Search:

Results 251 to 260 of 304 | « previous |

Patton's prayer : a true story of courage, faith, and victory in World War II / by Kershaw, Alex,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."From Alex Kershaw, author of the New York Times bestseller Against All Odds, comes an epic story of courage, resilience, and faith during the Second World War. General George Patton needed a miracle. In December 1944, the Allies found themselves stuck. Rain had plagued the troops daily since September, turning roads into rivers of muck, slowing trucks and tanks to a crawl. A thick ceiling of clouds had grounded American warplanes, allowing the Germans to reinforce. The sprint to Berlin had become a muddy, bloody stalemate, costing thousands of American lives. Patton seethed, desperate for some change, any change, in the weather. A devout Christian, he telephoned his head chaplain. "Do you have a good prayer for the weather?" he asked. The resulting prayer was soon printed and distributed to the 250,000 men under Patton's command. "Pray when driving," the men were told. "Pray when fighting. Pray alone. Pray with others. Pray by night and pray by day. Pray for the cessation of immoderate rains, for good weather for Battle ... Pray for victory ... Pray for Peace." Then came the Battle of the Bulge. Amid frigid temperatures and heavy snow, 200,000 German troops overwhelmed the meager American lines in Belgium's Ardennes Forest, massacring thousands of soldiers as the attack converged on a vital crossroads town called Bastogne. There, the 101st Airborne was dug in, but the enemy were lurking, hidden in the thick blanket of fog that seemed to never dissipate. A hundred miles of frozen roads to the south, Patton needed an answer to his prayer, fast, before it was too late"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Patton, George S. (George Smith), 1885-1945; Patton, George S. (George Smith), 1885-1945; United States. Army. Airborne Division, 101st; Ardennes, Battle of the, 1944-1945.; Generals; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

Heretic : a memoir / by Kadlec, Jeanna,author.;
Includes bibliographical references.Jeanna Kadlec knew what it meant to be faithful--in her marriage to a pastor's son, in the comfortable life ahead of her, in her God--but there was no denying the truth that lived under that conviction: she was queer and, if she wanted to survive, she would need to leave behind the church and every foundational building block she knew. Heretic is a memoir of rebirth. Within, Kadlec reckons with religious trauma and Midwestern values, as a means of unveiling how evangelicalism directly impacts every American--religious or not--and has been a major force in driving our democracy towards fascism. From the story of Lilith to celebrity purity rings, Kadlec interrogates how her indoctrination and years of piety intersects with her Midwest working-class upbringing. As she navigated graduate school, a new home on the East Coast, and a new marriage, another insidious truth began to reveal itself --that conservative Christianity has both built and undermined our political power structures, poisoned our pop culture, and infected how we interact with one another in ways that the secular population couldn't see.
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Kadlec, Jeanna.; Evangelicalism; Ex-church members; Lesbians; Women in Christianity;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

The sea between two shores / by Rideout, Tanis,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."From the bestselling author of Above All Things comes a powerful novel based on a centuries-spanning true story, in which two families come together against the odds to reckon with what it means to reach for reconciliation for historic wrongs as well as the wrongs we commit against the ones we love. In the early 1800s, a married Nova Scotian couple arrives on the shores of an island in the South Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu, with a mission to convert the Indigenous peoples to Christianity as an act of penance for their own sins. The arrival of the strangers leads to both exchange and friction, cooperation and violence. Two hundred years later, the Stewarts are a Toronto family locked in grief since the drowning of their younger son. Oldest son Zach is still reeling from the guilt of not being there for his brother, the family's golden child. Then there is his mother, Michelle, whose grief has only continued to deepen and develop ever more dangerous edges. When she receives a surprising call from Vanuatu, inviting her family to participate in a reconciliation ceremony for their respective ancestors, Michelle grasps on to this invitation in a desperate effort to save herself and her family. In Vanuatu, we meet the Tabes, an Indigenous family who has suffered its own share of heartbreak, including the recent death of one child in the aftermath of a cyclone, and the looming departure of another. Over the course of the novel, the Tabes and the Stewarts will discover their shared grief, disappointments, hopes, and expectations for what a better future might hold, as well as the wounds that stand in the way of freeing themselves from the legacy of past betrayals. This fictionalized account of the coming together of two families connected by the actions of their ancestors is a moving meditation on the complications of history, the possibilities for redemption, and the meaning of the stories we tell ourselves."--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Novels.; Families; Canadians; Grief; Indigenous peoples; Reconciliation;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store / by McBride, James,1957-author.;
"In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Moshe integrated his theater and where Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. When the state came looking for a deaf boy to institutionalize him, it was Chona and Nate Timblin, the Black janitor at Moshe's theater and the unofficial leader of the Black community on Chicken Hill, who worked together to keep the boy safe. As these characters' stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins of white, Christian America struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town's white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community--heaven and earth--that sustain us."--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Novels.; Ku Klux Klan (1915- ); African Americans; Deaf; Jews; Murder;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

