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A place called home : a memoir / by Ambroz, David,author.;
"As a child, David Ambroz was raised homeless in New York City, the home of Wall Street and more than 100,000 homeless children. For David and his two siblings, their mother's diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia sets them in motion for a life of poverty, violence and instability as they travel across New York and New England seeking shelter. For eleven years, home for David means living in train stations, subway cars, 24-hour diners, and wherever is safe and warm; bathing in public restrooms; and stealing food to quell his hunger. When he gets into foster care, it feels like salvation, but it soon proves to be just as unsafe for young people--more of his foster siblings are put on a prison pipeline than college-bound. Surmounting violence, continued poverty and physical and emotional abuse at the hands of his caregivers, David harnesses an inner grit to escape the inevitable outcome for kids like him. He takes shelter and finds hope on his own in libraries, schools, and in the occasional adult angel. Through hard work and unwavering resolve, he is able to get into Vassar College, the first significant step out from the yolk of poverty, and later graduates UCLA School of Law. This heart-wrenching and inspiring story about young people pulls back the curtain on homelessness and poverty in the lives of children and shines a pivotal light on generations of kids that have been systematically ignored and overlooked. A Place Called Home is both David's powerful personal account through the lens of a child surviving it daily. And as the go-to child welfare advocate for the Obama administration and major U.S. companies, A Place Called Home is a beckoning call to our national conscience to move from pity to action"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Personal narratives.; Ambroz, David.; Foster children; Homeless children;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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In winter I get up at night / by Urquhart, Jane,author.;
Includes bibliographical references.In the early morning dark, Emer McConnell rises for a day of teaching music in the schools of rural Saskatchewan. While she travels the snowy roads in the gathering light, she begins another journey, one of recollection and introspection, and one that, through the course of Jane Urquhart's brilliant new novel, will leave the reader forever changed. Moving as effortlessly through time as the drift of memory itself, In Winter I Get Up at Night brings Emer and her singular story to life. At the age of 11, she is terribly injured in an enormous prairie storm--the "great wind" that shifts her trajectory forever. As she recovers, separated from her family in a children's ward, Emer gets to know her fellow patients, a memorable group including a child performer who stars in a travelling theatre company, the daughter of a Dukhobor community, and the son of a leftist Jewish farm collective. The children are tended to by three nursing sisters and two doctors, whom the ever-imaginative Emer comes to call Doctor Angel and Doctor Carpenter. Emer's tale grows outwards from that ward, reaching through time and space in a dreamlike fashion, recounting the stories of her mother's entanglement with a powerful yet mysterious teacher; her brother's dawning spirituality, which eventually leads him to the priesthood; the remarkable lives of the nuns who care for her; and the passionate yet distant love affair of Emer and an enigmatic man she calls Harp--a brilliant scientist whose great discovery has forever altered millions of lives around the world. In luminous prose, and with exhilarating nuance and depth, Jane Urquhart charts an unforgettable life, while also exploring some of the grandest themes of the twentieth century--colonial expansion, scientific progress, and the sinister forces that seek to divide societies along racial and cultural lines. In Winter I Get Up at Night is a major work of imagination and self-exploration from one of the greatest writers of our time.
