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The manicurist's daughter : a memoir / by Lieu, Susan,author.;
"An emotionally raw memoir about the crumbling of the American Dream and a daughter of refugees who searches for answers after her mother dies during plastic surgery. Susan Lieu has long been searching for answers. About her family's past and about her own future. Refugees from the Vietnam War, Susan's family escaped to California in the 1980s after five failed attempts. Upon arrival, Susan's mother was their savvy, charismatic North Star, setting up two successful nail salons and orchestrating every success-until Susan was eleven. That year, her mother died from a botched tummy tuck. After the funeral, no one was ever allowed to talk about her or what happened. For the next twenty years, Susan navigated a series of cascading questions alone-why did the most perfect person in her life want to change her body? Why would no one tell her about her mother's life in Vietnam? And how did this surgeon, who preyed on Vietnamese immigrants, go on operating after her mother's death? Sifting through depositions, tracking down the surgeon's family, and enlisting the help of spirit channelers, Susan uncovers the painful truth of her mother, herself, and the impossible ideal of beauty. The Manicurist's Daughter is much more than a memoir about grief, trauma, and body image. It is a story of fierce determination, strength in shared culture, and finding your place in the world"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Personal narratives.; Lieu, Susan.; Lieu, Susan; Bereavement.; Children of immigrants; Mother and child.; Surgery, Plastic; Vietnamese Americans;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Hidden Valley Road : inside the mind of an American family / by Kolker, Robert,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Don and Mimi Galvin seemed to be living the American dream. After World War II, Don's work with the Air Force brought them to Colorado, where their twelve children perfectly spanned the baby boom: the oldest born in 1945, the youngest in 1965. In those years, there was an established script for a family like the Galvins--aspiration, hard work, upward mobility, domestic harmony--and they worked hard to play their parts. But behind the scenes was a different story: psychological breakdown, sudden shocking violence, hidden abuse. By the mid-1970s, six of the ten Galvin boys, one after the other, were diagnosed as schizophrenic. How could all this happen to one family? What took place inside the house on Hidden Valley Road was so extraordinary that the Galvins became one of the first families to be studied by the National Institutes of Mental Health. Their story offers a shadow history of the science of schizophrenia, from the era of institutionalization, lobotomy, and the schizophrenogenic mother, to the search for genetic markers for the disease, always amidst profound disagreements about the nature of the illness itself. And unbeknownst to the Galvins, samples of their DNA informed decades of genetic research that continues today, offering paths to treatment, prediction, and even eradication of the disease for future generations. With clarity and compassion, bestselling and award-winning author Robert Kolker uncovers one family's unforgettable legacy of suffering, love and hope"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Schizophrenics; Schizophrenia; Schizophrenia; Schizophrenics; Mentally ill;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Long Island compromise : a novel / by Brodesser-Akner, Taffy,author.;
"In 1983, a wealthy businessman named Carl Fletcher is kidnapped from his driveway in the nicest part of Long Island, brutalized, and held for ransom. He is returned to his wife and kids less than a week later, only slightly the worse for wear, and the family begins the hard work of trying to move on with their lives and resume their prized places in the saga of the American dream, coming to understand that though their money may have been what put them in danger, it is also what guaranteed them their safety in the end. But forty years later, when Carl's mother dies and the family comes home to mourn her, it becomes clear that nobody ever really got over anything. Carl's wife, Ruth, has spent her potential protecting her husband's emotional health. Their three grown children are each a mess: Nathan cannot seem to advance at his law firm and may have made a terrible investment with his trust fund; Beamer, a Hollywood screenwriter, will consume anything-substance, foodstuff, women-in order to numb his own perpetual terror; and Jenny has spent her life so bent on proving that she is not a product of the family's pathology that she comes to define it. Then there's Carl himself, the prickly, still-terrified father, who has been secretly seeking closure to the matter of his kidnapping for years, and the unthinkable act he commits that will alter the family's path forever"--
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Satirical fiction.; Novels.; Extortion; Families; Family secrets; Kidnapping; Life change events; Ransom; Rich people; Secrecy;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 2
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Black skinhead : reflections on Blackness and our political future / by Collins-Dexter, Brandi,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."For fans of Bad Feminist and The Sum of Us, Black Skinhead sparks a radical conversation about Black America and political identity. In Black Skinhead, Brandi Collins-Dexter, former Senior Campaign Manager for Color Of Change, explores the fragile alliance between Black voters and the Democratic party. Through sharp, timely essays that span the political, cultural, and personal, Collins-Dexter reveals decades of simmering disaffection in Black America, told as much through voter statistics as it is through music, film, sports, and the baffling mind of Kanye West. While Black Skinhead is an outward look at Black votership and electoral politics, it is also a funny, deeply personal, and introspective look at the fragility of Black culture and identity, ultimately revealing a Black America that has become deeply disillusioned with the failed promises of its country. We had been told that everything was fine, that America was working for everyone and that the American Dream was attainable for all. But for those who had been paying attention, there had been warning signs that the Obamas' version of the American Dream wasn't working for everyone. That it hadn't been working for many white Americans was immediately and loudly discussed, but the truth-and what I set out to write this book about-was that it hadn't been working for many Black Americans either. For many, Obama's vision had been more illusion than reality all along. When someone tells you everything is fine, but around you, you see evidence that it's not, where will the quest to find answers lead you? As I went on the journey of writing this book, I found a very different tale about Black politics and Black America, one that countered white America's long-held assumption that Black voters will always vote Democrat-and even that the Democratic party is the best bet for Black Americans. My ultimate question was this: how are Black people being led away-not towards-each other, and what do we lose when we lose each other? What do we lose when, to quote Kanye West, we feel lost in the world"--
Subjects: African Americans; African Americans; Group identity; Social change; Voting research;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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King [videorecording (DVD)] : go beyond the dream to discover the man / by Brokaw, Tom.; Arts and Entertainment Network.; NBC News.; New Video Group.;
Narrator, Tom Brokaw ; interviews with: Martin Luther King III, Andy Young, Harry Belafonte, Bill Clinton, Condoleezza Rice, Bono, Forest Whitaker, Chuck D.Originally broadcast by The History Channel in 2008."Forty years after Martin Luther King's assassination ... newsman Tom Brokaw, takes viewers through the extraordinary life and times of America's civil rights visionary" --DVD container.E.DVD; Dolby Digital stereo.
