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The blue diamond / by Goldberg, Leonard S.,author.;
"The fate of the allied forces lies in the hands of Joanna and the Watsons in the next Daughter of Sherlock Holmes mystery from USA Today bestselling author Leonard Goldberg. During a critical stage in World War One, the Governor-General of South Africa journeys to London for a meeting of The Imperial War Conference. Days prior to the conference, the Governor-General is scheduled to have an audience at Buckingham Palace at which time a most precious blue diamond will be presented to King Edward as a symbolic gesture of the colonies' resolute and never-ending allegiance to England. The flawless blue diamond, with its magnificent luster, weighs nearly 3000 carats which renders it one of the world's largest and most valuable gems. On the Governor-General's arrival, he is ensconced at the fashionable Windsor Hotel under the tightest security, with his entire entourage and formidable security team occupying the entire penthouse floor. All entrances and exits are locked down and closely guarded, and no one is allowed entrance after 6 PM. Despite the extreme precautions, the famous diamond is stolen from the Governor-General's suite in the middle of the night, with no clues left behind. With Scotland Yard baffled, Joanna and the Watsons are called in to investigate the theft and it becomes clear that the crime is not simply the work of a master thief, but one that could greatly aid the Germans and turn the tide of war in their favor. Time is of the essence and the blue diamond must be recovered before it begins its travels which could cause irreparable damage to the allied war plans"--
Subjects: Detective and mystery fiction.; Historical fiction.; Novels.; Blalock, Joanna (Fictitious character); Diamonds; Jewelry theft; Theft; Women detectives; Women private investigators;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Entangled life : how fungi make our worlds, change our minds & shape our futures / by Sheldrake, Merlin,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Living at the border between life and non-life, fungi use diverse cocktails of potent enzymes and acids to disassemble some of the most stubborn substances on the planet, turning rock into soil and wood into compost, allowing plants to grow. Fungi not only help create soil, they send out networks of tubes that enmesh roots and link plants together in the "Wood Wide Web." Fungi also drive many long-standing human fascinations: from yeasts that cause bread to rise and orchestrate the fermentation of sugar into alcohol; to psychedelic fungi; to the mold that produces penicillin and revolutionized modern medicine. And we can partner with fungi to heal the damage we've done to the planet. Fungi are already being used to make sustainable building materials and wearable leather, but they can do so much more. Fungi can digest many stubborn and toxic pollutants from crude oil to human-made polyurethane plastics and the explosive TNT. They can grow food from renewable sources: edible mushrooms can be grown on anything from plant waste to cigarette butts. And some fungi's antiviral compounds might be able to ease the colony collapse of bees. Merlin Sheldrake's revelatory introduction to this world will show us how fungi, and our relationships with them, are more astonishing than we could have imagined. Bringing to light science's latest discoveries and ingeniously parsing the varieties and behaviors of the fungi themselves, he points us toward the fundamental questions about the nature of intelligence and identity this massively diverse, little understood kingdom provokes"--
Subjects: Fungi.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 2
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How the West stole democracy from the Arabs : the Syrian Arab Congress of 1920 and the destruction of its historic liberal-Islamic alliance / by Thompson, Elizabeth F.,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."When Europe's Great War engulfed the Ottoman Empire, Arab nationalists rose in revolt against their Turkish rulers and allied with the British on the promise of an independent Arab state. In October 1918, the Arabs' military leader, Prince Faisal, victoriously entered Damascus and proclaimed a constitutional government in an independent Greater Syria. Faisal won American support for self-determination at the Paris Peace Conference, but other Entente powers plotted to protect their colonial interests. Under threat of European occupation, the Syrian-Arab Congress declared independence on March 8, 1920 and crowned Faisal king of a "civil representative monarchy." Sheikh Rashid Rida, the most prominent Islamic thinker of the day, became Congress president and supervised the drafting of a constitution that established the world's first Arab democracy and guaranteed equal rights for all citizens, including non-Muslims. But France and Britain refused to recognize the Damascus government and instead imposed a system of mandates on the pretext that Arabs were not yet ready for self-government. In July 1920, the French invaded and crushed the Syrian state. The fragile coalition of secular modernizers and Islamic reformers that had established democracy was destroyed, with profound consequences that reverberate still. Using previously untapped primary sources, including contemporary newspaper accounts, reports of the Syrian-Arab Congress, and letters and diaries from participants, How the West Stole Democracy from the Arabs is a groundbreaking account of an extraordinary, brief moment of unity and hope-and of its destruction"--
Subjects: Muʼtamar al-Sūrī al-ʻĀmm (1919-1920); Arab nationalism;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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1945 : the year that made modern Canada / by Cuthbertson, Ken,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."1945 was a watershed year for Canada and the world. It ushered in the modern era and set Canada on a new course. With the momentous dropping of the Atomic bomb on Japan, everything had changed. There was a sense of relief at the ending of hostilities, but there was also great uncertainty and fear of the brave new world unfolding. On the eve of WWII, Canada's population was just 10 million. The country was a sleepy backwater where nothing of much significance ever happened. If we accept that the country forged its national identity in World War I, it's fair to say that it came of age in the six years of WWII. As a result, Canada stepped into the modern era in 1945 completely changed and ready to assume its place in the world as an independent nation, no longer under the colonial sway of the mother country. As he did with The Halifax Explosion, bestselling author Ken Cuthbertson has written a compelling narrative about the year 1945 and the events and personalities that shaped our country and created our future. From Mackenzie King, Rocket Richard, and Emily Carr to E.P. Taylor, Igor Gouzenko, Hugh MacLennan, Agnes McPhail and Gabrielle Roy, among others, 1945 weaves an unforgettable portrait of our nation at the moment of its modern birth. Just as writer Bill Bryson's recent bestseller One Summer: America, 1927 chronicled a pivotal year in American history by focusing on the experiences of a select group of American historical figures, 1945: The Year That Made Modern Canada will tell the stories of Canadians - some celebrated, some just ordinary people - who left their mark on this country during 1945 as they seeded its future."-- Provided by publisher.
