variety of themes. She has a floral series, a jazz series and quite a few abstracts. She loves batiks, African fabrics, Oriental fabrics, Australian fabrics and black and white fabrics. Her most recent workshop was with Hollis Chatelain. In this setting she learned to paint with procion dye powder. The dying, along with threadwork techniques, has become Linda's 'new' favorite passion. In her first attempt at using this dye and threadwork process, Linda's chose a person as her subject. This was probably the most difficult subject matter she could have chosen to paint, but she was very proud of her finished product. As she continues to grow and looks back at the craftsmanship and fabric choices of her first attempts at quilting, she wonders 'What was I thinking'????? Linda has just begun to share her passion with the world. Recently, she was chosen as featured artist at a quilt show sponsored by the Indianapolis Quilt Guild. Several pieces of her work were displayed in the Indianapolis Museum of Art's exhibit in the Cultural Pavilion at Indianapolis Black Expo. From that experience, Linda was chosen to work on the IMA Community quilt, which will be on exhibit at IMA as part of its permanent collection. Linda hopes you will enjoy her work as much as she has enjoyed creating it.

Web page updates

In case you have not noticed yet, you may want to check out two new parts of our web site. Both are in the list of Your Library links. Now we have a "remodeled" Youth Services section. We have also added a place for Young Adults, which is named Teen Lounge. Be sure to check out these new parts to see what we have to offer.

A.B.C.D. = Adult Book Club Discussions

Crawfordsville District Public Library Presents: Adult Book Club Discussions!

Adults 18 and over are welcome to join us for our 4th annual Adult Book Discussion Group! We meet the first Monday of every month 6:30-8:30 pm starting Nov. 6th, 2006. Enjoy lively discussions, friendly people, and snacks! Sign up at our Circulation Desk for a copy of our current book at anytime throughout the year. Remember: "Open Books Open Minds."

For more information contact: Christina, Carol, or Janet P. @ 362-2242 ext. 2. There will be a kick-off party: Sept. 25th at 6:30.

Coming to CDPL Oct 28 (1-3 pm): writing workshop

Award-winning novelist and short story writer Patricia Henley will help you discover the stories you already know. In this 2-hour workshop, we will focus on uncovering some of the big moments of your own life and learning how to use those ingredients to create fiction that is new and meaningful. As a teaching tool, she will use an example from her own short stories, "The Secret of Cartwheels." All interested adult and teen writers (over 16) are welcome to attend. Beginners encouraged! Patricia Henley's novel, Hummingbird House, was a finalist for the 1999 National Book Award and the New Yorker Fiction Prize (2000). Patricia has taught in the MFA Program at Purdue University for nineteen years. She lives in West Lafayette, Indiana, with her husband, her nephew, and two beloved cats. If you'd like to know more about her work, Check out her website address: www.patriciahenley.com. The Workshop is free, but registration is required. To register, sign up at the circ desk

ANCORA IMPARO & Glassdancing Displays

ANCORA IMPARO is a Latin phrase meaning "I am still learning." This phrase is highly reflective of the life of Dana Warner Fisher to date. As a library media specialist at Tuttle Middle School, Dana strives to inspire children to become lifelong readers and learners, by modeling her own love of books and scholarship. Since 2004, she has been a graduate student at IUPUI working toward her master's degree in Library Science. As a quilt artist, she constantly collects images and inspirations as raw material for her art quilt work. As a person, she is continually trying to grow and improve. In Dana's past, there has always been a distinction between her art quilts and her utility sewing. With these new quilts, in the ANCORA IMPARA Art Quilt Exhibit, Dana has challenged herself to interlace these diverse aspects of creative work. She also hopes that this new work will be more reflective of her own personal process. Dana has been making quilts since 1975, when she worked as a professional actress. During this time she met Jim Fisher when they were cast in a production of Annie Get Your Gun. They married in 1977 and have two grown children, Dan and Anna. They have made their home in Crawfordsville since 1978. Dana's work has been exhibited at the Old Jail Museum, Wabash College, Skidmore College, Denison University, Quilt America, the American Quilters' Society (Paducah, Kentucky), the International Quilt Festival (Houston, Texas), Quilt/Surface Design Symposium Invitational "99 (Columbus, Ohio), the Indiana Arts Commission, and the Crawfordsville District Public Library. The Indiana Arts Commission owns two of her quilts and another quilt is part of the permanent collection of the Theatre Museum of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England. Dana's exhibit will be featured in the Library's Mary Bishop Memorial Art Gallery from Wednesday, August 30 until Friday, September 28, 2006. You will delight in this "learning librarian's" reflection on her life until now! Dana wishes to invite the community to join her at a reception, from 2 until 4 p.m. on Saturday, September 2, 2006, in the Donnelley Room on the Library's Lower Level. All are welcome!

