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Shuggie Bain / by Stuart, Douglas,1976-author.;
"Shuggie Bain is the unforgettable story of young Hugh "Shuggie" Bain, a sweet and lonely boy who spends his 1980s childhood in public housing in Glasgow, Scotland. Thatcher's war on heavy industry has put husbands and sons out of work, and the city's notorious drugs epidemic is waiting in the wings. Shuggie's mother Agnes walks a wayward path: she is Shuggie's guiding light but a burden for his artistic brother and practical sister. She dreams of a house with its own front door while she flicks through the pages of the Freemans catalogue, ordering a little happiness on credit, anything to brighten up her grey life. Married to a "whoremaster" of a husband, Agnes keeps her pride by looking good-her beehive, make-up, and pearly-white false teeth offer a glamourous image of a Glaswegian Elizabeth Taylor. But under the surface, Agnes finds increasing solace in drink, and she drains away the lion's share of each week's benefits-all the family has to live on-on cans of extra-strong lager hidden in handbags and poured into tea mugs. Agnes's older children find their own ways to get a safe distance from their mother, abandoning Shuggie to look after her as she swings between alcoholic binges and sobriety. He is meanwhile doing all he can to somehow become the normal boy he desperately longs to be, but everyone has realized that Shuggie is "no right," and now Agnes's addiction has the power to eclipse everyone close to her-even and especially her beloved Shuggie. A heartbreaking novel of addiction, sexuality, and love, Shuggie Bain is an epic portrayal of a working-class family that is rarely seen in fiction"--
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Children of alcoholics; Family secrets; Mothers and sons; Working class families;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The Family Experiment [electronic resource] : by Marrs, John.aut; Corbett, Clare.nrt; Samuel, Clifford.nrt; Beaton, Eilidh.nrt; Riley, Joshua.nrt; Avoth, Justin.nrt; Judd, Thomas.nrt; Okoye, Nneka.nrt; cloudLibrary;
From the acclaimed author of The One and The Marriage Act, The Family Experiment is a dark and brilliant speculative thriller about families: real and virtual. Some families are virtually perfect… The world's population is soaring, creating overcrowded cities and an economic crisis. And in the UK, the breaking point has arrived. A growing number of people can no longer afford to start families, let alone raise them. But for those desperate to experience parenthood, there is an alternative. For a monthly subscription fee, clients can create a virtual child from scratch who they can access via the metaverse and a VR headset. To launch this new initiative, the company behind Virtual Children has created a reality TV show called The Substitute. It will follow ten couples as they raise a Virtual Child from birth to the age of eighteen but in a condensed nine-month time period. The prize: the right to keep their virtual child, or risk it all for the chance of a real baby… Set in the same universe as John Marrs's bestselling novel The One and The Marriage Act, The Family Experiment is a dark and twisted thriller about the ultimate Tamagotchi—a virtual baby.
Subjects: Audiobooks.; Literary; Dystopian; Technological;
© 2024., HarperCollins,
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The oracle of Maracoor : a novel / by Maguire, Gregory,author.;
"The Oracle of Maracoor, the second in the trilogy called Another Day, continues the story of Elphaba's green-skinned granddaughter, Rain. That strange land, Maracoor--across the ocean from Oz--is beset by an invading army. In the mayhem, Rain and Cossy, a child felon, break out of prison. Helped by a few flying monkeys, they struggle to escape the city before it falls under siege. Their arresting officer, Lucikles, also retreats with his family to a highland redoubt. But safety eludes them all. Chaos thunders upon them in the form of warriors, refugees, and brigands. The very fabric of reality loosens, liberating creatures of myth and legend--huge blue wolves, harpies, and giants made of the very landscape. Cued in by secrets known only to the most highly placed members of the royal court, Rain and her companions hunt the fabled Oracle of Maracoor for guidance and soothsaying. Rain has to recover her forgotten past if she is to consider returning home. Cossy, the ten-year-old convicted of murder, must become invisible to avoid being taken into custody again. Meanwhile, the Fist of Mara, an arcane artifact that renders all around it barren, hammers against human lives. If the reclusive Oracle should spin a prophecy, might the desperate wicked years promise another day, one less perilous?"--
Subjects: Fantasy fiction.; Novels.; Animals, Mythical; Children; Imaginary places; Imaginary wars and battles; Mythology; Oracles; Oz (Imaginary place); Quests (Expeditions); Witches;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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A harmless lie : a novel / by Blædel, Sara,author.; Kline, Mark,1952-translator.; translation of:Blædel, Sara.Pigen under træet.English.;
Detective Louise Rick is on a beach in Thailand when the panicked call from her father comes through. Louise′s beloved brother, Mikkel, has attempted suicide. His wife, Trine, left him days earlier, walking out the door one day with no warning and leaving Mikkel devastated. Louise rushes home to Osted, the small, insular Danish town where she grew up and where Mikkel still lives. But the more Louise learns about Trine--a devoted wife and the mother of two young children--and her state of mind in the days before she left Mikkel, the more Louise begins to wonder whether Trine really meant to leave him. Or whether something much darker may have taken place. As the local police begin to suspect that Mikkel may have had a hand in Trine's disappearance, Louise struggles to clear his name but is forced to confront some hard truths: Small towns always hide secrets. The past always comes back to haunt you. And lies are never harmless.