Subjects: History.; Canadians;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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The lost pianos of Siberia / by Roberts, Sophy,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Siberia's story is traditionally one of exiles, penal colonies, and unmarked graves. Yet there is another tale to tell. Dotted throughout this remote land are pianos--grand instruments created during the boom years of the nineteenth century, as well as humble, Soviet-made uprights that found their way into equally modest homes. They tell the story of how, ever since entering Russian culture under the westernizing influence of Catherine the Great, piano music has run through the country like blood. How these pianos travelled into this snow-bound wilderness in the first place is testament to acts of fortitude by governors, adventurers, and exiles. Siberian pianos have accompanied extraordinary feats, from the instrument that Maria Volkonsky, wife of an exiled Decembrist revolutionary, used to spread music east of the Urals, to those that brought reprieve to the Soviet Gulag. That these instruments might still exist in such a hostile landscape is remarkable. That they are still capable of making music in far-flung villages is nothing less than a miracle. The Lost Pianos of Siberia is largely a story of music in this fascinating place, following Roberts on a three-year adventure as she tracks a number of different instruments to find one whose history is definitively Siberian. Her journey reveals a desolate land inhabited by wild tigers and deeply shaped by its dark history, yet one that is also profoundly beautiful-and peppered with pianos"--
Subjects: Piano;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The queen's spade / by Raughley, Sarah,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."A young lady can take only so many injuries before humiliation and insult forge a vow of revenge ... The year is 1862 and murderous desires are simmering in England. Nineteen-year-old Sarah Bonetta Forbes (Sally), once a princess of the Egbado Clan, desires one thing above all else: revenge against the British Crown and its system of colonial "humanitarianism," which stole her dignity and transformed her into royal property. From military men to political leaders, she's vowed to ruin all who've had a hand in her afflictions. The top of her list? Her godmother, Britain's mighty monarch, Queen Victoria herself. Taking down the Crown means entering into a twisted game of court politics and manipulating the Queen's inner circle -- even if that means aligning with a dangerous yet alluring crime lord in London's underworld and exploiting the affections of Queen Victoria's own son, Prince Albert, as a means to an end. But when Queen Victoria begins to suspect Sally's true intentions, she plays the only card in Victorian society that could possibly cage Sally once again: marriage. Because if there's one thing Sally desires more than revenge, it's her freedom. With time running out and her wedding day looming, Sally's vengeful game of cat and mouse turns deadly as she's faced with the striking revelation that the price for vengeance isn't just paid in blood. It means sacrificing your heart. Inspired by the true story of Sarah Forbes Bonetta, Queen Victoria's African goddaughter, The Queen's Spade is a lush and riveting historical thriller"--014+.Grades 10-12.