Sharing the September Gallery with Dana Warner Fisher is Fused Glass Artist Nancy Joalta Yeiter, whose work will occupy the new display cases in the gallery. GlassDancing is the business name Nancy has chosen for her adventures in the eclectic art of fused glass making. Coming from a family of artists, Nancy has explored many artistic mediums in her life. For the past several years, however, her artistic explorations have led her on a journey of discovery in the medium of glass making. Working with elements of light, color and dimension, Nancy has created framed wall enhancements, three dimensional glass art, functional glass work and unique and unusual jewelry. She has studied artistic glass creation at the Indianapolis Art Center, read many books on the subject and taken a variety of workshops from experts in the field. Nancy has entered her work in the Crawfordsville Art League's Downtown Art Exhibit for the past several years. Her work was well received and juried into the exhibit each time. Her jewelry may be seen and purchased at Heathcliff's Women's Clothing Store on Washington Street in Crawfordsville. Nancy's work may also be viewed her home gallery any day by appointment. She enjoys the challenge of customer based ideas and would be happy to help you explore the possibilities of a new idea with her in a private consultation leading to custom work. Call 362-6097 for an appointment.

Preview Shelf -- Libros, Journal & Courier en espanol

The Crawfordsville District Public Library has a special display just to the right of the entrance. It features books in Spanish. The library is now subscribing to the monthly Journal & Review (Lafayette) en espanol. Copies are available at the entrance to the reading room and upstairs at the reference desk at the beginning of each month. The headline of the Agosto edition is the question, Cual es el impacto de la immigracion?

Here's some recently received fiction. Myla Goldberg's Wickett's Remedy visits Boston in 1918 when a former medical student creates a mail-order patent medicine just as the Spanish influenza epidemic begins to change his life and just as the stolen formula is also transformed into a soft drink. Beasts of No Nation is Uzodinma Iweala's portrait of a young boy in a West African nation who is recruited into guerrilla fighting. Harry Turtledove's In High Places places teenage adventurous agents of Crosstime Traffic in alternate history between California and Versailles, France. Like Dandelion Dust by Karen Kingsbury finds parents planning flight to prevent their adopted son's return to his just-released-from-prison biological father. The Whole World Over by Julia Glass weaves a tapestry about connections and about how accidents great or small, can determine choices in love and marriage.These requests are ready for their applicants. Jacquelyn Mitchard's Cage of Stars illuminates struggles in a close-knit Mormon community when two sisters are brutally murdered. Levi's Will by Dale Cramer shows an Amish farm in Ohio where a fallen man seeks to reconcile old and new worlds. The Wind of the Khazars by Marek Halter is a historically accurate account of how a warrior nation converted to Judaism under King Bulan in the 900s AD. Carol Higgins Clark's Hitched is another Regan Reilly story of eccentric characters, this time about brides and grooms involved when their specially designed wedding clothes are part of a crime. New Orleans detective Reuben Montoya appears again as he matches wits with a twisted psychopath in Lisa Jackson's Shiver. Julian Barnes' Arthur & George, short listed for the 2005 Man Booker Prize, makes a detective story into a real-life mystery with riddles of identity and imagination, as one character, half-Indian, and the other, creator of the world's most famous literary detective, take turns on the pages. Thomas Perry's Nightlife has high-voltage shocks and sympathetic characters in the Portland, Oregon cat-and-mouse tale of a female serial killer hunting a female police officer. Three books about food are Vegan Vengeance with Isa Moskowitz' 150 recipes that rock, Diana Abu-Jaber's The Language of Baklava a Jordanian/American culinary memoir, and The Gluten-Free Gourmet Cooks Comfort Foods showing old favorite recipes using new flours described by Bette Hagman. Books about sports conclude this column. Last Dance is John Feinstein's 60-year collection of stories for fans of basketball's Final Four including reports by John Wooden and Mike Krzyzewski, and comments by Bill Bradley and Michael Jordan. A big showy book A Week in the Life of NASCAR has an additional title A View from Within giving unrestricted access to the lives of teams, crews and drivers, from the publishers of NASCAR SCENE. Say It's So is Phil Rogers' look at the Chicago White Sox march to its 2005 World Series victory. Soccerhead gives Jim Haner's meditation on the poetry and politics of the game as a memoir, a cultural history, and a reflection on the Zen-ness of the sport. Organizing Successful Tournaments by John Byl includes a CD with 1,000 schedule templates. Coaching Fastpitch Softball Successfully comes from Kathy Veroni and Roanna Brazier.

