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Toad / by Dunn, Katherine,1945-2016,author.; Crabapple, Molly,writer of introduction.;
Includes bibliographical references."Sally Gunnar has withdrawn from the world. She spends her days alone at home, reading drugstore mysteries, polishing the doorknobs, waxing the floors. Her only companions are a vase of godfish, a garden toad, and the door-to-door salesman who sells her cleaning suplies once a month. She broods over her deepest regrets: her blighted romances with self-important men, her lifelong struggle to feel at home in her body, and her wayward early twenties, when she was a fish out of water among a group of eccentric, privileged young people at a liberal arts college. There was Sam, an unabashed collector of other people's stories; Carlotta, a troubled free spirit; and Rennel, a self-obsessed philosophy student. Self-deprecating and sardonic, Sally recounts their misadventures, up to the tragedy that tore them apart. Colorful, crass, and profound, Toad is Katherine Dunn's ode to her time as a student at Reed College, filled with the same keen observations, taboo-shirking verve, and singular characters that made Geek Love a cult classic. Daring and bizarre, Toad is a brilliant precursor to the book that would make Dunn a misfit hero -- even fifty-some years after it was written, it's a refreshing take on the lives of young outsiders treading the delicate lines between isolation and freedom, love and insanity, hatred and friendship"--
Subjects: Novels.; Friendship; Regret; Young adults;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The escape artist / by Meltzer, Brad,author.;
"Who is Nola Brown? Nola is a mystery. Nola is trouble. And Nola is supposed to be dead. Her body was found on a plane that mysteriously fell from the sky as it left a secret military base in the Alaskan wilderness. Her commanding officer verifies she's dead. The US government confirms it. But Jim "Zig" Zigarowski has just found out the truth: Nola is still alive. And on the run. Zig works at Dover Air Force Base, helping put to rest the bodies of those who die on top-secret missions. Nola was a childhood friend of Zig's daughter and someone who once saved his daughter's life. So when Zig realizes Nola is still alive, he's determined to find her. Yet as Zig digs into Nola's past, he learns that trouble follows Nola everywhere she goes. Nola is the US Army's artist-in-residence - a painter and trained soldier who rushes into battle, making art from war's aftermath and sharing observations about today's wars that would otherwise go overlooked. On her last mission, Nola saw something nobody was supposed to see, earning her an enemy unlike any other, one who will do whatever it takes to keep Nola quiet. Together, Nola and Zig will either reveal a sleight of hand being played at the highest levels of power or die trying to uncover the US Army's most mysterious secret-a centuries-old conspiracy that traces back through history to the greatest escape artist of all: Harry Houdini"--
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); United States. Army; Conspiracies; Women soldiers;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The Holiday Honeymoon Switch [electronic resource] : by McKay, Julia.aut; cloudLibrary;
Trading places and vacations might just be the Christmas miracle these two best friends need “The Holiday meets The Unhoneymooners in this friends-swapping-places romance that has it all: mistletoe and make-outs, plus sun, sand, and swoon!”—Chantel Guertin, author of It Happened One Christmas Holly Beech and Ivy Casey are bury-the-body besties. They’re so in sync, they even look alike. When Holly’s fiancé jilts her, leaving her in shock and with a nonrefundable honeymoon, Holly convinces Ivy to switch places. Ivy will go on the Hawaiian honeymoon her best friend can’t bear to take alone, while Holly escapes to Ivy’s rented Hudson Valley cabin to binge-watch holiday movies and heal.     But Holly’s wallowing is interrupted when her rugged Airbnb host turns out to be her high school academic rival who’s had a major glow-up. Meanwhile, Ivy’s (now Hawaiian) annual solo art retreat is upended when Holly’s ex-fiancé checks into the honeymoon suite—with a new woman. Raging and bed-less, the last thing Ivy expects is for the hot hotel bartender to come to her rescue. Against all odds, this Christmas might prove the most magical yet.
