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Tiamat's wrath / by Corey, James S. A.,author.;
"Thirteen hundred gates have opened to solar systems around the galaxy. But as humanity builds its interstellar empire in the alien ruins, the mysteries and threats grow deeper. In the dead systems where gates lead to stranger things than alien planets, Elvi Okoye begins a desperate search to discover the nature of a genocide that happened before the first human beings existed, and to find weapons to fight a war against forces at the edge of the imaginable. But the price of that knowledge may be higher than she can pay. At the heart of the empire, Teresa Duarte prepares to take on the burden of her father's godlike ambition. The sociopathic scientist Paolo Cortazar and the Mephistophelian prisoner James Holden are only two of the dangers in a palace thick with intrigue, but Teresa has a mind of her own and secrets even her father, the emperor, doesn't guess. And throughout the wide human empire, the scattered crew of the Rocinante fights a brave rear-guard action against Duarte's authoritarian regime. Memory of the old order falls away, and a future under Laconia's eternal rule -- and with it, a battle that humanity can only lose -- seems more and more certain. Because, against the terrors that lie between worlds, courage and ambition will not be enough ..." -- Dust jacket flap.
Subjects: Science fiction.; Life on other planets; Space colonies; Space warfare; Imaginary wars and battles;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The devil's fortress / by Brown, Dale,1956-author.;
After saving the US from a Russian nuclear attack in the bestselling 'Weapons of Opportunity', Nick Flynn returns in what could be his most dangerous mission yet. Former US Air Force officer Nick Flynn joined the clandestine Quartet Directorate to continue its long-standing mission: to act decisively against serious threats to the free world. And with the backing of Russia's authoritarian president, no threat is more deadly than that of Pavel Voronin and his mercenary Raven Syndicate. Twice they have almost succeeded in bringing the United States to its knees, only to be stopped at the last moment by Flynn and his team of highly trained operatives. But Flynn knows it's only a matter of time before one of Voronin's plans to cripple the US bears lethal fruit. And so, taking the Russian oligarch permanently off the board is now his number one priority. Operating undetected deep in hostile territory and fighting their way through Voronin's extraordinarily tough defenses will require every ounce of skill, dedication, and daring that Flynn and his small force can muster. The slightest error could be fatal for all of them -- and, ultimately, for millions of Americans. With the clock ticking, and dangers mounting on all sides, it's up to Flynn and the others to finish Voronin before it's too late. In this all-or-nothing battle, victory is the only acceptable outcome -- no matter how high the cost!
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Novels.; Assassins; Undercover operations;
Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 2
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Commanding hope : the power we have to renew a world in peril / by Homer-Dixon, Thomas F.,author.;
"Calling on history, cutting-edge research, complexity science and even Lord of the Rings, Homer-Dixon lays out the tools we can command to rescue a world on the brink. For three decades, the renowned author of The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization, and The Ingenuity Gap: Can We Solve the Problems of the Future?, has examined the threats to our future security--predicting a deteriorating global environment, extreme economic stresses, mass migrations, social instability and wide political violence if humankind continued on its current course. He was called The Doom Meister, but we now see how prescient he was. Today just about everything we've known and relied on (our natural environment, economy, societies, cultures and institutions) is changing dramatically--too often for the worse. Without radical new approaches, our planet will become unrecognizable as well as poorer, more violent, more authoritarian. In his fascinating long-awaited new book (dedicated to his young children), he calls on his extraordinary knowledge of complexity science, of how societies work and can evolve, and of our capacity to handle threats, to show that we can shift human civilization onto a decisively new path if we mobilize our minds, spirits, imaginations and collective values. Commanding Hope marshals a fascinating, accessible argument for reinvigorating our cognitive strengths and belief systems to affect urgent systemic change, strengthen our economies and cultures, and renew our hope in a positive future for everyone on Earth."-- Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Creative ability.; Environmental responsibility.; Social change.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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After the fall : being American in the world we've made / by Rhodes, Benjamin,author.;
"In 2017, as Ben Rhodes was helping former president Barack Obama begin his next chapter, the legacy they worked to build for eight years was being taken apart. To understand what was happening in his own country, Rhodes decided to look outward, at the wider world. Over the next three years, he traveled to dozens of countries, meeting with politicians, dissidents, and activists confronting the same forces that produced the Trump presidency: spreading nationalism, authoritarianism, and disinformation. Along the way, he was spied on by former Mossad operatives and the Chinese government, met with Hong Kong protesters and Russian oppositionists, and found people from Europe to Asia to the United States struggling to reconcile their own identities with the crude nationalism of their leaders--all while pursuing new strategies to fight back. Equal parts memoir and reporting, 'After the Fall' is an ambitious and essential work of discovery. Throughout, Rhodes reflects on how the 2008 financial crisis completed a collapse of public confidence in America, globalization, and democracy itself, opening a door to the wave of strongman leaders who have transformed our world--men like Viktor Orban in Hungary, Vladimir Putin in Russia, and Xi Jinping in China. He wrestles with how peoples' yearning for identity and belonging has been weaponized by nationalists. And he learns from a diverse set of characters--from Obama to rebels to rising politicians--how we can choose a more hopeful story going forward"--