Preview Shelf -- Thirteen Local Businesses are Sponsors!

Yes, local sponsors are providing great prizes for weekly drawings in the Crawfordsville District Public Library's summer adult reading program. As 34 patrons read books on four different routes from the East to the West coast and a final book on Indiana, one whose name is drawn is receiving a special prize each week. Come see the colorful countdown display on the south wall. The literary-savvy businesses shown helping the cause are Arni's, Campbell's on Main, College Street Deli, heathcliffe, Maggie's Angels, La Rose on Main, Milligans Flowers and Gifts, Nogginz, Pace Dairy, Schloot Furniture, Staples, Top Line Athletics, and Visible Changes Hair Salon. By August 14th, 25 patrons crossed the Mississippi for grab bags; Friends of the Library workers are donating book-sale funds for the Grand Prize. Such community generosity is encouraging patrons to spend this summer as bibliophiles, profiting from the huge collection of reading available at 205 S. Washington Street.

Now, here is some new nonfiction. Two books for brides and grooms are Pretty Weddings for Practically Pennies by Catherine Risling and Accessorizing the Bride by Norma Shephard, showing vintage wedding finery through the decades. Building the Titanic by Rod Green is the Reader's Digest history of the famous ocean liner. Coroner's Journal by Louis Catraldie is his story of work in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, from 1998 to 2003, showing how he stalked death in the Deep South's small city with big-city problems. For local basketball fans comes Landon Turner's Tales from the 1980-'81 (team) Indiana Hoosiers. Fantasyland is Sam Walker's season spent on baseball's lunatic fringe, when he traveled 19,000 miles spending $10,000 to play in Tout Wars, an unusual baseball league, to answer "Can excellence be predicted by statistics or is the human element more important?" State Fair by Arthur Grace is composed of text and black and white photos with the flavor and uniqueness of this annual celebration in 10 states. Forbidden Faith by Richard Smoley explains Gnostics, their history, and their ideas that keep reappearing throughout history, from roots in the Gospel of Thomas discovered in Egypt. Weird U.S. is a travel guide to America's local legends in back roads of America, like rock formations, unusual roadside attractions, and best-kept secrets; it includes the Indiana Medical History Museum in Indianapolis. The Book of the Dragon by Ciruelo (Cabral), is a glimpse, with sketches, of culture we imagine, including the beauty and terror of an unknown world. Farley Mowat's No Man's River tells an Arctic tale of his life among Metis trappers, native people struggling in a brutal environment. Elizabeth Peters' novel Tomb of the Golden Bird is about archaeology in Egypt and the sinister forces blended into its scenery. It's as if South Africa confronts its history in Lisa Fugard's Skinner's Drift about the family farm on a stretch of land where jackals and leopards roam. Sometimes you can tell more truth through fiction reads the cover of Richard Clarke's The Scorpion's Gate, and in his new geopolitical thriller the reader moves into a future concerned with realigning the map of the Middle East. Chieh Chieng's A Long Stay in a Distant Land covers three generations of a wayward family, and the unexpected ways culture, love, and myth work to sustain and threaten family ties. Call to Arms by Livia Hallam visits Charleston, South Carolina as its secession ordinance is signed in 1860 and the story of young students and friends highlights the battle of Fort Sumter and other battles to come. In Wild Animus by Rich Shapero a young man rejects his normal life to follow an inner calling to the Alaskan wilderness.

Plaster update on Carnegie Museum

The plastering of the Carnegie Musuem of Montgomery County (CMMC) is nearly finished on the second floor (the former non-fiction stack area when the Carnegie was a library). Here you can see most of the scaffolding has been removed after the holes and cracks around the clerestory have been filled. The clerestory provided a lot of natural light for the library before it was hidden by a drop ceiling in the 1970s.

