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Brother & sister / by Keaton, Diane,author.;
When they were children in the suburbs of Los Angeles in the 1950s, Diane Keaton and her younger brother, Randy, were best friends and companions: they shared stories at night in their bunk beds; they swam, laughed, dressed up for Halloween. Their mother captured their American-dream childhoods in her diaries, and on camera. But as they grew up, Randy became troubled, then reclusive. By the time he reached adulthood, he was divorced, an alcoholic, a man who couldn't hold on to full-time work-- his life a world away from his sister's, and from the rest of their family. Now Diane is delving into the nuances of their shared, and separate, pasts to confront the difficult question of why and how Randy ended up living his life on "the other side of normal." In beautiful and fearless prose that's intertwined with photographs, journal entries, letters, and poetry-- many of them Randy's own writing and art-- this insightful memoir contemplates the inner workings of a family, the ties that hold it together, and the special bond between siblings even when they are pulled far apart. Here is a story about love and responsibility: about how, when we choose to reach out to the people we feel closest to-- in moments of difficulty and loss-- surprising things can happen. A story with universal echoes, Brother & Sister speaks across generations to families whose lives have been touched by the fragility and "otherness" of loved ones-- and to brothers and sisters everywhere.
Subjects: Autobiographies.; Biographies.; Keaton, Diane; Keaton, Diane.; Motion picture actors and actresses; Brothers and sisters;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Must love flowers : a novel / by Macomber, Debbie,author.;
"Joan Sample is not living the life she expected. Now a widow and an empty-nester, she has become by her own admission something of a recluse. But after another birthday spent alone, she is finally inclined to listen to her sister, who has been begging Joan to reengage with the world. With her support, Joan gathers the courage to take some long-awaited steps: hiring someone to tame her overgrown garden, joining a grief support group, and even renting out a room to a local college student. Before long Joan is starting to feel a little like herself again. Across town, Maggie Herbert works mornings as a barista, tending to impatient customers before rushing to afternoon nursing classes. She's been living with her alcoholic father, ducking his temperamental outbursts and struggling to pay the household bills. But her circumstances brighten when she finds a room for rent in Joan's home. In the unexpected warmth of her new situation, Maggie finds a glimmer of hope for a better life. But will Maggie's budding attraction to one of her favorite customers ruin the harmony she's only recently found with Joan? Meanwhile, what is Joan to make of the mysterious landscaper who's been revitalizing her garden-a man who seems to harbor a past loss of his own? As Maggie and Joan confront unfamiliar life choices, they find themselves leaning on each other in surprising ways--discovering in the process that "family" is often just another word for love in all its forms"--
Subjects: Romance fiction.; Novels.; Female friendship; Man-woman relationships; Self-realization in women; Widows; Women college students;
Available copies: 3 / Total copies: 4
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Black dove : a novel / by McAdam, Colin,author.;
"In a tall and narrow house, on a stained and busy street, live twelve-year-old Oliver and his father, a story-loving writer. Haunted by the ghost of his alcoholic mother, Oliver finds comfort in his father's impromptu tales: the Black Dove, an elusive flower that gives strength; the girl who consumes it as she battles attackers and yearns for happier realms. Stories where lonely souls keep searching despite their losses and grief. Running from a bully one night, Oliver finds refuge in a junk shop owned by an enigmatic man. Soon, instead of hiding in the janitor's closet after school, Oliver spends afternoons in the shop, a cavernous place full of storied oddities and grubby wonders where creatures rise up from the basement. A snake in the shape of a boy. A hunter named Night, part panther, part hound, who proves to Oliver that the world holds invisible wonder. Wanting to forget his mother, afraid of his own genes, constantly harassed by bullies, Oliver decides to follow the shop-owner down the path of genetic editing. As he begins his transformation he meets the girl from across the street, and their friendship grows in a neighbourhood where magic is real, where murderers gather, and where the darker consequences of fantasies play out. A twisting story of grief and revenge, Black Dove is a thrilling read with its own kind of magic. In rich but tightly reined prose, McAdam celebrates the value and shortfalls of storytelling, finding a light in all the darkness to conjure a tender portrait of childhood's end"--
Subjects: Magic realist fiction.; Psychological fiction.; Novels.; Authors; Boys; Fathers and sons; Genetic engineering; Revenge; Storytelling; Victims of bullying;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Must love flowers [text (large print)] : a novel / by Macomber, Debbie,author.;
"Joan Sample is not living the life she expected. Now a widow and an empty-nester, she has become by her own admission something of a recluse. But after another birthday spent alone, she is finally inclined to listen to her sister, who has been begging Joan to reengage with the world. With her support, Joan gathers the courage to take some long-awaited steps: hiring someone to tame her overgrown garden, joining a grief support group, and even renting out a room to a local college student. Before long Joan is starting to feel a little like herself again. Across town, Maggie Herbert works mornings as a barista, tending to impatient customers before rushing to afternoon nursing classes. She's been living with her alcoholic father, ducking his temperamental outbursts and struggling to pay the household bills. But her circumstances brighten when she finds a room for rent in Joan's home. In the unexpected warmth of her new situation, Maggie finds a glimmer of hope for a better life. But will Maggie's budding attraction to one of her favorite customers ruin the harmony she's only recently found with Joan? Meanwhile, what is Joan to make of the mysterious landscaper who's been revitalizing her garden-a man who seems to harbor a past loss of his own? As Maggie and Joan confront unfamiliar life choices, they find themselves leaning on each other in surprising ways--discovering in the process that "family" is often just another word for love in all its forms"--