Subjects: Global Financial Crisis, 2008-2009.; Globalization; Nationalism; Political corruption; Political corruption; Political corruption; World politics;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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I love Russia : reporting from a lost country / by Kosti͡uchenko, Elena,1987-author.; Chavasse, Ilona Yazhbin,translator.; Shayevich, Bela,translator.; translation of:Kosti͡uchenko, Elena,1987-Essays.Selections.English.;
"An unprecedented and intimate portrait of Russia, and a fearless cri de cœur for journalism in opposition to the global authoritarian turn. To be a journalist is to tell the truth. I Love Russia is Elena Kostyuchenko's fearless and unrelenting attempt to document Putin's Russia as experienced by those whom it systematically and brutally erases: village girls recruited into sex work, queer people in the outer provinces, patients and doctors at a Ukrainian maternity ward, and reporters like herself. The result is a singular portrait of a nation, and of a young woman who refuses to be silenced. In March 2022, as a reporter for Russia's last free press, Novaya Gazeta, Kostyuchenko crossed the border into Ukraine to cover the war. It was her mission to ensure that Russians witnessed the horrors Putin was committing in their name. She filed her pieces knowing that should she return home, she would likely be prosecuted and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Yet, driven by the conviction that the greatest form of love and patriotism is criticism, she continues to write, undaunted and with eyes wide open. I Love Russia stitches together reportage from the past 15 years with personal essays, assembling a kaleidoscopic narrative that Kostyuchenko understands may be the last work from her country that she'll publish for a long time--perhaps ever. She writes because the threat of Putin's Russia extends beyond herself, beyond Crimea, and beyond Ukraine. We fail to understand it at our own peril"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Kosti͡uchenko, Elena, 1987-; Putin, Vladimir Vladimirovich, 1952-; Freedom of the press; Journalism; Political culture; Social change;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Not here : why American democracy is eroding and how Canada can protect itself / by Goodman, Rob,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."What does it mean to live beside an eroding democracy? As this powerful and timely book argues, that question will define the next generation of Canadian politics. As a congressional staffer in the United States, Rob Goodman watched firsthand as a rising authoritarian movement disenfranchised voters, sabotaged institutions, and brought America to the brink of a coup. Now, as a political theorist who makes his home in Canada, he has an urgent warning for his adopted country: The same forces that have upended democracy in America and around the world are on the move in Canada, too. But we can protect our democracy by drawing on a set of political, cultural, and historical resources that are distinctly of this place. In Not Here, Goodman outlines four such resources. First, the rejection of the dangerous idea of one "real" Canadian people. Second, the refusal of political charisma and founder-worship. Third, a set of social programs--embattled but still standing--that empower neighbours to see one another as equals. And fourth, Canada's longstanding search for an identity separate from the great power with which it shares a continent. Today, that great power is a democracy in decline, and so defending what makes Canada distinct matters more now than ever before. Canadian difference is not a curiosity, a luxury good, or a vanity item. It is a democratic immune system. Laying bare the historical roots of today's politics and making an urgent case for action, Not Here is a roadmap for safeguarding a democracy under unprecedented threat."--
Subjects: Democracy; Democracy; Political culture; Political culture;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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While the city slept : a love lost to violence and a young man's descent into madness / by Sanders, Eli,author.;
"A Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter's gripping account of one young man's path to murder--and a wake-up call for mental health care in America. On a summer night in 2009, three lives intersected in one American neighborhood. Two people newly in love--Teresa Butz and Jennifer Hopper, who spent many years trying to find themselves and who eventually found each other--and a young man on a dangerous psychological descent: Isaiah Kalebu, age twenty-three, the son of a distant, authoritarian father and a mother with a family history of mental illness. All three paths forever altered by a violent crime, all three stories a wake-up call to the system that failed to see the signs. In this riveting, probing, compassionate account of a murder in Seattle, Eli Sanders, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his newspaper coverage of the crime, offers a deeply reported portrait, in microcosm, of the state of mental health care in this country--as well as an inspiring story of love and forgiveness. Culminating in an account of Kalebu's dangerous slide toward violence--observed by family members, police, mental health workers, lawyers, and judges, but stopped by no one--While the City Slept is the story of a crime of opportunity and of the string of missed opportunities that made it possible. It shows what can happen when a disturbed member of society repeatedly falls through the cracks, and in the tradition of The Other Wes Moore and The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace, is an indelible human-level story, brilliantly told, with the potential to inspire social change"--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Kalebu, Isaiah.; Lesbians; Mentally ill offenders; Murder; Rape;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Girls and their monsters : the Genain quadruplets and the making of madness in America / by Farley, Audrey Clare,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."In 1954, researchers at the newly formed National Institute of Mental Health set out to study the genetics of schizophrenia. When they got word that four 24-year-old