Montgomery County WIC celebrates World Breastfeeding Week

Come Celebrate World Breastfeeding Week with Us! We will have information on breastfeeding, door prizes, story time for kids, games, food, and fun!

Relax ~ Rejuvenate ~ Relate

When: Wednesday, August 2nd, 10am-12pm
Where: Crawfordsville Public Library 205 S. Washington St.

Everyone is invited to join us! Bring your family and friends to celebrate healthy babies of the greater Crawfordsville area.

Montgomery County WIC -- (Women, Infants, & Children) Programs (765) 362-3772

Plastering the Carnegie

Work continues on the Carnegie Museum of Montgomery County. At this point the former non-fiction area (2nd floor) is being replastered in order to restore some of the original look -- before much of it was hidden by drop ceilings.

Genealogy Club upcoming program

How to Share a Local Treasure with the World: the Digitization of Henry Campbell's Civil War Diary
Tuesday, 8 August 2006
6:30 p.m. executive committee
7:00 p.m. in the Community Room-A of the Crawfordsville District Public Library

Program by Bill Helling
In 1862, Henry Campbell, a 16-year-old resident of Crawfordsville, lied about his age to enlist in the 18th Indiana Artillery Battery. He was about to be rejected because of his youth when Eli Lilly, the company commander, intervened to make Henry his personal bugler. Henry served in the battery until the end of the war, eventually earning a commission as 2nd Lieutenant, participating in campaigns in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia. During this time, Henry kept a journal of his experiences, carefully recording his impressions. After the war, he gathered his notes, adding newspaper clippings, maps, and sketches. This journal, contained in three hard-bound notebooks, is now stored in the Robert T. Ramsay, Jr. Archival Center at Wabash College. Because Henry Campbell was a literate and sensitive observer, his journal is a valuable insight into the Civil War from the perspective of an ordinary soldier. How can you access this "local treasure"? Wabash College and CDPL have been cooperating in order to digitize the manuscript. In this program, Bill Helling will describe the challenges and difficulties involved in making a Civil War journal usable and accessible to all.The program is open to the public; you don't have to be a member to attend.

For more information, please contact:

765-362-2242
Dian Moore, Local History Librarian (Ex. 119), or Dellie Craig, Activities Director (Ex. 118)
Weekdays: 9 a.m. -- 5 p.m.
E-mail: gen@cdpl.lib.in.us

Meetings are held on the second Tuesday of each month.

Carnegie update

Crawfordsville District Public Library director Larry Hathaway reports that the renovation of the Carnegie building is moving along with several of the trades still working - plumbing, HVAC, electricians, and plasterers. Carpenters are replacing the rectangular windows while the large windows are still under fabrication. All state and local requirements have been met regarding cleaning of contaminated soil from the underground fuel tank, so the parking lot can be surfaced soon. Much patience has accompanied good decisions for the future of the original library. (J. Clauser) Note: This view is of the original "stacks" area where all books were once shelved. It later became the non-fiction area when the Carnegie building expanded. The clerestory had been hidden for years by a drop ceiling.

Carnegie Building --- North Face

Have you ever seen the north face of the Carnegie building? Well, no one has since 1979 when the old Davis autombile dealership was attached to it in order to expand the public library. During the conversion process (the Carnegie building is becoming a museum), you may discover some of the building that you never saw before. And soon you will see some of the original splendor of the 1902 construction.

Imaginative Images in Cloth Sparkle at CDPL Gallery

As July fireworks burst forth and shower their sparkling beauty into the sky, so too the imaginative images of Sara Kleihauer shower their brilliance onto the newly surfaced walls of the Library's Mary Bishop Memorial Art Gallery, from Monday, July 3 until Monday, July 31, 2006.

Sara Kleihauer, aka "Crafty Lady" has been exploring as many creative mediums as she could find for most of her life. She has never been one to sit still for very long. Retiring in 2000, Sara moved to Crawfordsville and took a job at The Sewing Connection where she learned about fabric and how it could be manipulated into beautiful and intuitive designs using the art of quilting. From then on she was hooked and hasn't stopped quilting since.

Her quilting ideas, designs and productions bubble to the surface of her being in the middle of the night, at a quilt show, while sitting on the back porch or taking her golden retriever "Libby" for a walk. Of course when those ideas float to the surface, they MUST be dealt with IMMEDIATELY, if not sooner!