Subjects: King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1929-1968.; African American civil rights workers; Assassination; Video recordings for the hearing impaired.;
© c2008., A&E Television Networks : Distributed by New Video,
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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River east, river west : a novel / by Rey Lescure, Aube,author.;
"Shanghai, 2007: Fourteen-year-old Alva has always longed for more. Raised by her American expat mother, she's never known her Chinese father, and is certain a better life awaits them in America. But when her mother announces her engagement to their wealthy Chinese landlord, Lu Fang, Alva's hopes are dashed, and so she plots for the next best thing: the American School in Shanghai. Upon admission, though, Alva is surprised to discover an institution run by an exclusive community of expats and the ever-wilder thrills of a city where foreigners can ostensibly act as they please. 1985: In the seaside city of Qingdao, Lu Fang is a young, married man and a lowly clerk in a shipping yard. Though he once dreamed of a bright future, he is one of many casualties in his country's harsh political reforms. So when China opens its doors to the first wave of foreigners in decades, Lu Fang's world is split wide open after he meets an American woman who makes him confront difficult questions about his current status in life, and how much will ever be enough. In a stunning reversal of the east-to-west immigrant narrative and set against China's political history and economic rise, River East, River West is an intimate family drama and a sharp social novel. Alternating between Alva and Lu Fang's points of view, this is a profoundly moving exploration of race and class, cultural identity and belonging, and the often-false promise of the American Dream."--
Subjects: Bildungsromans.; Domestic fiction.; Novels.; Americans; Racially mixed teenagers;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Long Island compromise [text (large print)] : a novel / by Brodesser-Akner, Taffy,author.;
"In 1983, a wealthy businessman named Carl Fletcher is kidnapped from his driveway in the nicest part of Long Island, brutalized, and held for ransom. He is returned to his wife and kids less than a week later, only slightly the worse for wear, and the family begins the hard work of trying to move on with their lives and resume their prized places in the saga of the American dream, coming to understand that though their money may have been what put them in danger, it is also what guaranteed them their safety in the end. But forty years later, when Carl's mother dies and the family comes home to mourn her, it becomes clear that nobody ever really got over anything. Carl's wife, Ruth, has spent her potential protecting her husband's emotional health. Their three grown children are each a mess: Nathan cannot seem to advance at his law firm and may have made a terrible investment with his trust fund; Beamer, a Hollywood screenwriter, will consume anything-substance, foodstuff, women-in order to numb his own perpetual terror; and Jenny has spent her life so bent on proving that she is not a product of the family's pathology that she comes to define it. Then there's Carl himself, the prickly, still-terrified father, who has been secretly seeking closure to the matter of his kidnapping for years, and the unthinkable act he commits that will alter the family's path forever"--
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Large print books.; Satirical fiction.; Novels.; Extortion; Families; Family secrets; Kidnapping; Life change events; Ransom; Rich people; Secrecy;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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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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The president and the freedom fighter : Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and their battle to save America's soul / by Kilmeade, Brian,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Upon his election as President of the troubled United States, Abraham Lincoln faced a dilemma. He knew it was time for slavery to go, but how fast could the country change without being torn apart? Many abolitionists wanted Lincoln to move quickly, overturning the founding documents along the way. But Lincoln believed there was a way to extend equality to all while keeping and living up to the Constitution that he loved so much--if only he could buy enough time. Fortunately for Lincoln, Frederick Douglass agreed with him--or at least did eventually. In The President and the Freedom Fighter, Brian Kilmeade tells the little-known story of how the two men moved from strong disagreement to friendship, uniting over their love for the Constitution and over their surprising commonalities. Both came from destitution. Both were self-educated and self-made men. Both had fought hard for what they believed in. And though Douglass had the harder fight, one for his very freedom, the two men shared a belief that the American dream was for everyone. As he did in George Washington's Secret Six, Kilmeade has transformed this nearly forgotten slice of history into a dramatic story that will keep you turning the pages to find out how these two heroes, through their principles and patience, not only changed each other, but made America truly free for all"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895; Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865; Abolitionists; Presidents; Slavery; Slaves;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Feels like home : a song for the Sonoran borderlands / by Ronstadt, Linda,author.; Downes, Lawrence,author.; Steen, Bill,photographer.;
"Feels Like Home is a love letter to Ronstadt's Mexican American roots. It tells of her coming of age in the world between Tucson and the Rio Sonora region of northern Mexico, presented through stories, photographs, and recipes"--
Subjects: Cookbooks.; Recipes.; Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Personal narratives.; Ronstadt, Linda.; Mexican American cooking.; Singers;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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