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Psychological fiction.; Novels.; Country life; Families; Interpersonal relations; Life change events; Recollection (Psychology); Women teachers; Women;
Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 3
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They left us everything : a memoir / by Johnson, Plum;
After the death of the author's senile father, and cantankerous ninety-three-year-old mother, she and her three younger brothers must empty and sell the beloved family home. Twenty-three rooms full of history, antiques, and oxygen tanks. The author remembers her loving but difficult parents who could not have been more different: the British father, a handsome, disciplined patriarch who nonetheless could not control his opinionated, extroverted Southern-belle wife who loved tennis and gin gimlets. The task consumes her, becoming more rewarding than she ever imagined. Items from childhood trigger memories of her eccentric family growing up in a small town on the shores of Lake Ontario in the 1950s and 60s. But unearthing new facts about her parents helps her reconcile those relationships with a more accepting perspective about who they were and what they valued. LSC
Subjects: Johnson, Plum; Caregivers; Adult children of aging parents; Aging parents; Parent and adult child.;
© 2014., Penguin Canada Books,
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Advanced parenting : advice for helping kids through diagnoses, differences, and mental health challenges / by Fradin, Kelly,MD,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Any parent or teacher who has ever walked out of a concerning appointment with their child's doctor or teacher has experienced a heady mix of emotions--fear, love, confusion, concern, sadness, and perhaps even anger. While every parent hopes for a healthy child, the reality is that children face many common challenges, including medical issues like ADHD, asthma, food allergies, autism, school failure, depression, and developmental delays, throughout their formative years. As the role of a parent becomes one of a caregiver, it can be overwhelming for parents and children alike, particularly if money, time, access, or any combination of those are in short supply. As a balm, Dr. Kelly Fradin offers Advanced Parenting, based on her experience as a complex-care pediatrician. In this crucial guide, parents will find empathy and support as well as evidence-based practical guidance. Of greatest import is the need for tools with which to manage the emotional stress that comes from having a child who deviates from the norm, as well as coping with uncertainty and navigating the business of care. Readers will discover ways to optimize the outcomes for their family and make their day-to-day life easier. Advanced Parenting will help families from the beginning of their journey, beginning with recognizing when a child needs help, accepting the implications of a challenge, obtaining a correct diagnosis, learning about the issue, building a treatment team and coming up with a comprehensive plan. Dr. Fradin explores how a child struggling can affect the entire family dynamic including the parent's relationships and the siblings overall well-being, and with her experience as a complex care pediatrician, she will help parents avoid common mistakes. Parents will feel seen, supported, and better prepared to be both a parent and a caregiver"--
Subjects: Parenting.; Parents of problem children.; Problem children;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Under currents [sound recording] / by Roberts, Nora,author.; LaVoy, January,narrator.; Macmillan Audio (Firm),publisher.;
Read by January LaVoy."From the #1 New York Times bestselling author, a novel about the power of family to harm--and to heal. Within the walls of a tasteful, perfectly kept house in North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains, young Zane Bigelow feels like a prisoner of war. Strangers--and even Zane's own aunt across the lake--see his parents as a successful surgeon and his stylish wife, making appearances at their children's ballet recitals and baseball games. Zane and his sister know the truth: There is something terribly wrong. As his father's violent, controlling rages--and his mother's complicity--become more and more oppressive, Zane counts the years, months, days until he can escape. He looks out for little Britt, warning her: Be smart; Be careful. In fear for his very life, he plays along with the insidious lie that everything is fine, while scribbling his real thoughts in a secret journal he must carefully hide away. When one brutal, shattering night finally reveals cracks in the façade, Zane begins to understand that some people are willing to face the truth, even when it hurts. As he grows into manhood and builds a new kind of family, he will find that while the darkness of his past may always shadow him, it will also show him what is necessary for good to triumph--and give him strength to draw on when he once again must stand up and defend himself and the ones he loves ..."--
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Audiobooks.; Domestic fiction.; Family violence; Adult child abuse victims;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Halal sex : the intimate lives of Muslim women in North America / by Benembarek, Sheima,author.; Eltahawy, Mona,1967-writer of foreword.;
"This unprecedented and compassionate glimpse into the sex lives of seven Muslim women across North America brings a hushed conversation out into the open. Sheima Benembarek's parents never gave her the "the talk." When she left Morocco to go to university in Montreal, she was completely unprepared to navigate an open and active sex life outside of marriage, considered haram within the Muslim world. Now, many years later, she's all too aware of how common this is among immigrants and the children of immigrants living on a more sexually liberated continent. She set out to eliminate the taboo, interviewing Muslims from of a variety of locations, ethnicities, Islamic sects, and socioeconomic backgrounds about a host of topics, from masturbation and hymens to sex work and BDSM. Halal Sex is the culmination of these conversations, distilled into seven rich and compelling stories. Among the subjects are Hind, a niqabi in a polygynous marriage; Azar, a non-binary trans Sufi; Taslim, a virgin in her forties struggling to erect healthy boundaries with her family; and Eman, a lesbian stand-up comic in an interfaith marriage. With great care and thoughtfulness, Benembarek reveals a tapestry of diverse Islam and of individuals forging a path forward, each in their own way: overcoming shame, filling in educational gaps, balancing familial pressures, pushing back against sexism and patriarchy, and--ultimately--prioritizing their own happiness and pleasure."--