Sara's artistic creations and experiments speak passionately, but not necessarily in the skilled manner to which she aspires nor the one taught her by talented Sugar Creek Quilt Guild members, and most especially teacher Anita Hardwick and mentor Jean Goebel. Humbled by the invitation to exhibit at the Library in spite of what she considers "imperfections" in her work, Sara says, "if given the chance to re-create the item of concern, she wouldn't change a thing for each quilt speak volumes to her, just the way they are" . . .

Having fun with fabric is definitely Sara's bailiwick. She loves to design and create new patterns, figure out complex ones (with or without the actual pattern), and sometimes just play with fabric to see what happens.

She doesn't call herself a "serious quilter", for she has yet to create an "heirloom quilt" (haven't even started one to stash under the bed yet), but eats, sleeps and dreams quilting. She spends all her vacations visiting quilt shops and attending out-of-town Quilt Shows.

Born and raised in a small Northern Ohio town provided Sara with a perfect stepping stone to begin an exciting and adventure-filled life. After two years at Ohio University, she married and moved to Greece where she bicycled all over Europe. Returning to the US on her own, she settled in McHenry, Illinois where she worked in the research laboratories of the Quaker Oats company and met her second husband Ken Farman to whom she was married for 18 years preceding his death.

When she married husband number three, Chris Kleihauer, she not only became his wife, but a step-mom to a son 21, and two daughters 8 and 12. Though this marriage changed her entire life, Sara was so grateful to have the children and grandchildren, who continue to delight and amaze her every day, when Chris passed away just a few years later.

Sugar Creek Quilters and Outta the Box Quilters have become Sara's newest family and support group. She thrives on their workshops, retreats and quilt bees. She recently joined Common Threads Quilt Guild of Lafayette as well. She enjoys teaching patchwork, especially new techniques. Once she discovers something she simply can't wait to share it -- both the technique and the quilt itself. All her quilts are sewn on the machine, and are machine quilted as well.

Sara started "Journal Quilting" after seeing a group of journal quilts at the Chicago Illinois Quilt Show. These are roughly page-size quilts representing something she is struggling with at the moment. She often uses them to try out a new technique in a smaller format, but more often she presents herself with the challenge of creating something ordinary that has happened that month. Recently a "Journal Quilt" appeared depicting Sara's frustration with the Japanese Beetles resting on and stripping the leaves and flowers of her prized Rose Of Sharon! Another depicts what goes on inside her head in a self-portrait.

Do visit the library's gallery and experience first-hand the firecracker beauty of this unique and multi-talented woman's quilts sparkling from the walls for your viewing pleasure. See you there!

Diane Hammill
CDPL Mary Bishop Memorial Art Gallery Coordinator

New non-fiction DVDs!

Recently CDPL has received many DVDs on such non-fiction topics as NASCAR, travel, opera, and so on. Here is a partial list, in no partucular order, of what you can find! (These DVDs will be on the 2nd floor in the non-fiction area; they are not shelved with our regular DVD movies).

• Carmen
• The B-2 Stealth Bomber: America's deadliest weapon
• Auschwitz--inside the Nazi state
• Africa live: the Roll Back Malaria concert: a film
• The 2003 encyclopedia of boating tips: from anchors to zincs.
• The boys of Baraka
• Fastpitch
• The fantastic world of M.C. Escher
• Washington, D.C.
• Dan Burstein's Secrets of angels demons & masons
• Cyrano de Bergerac
• The crucible
• The Color of paradise
• Children of Heaven
• Guitarra!: the guitar in Spain
• Half past autumn: the life and works of Gordon Parks.
• Hollow city = Na cidade vazia
• How to marry a millionaire
• An introduction to Chinese brush painting
• Kentucky
• La Sylphide: ballet in two acts
• The life of Leonardo da Vinci
• Lost boys of Sudan
• Nascar
• New York
• Swan Lake
• Speedo: a demolition derby love story
• Rigoletto
• Visions of France
• The Traditional art of making Japanese pottery: bond with the earth
• Capote
• Whispers of angels: a story of the Underground Railroad
• The art of hitting slow-pitch softball

