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Finding baby Holly : lost to a cult, surviving my parents' murders, and saved by prayer / by Miller, Holly Marie,author.; Lambert, Cindy,author.; Lambert, David,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."Holly Marie was forty-two years old the day she found out she was missing. At ten months old, Holly Marie was brought to the door of a church by three barefoot women in white robes and head coverings. Adopted by the pastor and raised in a loving Christian home, Holly nevertheless struggled with the ache of not knowing what had happened to her biological parents. She still felt their absence even as she married and started a family of her own. When two detectives showed up at the restaurant where she worked and informed her that she had a large family in Florida who had been searching for her for over 40 years, Holly's past became the reality of her present, and she began the sometimes painful journey of discovering the truth about her origins: Her parents had been brutally murdered, their case still unsolved. With the help of law enforcement across four states, forensic genealogists, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and her newly discovered family members, the missing pieces began to come together. Except these--why had her parents been murdered? And who had murdered them? She soon found out that the truth leads not always to answers but sometimes to more questions, that it also brings healing and restoration, and that we must surrender our unknowns to God until, in His perfect timing, all truths are revealed. Finding Baby Holly is the true, inspiring story of a wife and mother who was "missing" for over forty years after her parents' murders, the persistent detectives who never stopped investigating, and the birth family who never lost hope in finding her."--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Personal narratives.; Miller, Holly Marie.; Cults; Missing children; Murder;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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No surrender : a father, a son, and an extraordinary act of heroism that continues to live on today / by Edmonds, Chris(Christopher Waring),1957-author.; Century, Douglas,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."Part contemporary detective story, part World War II historical narrative, No Surrender is theinspiring truestory of Roddie Edmonds, a Knoxville-born enlistee who risked his life during the final days of World War II to save others from murderous Nazis, and the lasting effects his actions had on thousands of lives--then and now. Captured in the Battle of the Bulge, Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds was the highest-ranking American soldier at Stalag IXA, a prisoner of war camp near Ziegenhain, Germany. A native of Knoxville, Tennessee, Roddie was a simple, soft-spoken man of deep inner strength and unwavering Christian faith. Though he was driven to the limits of endurance, Roddie refused to succumb to Nazi brutality toward the Jewish-American GIs with whom he was serving. Through his inspiring leadership and bravery Roddie saved the lives of hundreds of U.S. infantrymen in those perilous final days of the Second World War. His fearless actions continue to reverberate today. Growing up, Pastor Chris Edmonds knew little of his father's actions in the war. To learn the truth, he followed a trail of clues, a journey that spanned seven decades and linked a sprawling cast of heroes, both known and unknown, from every corner of the country. In No Surrender, Pastor Chris, joined by New York Times bestselling co-author Douglas Century, chronicles his odyssey to tell the unforgettable story of his father and his remarkable valor. He also provides startling details (and vantage points) of some of the major events of World War II and United States Army initiatives that helped the Allies win the war, including the Battle of the Bulge, the massacre at Malmedy, and the now-little-known Army Specialized Training Program which prepared brilliant young "soldier-scholars"--or "Quiz Kids"--from across the nation to battle the Nazis. As compelling as the number-one New York Times bestsellers Unbroken, Boys on the Boat, Band of Brothers, and Schindler's List, illustrated with photographs and historical documents throughout, No Surrender is an epic story of bravery, compassion, and faith, and an inspiring testament to man's goodness. It is also a clarion call for our narcissistic age--a shining example of the transformative and redemptive power of moral courage"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Edmonds, Roddie (Roderick Waring), 1919-1985.; Stalag IX A; United States. Army. Infantry Regiment, 422nd; Righteous Gentiles in the Holocaust; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945; Prisoners of war; Prisoners of war;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Born a crime : stories from a South African childhood / by Noah, Trevor,1984-author.;
"One of the comedy world's fastest-rising stars tells his wild coming of age story during the twilight of apartheid in South Africa and the tumultuous days of freedom that followed. Noah provides something deeper than traditional memorists: powerfully funny observations about how farcical political and social systems play out in our lives. Trevor Noah is the host of The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, where he gleefully provides America with its nightly dose of serrated satire. He is a light-footed but cutting observer of the relentless absurdities of politics, nationalism and race--and in particular the craziness of his own young life, which he's lived at the intersections of culture and history. In his first book, Noah tells his coming of age story with his larger-than-life mother during the last gasps of apartheid-era South Africa and the turbulent years that followed. Noah was born illegal--the son of a white, Dutch father and a black Xhosa mother, who had to pretend to be his nanny or his father's servant in the brief moments when the family came together. His brilliantly eccentric mother loomed over his life--a comically zealous Christian (they went to church six days a week and three times on Sunday), a savvy hustler who kept food on their table during rough times, and an aggressively involved, if often seriously misguided, parent who set Noah on his bumpy path to stardom. The stories Noah tells are sometimes dark, occasionally bizarre, frequently tender, and always hilarious--whether he's subsisting on caterpillars during months of extreme poverty or making comically pitiful attempts at teenage romance in a color-obsessed world; whether's he's being thrown into jail as the hapless fall guy for a crime he didn't commit or being thrown by his mother from a speeding car driven by murderous gangsters."--
