Results 301 to 310 of 474 | « previous | next »
- Broken horses / by Carlile, Brandi,author.;
"Brandi Carlile was born into a musically gifted, impoverished family on the outskirts of Seattle and grew up in a constant state of change, moving from house to house, trailer to trailer, fourteen times in as many years. Though imperfect in every way, her dysfunctional childhood was as beautiful as it was strange, and as nurturing as it was difficult. At the age of five, Brandi contracted bacterial meningitis, which almost took her life, leaving an indelible mark on her formative years and altering her journey into young adulthood. As an openly gay teenager, Brandi grappled with the tension between her sexuality and her faith when her pastor publicly refused to baptize her on the day of the ceremony. Shockingly, her small town rallied around Brandi in support and set her on a path to salvation where the rest of the misfits and rejects find it: through twisted, joyful, weird, and wonderful music. In Broken Horses, Brandi Carlile takes readers through the events of her life that shaped her very raw art-from her start at a local singing competition where she performed Elton John's "Honky Cat" in a bedazzled white polyester suit, to her first break opening for Dave Matthews Band, to many sleepless tours over fifteen years and six studio albums, all while raising two children with her wife, Catherine Shepherd. This hard-won success led her to collaborations with personal heroes like Elton John, Dolly Parton, Mavis Staples, Pearl Jam, Tanya Tucker, and Joni Mitchell, as well as her peers in the supergroup The Highwomen, and ultimately to the Grammy stage, where she converted millions of viewers into instant fans. Evocative and piercingly honest, Broken Horses is at once an examination of faith through the eyes of a person rejected by the church's basic tenets and a meditation on the moments and lyrics that have shaped the life of a creative mind, a brilliant artist, and a genuine empath on a mission to give back"--
- Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Carlile, Brandi.; Singers;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- Elizabeth Finch : a novel / by Barnes, Julian,author.;
"From the award-winning novelist, a compact narrative that turns on the death of a vivid and particular woman, and becomes the occasion for a man's deeper examination of love, friendship, and biography. This beautiful, spare novel of platonic unrequited love springs into being around the singular character of the stoic, exacting Professor Elizabeth Finch. Neil, the narrator, takes her class on Culture and Civilization, taught not for undergraduates but for adults of all ages; we are drawn into his intellectual crush on this private, withholding yet commanding woman. While other personal relationships and even his family drift from Neil's grasp, Elizabeth's application of her material to the matter of daily living remains important to him, even after her death, in a way that nothing else does. In Neil's story, we are treated to everything we cherish in Barnes: his eye for the unorthodox forms love can take between two people, a compelling swerve into nonfictional material (this time, through Neil's obsessive study of Julian the Apostate, following on notes Elizabeth left for him to discover after her death), and the forcefully moving undercurrent of history, and biography in particular, as nourishment and guide in our current lives"--
- Subjects: Didactic fiction.; Novels.; Julian, Emperor of Rome, 331-363; Man-woman relationships; Philosophy; Students; Unrequited love; Women teachers;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- A face to die for / by Johansen, Iris,author.;
"Archaeologist Riley Smith has been obsessed with Helen of Troy since she was a small girl, trailing her professor father all over the world in search of the tomb of the world's most beautiful woman. Professor Smith set out to prove that, instead of a myth, Helen had been a living, breathing queen who inspired Homer to write The Iliad. Forensic sculptor Eve Duncan has the unusual skills needed to recreate the face that launched a thousand ships-revealing Helen's true appearance for the first time in history. But convincing Eve to take on the challenge will be difficult because her efforts will come at great personal cost. When tomb raiders murder Riley's father, she is determined to reach the burial site first, get revenge for his death, and enlist Eve's help. Also on hand to help is her father's associate Michael Cade, but he has his own secret agenda when it comes to finding Helen. Now both Riley and Eve are in danger and in a race across one of the most remote parts of the world. At least they have their trust in each other as they hunt for Helen"--
- Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Novels.; Helen, of Troy, Queen of Sparta; Duncan, Eve (Fictitious character); Archaeologists; College teachers; Revenge;
- Available copies: 3 / Total copies: 3
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- An unlasting home : a novel / by Al-Nakib, Mai,1970-author.;