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Young adult fiction.; Biographical fiction.; Novels.; Victoria, Queen of Great Britain, 1819-1901; Victoria, Queen of Great Britain, 1819-1901; Bonetta, Sarah Forbes, 1843?-1880; Bonetta, Sarah Forbes, 1843?-1880; Courts and courtiers; Revenge; Women, Black; Courts and courtiers; Revenge; Women, Black;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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Dominion The Railway and the Rise of Canada [electronic resource] : by Bown, Stephen.aut; Ward, Wayne.nrt; cloudLibrary;
A thrilling new account of the engineering triumph that created a nation In The Company, his bestselling work of revisionist history, Stephen R. Bown told the dramatic, adventurous and bloody tale of Canada's origins in the fur trade. With Dominion he continues the nation's creation story with an equally gripping and eye-opening account of the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway. In the late 19th century, demand for fur was in sharp decline. This could have spelled economic disaster for the venerable Hudson's Bay Company. But an idea emerged in political and business circles in Ottawa and Montreal to connect the disparate British colonies into a single entity that would stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific. With over 3,000 kilometres of track, much of it driven through wildly inhospitable terrain, the CPR would be the longest railway in the world and the most difficult to build. Its construction was the defining event of its era and a catalyst for powerful global forces. The times were marked by greed, hubris, blatant empire building, oppression, corruption and theft. They were good for some, hard for most, disastrous for others. The CPR enabled a new country, but it came at a terrible price. Stephen R. Bown again widens our view of the past to include the adventures and hardships of explorers and surveyors, the resistance of Indigenous peoples, and the terrific and horrific work of many thousands of labourers. His vivid portrayal of the powerful forces that were moulding the world in the late 19th century provides a revelatory new picture of modern Canada's creation as an independent state.
Subjects: Audiobooks.; Canada; North America; History;
© 2023., Penguin Random House,
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The new India : the unmaking of the world's largest democracy / by Bhatia, Rahul,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.The New India is the unforgettable account of the struggle between modern forces and ancient ideas to shape the young country's destiny. It reveals a picture of a nation on the precipice of dramatic change. Based on six years of detailed research and on-the-ground reporting, the book builds -- authoritatively, vividly, indelibly -- to become the story of post-colonial India. Using hundreds of interviews, and letters, diary entries, Partition-era police reports, and an astonishing range of sources, Bhatia shows how history plays a recurring role in the present: in politics, in the minds of citizens, in notions of justice and corruption. Bhatia examines the connections between the Delhi riots of 2020 and the emergence of nineteenth-century revolutionary secret societies, the rise of Hindu nationalism, whose early advocates drew lessons from Hitler and Mussolini, the political use of misinformation and religious targeting, and the Hindu fundamentalist ideology that sparked the creation of the world's largest biometric project. As Bhatia shows, the evolution of this citizen database, in the hands of the BJP, now threatens to deny vast numbers of India's 200 million Muslims their Indian citizenship. Electorates in democracies used to choose their government. Now, in India, the government is choosing its electorate. India has rarely been seen as in The New India, a monumental work of narrative reportage that illuminates the ways in which a supremacist ideology remade the country over decades, resulting in the prodigious rise of Narendra Modi, and forcing many to ask what they truly understood about their neighbours and themselves.
Subjects: Modī, Narendra, 1950-; Democracy; Hindutva; Ideology; Muslims; Secret societies;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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The apology / by Han, Jimin(Novelist),author.;
Part ghost story and part family epic, 'The Apology' is a sweeping intergenerational saga and an incisive tale of sisterhood and diaspora, reaching back to the days of Japanese colonialism and the Korean War, and told through the singular voice of a defiant, funny, and unforgettable centenarian. A Dewey Diva Pick. #diversity.
Subjects: Ghost stories.; Magic realist fiction.; Novels.; Blessing and cursing; Families; Future life; Illegitimate children; Koreans; Older women;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Blood and treasure : Daniel Boone and the fight for America's first frontier / by Drury, Bob,author.; Clavin, Thomas,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."The explosive true saga of the legendary figure, Daniel Boone, and the bloody struggle for America's frontier by two bestselling authors at the height of their writing power--Bob Drury and Tom Clavin. It is the mid-eighteenth century, and in the 13 colonies founded by Great Britain, anxious colonists desperate to conquer and settle North America's "First Frontier" beyond the Appalachian Mountains engage in a never-ending series of bloody battles. These violent conflicts are waged against the Native American tribes whose lands they covet, The French, and finally against the mother country itself in an American Revolution destined to reverberate around the world. This is the setting of Blood and Treasure and the guide to this epic narrative is none other than America's first and arguably greatest pathfinder Daniel Boone-not the coonskin cap-wearing caricature of popular culture but the flesh-and-blood frontiersman and Revolutionary War hero whose explorations into the forested frontier beyond the great mountains would become the stuff of legend. Now, thanks to painstaking research by two award-winning authors, the story of the brutal birth of the United States is told through the eyes of both the ordinary and larger-than-life men and women, white and Native American, who witnessed it. This fast-paced and fiery narrative, fueled by contemporary diaries and journals, newspaper reports, and eyewitness accounts, is a stirring chronicle of the conflict over America's "First Frontier" that places the reader at the center of this remarkable epoch and its gripping tales of courage and sacrifice"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Boone, Daniel, 1734-1820.; Explorers; Frontier and pioneer life; Frontier and pioneer life; Pioneers; Indigenous peoples;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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