Subjects: Biographies.; Noah, Trevor, 1984-; Apartheid; Comedians; South African wit and humor.;
Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 2
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The flag, the cross, and the station wagon : a graying American looks back at his suburban boyhood and wonders what the hell happened / by McKibben, Bill,author.;
Includes bibliographical references.Like so many of us, McKibben grew up believing-knowing-that the United States was the greatest country on earth. As a teenager, he cheerfully led American Revolution tours in Lexington, Massachusetts. He sang "Kumbaya" at church. And with the remarkable rise of suburbia, he assumed that all Americans would share in the wealth. But fifty years later, he finds himself in an increasingly doubtful nation strained by bleak racial and economic inequality, on a planet whose future is in peril. And he is curious: What the hell happened? In this revelatory cri de coeur, McKibben digs deep into our history (and his own well-meaning but not all-seeing past) and into the latest scholarship on race and inequality in America, on the rise of the religious right, and on our environmental crisis to explain how we got to this point. He finds that he is not without hope. And he wonders if any of that trinity of his youth-The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon-could, or should, be reclaimed in the fight for a fairer future.
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; McKibben, Bill.; Christianity and culture; Climatic changes.; Equality; Equality.; Middle class; Patriotism; Race relations; Racism.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Like every form of love : a memoir of friendship and true crime / by Viswanathan, Padma,1968-author.;
Includes bibliographical references."Padma Viswanathan was staying on a houseboat on Vancouver Island when she struck up a friendship with a warm-hearted, working-class queer man named Phillip. Their lives were so different it seemed unlikely to Padma that their relationship would last after she returned to her usual life. But, that week, Phillip told her a story from his childhood that kept them connected for more than twenty years. Phillip was the son of a severe, abusive man named Harvey, a miner, farmer and communist. After Phillip's mother left the family, Harvey advertised for a housekeeper-with-benefits. And so Del, the most glamorous and loving of stepmothers, stepped into Phillip's life. Del had hung out with Fidel Castro and Che Guevara in Mexico City before the Cuban revolution; she was also a convicted bank robber who had violated her parole and was suspected in her ex-husband's murder. Phillip had long since lost track of Del, but when Padma said she'd like to write about her and about his own young life, he eagerly agreed. Quickly, though, Padma's research uncovered hidden truths about these larger-than-real-life characters. Watching the effects on Phillip as these secrets, evasions and traumas came to light, she increasingly feared that when it came to the book or the friendship, only one of them would get out of this process alive. In this unforgettable memoir, Padma reflects on the joys and frictions of this strange journey with grace, humour and poetry, including original readings of Hans Christian Andersen fairytales and other stories that beautifully echo her characters' adventures and her own. Like Every Form of Love is that rare thing: an irresistible literary page-turner that twists and turns, delivering powerful revelations, right to the very end."--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Viswanathan, Padma, 1968-; Family secrets.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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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
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U2 : the definitive biography / by Jobling, John,1980-;
Includes bibliographical references and index."John Jobling takes readers beyond the myth in this unauthorized biography to present the first comprehensive account of the illustrious Irish rockers in 25 years. Drawing on extensive interviews with insiders including record label scouts, studio presidents, politicians, music critics, and childhood friends, Jobling investigates the U2's most personal relationships and controversial business practices, delivering a vivid portrait that traces the rock phenomenon from its conception to post-punk champions to political crusaders. Filled with captivating revelations, reader will learn: How Bono, the Edge, and Larry Mullen, Jr. worshipped with a Charismatic Christian church that practiced speaking in tongues during the band's early days. Insider stories of the genesis and recording of classic albums such as The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby. Creative tensions within the band and power struggles among management. How the disappointments of the Rattle and Hum film and PopMart Tour spurred the band to greater creative heights. Both the successes and controversies of Bono's wide-sweeping philanthropic and political ventures. The disconnect between the band's personal lives and public personas. Sure to inspire debate with every music lover, this book humanizes the band and paints an honest picture of a band's rise to the top, plunging into the heart and underlying soul of this iconic rock and roll band"--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: U2 (Musical group); Rock music.; Rock musicians;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Girls and their monsters : the Genain quadruplets and the