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River of fire : my spiritual journey / by Prejean, Helen,author.;
In this revelatory, intimate memoir from the author of Dead Man Walking, the nation's foremost leader in efforts to abolish the death penalty shares the story of her growth as a spiritual leader, speaks out about the challenges of the Catholic Church, and shows that joy and religion are not mutually exclusive. Sister Helen Prejean's work as an activist nun, campaigning to educate Americans about the inhumanity of the death penalty, is known to millions worldwide. Less widely known is the evolution of her spiritual journey from praying for God to solve the world's problems to engaging full-tilt in working to transform societal injustices. Sister Helen grew up in a well-off Baton Rouge family that still employed black servants. She joined the Sisters of St. Joseph at the age of eighteen and was in her forties when she had an awakening that her life's work was to immerse herself in the struggle of poor people forced to live on the margins of society. Sister Helen writes about the relationships with friends, fellow nuns, and mentors who have shaped her over the years. In this honest and fiercely open account, she writes about her close friendship with a priest, intent on marrying her, that challenged her vocation in the "new territory of the heart." The final page of River of Fire ends with the opening page of Dead Man Walking, when she was first invited to correspond with a man on Louisiana's death row. River of Fire is a book for anyone interested in journeys of faith and spirituality, doubt and belief, and "catching on fire" to purpose and passion. It is a book, written in accessible, luminous prose, about how to live a spiritual life that is wide awake to the sufferings and creative opportunities of our world.
Subjects: Autobiographies.; Biographies.; Prejean, Helen.; Sisters of Saint Joseph; Nuns;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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While you were out : an intimate family portrait of mental illness in an era of silence / by Kissinger, Meg,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."From award-winning journalist Meg Kissinger, a searing memoir of a family besieged by mental illness, as well as an incisive exploration of the systems that failed them and a testament to the love that sustained them. Growing up in the 1960s in the suburbs of Chicago, Meg Kissinger's family seemed to live a charmed life. With eight kids and two loving parents, the Kissingers radiated a warm, boisterous energy. Whether they were spending summer days on the shores of Lake Michigan, barreling down the ski slopes, or navigating the trials of their Catholic school, the Kissingers always knew how to live large and play hard. But behind closed doors, a harsher reality was unfolding. A heavily-medicated mother hospitalized for anxiety and depression, a manic father prone to violence, and children in the throes of bipolar disorder and depression, two of whom would take their own lives. Through it all, the Kissingers faced the world with their signature dark humor and the unspoken family rule--never talk about it. While You Were Out begins as the personal story of one family's struggles, then opens outward as Kissinger details how childhood tragedy catalyzed a journalism career focused on exposing our country's flawed mental health care. Combining the intimacy of memoir with the rigor of investigative reporting, the book explores the consequences of shame, the havoc of botched public policy, and the hope offered by new treatment strategies. This is a story of one family's love and devotion in the face of relentless struggle. It is a book for anyone who cares about someone with mental illness. In other words, it is a book for everyone"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Kissinger, Meg.; Kissinger, Meg; Kissinger family.; Families of the mentally ill; Mental illness; Mentally ill; Photography of families.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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On book banning / by Wells, Ira,1981-author.;
Includes bibliographical references."A lively, accessible survey of literary censorship through the ages. The freedom to read is under attack. There are, today, more efforts to ban books from libraries than ever before. The supposed "dangers" posed by books including The Handmaid's Tale, Gender Queer, Huckleberry Finn, and the works of Dr. Seuss ... leading children down a path of sexual deviance, or harming them with racist language or non-inclusive narratives ... fuel the puritanical zeal of De Santis Republicans and progressive educators alike. On Book Banning argues that today's culture warriors proceed from a misunderstanding of literature as instrumental to the pursuit of their ideological agendas. In treating libraries as sites of contagion and exposure, censors are warping our children's relationship with literature and teaching them that the solution to opposing viewpoints is cancellation or outright expurgation. On Book Banning provides a lively, accessible survey of literary censorship through the ages ... from the destruction of libraries in ancient Rome, to the Catholic Church's attempts to tamp down religious dissent and scientific innovation, to state-sponsored efforts to suppress LGBTQ literature in the 1980s and beyond. Throughout, Ira Wells demonstrates how today's book bans stem from the ineradicable human impulse toward social control. In a whistle-stop tour of landmark legal cases, literary controversies, and philosophical arguments, we discover that the freedom to read and publish is the aberration in human history, and that censorship and restriction have been the rule. At a moment in which our democratic institutions are buckling under the stress of polarization, On Book Banning is both rallying cry and guide to resistance for those who reject the conflation of art and propaganda, for whom books remain sacred vessels of our shared humanity, and who will always insist upon reading for ourselves."--