Preview Shelf -- Adult Summer Reading

Coast to Coast is the name of the Crawfordsville District Public Library's
summer reading contest program for registered patrons 16-years old and up. It begins July 1st and ends September 1st, and it's a dilly. Each of us can pick one of four routes across the U.S. and read a library book either about or set in each state along the route, finally reading one book about Indiana. Patrons may use 5 books on cassette or CD, and the rest in print, of which at least 3 must be nonfiction. A notebook at the circulation desk contains a suggested reading list. There will be weekly drawings, and 20 chances at an additional grab bag drawing for for those who've crossed the Mississippi by August 14th. The Grand Prize is a night for two in a Turkey Run cabin along with dinner and breakfast! Carol Bennett and Katie Myers have worked hard to make this summer an adventurous experience. On your mark, get set, start your engines. Motor over to the circulation desk for your map.

As you know, the library is open seven days a week; but July 4 it will be closed for the national commemoration of Independence Day. A new book by Leo Damrosch (labeled National Book Award Finalist) is a novel-like biography of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Restless Genius integrating his extraordinary writings with his tumultuous life experience as the late-18th century literary genius who so greatly influenced his readers. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America by Allen Guelzo is a powerful narrative of the Civil War's greatest moment, documented by unpublished letters and documents, and little-known accounts from newspapers, Congressional memoirs, and correspondence. Kabul in Winter by Ann Jones, authority on women and violence, reveals Afghanistan's complicated history of disastrous struggles. The Arts of Asia by Meher McArthur has chapters on jade, silk, porcelain, lacquer, ivory, bamboo, paper, bold, wood and stone. David Campbell's A Land of Ghosts studies the people and forests of the western Amazon region, called the last frontier, as wild a west as Earth has ever known. Taylor Branch's Pillar of Fire about America in the Martin Luther King, jr. era (1963-65) is part biography, part history, and part elegy. Courage After Fire by Keith Armstrong et al, is their blueprint of problem-solving techniques for veterans returning home, and it would be useful for anyone recovering from trauma. Author and journalist Oriana Fallaci's The Force of Reason uses historical punishments to make her points and she has become the symbol of Resistance to Islamo-fascism, a warrior in the cause of human freedom. Three new books champion poetry. John Crowley's The Translator is a novel about an exiled Russian poet and his American translator during the Cuban missile crisis. Summer Lake comments about daily living as David Huddle forms paragraph-like segments of humor and commonness that read like small but special happenings. The Collected Poems of Wilfred Owen holds what are considered the finest poems about war in English literature, (according to C. Day Lewis). The reading is made all the more entertaining by annotations about his various drafts of composition. Vita (Victoria) Sackville-West portrays fashionable society in The Edwardians (first published in 1930) as she shows the elements that lead to its downfall. City of Shadows by Ariana Franklin is a novel of historical suspense set in Germany during the decadent and turbulent years of the 1920s and 1930s.

Scrapbooking Class Planned for July

Have you ever done any scrapbooking? This class is for beginners and advanced alike!

July 22, Saturday 9:30 a.m. -- 4:30 p.m. (Fee: $5.00)

You are invited to come and join others who are working on their scrapbooks. Whether you are brand new or have been scrapbooking for years, you will enjoy the day of preserving your photos and memories. Beginners will learn the four steps to completing their albums and everyone will learn tips and be inspired with examples of borders and page layouts with chances of winning prizes.

Bring your photos, albums and scrapbook materials and have a day to start or finish your projects. Supplies will be available for purchase if needed. Please reserve your space by July 20, 2006 (765-362-2242 ext. 2). Payment is required the day of registration. (Kathy Peck, Creative Memories Consultant)

Preview Shelf -- Good Reads by Barnes, Cloncs, Lingeman, and Quirk

Wabash professor of history James Barnes and researcher Patience Plummer Barnes have published a study of the role and fate of German party members and British sympathizers called Nazis in Pre-War London 1930-1939. With suspense it answers who they were, what they were doing, whether they were professional espionage agents or simply residents, and when war broke out, if they were interned or expelled. The excitement includes one conclusion that "The British must be seen as having been very effective as well as very lucky in curbing attempts at espionage on the part of the Third Reich."