"In 2013, Sara is a philosophy professor at Kuwait University, having returned to Kuwait from Berkeley in the wake of her mother's sudden death eleven years earlier. Her main companions are her grandmother's talking parrot, Bebe Mitu; the family cook, Aasif; and Maria, her childhood ayah and the one person who has always been there for her. Sara's relationship with Kuwait is complicated; it is a country she always thought she would leave, and a country she recognizes less and less, and yet a certain inertia keeps her there. But when teaching Nietzsche in her Intro to Philosophy course leads to an accusation of blasphemy, which carries with it the threat of execution, Sara realizes she must reconcile her feelings and her place in the world once and for all. Interspersed with Sara's narrative are the stories of her grandmothers: beautiful and stubborn Yasmine, who marries the son of the Pasha of Basra and lives to regret it, and Lulwa, born poor in the old town of Kuwait, swept off her feet to an estate in India by the son of a successful merchant family; and her two mothers: Noura, who dreams of building a life in America and helping to shape its Mid-East policies, and Maria, who leaves her own children behind in Pune to raise Sara and her brother Karim and, in so doing, transforms many lives. Ranging from the 1920s to the near present, An Unlasting Home traces Kuwait's rise from a pearl-diving backwater to its reign as a thriving cosmopolitan city to the aftermath of the Iraqi invasion. At once intimate and sweeping, personal and political, it is an unforgettable epic and a spellbinding family saga."--
- Subjects: Feminist fiction.; Historical fiction.; Novels.; Cultural property; Families; Women, Arab;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- Clear : a novel / by Davies, Carys,author.;
"John, an impoverished Scottish minister, has accepted a job evicting the lone remaining occupant of an island north of Scotland--Ivar, who has been living alone for decades, with only the animals and the sea for company. Though his wife, Mary, has serious misgivings about the errand, he decides to go anyway, setting in motion a chain of events that neither he nor Mary could have predicted. Shortly after John reaches the island, he falls down a cliff and is found, unconscious and badly injured, by Ivar who takes him home and tends to his wounds. The two men do not speak a common language, but as John builds a dictionary of Ivar's world, they learn to communicate and, as Ivar sees himself for the first time in decades reflected through the eyes of another person, they build a fragile, unusual connection. Unfolding in the 1840s in the final stages of the infamous Scottish Clearances--which saw whole communities of the rural poor driven off the land in a relentless program of forced evictions--this singular, beautiful, deeply surprising novel explores the differences and connections between us, the way history shapes our deepest convictions, and how the human spirit can survive despite all odds. Moving and unpredictable, sensitive and spellbinding, Clear is a profound and pleasurable read."--
- Subjects: Historical fiction.; Novels.; Eviction; Hermits; Interpersonal relations; Islands; Rural poor;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- When your back's against the wall : fame, football, and lessons learned through a lifetime of adversity / by Oher, Michael,author.; Yaeger, Don,author.;
"Millions of people became part of Michael Oher's story when they watched a version of him on the big screen; read his memoir, I Beat the Odds; or cheered him on from the stands. After speaking to so many of them over the years, Oher knows that more than anything, people want to believe great things can happen, even when the situation looks bleak. His story of overcoming the toughest of odds serves as their hope. Oher's life has had a lot of unexpected highs: a college degree; two beautiful, healthy children and a happy marriage; drafted in the first round; a Super Bowl victory; and a second chance to play in the "big game." He's also run up against quite a few walls: poverty, hunger, homelessness, struggles in school, bullying, job loss, brain injury, anxiety, and depression. What he knows now is that your wall can be your opportunity. In When Your Back's Against the Wall, he offers encouragement and shows readers how to get back up-again, and again, and again"--
- Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Football players; Motivation (Psychology); Resilience (Personality trait);
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- A dangerous business / by Smiley, Jane,author.;