Subjects: Censorship.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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A Kid from Marlboro Road [electronic resource] : by Burns, Edward.aut; Burns, Edward.nrt; cloudLibrary;
An Irish-American family comes to life through the eyes of a 13-year-old boy in this debut novel by actor-filmmaker Ed Burns. Immigrants and storytellers, lilting voices and Long Island moxy are all part of this colorful Irish-Catholic community in 1970s New York.A Kid from Marlboro Road opens at a wake, as our twelve-year-old narrator, an aspiring writer, takes in the death of his beloved grandfather, Pop, a larger-than-life figure to him. The overflowing crowd includes sandhogs in their muddy work boots, old Irish biddies in black dresses and cops in uniform, along with the family in mourning. There’s an open casket, the first time he’s seen a dead person. Later, at the bar across the street, he tells a story to the assembled crowd about the day his dad proposed to his mom, and how he almost got beat up by her brothers for it, and then how Pop made him propose twice. His mom calls him “Kneenie,” and with her husband and older son Tommy lost to her, he’s the best thing she’s got. He sees her struggling with depression and is worried his parents might get divorced, but doesn’t know how to help—since like his brother and father before him he knows he’ll also abandon her soon enough.Stories cascade between the prior generation’s colorful origins in the Bronx and the softer world of the of Gibson, the town on Long Island where the family lives now. There are scenes in the Rockaways, at Belmont Race Track, and in Montauk. Out of individual struggles a collective warmth emerges, a certain kind of American story, raucous and joyous.Includes black and white photographs from the author's Irish-American New York family history.
Subjects: Audiobooks.; Coming of Age; Cultural Heritage; Family Life;
© 2024., Recorded Books,
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The north star : Canada and the Civil War plots against Lincoln / by Sher, Julian,1953-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."A riveting account of the years, months and days leading up to the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, and the unexpected ways Canadians were involved in every aspect of the American Civil War. Canadians take pride in being on the "good side" of the American Civil War, serving as a haven for 30,000 escaped slaves on the Underground Railroad. But dwelling in history's shadow is the much darker role Canada played in supporting the slave South and in fomenting the many plots against Lincoln. The North Star weaves together the different strands of several Canadians and a handful of Confederate agents in Canada as they all made their separate, fateful journeys into history. The book shines a spotlight on the stories of such intrepid figures as Anderson Abbott, Canada's first Black doctor, who joined the Union Army; Emma Edmonds, the New Brunswick woman who disguised herself as a man to enlist as a Union nurse; and Edward P. Doherty, the Quebec man who led the hunt to track down Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth. At the same time, the Canadian political and business elite were aiding the slave states. Toronto aristocrat George Taylor Denison III bankrolled Confederate operations and opened his mansion to their agents. The Catholic Church helped one of Booth's accused accomplices hide out for months in the Quebec countryside. A leading financier in Montreal let Confederates launder money through his bank. Sher creates vivid portraits of places we thought we knew. Montreal was a sort of nineteenth-century Casablanca of the North: a hub for assassins, money-men, mercenaries and soldiers on the run. Toronto was a headquarters for Confederate plotters and gun-runners. The two largest hotels in the country became nests of Confederate spies. Meticulously researched and richly illustrated, The North Star is a sweeping tale that makes long-ago events leap off the page with a relevance to the present day."--
Subjects: Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865; Canadians;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Summer love : a novel / by Thayer, Nancy,1943-author.;
