The In Print page will briefly note any book by a local author or of local interest, provided it is readily available, is produced by an established publisher, and does not promote a commercial enterprise. Books mentioned here may or may not be reviewed subsequently.

To be included, send a copy of the book and, if necessary, a short note explaining the local connection, to Doug Riggs, Books Editor, Providence Sunday Journal, 75 Fountain St. Providence, RI 02902.

People who live in this region have plenty of firsthand experience with blizzards and northeasters, hurricanes, gales, ice showers, tornadoes, lightning strikes and flood-producing rains. Great New England Storms of the 20th Century, published by The Boston Globe (159 pages, $27.95), chronicles an era that involves many of the most famous weather events on record. The book, edited by former Providence Journal staff member Janice Page, includes commentary by local meteorologists John Ghiorse, Steve Cascione, Mark Searles and Kelly Bates.

A suspense novel, For Love of Livvy (paperback, Outskirts Press, 295 pages, $17.95) by JM Griffin of Scituate is set in Rhode Island. Its heroine, Lavinia “Vinnie” Esposito, is a woman with an overzealous sense of curiosity that wreaks havoc with her Italian family, her job as a criminal justice instructor and her life in general.

When Pope John Paul II died, tens of thousands of mourners filled St. Peter’s Square in Rome to express their sympathy. What a difference a few centuries make, according to Joelle Rollo-Koster of Wakefield, professor of history at the University of Rhode Island. Her latest book, Raiding Saint Peter: Empty Sees, Violence, and the Initiation of the Great Western Schism (Leiden and Boston, 288 pages, $129) states that during the Middle Ages it was common to pillage and sack the goods of a dead pope. Koster is among a handful of medieval historians who deal with cultural anthropology, which means she applies anthropological methods to her analysis of events and behaviors.

Mary Jane Begin, a member of the faculty at the Rhode Island School of Design, has written and illustrated Willow Buds #1: The Tale of Toad and Badger (Little, Brown Young Readers, 40 pages, $14). It’s the first in a series about the world before the Kenneth Grahame classic The Wind in the Willows.

Retired psychotherapist Lise Y. McKay of Smithfield has written The Old Ones (paperback, James A. Rock & Company, 176 pages, $12.95), a fiction/fantasy novel for young adults about seven children diagnosed with life-threatening illnesses who depart for South America.

Warwick artist and author Ann Eckert Brown has completed her second book, American Painted Floors Before 1840 (Spring Green Books, 150 pages, $35), a companion book to her first publication, American Wall Stenciling 1790-1840, published by the University Press of New England. Both books are studies of early American folk painted interiors and contain numerous Rhode Island examples.

The Seventh Rhode Island Infantry in the Civil War (McFarland & Company, 203 pages, $49.95) was written by Robert Grandchamp of Warwick, the author of numerous articles on Rhode Island’s Civil War past and a graduate student at RIC. Suffering a casualty rate of more than 80 percent by the war’s end, the Seventh Rhode Island participated in some of the fiercest battles of the Civil War. The book, researched primarily from firsthand sources such as letters and diaries, also features maps and 109 photos.

— Compiled by MIKKI CATANZARO