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Never give up : a prairie family's story / by Brokaw, Tom,author.;
"Tom Brokaw is known as one of the hardest-working, most successful people in broadcast journalism. His success is attributed to his work ethic, his instinct for identifying the significance of the news in the lives of ordinary people, and his reputation for always showing up for others. In this heartfelt family story, Tom shows the values and lessons he absorbed from his ancestors, parents, and others who settled in South Dakota and worked hard to build lives on the prairie during the first half of the twentieth century. At the center of this story is Red Brokaw, Tom's father, who left school in the third grade. At the end of his life, Red surprised his family by recording his memories about the Brokaw ancestors who obtained land in South Dakota under the Lend-Lease plan and started a hotel called the Brokaw House. As a boy Red worked there, and then on construction jobs, developing a talent for machines. At a high school play, he fell in love with the girl playing the lead, Jean, whose father had lost the family farm during the Depression. They married, and struggled financially. Their son Tom was born in 1940, and two other sons followed. Red had a philosophy: Never give up. Never complain. After the war, Red got his big break. The Army Corps of Engineers began to build great projects, including dams across the Missouri River, magnificent structures like the Fort Randall and the Gavins Point dams. Red rose to become a foreman on the dam project, and the Brokaws moved to towns created to house workers, where the family became part of a vibrant community life"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Brokaw, Red, 1912-1982.; Brokaw, Tom; Broucard family.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Solitaire / by Oseman, Alice,author.;
Sixteen-year-old Victoria "Tori" Spring is the personification of angst, slowly slipping, day by day, into the depths of despair. On a good day, she can convince herself she feels nothing. Her best friend has become preoccupied with boys; her brother, Charlie, is recovering from an episode of mental illness and attempted suicide; a former childhood friend has suddenly resurfaced with expectations that she can't fulfill; and her mother cannot tear herself away from the computer long enough to notice Tori's decline. Then, there's Michael Holden, the crazy new student who refuses to let Tori alienate herself from him the way she is doing with everyone else. He forces himself into her life at the same time as a bizarre prank is unleashed to instigate rebellion among the students at Higgs. Solitaire.co.uk delivers messages via blog posts and by commandeering the schools' computers and PA system, touting a rallying cry of "Patience Kills." Strangely, all of its enigmatic messages seem to bear some resemblance to episodes in Tori's past. When the pranks begin to turn dangerous, Tori convinces herself that she's the only one who can put a stop to it.
Subjects: Young adult fiction.; Novels.; Blogs; Friendship; High schools; Mental health; Practical jokes; Blogs; Friendship; High schools; Mental health; Practical jokes;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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Love and other consolation prizes [sound recording] : a novel / by Ford, Jamie,author.; Zeller, Emily Woo,narrator.; Random House Audio Publishing,publisher.;
Read by Emily Woo Zeller."Inspired by a true story, this is the unforgettable story of a young boy named Ernest, set during the 1909 Seattle world's fair called the Alaska Yukon Pacific Expo. It is a time when the magical wonders of technology on display at the expo future seemslimitless. But for Ernest, a half-Chinese orphan who found his way to America through a last desperate act of his beloved mother, every door is closed. A charity student at a boarding school, he has never really had a place to call home. Then one day, hiswealthy sponsor announces that if a home is what he wants, then that is what he will have: Ernest will be offered as a prize in the daily raffle at the fair, advertised as "Healthy boy to a good home for the winning ticket holder." The woman who "wins" him is the madam of a notorious brothel who was famous for educating her girls. He becomes a houseboy in her brothel and is befriended by the daughter of the madam, as well as a Japanese girl who works in the kitchen. The friendship and love between thesethree form the first real family Ernest has ever known"--