Subjects: Electronic books.; Romantic Comedy; Contemporary Women; Holiday;
© 2024., Penguin Canada,
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We lived on the horizon : a novel / by Swyler, Erika,author.;
"The acclaimed author of the "dazzling" (Sara Gruen, #1 New York Times bestselling author) The Book of Speculation returns with an engrossing new novel about a bio-prosthetic surgeon and her personal AI as they are drawn into a catastrophic war. The city of Bulwark is aptly named: a walled city built to protect and preserve the people who managed to survive a series of great cataclysms, Bulwark was founded on a system where sacrifice is rewarded by the AI that runs the city. Over generations, an elite class has evolved from the descendants of those who gave up the most to found mankind's last stronghold, called the Sainted. Saint Enita Malovis, long accustomed to luxury, feels the end of her life and decades of work as a bio-prosthetist approaching. The lone practitioner of her art, Enita is determined to preserve her legacy and decides to create a physical being, called Nix, filled with her knowledge and experience. In the midst of her project, a fellow Sainted is brutally murdered and the city AI inexplicably erases the event from its data. Soon, Enita and Nix are drawn into the growing war that could change everything between Bulwark's hidden underclass and the programs that impose and maintain order. A complex, imaginative, and unforgettable novel, We Lived on the Horizon grapples with concepts as varied as the human desire for utopia, body horror, and what the future holds for humanity and machine alike"--
Subjects: Dystopian fiction.; Novels.; Artificial intelligence; Revolutions; Women surgeons;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Unmasking AI : my mission to protect what is human in a world of machines / by Buolamwini, Joy,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."Dr. Joy Buolamwini is the self-described "Poet of Code" who has had a lifelong passion for computer science, engineering, and art -- disciplines that, she felt, pushed the boundaries of reality. After tinkering with robotics as a high school student in Tennessee, to developing mobile apps in Zambia as a Fulbright fellow, Buolamwini eventually found herself at MIT. As a graduate student at the "Future Factory," Buolamwini's groundbreaking research revealed that AI systems -- from leading tech companies -- were consistently failing on non-male, non-white bodies. In Unmasking AI, Buolamwini goes beyond the news headlines about racism, colorism, and sexism in Big Tech to tell the remarkable story of how she uncovered what she calls "the coded gaze" -- evidence of racial and gender bias in tech -- and galvanized the movement to prevent AI harms by founding the Algorithmic Justice League. Applying an intersectional lens to both tech industry and research sector, Buolamwini shows how race, gender, and ability bias can overlap and render broad swaths of humanity vulnerable in our AI-dependent world. Computers, she reminds us, are reflections of both the aspirations and the limitations of the people who create them"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Buolamwini, Joy.; Artificial intelligence; Artificial intelligence; Discrimination in science.; Sex discrimination in science.; Artificial intelligence;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Identity [graphic novel] : a story of transitioning / by Maison, Corey,2001-author.; Fantoons Animation Studios,colorist,artist,letterer.;
"What do you do when you are born as one gender, but feel yourself to be another? Gender dysmorphia affects thousands of people worldwide, but has been ignored or ridiculed in our culture. With this graphic novel, Corey Maison boldly shares her story of transitioning, so that other kids with gender dysmorphia and related conditions will no longer feel so isolated, hopeless, or lost. Corey Maison was born a girl, trapped in a boy's body. Growing up, Corey was more interested in dolls than trucks; in dresses than jeans. Everything about Corey was female . . . except her physicality. Known as gender dysphoria, this condition is devastating if not acknowledged. But society is slow to be sympathetic to the idea that a person's gender is not entirely based on physiology, but instead is fluid, and a combination of emotional and psychological self-awareness along with, or sometimes more importantly, physical characteristics. IDENTITY tells the complex and moving tale of a young person who knows that their true gender is not the one they were assigned at birth. With unconditional love and support from her mother, Corey successfully starts the transition process with hopes of being comfortable in her own skin, being accepted by others, and raising awareness of young people who wish to transition. At 16-years-old, Corey has become a voice for other trans teens, battling bullies and helping others who are on their own individual journeys of identity."--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Biographical comics.; Nonfiction comics.; Graphic novels.; Maison, Corey, 2001-; Gender identity disorders; Gender transition; Male-to-female transsexuals; Male-to-female transsexuals; Transgender women; Transgender women;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Don't think, dear : on loving & leaving ballet / by Robb, Alice,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."An incisive exploration of ballet's role in the modern world, told through the experience of the author and her classmates at the most elite ballet school in the country: the School of American Ballet. Ballet is an art full of hyper-feminine trappings, but beneath the ornate costumes and exaggerated stage makeup, traits like thinness, stoicism, and submission are valued above all else. Journalist Alice Robb spent years immersed in that universe as a child, but as an adult, she couldn't shake the feeling that the same laws that governed the dance world still applied in the regular one. Certain bodies hold more value than others, and men oftentimes hold the most power of all. Pain is best left concealed, along with sexuality, in all of its messiness. Obedience and conformity are rewarded, while standing out comes at a cost. Profound, nuanced, and obsessively researched, Don't Think, Dear, is Robb's excavation of her adolescent years as a dancer, and an exploration of how those days informed her life for years to come. As she grapples with the pressure she faced as a student at the