Smile / by Doyle, Roddy,1958-author.;
"A breakout from the Booker-prize-winning novelist Roddy Doyle. A psychological suspense novel unlike any he's written before, about how we contend with the past, trauma, guilt and regret, and the uncertainty of memory. Who is unreliable? Just moved in to a new apartment, alone for the first time in years, Victor Forde goes every evening to Donnelly's pub for a pint, a slow one. One evening his drink is interrupted. A man in shorts and pink shirt brings over his pint and sits down. He seems to know Victor's name and to remember him from school. Says his name is Fitzpatrick. Victor dislikes him on sight, dislikes too the memories that Fitzpatrick stirs up of five years being taught by the Christian Brothers. He prompts other memories too -- of Rachel, his beautiful wife who became a celebrity, and of Victor's own small claim to fame, as the man who says the unsayable on the radio. But it's the memories of high school, and of one particular Brother, that he cannot control and which eventually threaten to destroy his sanity. Smile has all the features for which Roddy Doyle has become famous: the razor-sharp dialogue, the humour, the superb evocation of adolescence -- but this is a novel unlike any he has written before. When you finish the last page you will have been challenged to re-evaluate everything you think you remember so clearly."--
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Psychological fiction.; Memory;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 2
unAPI

Out of the maze : an a-mazing way to get unstuck / by Johnson, Spencer,author.;
"The posthumous sequel to Who Moved My Cheese?, the classic parable that became a worldwide sensation. Who Moved My Cheese? offered millions of readers relief for an evergreen problem: unanticipated and unwelcome change. Now its long-awaited sequel digs deeper, to show how readers can adapt their beliefs and achieve better results in any field. Johnson's theme is that all of our accomplishments are due to our beliefs: whether we're confident or insecure, cynical or positive, open-minded or inflexible. But it's difficult to change your beliefs--and with them, your outcomes. Find out how Hem, Haw, and the other characters from Who Moved My Cheese? deal with this challenge"--
Subjects: Change (Psychology);
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

From my mother's back : a journey from Kenya to Canada / by Wane, Njoki Nathani,author.;
"In this warm and honest memoir, celebrated academic Njoki Wane shares her journey from her parents' small coffee farm in Kenya, where she helped her mother in the fields as a child, to her current work as a professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. Moving smoothly between time and place, Wane uses her past to illuminate her present. The childhood confusion caused by nuns at her boarding school dismissing her proper name and demanding she give them a Christian first name she did not possess, which resulted in many unexpected consequences, leads deftly to her requirement as a professor that her students, and all her colleagues, learn to use and correctly pronounce her first name of Njoki. In similar ways, Wane uses other memories, painful and tender, to show how her early lessons and the support given by her family allowed her to succeed as a woman of colour in the academy and to later lift up her students facing their own difficult journeys. Yet Wane does not gloss over her own growing pains as a young woman, and as an established professor she still questions whether or not her attachment to Western conveniences is wise. For, in the end, Wane never forgets that her story started with the feeling of safety and the clear field of view she received as a child carried on her mother's back."-- Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Autobiographies.; Biographies.; Wane, Njoki Nathani.; College teachers; Kenyans; Women immigrants;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