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Novels.; Rick, Louise; Detectives; Missing persons; Policewomen; Secrecy; Small cities;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Invisible woman : a novel / by Lief, Katia,1959-author.;
"In Invisible Woman, a dangerous secret held for too long between estranged best friends rises to the surface, and a long marriage comes apart with devastating consequences. Joni Ackerman's decision to raise children, 25 years ago, came at a steep cost. She was then a pioneering filmmaker, one of the few women to break into the all-male Hollywood club of feature film directors. But she and her husband Paul had always wanted a family, and his ascending career at a premier television network provided a safety net. Now they've recently transplanted to Brooklyn so that Paul can launch a major East Coast production studio, when a scandal rocks the film industry and forces Joni to revisit a secret from long ago involving her friend Val. Joni is adamant that the time has come to tell the story, but Val and Paul are reluctant, for different reasons. As the marriage frays and the friends spar about whether to speak up, Joni's struggles with isolation in a new city, and old resentments about the sacrifices she made on her family's behalf start to boil over. She takes solace, of sorts, in the novels of Patricia Highsmith--particularly the masterpiece Strangers on a Train, with its duplicitous characters and their murderous impulses--until the lines between reality and fantasy become blurred. Invisible Woman is at once a literary thriller about the lies we tell each other (and ourselves), and a powerful psychological examination of friendship, marriage, and motherhood"--
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Psychological fiction.; Novels.; Best friends; Friendship; Marriage; Motion picture industry; Scandals; Secrecy; Sexual harassment of women; Women;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Mrs. Grant and Madame Jule : a novel / by Chiaverini, Jennifer.;
Includes bibliographical references."The New York Times bestselling author of Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker and Mrs. Lincoln's Rival imagines the inner life of Julia Grant, beloved as a Civil War general's wife and the First Lady, yet who grappled with a profound and complex relationship with the slave who was her namesake-until she forged a proud identity of her own. In 1844, Missouri belle Julia Dent met dazzling horseman Lieutenant Ulysses S Grant. Four years passed before their parents permitted them to wed, and the groom's abolitionist family refused to attend the ceremony. Since childhood, Julia owned as a slave another Julia, known as Jule. Jule guarded her mistress's closely held twin secrets: She had perilously poor vision but was gifted with prophetic sight. So it was that Jule became Julia's eyes to the world. And what a world it was, marked by gathering clouds of war. The Grants vowed never to be separated, but as Ulysses rose through the ranks-becoming general in chief of the Union Army-so did the stakes of their pact. During the war, Julia would travel, often in the company of Jule and the four Grant children, facing unreliable transportation and certain danger to be at her husband's side. Yet Julia and Jule saw two different wars. While Julia spoke out for women-Union and Confederate-she continued to hold Jule as a slave behind Union lines. Upon the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, Jule claimed her freedom and rose to prominence as a businesswoman in her own right, taking the honorary title Madame. The two women's paths continued to cross throughout the Grants' White House years in Washington, DC, and later in New York City, the site of Grant's Tomb. Mrs. Grant and Madame Jule is the first novel to chronicle this singular relationship, bound by sight and shadow"--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Biographical fiction.; Historical fiction.; Grant, Julia Dent, 1826-1902; African American women; Female friendship; Presidents' spouses;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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Doc Martin. [videorecording] / by Catz, Caroline,actor.; Clunes, Martin,1961-actor.; Cole, Nigel,television director.; John, Phillip(Director),television director.; McNeice, Ian,actor.; Acorn Media (Firm),production company.; RLJ Entertainment,distributor.;
Martin Clunes, Caroline Catz, Ian McNeice, Joe Absolom, Eileen Atkins.In this long-running, wildly popular UK dramedy, Martin Clunes (Manhunt) stars as surly and self- centered yet beloved Dr. Martin Ellingham with a rude bedside manner and a phobia of blood. A year has passed since Martin resigned his medical license, and his wife, Louisa (Caroline Catz), is now the one seeing patients as a child counselor, while he looks after their own two young children. But does the Doc truly never want to practice medicine again? Also returning for the final season: Dame Eileen Atkins as Doc Martin's formidable Aunt Ruth, Ian McNeice as Bert Large, and Joe Absolom as Al Large.PG.Subtitled for the deaf and hard-of-hearing (SDH).DVD ; wide screen presentation ; Dolby Digital 2.0.