identical quadruplets in Lansing, Michigan, had all been diagnosed with the mental illness, they could hardly believe their ears. Here was incontrovertible proof of hereditary transmission and, thus, a chance to bring international fame to their fledgling institution. The case of the pseudonymous Genain quadruplets, they soon found, was hardly so straightforward. Contrary to fawning media portrayals of a picture-perfect Christian family, the sisters had endured the stuff of nightmares. Behind closed doors, their parents had taken shocking measures to preserve their innocence while sowing fears of sex and the outside world. In public, the quadruplets were treated as communal property, as townsfolk and members of the press had long ago projected their own paranoid fantasies about the rapidly diversifying American landscape onto the fair-skinned, ribbon-wearing quartet who danced and sang about Christopher Columbus. Even as the sisters' erratic behaviors became impossible to ignore and the NIMH whisked the women off for study, their sterling image did not falter. Girls and Their Monsters chronicles the extraordinary lives of the quadruplets and the lead psychologist who studied them, asking questions that speak directly to our times: How do delusions come to take root, both in individuals and in nations? Why does society profess to be "saving the children" when it readily exploits them? What are the authoritarian ends of innocence myths? And how do people, particularly those with serious mental illness, go on after enduring the unspeakable? Can the unbreakable bonds of sisterhood help the deeply wounded heal?"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Mental health; Quadruplets; Schizophrenia;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Ukraine : what everyone needs to know / by Yekelchyk, Serhy,author.; Yekelchyk, Serhy,.Conflict in Ukraine.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Conventional wisdom dictates that Ukraine's political crises can be traced to the linguistic differences and divided political loyalties that have long fractured the country. However, this theory obscures the true significance of Ukraine's recent civic revolution and the conflict's crucial international dimension. The 2013-14 Ukrainian revolution presented authoritarian powers in Russia with both a democratic and a geopolitical challenge. In reality, political conflict in Ukraine is reflective of global discord, stemming from differing views on state power, civil society, and democracy. Ukraine's sudden prominence in American politics has compounded an already-widespread misunderstanding of what is actually happening in the nation. In the American media, Ukraine has come to signify an inherently corrupt place, rather than a real country struggling in the face of great challenges. Ukraine: What Everyone Needs to Know is an updated edition of Serhy Yekelchyk's 2015 publication, The Conflict in Ukraine. It addresses Ukraine's relations with the West, particularly the United States, from the perspective of Ukrainians. The book explains how independent Ukraine fell victim to crony capitalism, how its people rebelled twice in the last two decades in the name of democracy and against corruption, and why Russia reacted so aggressively to the strivings of Ukrainians. Additionally, it looks at what we know about alleged Ukrainian interference in the 2016 US presidential election, the factors behind the stunning electoral victory of the political novice Volodymyr Zelensky, and the ways in which the events leading to the impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump have changed the Russia-Ukraine-US relationship. This volume is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the forces that have shaped contemporary politics in this increasingly important part of Europe, as well as the international background of the impeachment proceedings in the US."--
Subjects: Group identity; Regionalism; Ukraine Conflict, 2014-; Ukraine Conflict, 2014-;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Pegasus : how a spy in your pocket threatens the end of privacy, dignity, and democracy / by Richard, Laurent(Journalist),author.; Maddow, Rachel,writer of introduction.; Rigaud, Sandrine,author.;
"Pegasus is widely regarded as the most effective and sought-after cyber-surveillance system on the market. The system's creator, the NSO Group, a private corporation headquartered in Israel, is not shy about proclaiming its ability to thwart terrorists and criminals. "Thousands of people in Europe owe their lives to hundreds of our company employees," NSO's cofounder declared in 2019. This bold assertion may be true, at least in part, but it's by no means the whole story. NSO's Pegasus system has not been limited to catching bad guys. It's also been used to spy on hundreds, and maybe thousands, of innocent people around the world: heads of state, diplomats, human rights defenders, political opponents, and journalists. This spyware is as insidious as it is invasive, capable of infecting a private cell phone without alerting the owner, and of doing its work in the background, in silence, virtually undetectable. Pegasus can track a person's daily movement in real time, gain control of the device's microphones and cameras at will, and capture all videos, photos, emails, texts, and passwords-encrypted or not. This data can be exfiltrated, stored on outside servers, and then leveraged to blackmail, intimidate, and silence the victims. Its full reach is not yet known. "If they've found a way to hack one iPhone," says Edward Snowden, "they've found a way to hack all iPhones." Pegasus is a look inside the monthslong worldwide investigation, triggered by a single spectacular leak of data, and a look at how an international consortium of reporters and editors revealed that cyber intrusion and cyber surveillance are happening with exponentially increasing frequency across the globe, at a scale that astounds. Meticulously reported and masterfully written, Pegasus shines a light on the lives that have been turned upside down by this unprecedented threat and exposes the chilling new ways authoritarian regimes are eroding key pillars of democracy: privacy, freedom of the press, and freedom of speech"--
Subjects: Pegasus (Spyware); Cell phone systems; Electronic surveillance; Mobile apps.; Political corruption.; Privacy, Right of.; Spyware (Computer software);
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Results 31 to 40 of 44 | « previous |