Michael E. Cloncs, retired German and history teacher, has composed his first story called Hominids in Hoosierland: Along the Creek. Recalling childhood time on his aunt and uncle's farm between Crawfordsville and Darlington when he fished and hunted, his writing pretends that a survivor like homo erectus (Big Foot) dwelled along Sugar Creek. The plot about a young boy and elder protector in ancient times is enhanced with his own photographs, sketches, and artifact images. He states, Even though it's a work of fiction, it also has historical accuracy (Wade Coggeshall, Journal Review, October 21, 2005). Richard Lingeman, who grew up here and graduated from Crawfordsville High School has issued Double Lives about American writers' rich and volatile friendships. Studs Terkel notes, "He comes through as a major literary critic, revealing surprising truths in the celebrated friendships and feuds of writers whose lives and art intersected." He explores friendships between notables like Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville, Henry James and Edith Wharton, Theodore Dreiser and H. L. Mencken, even F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. He begins with Rainer Maria Rilke's quote, Love consists in this: that two solitudes protect and touch and greet each other. Bob Quirk, Wabash College graduate, is retired in Wingate after 24 years of teaching and 10 years in administration, including service at Pleasant Hill Elementary School. He collected 43 of his articles in the Fountain County Neighbor (Attica, Indianaereere a) in 2001 and added a few unpublished pieces in Real American Stories. His final story begins, "It has been said that everyone's favorite style of music is the music they grew up with." Others are full of observations about windmills, outhouses, basketball, the Horse Thief Detective Association, his great uncle's diary as a Civil War soldier, and other interesting reminiscences we all can enjoy.

Here are other new books to borrow: Spell of the Highlander by Purdue graduate Karen Moning is her latest romance bringing together a Celtic warrior trapped in time and an archaeology student who'll pay the price for freeing him. A Little Love Story by Roland Merullo is classic with a modern twist as a governor's aide meets a carpenter/portrait painter with a shadow over his romantic history. The Truth About Diamonds by Nicole Richie, star of the TV show The Simple Life portrays a typical Hollywood child with a life of glitz, who becomes spokes-model for a national compaign. Magic Hour by Kristin Hannah finds a six-year-old girl emerging speechless and alone from the heart of the Olympic National Forest in the Washington state. The plot of course is to figure out her past.

Preview Shelf -- Summer Reading @ CDPL

Yes, children and students to 18 years, get ready for the exciting summer reading programs which will begin next Monday at the Crawfordsville District Public Library and which will include reading (of course), prizes, crafts, movies, and much more! Sign up at the Youth Services desk.

Here's a special local book. Inaugural Addresses, W. H. Taft to G. W. Bush is the 2005 Lakeside Classic issued by R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company, and edited by Henry Graff. Another new book is The President's House, 1800 to the Present, Margaret Truman's trip behind the scenes to the deep recesses and airiest balconies, revealing what it feels like to live in The White House. Stories of rambunctious children, tragedies, and rescues of icons, make the reader feel at home there too. The Little Book of Celtic Myths & Legends is a stroll among the heroes and heroines, wizards, witches, fairy folk, and enchantment of Ireland, Wales, and Scotland by Ken and Joules Taylor, each speech accompanied by an action photo. A Concise History of the Russian Revolution by Richard Pipes tells of the violent and disruptive acts that created the first modern totalitarian regime. The Dolls' Dressmaker is a complete pattern book by Venus Dodge showing the intricacies of the historically-correct finished products. In Memory Quilts in the Making Rhonda Richards includes classic patterns and some new ideas, enhanced by poems, quotes, and passages. Quick & Easy Scrap Quilting in Mix and Match Sets includes wearables and other non-coverlet projects. From National Geographic come up-to-date learning books. On Assignment USA by Priit Vesilind holds up a mirror to America, reprinting pictures from the magazine's most popular stories about our land, people, journeys, cities, heroes, and disasters. From the same source, Photographs Then and Now is the mirror of our world from its archives past and present showing people and places as they were once, and as they are today. The third, by Sylvia Earle and Wolcott Henry, is Wild Ocean about America's parks under the sea, marine sanctuaries of the ocean's bounty in the North Atlantic, South Pacific, the Florida Keys, Monterey Bay and fossil beds of the Gulf of the Farallones. An Illustrated History of the First World War by John Keegan is almost like watching a movie of that period with some photos new to books. Katharine Graham's Washington tells about her personal collection of 100 essays, articles, and book excerpts covering her life period, 1917 to 2001. Some writers are Henry Kissinger, David Brinkley, Rosalynn Carter, Art Buchwald, and Nancy Reagan, a real potpourri. Another gem is The Complete Lyrics of Irving Berlin containing the words of more than 1,200 songs (400 of which have never before appeared in print) along with commentary and dozens of photos. Arrogance is Bernard Goldberg's treatise about rescuing America from the media elite, the culture of denial as he calls it, where contrary views are not welcome. Joy Fielding's novel Mad River Road is the place where a former prisoner seeks vengeance from his ex-wife, as other family members plan a road trip there for other reasons. Consent to Kill by Vince Flynn finds the fearless counter-terrorism operative Mitch Rapp directly in the line of fire when the father of a dead terrorist demands eye-for-an-eye vengeance. Stephen King's Cell (cell rhymes with hell) deals with crime involving all cell phones. Danielle Steel's The House is her 66th story, this time about a young woman's answer to an inheritance challenge - to use it for something wonderful and daring.