storied School of American Ballet, she explores the fates of her former classmates as well. From sweet and shy Emily--whose body was deemed "thin enough" only when she was too ill to eat--to the precocious and talented Meiying--who despite her success, had to contend with the fact that she was the only Vietnamese-American in the school. Altogether, their stories are ones of heartbreak and resilience, of reinvention and regret. Along the way, Robb weaves in the myths of famous ballerinas past and present, from the groundbreaking Misty Copeland, to the controversial George Balanchine. Ballet does not exist in a vacuum, it is a laboratory of womanhood, a test-tube world in which traditional femininity is exaggerated. By exploring the psyche of a dancer, Don't Think, Dear grapples with the contradictions and challenges of being a woman today. It's also a story about chasing your dreams, however complicated, and learning when to let them go"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Robb, Alice.; School of American Ballet; Ballerinas; Ballerinas; Ballet;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Entertaining race : performing blackness in America / by Dyson, Michael Eric,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."For more than thirty years, Michael Eric Dyson has played a prominent role in the nation as a public intellectual, university professor, cultural critic, social activist and ordained Baptist minister. He has presented a rich and resourceful set of ideas about American history and culture. Now for the first time he brings together the various components of his multihued identity and eclectic pursuits. Entertaining Race is a testament to Dyson's consistent celebration of the outsized impact of African American culture and politics on this country. Black people were forced to entertain white people in slavery, have been forced to entertain the idea of race from the start, and must find entertaining ways to make race an object of national conversation. Dyson's career embodies these and other ways of performing Blackness, and in these pages, ranging from 1991 to the present, he entertains race with his pen, voice and body, and occasionally, alongside luminaries like Cornel West, David Blight, Ibram X. Kendi, Master P, MC Lyte, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Alicia Garza, John McWhorter, and Jordan Peterson. Most of this work will be new to readers, a fresh light for many of his long-time fans and an inspiring introduction for newcomers. Entertaining Race offers a compelling vision from the mind and heart of one of America's most important and enduring voices"--
Subjects: Essays.; African American arts.; African Americans in popular culture.; African Americans; African Americans; African Americans; Popular culture;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The last action heroes : the triumphs, flops, and feuds of Hollywood's kings of carnage / by De Semlyen, Nick,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."The behind-the-scenes story of the larger-than-life action stars who ruled '80s and '90s Hollywood--Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Jackie Chan, Steven Seagal, Chuck Norris, Dolph Lundgren, and Jean-Claude Van Damme--and the beloved films that made them stars, including Die Hard, Rambo, and The Terminator. The Last Action Heroes opens in 1990, at the Cannes film festival, where Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone finally forged a truce. After years of bitter behind-the scenes combat--Stallone once threw a bowl of flowers at Schwarzenegger's head; the body count in Schwarzenegger's Commando was increased to "have a bigger d*** than Rambo"--the world's biggest action stars had at last formed a friendship. In The Last Action Heroes, film journalist Nick de Semlyen charts their wild, carnage-packed journey from enmity to friendship. He also reveals the personal stories of the colorful characters who ascended in their wake, from Jean-Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal, to Chuck Norris and Jackie Chan. But as the '80s rolled on, the era of the invincible action hero who used muscle, martial arts, or the perfect weapon to save the day started to fade. When Jurassic Park trounced Schwarzenegger's Last Action Hero in 1993, everyone knew that the glory days of these macho men--and the vision of masculinity they celebrated--were officially over. Drawing on candid interviews with the action stars themselves, plus their collaborators, friends, and foes, The Last Action Heroes is a no-holds-barred account of a period in Hollywood history when there were no limits to the heights of fame these men achieved, or to the mayhem they wrought, onscreen and off"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Actors; Heroes in motion pictures.; Action and adventure films;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Entrances and Exits [electronic resource] : by Richards, Michael.aut; Seinfeld, Jerry.; cloudLibrary;
The man who brought the kavorka to the Seinfeld show through one of the most remarkable and beloved television characters ever invented, Kramer, shares the extraordinary life of a comedy genius—the way he came into himself as an artist, the ups and downs as a human being, the road he has traveled in search of understanding. “The hair, so essential, symbolizes the irrational that was and is and always will be the underlying feature not only of Kramer but of comedy itself. This seemingly senseless spirit has been coursing through me since childhood. I’ve been under its almighty influence since the day I came into this world. I felt it all within myself, especially the physical comedy, the body movements, so freakish and undignified, where I bumped into things, knocked stuff down, messed up situations, and often ended up on my ass. “This book is a hymn to the irrational, the senseless spirit that breaks the whole into pieces, a reflection on the seemingly absurd difficulties that intrude upon us all. It’s Harpo Marx turning us about, shaking up my plans, throwing me for a loop. Upset and turmoil is with us all the time. It’s at the basis of comedy. It’s the pratfall we all take. It’s the unavoidable mistake we didn’t expect. It’s everywhere I go. It’s in the way that I am, both light and dark, good and not-so-good. It’s my life.” —Michael Richards, from Entrances and Exits
Subjects: Electronic books.; Personal Memoirs; Entertainment & Performing Arts;
© 2024., Permuted Press,
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