"From the beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning and best-selling author: a rollicking murder mystery set in Gold Rush California, as two young prostitutes follow a trail of missing girls. Monterey, 1851. Ever since her husband was killed in a bar fight, Eliza Ripple has been working in a brothel. It seems like a better life, at least at first. The madam, Mrs. Parks, is kind, the men are (relatively) well behaved, and Eliza has attained what few women have: financial security. But when the dead bodies of young women start appearing outside of town, a darkness descends that she can't resist confronting. Side by side with her friend Jean, and inspired by her reading, especially by Edgar Allan Poe's detective, Dupin, Eliza pieces together an array of clues to try to catch the killer, all the while juggling clients who begin to seem more and more suspicious. Eliza and Jean are determined not just to survive but to find their way in a lawless town on the fringes of the Wild West--a bewitching combination of beauty and danger--as what will become the Civil War looms on the horizon. As Mrs. Parks says, 'Everyone knows that this is a dangerous business, but between you and me, being a woman is a dangerous business, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise ... '"--
- Subjects: Detective and mystery fiction.; Historical fiction.; Novels.; Missing persons; Murder; Prostitutes; Widows; Women detectives;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- The rabbit hutch / by Gunty, Tess,author.;
"The automobile industry has abandoned Vacca Vale, Indiana, leaving the residents behind, too. In a run-down apartment building on the edge of town, commonly known as the Rabbit Hutch, a number of people now reside quietly, looking for ways to live in a dying city. Apartment C2 is lonely and detached. C6 is aging and stuck. C8 harbors an extraordinary fear. But C4 is of particular interest. Here live four teenagers who have recently aged out of the state foster-care system: three boys and one girl, Blandine, who The Rabbit Hutch centers around. Hauntingly beautiful and unnervingly bright, Blandine is plagued by the structures, people, and places that not only failed her but actively harmed her. Now all Blandine wants is an escape, a true bodily escape like the mystics describe in the books she reads. Set across one week and culminating in a shocking act of violence, The Rabbit Hutch chronicles a town on the brink, desperate for rebirth. How far will its residents--especially Blandine--go to achieve it? Does one person's gain always come at another's expense?"--
- Subjects: Bildungsromans.; Novels.; Apartment dwellers; Cities and towns; Foster children; Teenagers; Violence;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- I cheerfully refuse : a novel / by Enger, Leif,author.;
"Set in a not-too-distant America, I Cheerfully Refuse is the tale of a bereaved and pursued musician embarking under sail on a sentient Lake Superior in search of his departed, deeply beloved, bookselling wife. Rainy, an endearing bear of an Orphean narrator, seeks refuge in the harbors, fogs and remote islands of the inland sea. Encountering lunatic storms and rising corpses from the warming depths, Rainy finds on land an increasingly desperate and illiterate people, a malignant billionaire ruling class, crumbled infrastructure and a lawless society. Amidst the Gulliver-like challenges of life at sea and no safe landings, Rainy is lifted by physical beauty, surprising humor, generous strangers, and an unexpected companion in a young girl who comes aboard. And as his innate guileless nature begins to make an inadvertent rebel of him, Rainy's private quest for the love of his life grows into something wider and wilder, sweeping up friends and foes alike in his strengthening wake."--
- Subjects: Action and adventure fiction.; Dystopian fiction.; Novels.; Boats and boating; Grief; Love; Missing persons; Musicians; Ocean travel; Oligarchy; Quests (Expeditions); Sailing;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- A face to die for [text (large print)] / by Johansen, Iris,author.;
"Archaeologist Riley Smith has been obsessed with Helen of Troy since she was a small girl, trailing her professor father all over the world in search of the tomb of the world's most beautiful woman. Professor Smith set out to prove that, instead of a myth, Helen had been a living, breathing queen who inspired Homer to write The Iliad. Forensic sculptor Eve Duncan has the unusual skills needed to recreate the face that launched a thousand ships-revealing Helen's true appearance for the first time in history. But convincing Eve to take on the challenge will be difficult because her efforts will come at great personal cost. When tomb raiders murder Riley's father, she is determined to reach the burial site first, get revenge for his death, and enlist Eve's help. Also on hand to help is her father's associate Michael Cade, but he has his own secret agenda when it comes to finding Helen. Now both Riley and Eve are in danger and in a race across one of the most remote parts of the world. At least they have their trust in each other as they hunt for Helen"--
- Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Large type books.; Novels.; Helen, of Troy, Queen of Sparta; Duncan, Eve (Fictitious character); Archaeologists; College teachers; Revenge;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Results 301 to 310 of 474 | « previous | next »