"Old secrets come to light when four friends gather on Nantucket for a life-changing reunion in this heartwarming novel of love and self-discovery by New York Times bestselling author Nancy Thayer. When four strangers rent bargain-basement rooms in an old hotel near the beach, they embark on the summer of their lives. First there's Ariel Spencer, who has big dreams of becoming a writer and is looking for inspiration in Nantucket's high society. Her new friend Sheila Murphy is a good Catholic girl from Ohio whose desire for adventure is often shadowed by her apprehension. Then there's small-town Missourian Wyatt Smith-who's immediately taken with Ariel. The last of the four, Nick Volkov, is looking to make a name for himself and have a blast along the way. Despite their differences, the four bond over Wednesday night dinners, trips to the beach, and all that Nantucket has to offer. But venturing out on their own for the first time, with all its adventure and risks, could change the course of their future ... Twenty-six years after that amazing summer, Ariel, Sheila, Wyatt, and Nick come together again at the hotel where they first met. Now it's called The Lighthouse and Nick owns the entire operation with his wife and daughter. Ariel and Wyatt, married for decades, arrive with their son, and Sheila's back too, with her daughter by her side. Life hasn't exactly worked out the way they had all hoped. Ariel's dreams have since faded and been pushed aside, but she's determined to rediscover the passion she once had. Nick has the money and reputation of a successful businessman, but is it everything he had hoped for? And Sheila has never been able to shake the secret she's kept since that summer. Being back together again at last will mean confronting the past and finding themselves again. Meanwhile, the next generation discovers Nantucket, exploring the island together, experiencing love and heartbreak, and forging lifelong bonds just as their parents did all those years ago. It's sure to be one unforgettable reunion. This delightful novel from beloved storyteller Nancy Thayer explores the potential of dreams and the beauty of friendship"--
Subjects: Novels.; Friendship; Reunions; Secrecy;
Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 2
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Saving Sam : the true story of an American's disappearance in Syria and his family's extraordinary fight to bring him home / by Goodwin, Sam,1989-author.;
"What would you do if your son suddenly disappeared in Syria, and you had no idea what had happened to him? Would you contact the FBI? The State Department? Pray? Would you Google "What to do if your son disappears in Syria"? When the unthinkable happened, the answer, in the case of Ann Goodwin and her husband Tag, was: all of the above. Their 30-year-old son Sam, who was attempting to become one of the few people in history to travel to every single country on the planet, vanished in a supposed safe-zone run by the Kurds on the Turkish border. At first, they didn't even realize he had been abducted: maybe the phone reception had gone down, they told themselves, as had happened plenty of times before when Sam was in an off-the-beaten-path place. Just wait, he'll call back soon. But Sam never did call back, and over the coming days, the horror of their situation quickly bore down on the Goodwins, a devout Catholic family of seven living a middle-class suburban lifestyle in St. Louis, Missouri. Frustrated and increasingly terrified, the Goodwins came to realize that they couldn't rely on their government to save Sam. They were going to have to do it themselves. This is the extraordinary story of Sam's abduction by the Syrian regime, who threatened to hand him over to ISIS for beheading if he did not confess to being a CIA spy. It's also the story of a Midwestern American family who transformed themselves into their own detective agency, building up a network of journalists, hostage negotiators, Middle East experts, Russian diplomats, Vatican envoys, and shady mercenaries, until eventually -- by nothing short of a miracle -- they found a secret backdoor into the heart of the Syrian intelligence service itself. Through multiple first-person narrators, Saving Sam recounts an inspiring and unforgettable saga that includes a travel journey to every country in the world, famous celebrities, heads of state, high-stakes diplomacy and critical life lessons around curiosity, uncertainty, prayer and what it ultimately means to be free. In a genuine, straightforward and sometimes humorous style, Sam draws on his experience as a hostage to demonstrate how we can all turn our own adversities into assets, whether it be in our personal, professional or spiritual lives"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Personal narratives.; Goodwin, Sam, 1989-; Goodwin, Sam, 1989-; Prisoners; Prisoners; Travelers;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The winemaker's wife / by Harmel, Kristin,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."At the dawn of the Second World War, Ines is the young wife of Michel, owner of the House of Chauveau, a small champagne winery nestled among rolling vineyards near Reims, France. Marrying into a storied champagne empire was supposed to be a dream come true, but Ines feels increasingly isolated, purposely left out of the business by her husband; his chef de cave, Theo; and Theo's wife, Sarah. But these disappointments pale in comparison to the increasing danger from German forces pouring across the border. At first, it's