Subjects: Muslim women; Muslim women; Muslim women;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Summer romance / by Monaghan, Annabel,author.;
"Benefits of a summer romance: It's always fun, always brief, and no one gets their heart broken. Ali Morris is a professional organizer whose own life is a mess. Her mom died two years ago, then her husband left, and she hasn't worn pants with a zipper in longer than she cares to remember. No one is more surprised than Ali when the first time she takes off her wedding ring and puts on pants with hardware-overalls count, right?-she meets someone. Or rather, her dog claims a man for her in the same way he claimed his favorite of her three children: by peeing on him. Ethan smiles at Ali like her pants are just right-like he likes what he sees. He looks at her as if she's a version of herself she hasn't been in a long while. The last thing newly single mom Ali needs is to make her life messier, but there's no harm in a little summer romance. Is there?"--
Subjects: Romance fiction.; Novels.; Man-woman relationships; Separated women; Single mothers;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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The southern book club's guide to slaying vampires / by Hendrix, Grady,author.;
Steel Magnolias meets Dracula in this '90s-set horror novel about a women's book club that must do battle with a mysterious newcomer to their small Southern town, perfect for murderinos and fans of Stephen King. Patricia Campbell's life has never felt smaller. Her husband is a workaholic, her teenage kids have their own lives, her senile mother-in-law needs constant care, and she's always a step behind on her endless to-do list. The only thing keeping her sane is her book club, a close-knit group of Charleston women united by their love of true crime. At these meetings they're as likely to talk about the Manson family as they are about their own families. One evening after book club, Patricia is viciously attacked by an elderly neighbor, bringing the neighbor's handsome nephew, James Harris, into her life. James is well traveled and well read, and he makes Patricia feel things she hasn't felt in years. But when children on the other side of town go missing, their deaths written off by local police, Patricia has reason to believe James Harris is more of a Bundy than a Brad Pitt. The real problem? James is a monster of a different kind--and Patricia has already invited him in. Little by little, James will insinuate himself into Patricia's life and try to take everything she took for granted--including the book club--but she won't surrender without a fight in this blood-soaked tale of neighborly kindness gone wrong.
Subjects: Horror fiction.; Paranormal fiction.; Book clubs (Discussion groups); Middle-aged women; Vampires;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Secondhand wishes / by Staniszewski, Anna.;
Middle-schooler Lexi has always tried to keep the chaos under control by keeping to a carefully planned schedule, but today things have just gone wrong: her little brother is back in the hospital because of his twisted-up insides, she is late for school, and her best friend Cassa is hanging out with the new girl; but when she finds a bag of four wishing stones in the antique shop and wishes that Cassa would stop talking to Marina, and it actually happens...she begins to believe in the magic--and mostly her wishes work, just not quite as anticipated, and suddenly she has new levels of chaos to deal with.LSC
Subjects: Magic; Wishes; Brothers and sisters; Children with disabilities; Best friends; Responsibility;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The island of sea women : a novel / by See, Lisa,author.;
"A new novel from Lisa See, the New York Times bestselling author of The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, about female friendship and family secrets on a small Korean island. Mi-ja and Young-sook, two girls living on the Korean island of Jeju, are best friends that come from very different backgrounds. When they are old enough, they begin working in the sea with their village's all-female diving collective, led by Young-sook's mother. As the girls take up their positions as baby divers, they know they are beginning a life of excitement and responsibility but also danger. Despite their love for each other, Mi-ja and Young-sook's differences are impossible to ignore. The Island of Sea Women is an epoch set over many decades, beginning during a period of Japanese colonialism in the 1930s and 1940s, followed by World War II, the Korean War and its aftermath, through the era of cell phones and wet suits for the women divers. Throughout this time, the residents of Jeju find themselves caught between warring empires. Mi-ja is the daughter of a Japanese collaborator, and she will forever be marked by this association. Young-sook was born into a long line of haenyeo and will inherit her mother's position leading the divers in their village. Little do the two friends know that after surviving hundreds of dives and developing the closest of bonds, forces outside their control will push their friendship to the breaking point. This beautiful, thoughtful novel illuminates a world turned upside down, one where the women are in charge, engaging in dangerous physical work, and the men take care of the children. A classic Lisa See story--one of women's friendships and the larger forces that shape them--The Island of Sea Women introduces readers to the fierce and unforgettable female divers of Jeju Island and the dramatic history that shaped their lives"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Women divers; Female friendship;
Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 3
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