Subjects: Medical television programs.; Television comedies.; Television programs.; Video recordings for the hearing impaired.; City and town life; Eccentrics and eccentricities; Man-woman relationships; Physicians (General practice);
For private home use only.
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Black Shield Maiden [electronic resource] : by Smith, Willow.aut; Hendel, Jess.aut; cloudLibrary;
From Willow Smith and Jess Hendel comes a powerful and groundbreaking historical saga about an African warrior in the world of the Vikings. “Intimate, tender, and fiercely epic.”—Tomi Adeyemi, author of Children of Blood and Bone Lore, legend, and history tell us of the Vikings: warrior kings on epic journeys of conquest and plunder. But the stories we know are not the only stories to tell. There is another story, one that has been lost to the mists of time: the saga of the dark queen. This saga begins with Yafeu, a defiant yet fiercely compassionate young warrior who is stolen from her home in the flourishing Ghānaian empire and taken to a distant kingdom in the North. There she is thrust into a strange, cold world of savage shield maidens, tyrannical rulers, and mysterious gods. And there she also finds something unexpected: a kindred spirit. She comes to serve Freydis, a shy princess who couldn’t be more different from the confident and self-possessed Yafeu. But they both want the same thing: to forge their own fate. Yafeu inspires Freydis to dream of a future greater than the one that the king and queen have forced upon her. And with the princess at her side, Yafeu learns to navigate this new world and grows increasingly determined to become one of the legendary shield maidens—to fight not only for her freedom but for the freedom of others. Yafeu may have lost her home, but she still knows who she is, and she’s not afraid to be the flame that burns a city to the ground so a new world can rise from the ashes. She will alter the course of history—and become the revolutionary heroine of her own myth.
Subjects: Electronic books.; Contemporary Women; Historical; Epic;
© 2024., Random House Worlds,
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Worthy opponents : a novel / by Steel, Danielle,author.;
"From #1 New York Times bestselling author Danielle Steel comes a powerful novel about a woman running her family's luxury department store and the wealthy investor who threatens to take it over. Spencer Brooke always knew she was destined to be CEO of her grandfather's business-the most respected and luxurious department store in New York City. Brooke's has been at the center of every happy memory she has, but it hasn't been an easy journey. Seven years after her father's death, her life is very different from the days when she walked through the store with her grandfather as a young girl. She may be the owner of Brooke's, but she's also now a divorced single mother of twin boys. And with the ever-evolving landscape of the fashion industry comes new challenges for Spencer and the legacy she's inherited. Mike Weston is known for making enormous profits by transforming small businesses into bigger, more successful ones. With his marriage at a breaking point and his children grown up, investing is where he thrives-where he can build something greater. And Brooke's feels like the perfect opportunity. Yet the firm's beautiful and savvy CEO turns down the offer before they even meet. Spencer has no interest in outside investors meddling in her family business; her grandfather never saw the need for them, and neither does she. She refuses to be tempted by Mike's offer, despite her big dreams of expanding the store. But when bad luck strikes, suddenly she is backed into a corner. In Worthy Opponents, Danielle Steel crafts a thrilling story about a powerful woman-and her equally formidable opponent"--
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Novels.; Businesswomen; Department stores; Family-owned business enterprises; Man-woman relationships; Single mothers;
Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 4
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The tea girl of Hummingbird Lane : a novel / by See, Lisa,author.;
"A thrilling new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa See explores the lives of a Chinese mother and her daughter who has been adopted by an American couple. Li-yan and her family align their lives around the seasons and the farming of tea. There is ritual and routine, and it has been ever thus for generations. Then one day a jeep appears at the village gate--the first automobile any of them have seen--and a stranger arrives. In this remote Yunnan village, the stranger finds the rare tea he has been seeking and a reticent Akha people. In her biggest seller, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, See introduced the Yao people to her readers. Here she shares the customs of another Chinese ethnic minority, the Akha, whose world will soon change. Li-yan, one of the few educated girls on her mountain, translates for the stranger and is among the first to reject the rules that have shaped her existence. When she has a baby outside of wedlock, rather than stand by tradition, she wraps her daughter in a blanket, with a tea cake hidden in her swaddling, and abandons her in the nearest city. After mother and daughter have gone their separate ways, Li-yan slowly emerges from the security and insularity of her village to encounter modern life while Haley grows up a privileged and well-loved California girl. Despite Haley's happy home life, she wonders about her origins; and Li-yan longs for her lost daughter. They both search for and find answers in the tea that has shaped their family's destiny for generations. A powerful story about a family, separated by circumstances, culture, and distance, Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane paints an unforgettable portrait of a little known region and its people and celebrates the bond that connects mothers and daughters"--
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Psychological fiction.; Adopted children; Akha (Southeast Asian people); Chinese-American teenagers; Group identity; Identity (Psychology); Mothers and daughters;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 3
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