merely the Nazi weinfuhrer coming to demand the choicest champagne for Hitler's cronies, but soon, there are rumors of Jewish townspeople being rounded up and sent east to an unspeakable fate. The war is on their doorstep, and no one in Ines's life is safe--least of all Sarah, whose father is Jewish, or Michel, who has recklessly begun hiding munitions for the Resistance in the champagne caves. Ines realizes she has to do something to help. Sarah feels as lost as Ines does, but she doesn't have much else in common with Michel's young wife. Ines seems to have it made, not least of all because as a Catholic, she's "safe." Sarah, on the other hand, is terrified about the fate of her parents--and about her own future as the Germans begin to rid the Champagne region of Jews. When Sarah makes a dangerous decision to follow her heart in a desperate bid to find some meaning in the ruin, it endangers the lives of all those she cares about--and the champagne house they've all worked so hard to save. In the present, Liv Kent has just lost her job--and her marriage. Her wealthy but aloof Grandma Edith, sensing that Liv needs a change of scenery before she hits rock bottom, insists that Liv accompany her on a trip to France. But the older woman has an ulterior motive--and some difficult but important information to share with her granddaughter. As Liv begins to uncover long-buried family secrets, she finds herself slowly coming back to life. When past and present intertwine at last, she may finally find a way forward, along a difficult road that leads straight to the winding caves beneath the House of Chauveau. Perfect for fans of Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale and Kate Quinn's The Alice Network, The Winemaker's Wife is an evocative and gorgeously wrought novel that examines how the choices we make in our darkest hours can profoundly change our lives--and how hope can come from the places we least expect"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Family secrets; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 2
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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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Wayward Girls A Novel [electronic resource] : by Wiggs, Susan.aut; CloudLibrary;
"After decades of bestsellers, Wayward Girls might be Susan Wiggs' opus. A gut-wrenching story of survival, friendship, and justice. Masterful."--Robert Dugoni, New York Times bestselling author of The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell "The magnificent Susan Wiggs takes a leap into the history of women..a page-turner, replete with mystery and suspense."—Adriana Trigiani, New York Times bestselling author of The Good Left Undone From New York Times bestselling author Susan Wiggs, a wrenching but life-affirming novel based on a true story of survival, friendship, and redemption. Set in the turbulent Vietnam era in the All-American city of Buffalo, New York, six girls are condemned to forced labor in the laundry of a Catholic reform school. In 1968 we meet six teens confined at the Good Shepherd—a dark and secretive institution controlled by Sisters of Charity nuns—locked away merely for being gay, pregnant, or simply unruly. Mairin— free-spirited daughter of Irish immigrants, committed to keep her safe from her stepfather. Angela—denounced for her attraction to girls, sent to the nuns for reform, but instead found herself the victim of a predator. Helen—the daughter of intellectuals detained in Communist China, she saw her “temporary” stay at the Good Shepherd stretch into years. Odessa—caught up in a police dragnet over a racial incident, she found the physical and mental toughness to endure her sentence. Denise—sentenced for brawling in a foster home, she dared to dream of a better life. Janice—deeply insecure, she couldn’t decide where her loyalty lay—except when it came to her friend Kay, who would never outgrow her childlike dependency. Sister Bernadette—rescued from a dreadful childhood, she owed her loyalty to the Sisters of Charity even as her conscience weighed on her. Wayward Girls is a haunting but thrilling tale of hope, solidarity, and the enduring strength of young women who find the courage to break free and find redemption...and justice. "Compelling...This powerful and unforgettable novel is a poignant and enlightening look into a sad chapter of recent history."--Library Journal (starred review) "Heart-wrenching...sweeping. This one lingers long after the last page."--Publishers Weekly "Wayward girls is all about the power of female bonds...this isn't just a moment in time—it's a cautionary tale."—Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of By Any Other Name “Susan Wiggs is at the top of her game. Through the skillful weaving of an endearing cast, Wayward Girls displays the power of sisterhood to survive, conquer, and ultimately heal from the most harrowing of times. An evocative tale packed with resilience and secrets that kept me reading late into the night. I loved it.”  —Kristina McMorris, New York Times bestselling author of Sold on a Monday and The Girls of Good Fortune
Subjects: Electronic books.; Lesbian; Literary; Family Life; Contemporary Women; Psychological;
© 2025., HarperCollins,
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