Subjects: Audiobooks.; Domestic fiction.; Families; Brothels; Friendship;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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We don't know ourselves : a personal history of modern Ireland / by O'Toole, Fintan,1958-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."A celebrated Irish writer's magisterial, brilliantly insightful chronicle of the wrenching transformations that dragged his homeland into the modern world. Fintan O'Toole was born in the year the revolution began. It was 1958, and the Irish government?in despair, because all the young people were leaving?opened the country to foreign investment and popular culture. So began a decades-long, ongoing experiment with Irish national identity. In We Don't Know Ourselves, O'Toole, one of the Anglophone world's most consummate stylists, weaves his own experiences into Irish social, cultural, and economic change, showing how Ireland, in just one lifetime, has gone from a reactionary "backwater" to an almost totally open society-perhaps the most astonishing national transformation in modern history. Born to a working-class family in the Dublin suburbs, O'Toole served as an altar boy and attended a Christian Brothers school, much as his forebears did. He was enthralled by American Westerns suddenly appearing on Irish television, which were not that far from his own experience, given that Ireland's main export was beef and it was still not unknown for herds of cattle to clatter down Dublin's streets. Yet the Westerns were a sign of what was to come. O'Toole narrates the once unthinkable collapse of the all-powerful Catholic Church, brought down by scandal and by the activism of ordinary Irish, women in particular. He relates the horrific violence of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, which led most Irish to reject violent nationalism. In O'Toole's telling, America became a lodestar, from John F. Kennedy's 1963 visit, when the soon-to-be martyred American president was welcomed as a native son, to the emergence of the Irish technology sector in the late 1990s, driven by American corporations, which set Ireland on the path toward particular disaster during the 2008 financial crisis. A remarkably compassionate yet exacting observer, O'Toole in coruscating prose captures the peculiar Irish habit of "deliberate unknowing," which allowed myths of national greatness to persist even as the foundations were crumbling. Forty years in the making, We Don't Know Ourselves is a landmark work, a memoir and a national history that ultimately reveals how the two modes are entwined for all of us"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; O'Toole, Fintan, 1958-;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Cocoa magic / by Bradley, Sandra.; Grimard, Gabrielle.;
"Eight-year-old Daniel cherishes the hour he spends every morning helping his Great-Uncle Lewis in his chocolate shop. They mix, temper, pour, and mold. "It's magic, my boy," Uncle Lewis says. And Daniel agrees. When a new girl named Sarah joins his class, Daniel sees how lonely she is and begins sneaking chocolates into her desk. Seeing Sarah light up after each treat is wonderful...but then Daniel starts noticing other classmates with troubles. Soon he is hiding more and more chocolates until the exciting day when everyone in class receives one, even the teacher! The best part is, no one knows it's him. But then, when Daniel is the one feeling sad and alone, who will know to comfort him?"--
Subjects: Picture books.; Chocolate; Kindness; Schools;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Demon Copperhead : a novel / by Kingsolver, Barbara,author.;
Demon Copperhead is set in the mountains of southern Appalachia. It's the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities. Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens' anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can't imagine leaving behind.
Subjects: Bildungsromans.; Novels.; Opioid abuse; Orphans; Teenage boys;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 3
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Ilo ilo [videorecording] / by Ang, Hwee Sim.; Bayani, Angeli.; Chen, Anthony,1984-; Chen, Tianwen,1963-; Hadi, Wayuni A.; Koh, Jia Ler.; Yeo, Yann Yann,1977-; Film Movement (Firm); Fisheye Pictures.; Ngee Ann Polytechnic.School of Film & Media Studies.; Singapore Film Commission.;
Director of photography, Benoit Soler ; editors, Hoping Chen, Joanne Cheong ; screenplay, Anthony Chen.Yeo Yann Yann, Chen Tianwenn, Angeli Bayani, and introducing Koh Jialer.Singapore, late 90s. The friendship between the maid Teresa and young boy Jiale ignite the mother's jealousy, while the Asian recession hits the region.PG.DVD; Dolby surround; region 1; Enhanced for widescreen TV (16x9).