making of madness in America / by Farley, Audrey Clare,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."In 1954, researchers at the newly formed National Institute of Mental Health set out to study the genetics of schizophrenia. When they got word that four 24-year-old identical quadruplets in Lansing, Michigan, had all been diagnosed with the mental illness, they could hardly believe their ears. Here was incontrovertible proof of hereditary transmission and, thus, a chance to bring international fame to their fledgling institution. The case of the pseudonymous Genain quadruplets, they soon found, was hardly so straightforward. Contrary to fawning media portrayals of a picture-perfect Christian family, the sisters had endured the stuff of nightmares. Behind closed doors, their parents had taken shocking measures to preserve their innocence while sowing fears of sex and the outside world. In public, the quadruplets were treated as communal property, as townsfolk and members of the press had long ago projected their own paranoid fantasies about the rapidly diversifying American landscape onto the fair-skinned, ribbon-wearing quartet who danced and sang about Christopher Columbus. Even as the sisters' erratic behaviors became impossible to ignore and the NIMH whisked the women off for study, their sterling image did not falter. Girls and Their Monsters chronicles the extraordinary lives of the quadruplets and the lead psychologist who studied them, asking questions that speak directly to our times: How do delusions come to take root, both in individuals and in nations? Why does society profess to be "saving the children" when it readily exploits them? What are the authoritarian ends of innocence myths? And how do people, particularly those with serious mental illness, go on after enduring the unspeakable? Can the unbreakable bonds of sisterhood help the deeply wounded heal?"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Mental health; Quadruplets; Schizophrenia;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Miracles and wonder : the historical mystery of Jesus / by Pagels, Elaine H.,1943-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."From a renowned National Book Award-winning scholar, an extraordinary new account of the life of Jesus that explores the mystery of how a poor young man inspired a religion that reshaped the world. Over the past two thousand years, countless personalities have been projected onto the enigma we know as Jesus: a first-century rabbi, capable of miraculous healing, or a magician faking cures; a Prophet, or a deluded visionary; a heretical Jew, or God in human form. In this groundbreaking work of accessible scholarship, Princeton University professor and bestselling author Elaine Pagels explores a wide range of sources -- including the Bible, the earliest reports of Jesus's life, and the secret "gnostic gospels," discovered in the 20th century -- to break down these contradictions and paint a richer and more complex portrait of Jesus in his own time than ever before. As Christians became the largest community of any religious tradition in the world, Pagels argues, people have constructed and reconstructed Jesus through the lens of imagination, his image shaped by the social, political, and economic challenges of their own time. But the most fascinating years of all were the early ones when a young Jewish man with a scanty following, executed humiliatingly as an insurrectionist, was transformed by his followers into the Jesus of Christianity. Powerfully written and drawing on decades of research, Miracles and Wonder is an essential history for anyone looking for a deeper understanding of Jesus and his monumental afterlife"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Jesus Christ;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Daughters of the bamboo grove : from China to America, a true story of abduction, adoption, and separated twins / by Demick, Barbara,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."On a warm day in September 2000, a twenty-eight-year-old woman named Zanhua gave birth to twin girls in a small hut nestled in bamboo behind her brother's rural home in China's Hunan province. The twins, Fangfang and Shuangjie, were welcome additions to her young family but also not her first children. Hidden in the hut, they were born under the shadow of China's notorious one-child policy. Fearing the ire of family planning officials, Zanhua and her husband decided to leave one twin in the care of relatives, hoping each toddler on their own might stay under the radar. But, in late 2002, Fangfang was violently snatched away from her aunt's care. The family worried they would never see her again, but they didn't imagine she could be sent to the United States. She might as well have been sent to another world. Following her stories written as the Beijing bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times, Barbara Demick, author of National Book Award finalist Nothing to Envy, embarks on a journey that encompasses the origins, shocking cruelty, and long term impact of China's one-child rule; the rise of international adoption and the religious currents that buoyed it; and the exceedingly rare phenomenon of twin separation. Today, Esther -- formerly Fangfang -- is a photographer in Texas, and Demick brings to vivid life the Christian family that felt called to adopt her, having no idea that she was kidnapped. Through Demick's indefatigable reporting and the activist work to find these lost children, will these two long-lost sisters finally find each other, and if they do, will they feel whole again? A remarkable window into the volatile, constantly changing China of the last half century and the long-reaching legacy of the country's most infamous law, Daughters of the Bamboo Grove is also the moving story of two sisters torn apart by the forces of history and brought together again by their families' determination and one reporter's dogged work"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Zeng family.; Adopted children; Family reunification; Intercountry adoption; Intercountry adoption; Twins;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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