Subjects: Romance fiction.; Large print books.; Novels.; Female friendship; Man-woman relationships; Self-realization in women; Widows; Women college students;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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Must love flowers [sound recording] : a novel / by Macomber, Debbie,author.; Random House Audio Publishing,publisher.;
Read by Thérèse Plummer."Joan Sample is not living the life she expected. Now a widow and an empty-nester, she has become by her own admission something of a recluse. But after another birthday spent alone, she is finally inclined to listen to her sister, who has been begging Joan to reengage with the world. With her support, Joan gathers the courage to take some long-awaited steps: hiring someone to tame her overgrown garden, joining a grief support group, and even renting out a room to a local college student. Before long Joan is starting to feel a little like herself again. Across town, Maggie Herbert works mornings as a barista, tending to impatient customers before rushing to afternoon nursing classes. She's been living with her alcoholic father, ducking his temperamental outbursts and struggling to pay the household bills. But her circumstances brighten when she finds a room for rent in Joan's home. In the unexpected warmth of her new situation, Maggie finds a glimmer of hope for a better life. But will Maggie's budding attraction to one of her favorite customers ruin the harmony she's only recently found with Joan? Meanwhile, what is Joan to make of the mysterious landscaper who's been revitalizing her garden-a man who seems to harbor a past loss of his own? As Maggie and Joan confront unfamiliar life choices, they find themselves leaning on each other in surprising ways--discovering in the process that "family" is often just another word for love in all its forms"--
Subjects: Romance fiction.; Audiobooks.; Novels.; Female friendship; Man-woman relationships; Self-realization in women; Widows; Women college students;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Only sisters / by Nattel, Lilian,1956-author.;
"One sister runs away and the other stays behind. But what happens when the dutiful sister has to impersonate the rebel? In her page-turning exploration of familial loyalty, resentment, secrets, and grief, Lilian Nattel explores the meaning and reach of family bonds. Joan has always done the right thing, both as a palliative care doctor and as a caregiver for her widowed mother, Sheila. Joan's adventurous sister, Vivien, is a different story. She left home as soon as she was able--running from an insecure childhood troubled by an alcoholic father and a mother who constantly threw away all their possessions in order to buy new ones. Vivien's rarely been back, working as a nurse in the world's trouble zones, leaving the heavy burden of family on her sister. Still, when Vivien learns that their mother is seriously ill, she reaches out to Joan. She's heading for a remote village where Ebola is spreading, and she's afraid she may die. If she does, she wants Joan to pose as her online so her dying mother won't have to grieve a daughter. It's a lie, but it's the good kind of lie, designed to spare their mother, and so Joan reluctantly agrees, figuring it will never come to that. But Vivien does die. And even as Joan mourns her sister, she begins to impersonate her online, as promised. It's difficult at first, but to her surprise, posing as Vivien becomes liberating, even addictive. Then she receives a message on her sister's Facebook from a man claiming to be the son Vivien gave up for adoption, and the line between right and wrong, adventure and tragedy, really begins to blur"--
Subjects: Psychological fiction.; Novels.; Families; Family secrets; Impersonation; Sisters;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Shanghai Grand : forbidden love and international intrigue on the eve of the Second World War / by Grescoe, Taras,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."On the eve of WWII, the foreign-controlled port of Shanghai was the rendezvous for the twentieth century's most outlandish adventurers, all under the watchful eye of the fabulously wealthy Sir Victor Sassoon. Emily 'Mickey' Hahn was a legendary New Yorker journalist whose vivid writing played a crucial role in opening Western eyes to the realities of life in China. At the height of the Depression, Hahn arrived in Shanghai after a disappointing affair with an alcoholic Hollywood screenwriter, convinced she will never love again. After checking in to Sassoon's glamorous Cathay Hotel, Hahn is absorbed into the social swirl of the expats drawn to pre-war China, among them Ernest Hemingway, Martha Gellhorn, Harold Acton, and a colourful gangster named Morris 'Two-Gun' Cohen. But when she meets Zau Sinmay, a Chinese poet from an illustrious family, she discovers the real Shanghai through his eyes: the city of rich colonials, triple agents, opium-smokers, displaced Chinese peasants, and increasingly desperate White Russian and Jewish refugees--places her innate curiosity will lead her to explore first hand. Danger lurks on the horizon, though, as the brutal Japanese occupation destroys the seductive world of pre-war Shanghai, paving the way for Mao Tse-tung's Communists rise to power"--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Biographies.; Hahn, Emily, 1905-1997; Hahn, Emily, 1905-1997; Sassoon, Elias Victor, 1881-1961; Cathay Hotel (Shanghai, China); Adventure and adventurers; Aliens; Americans; Sino-Japanese War, 1937-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Through the glass ceiling to the stars : the story of the first American woman to command a space mission / by Collins, Eileen(Eileen Marie),1956-author.; Ward, Jonathan H.,author.;