Is there bacon in heaven? : a memoir / by Hassan, Ali(Actor),author.;
"For fans of Russell Peters, Trevor Noah, and Mark Critch comes a hilarious debut memoir about life growing up on the outside and finding one's place in the world, by stand-up comic and popular CBC host, Ali Hassan. Growing up, Ali Hassan was a chameleon. His friends came from many different backgrounds and religions--Trinidadian, Parsi, Goan, Hindu, Christian, Sikh. And as a hockey-playing, crockpot-using young man who also knew the words to at least ten Neil Young songs, he could blend in everywhere. But the world has a funny way of reminding you who you are, and his Muslim Pakistani family and community did, too. In this hilarious and insightful memoir based on his hit stand-up comedy, Hassan shares his life-long journey to becoming a cultural Muslim--learning to walk the line of embracing his heritage while still following his passions. From failing to learn Arabic--or much of anything, really--in Sunday school and visiting family in Pakistan (who mocked him constantly) to discovering the wonders of pepperoni as a teenager and being a celebrity judge at Ribfest, Hassan finds himself in compromising situations that challenge his beliefs and very identity. And along the way, his friends and family are there to either encourage or criticize, something he finds eternally confusing. Now, as a father of four, Hassan must explain his point of view to his children. But he can't just 'give them' an identity as a cultural Muslim. Sharing his story is the next best thing. Entertaining and heartfelt, this debut showcases why Hassan is one of Canada's most popular comedians, as he explores that deep need that exists in us all: to belong."--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Personal narratives.; Hassan, Ali (Actor); Actors; Comedians; Muslims; Pakistani Canadians;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

Paradise of the Pacific : approaching Hawaii / by Moore, Susanna,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.Map -- This Realm of Chaos and Old Night -- Awe of the Night Approaching -- The Source of the Darkness that Made Darkness -- The Cloak of Bird Feathers -- One Great Caravanserai -- A Pilgrim and a Stranger -- A Light to My Path -- Crucified to the World -- Falling Are the Heavens -- The Voice of Land shells -- Notes -- Glossary -- Gods and Personages -- Bibliography -- Index."The dramatic history of America's tropical paradise. The history of Hawaii may be said to be the story of arrivals--from the eruption of volcanoes on the ocean floor 18,000 feet below, the first hardy seeds that over millennia found their way to the islands, and the confused birds blown from their migratory routes, to the early Polynesian adventurers who sailed across the Pacific in double canoes, the Spanish galleons en route to the Philippines, and the British navigators in search of a Northwest Passage, soon followed by pious Protestant missionaries, shipwrecked sailors, and rowdy Irish poachers escaped from Botany Bay--all wanderers washed ashore, sometimes by accident. This is true of many cultures, but in Hawaii, no one seems to have left. And in Hawaii, a set of myths accompanied each of these migrants--legends that shape our understanding of this mysterious place. In Paradise of the Pacific, Susanna Moore, the award-winning author of In the Cut and The Life of Objects, pieces together the elusive, dramatic story of late-eighteenth-century Hawaii--its kings and queens, gods and goddesses, missionaries, migrants, and explorers--a not-so-distant time of abrupt transition, in which an isolated pagan world of human sacrifice and strict taboo, without a currency or a written language, was confronted with the equally ritualized world of capitalism, Western education, and Christian values"--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Acculturation; Culture conflict; Legends; Social change;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

The last train to London [sound recording] : a novel / by Clayton, Meg Waite,author.; Lee, John,narrator.; Harper Audio (Firm),publisher.; Blackstone Audio, Inc.,publisher.;
Read by John Lee.In 1936, the Nazi are little more than loud, brutish bores to fifteen-year old Stephan Neuman, the son of a wealthy and influential Jewish family and budding playwright whose playground extends from Vienna's streets to its intricate underground tunnels. Stephan's best friend and companion is the brilliant Žofie-Helene, a Christian girl whose mother edits a progressive, anti-Nazi newspaper. But the two adolescents' carefree innocence is shattered when the Nazis take control. There is hope in the darkness, though. Truus Wijsmuller, a member of the Dutch resistance, risks her life smuggling Jewish children out of Nazi Germany to the nations that will take them. It is a mission that becomes even more dangerous after the Anschluss--Hitler's annexation of Austria--as, across Europe, countries close their borders to the growing number of refugees desperate to escape. Tante Truus, as she is known, is determined to save as many children as she can. After Britain passes a measure to take in at-risk child refugees from the German Reich, she dares to approach Adolf Eichmann, the man who would later help devise the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question," in a race against time to bring children like Stephan, his young brother Walter, and Žofie-Helene on a perilous journey to an uncertain future abroad.
Subjects: Audiobooks.; Historical fiction.; Kindertransports (Rescue operations); Jews; Jewish children; Jewish refugees;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

Results 251 to 260 of 304 | « previous |