Subjects: Families; Feature films.; Foreign films; Motion pictures, Chinese.; Video recordings for the hearing impaired.; Women household employees;
© 2014., Film Movement,
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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All the quiet places / by Isaac, Brian Thomas,author.;
It's 1956, and six-year-old Eddie Toma lives with his mother, Grace, and his little brother, Lewis, near the Salmon River on the far edge of the Okanagan Indian Reserve in the British Columbia Southern Interior. Grace, her friend Isabel, Isabel's husband Ray, and his nephew Gregory cross the border to work as summer farm labourers in Washington state. There Eddie is free to spend long days with Gregory exploring the farm: climbing a hill to watch the sunset and listening to the wind in the grass. The boys learn from Ray's funny and dark stories. But when tragedy strikes, Eddie returns home grief-stricken, confused, and lonely. Eddie's life is governed by the decisions of the adults around him. Grace is determined to have him learn the ways of the white world by sending him to school in the small community of Falkland. On Eddie's first day of school, as he crosses the reserve boundary at the Salmon River bridge, he leaves behind his world. Grace challenges the Indian Agent and writes futile letters to Ottawa to protest the sparse resources in their community. His father returns to the family after years away only to bring chaos and instability. Isabel and Ray join them in an overcrowded house. Only in his grandmother's company does he find solace and true companionship. In his teens, Eddie's future seems more secure--he finds a job, and his long-time crush on his white neighbour Eva is finally reciprocated. But every time things look up, circumstances beyond his control crash down around him. The cumulative effects of guilt, grief, and despair threaten everything Eddie has ever known or loved. All the Quiet Places is the story of what can happen when every adult in a person's life has been affected by colonialism; it tells of the acute separation from culture that can occur even at home in a loved familiar landscape. Its narrative power relies on the unguarded, unsentimental witness provided by Eddie.
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Bildungsromans.; Imperialism; First Nations children; First Nations;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The great passion : a novel / by Runcie, James,1959-author.;
In 1727, Stefan Silbermann is a grief-stricken thirteen-year-old, struggling with the death of his mother and his removal to a school in distant Leipzig. Despite his father's insistence that he try not to think of his mother too much, Stefan is haunted by her absence, and, to make matters worse, he's bullied by his new classmates. But when the school's cantor, Johann Sebastian Bach, takes notice of his new pupil's beautiful singing voice and draws him from the choir to be a soloist, Stefan's life is permanently changed. Over the course of the next several months, and under Bach's careful tutelage, Stefan's musical skill progresses, and he is allowed to work as a copyist for Bach's many musical compositions. But mainly, drawn into Bach's family life and away from the cruelty in the dorms and the lonely hours of his mourning, Stefan begins to feel at home. When another tragedy strikes, this time in the Bach family, Stefan bears witness to the depths of grief, the horrors of death, the solace of religion, and the beauty that can spring from even the most profound losses.
Subjects: Biographical fiction.; Historical fiction.; Bildungsromans.; Bach, Johann Sebastian, 1685-1750; Bach, Johann Sebastian, 1685-1750; Bach, Johann Sebastian, 1685-1750.; Cantors (Church music); Children's choirs; Grief; Teacher-student relationships; Teenage boys;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The better sister : a novel / by Burke, Alafair,author.;
"Though Chloe was the younger of the two Taylor sisters, she always seemed to be in charge. She was the honor roll student with big dreams and an even bigger work ethic. Nicky was always restless ... and more than a little reckless--the opposite of her ambitious little sister. She floated from job to job and man to man, and stayed close to home in Cleveland. For a while, it seemed like both sisters had found happiness. Chloe earned a scholarship to an Ivy League school and moved to New York City, where she landed a coveted publishing job. Nicky married promising young attorney Adam Macintosh, and gave birth to a baby boy they named Ethan. The Taylor sisters became virtual strangers. Now, more than fifteen years later, their lives are drastically different--and Chloe is married to Adam. When he's murdered by an intruder at the couple's East Hampton beach house, Chloe reluctantly allows her teenaged stepson's biological mother--her estranged sister, Nicky--back into her life. But when the police begin to treat Ethan as a suspect in his father's death, the two sisters are forced to unite ... and to confront the truth behind family secrets they have tried to bury in the past"--
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Psychological fiction.; Domestic fiction.; Sisters; Murder; Family secrets; Man-woman relationships; False arrest; Criminal defense lawyers;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 2
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