"The long-awaited memoir of a trailblazer and role model who is telling her story for the first time. Eileen Collins was an aviation pioneer her entire career, from her crowning achievements as the first woman to command an American space mission as well as the first to pilot the space shuttle to her early years as one of the Air Force's first female pilots. She was in the first class of women to earn pilot's wings at Vance Air Force Base and was their first female instructor pilot. She was only the second woman admitted to the Air Force's elite Test Pilot Program at Edwards Air Force Base. NASA had such confidence in her skills as a leader and pilot that she was entrusted to command the first shuttle mission after the Columbia disaster, returning the US to spaceflight after a two-year hiatus. Since retiring from the Air Force and NASA, she has served on numerous corporate boards and is an inspirational speaker about space exploration and leadership. Eileen Collins is among the most recognized and admired women in the world, yet this is the first time she has told her story in a book. It is a story not only of achievement and overcoming obstacles but of profound personal transformation. The shy, quiet child of an alcoholic father and struggling single mother, who grew up in modest circumstances and was an unremarkable student, she had few prospects when she graduated from high school, but she changed her life to pursue her secret dream of becoming an astronaut. She shares her leadership and life lessons throughout the book with the aim of inspiring and passing on her legacy to a new generation."--Provided by the publisher.
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Collins, Eileen (Eileen Marie), 1956-; Air pilots; Astronauts; Women air pilots; Women astronauts;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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All fall down : a novel / by Weiner, Jennifer.;
"Allison Weiss has a great job ... a handsome husband ... an adorable daughter ... and a secret. Allison Weiss is a typical working mother, trying to balance a business, aging parents, a demanding daughter, and a marriage. But when the website she develops takes off, she finds herself challenged to the point of being completely overwhelmed. Her husband's becoming distant, her daughter's acting spoiled, her father is dealing with early Alzheimer's, and her mother's barely dealing at all. As she struggles to hold her home and work life together, and meet all of the needs of the people around her, Allison finds that the painkillers she was prescribed for a back injury help her deal with more than just physical discomfort--they help her feel calm and get her through her increasingly hectic days. Sure, she worries a bit that the bottles seem to empty a bit faster each week, but it's not like she's some Hollywood starlet partying all night, or a homeless person who's lost everything. It's not as if she has an actual problem. However, when Allison's use gets to the point that she can no longer control--or hide--it, she ends up in a world she never thought she'd experience outside of a movie theater: rehab. Amid the teenage heroin addicts, the alcoholic grandmothers, the barely-trained "recovery coaches," and the counselors who seem to believe that one mode of recovery fits all, Allison struggles to get her life back on track, even as she's convincing herself that she's not as bad off as the women around her. With a sparkling comedic touch and tender, true-to-life characterizations, All Fall Down is a tale of empowerment and redemption and Jennifer Weiner's richest, most absorbing and timely story yet"--
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Psychological fiction.; Self-realization in women; Women drug addicts;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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It Will Only Hurt for a Moment A Novel [electronic resource] : by Dawson, Delilah S..aut; Brentan, Carlotta.nrt; cloudLibrary;
In this highly atmospheric thriller from the Bram Stoker Award–nominated author of The Violence, a young woman hopes to reinvent herself at an isolated artists’ colony . . . only to be drawn into its dark, twisted past. “Filled to the brim with righteous fury and fright that cannot be quelled, this novel solidifies Dawson as an unstoppable force.”—Clay McLeod Chapman, author of What Kind of Mother and Ghost Eaters Sarah Carpenter is starting over. She’s on the run—leaving behind her unsupportive, narcissistic ex-boyfriend and alcoholic, abusive mother—and headed for a new beginning at Tranquil Falls, a secluded artists’ colony on the grounds of a closed hotel. There, with no cell signal or internet to distract her, she hopes to rediscover her love for pottery and put the broken pieces of her life back together. But when Sarah uncovers the body of a young woman while digging a hole for a pit kiln, things start to fall apart. Her fellow artists begin to act in troubling ways. The eccentric fiber artist knits an endless scarf. The musician plays the same carousel song over and over until his fingers bleed. The calligrapher grins with ink-stained teeth. Not to mention the haunting dreams Sarah has night after night. When she discovers glass shards in her clay, Sarah wonders if someone is out to get her—or if she’s losing her grip on reality out here in the wilds, where the pounding of the waterfall never, ever fades. As she investigates the beautiful valley and the crumbling resort looming over them all, she unearths a chilling past that refuses to remain buried . . .
Subjects: Audiobooks.; Supernatural; Contemporary Women; Psychological;
© 2024., Penguin Random House,
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