Dynamic Duet - Ashby & Ashby: Art & Photography

Though born in very different parts of the country, Joseph L. and Deborah K. Ashby recognized early, and separately, their passion for all things natural. The internal glow of this early passion has never dimmed, through their marriage and business careers, but has blossomed profusely in the clear light of day.

How were these multi-talented artists from Brownsburg, Indiana discovered? Just after Christmas 2005, while delivering the Hoosier Salon Traveling Exhibit to its' next venue in Plainfield Indiana's Public Library Art Gallery, I was mesmerized by the photography of Deborah and Joseph Ashby, still hanging in the Art Gallery. I knew immediately that I needed to meet these two artists and convince them to exhibit in our Library's Gallery, and soon!

Little did I know how enamored I would be by their exhibited art, and that of others, as I entered their "Artistic Designs Gallery" of Custom Framing, Fine Art, Posters & Reproduction, Art Classes, Artist Materials, Original Paintings, Limited Edition Prints and Sculpture on Green Street in Brownsburg Indiana. With bated breath, I asked if they would be open to displaying in Crawfordsville. In spite of the distance and delivery difficulties, they agreed wholeheartedly to come and share their passionate interpretation of nature in all its glory with the Crawfordsville community. HURRAY!

So, from Wednesday, May 31 until Thursday, June 29, during regular library hours, you will be treated to A DYNAMIC DUET: the Art and Photography of Debbie and Joe Ashby in the Mary Bishop Memorial Art Gallery at the new Library.

DEBORAH K. ASHBY was born and raised in the beautiful rolling hills of the Finger Lakes region of New York State. There was no way that Debbie could not have been influenced by the beauty that was free for the looking, every single day! Wishing to capture and share the essence of that beauty, Debbie began her photographic quest at the age of 13. It only took a few snapshots to ignite the passion within her to capture what she had seen, but to evoke her response in others who could not have her daily heritage and perhaps change their lives.

Complete with program distinction honors, Debbie received her BS Degree in Biomedical Communications (Photography) at Stockton State College in Pomona, New Jersey and since coming to Indiana, she has pursued her passion by taking workshops with well credentialed nature photographers.

Through her photography, Deborah has developed a fascination with natural abstractions. She seeks and finds intriguing compositions that create images that capture the imagination. She often combines these single images into multiples and creates unbelievable abstractions. She names these images "Kaleidoscopes of Nature".

Although an Illinois native, JOSEPH L. ASHBY has spent most of his life in Indiana. From an early age Joseph was attracted to everything in nature and was inspired to create unforgettable natural images with his 35 mm camera, purchased when he was 17. He developed an avid interest in nature, particularly birds, though birds are not to be found in his photography. He spends numerous hours hiking through and photographing natural areas. Some of his best images have been used in creating master plans for Indiana Nature Preserves.

Joe is essentially self-taught, though he participates in photographic workshops to better his technical skills and concentrate on composition, an area which he feels is too often neglected. Through his research in the area of composition, Joe has developed a slide presentation through which he has taught other photographers since 1995.

While the couple spends many hours exploring and shooting side by side, each has his/her own vision. Each spring, the couple is drawn to the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, where they search for hidden floral treasures and hike through the hills looking for a waterfall just begging to be photographed. Annually they travel to Glacier National Park where the landscape is beyond magnificent and they are provided with endless and true inspiration.

Don't let yourself miss these passionate interpretations, of nature in the raw,
as interpreted by the DYNAMIC DUET of Ashby & Ashby Art and Photography.