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The school of mirrors : a novel / by Stachniak, Eva,1952-author.;
Includes bibliographical references."A lush, engrossing tale of love, deception and scandal in the 18th century French court of King Louis XV. Against the tumult of 18th century France, King Louis XV has tired of courtly intrigues and becomes a connoisseur of innocence. On the grounds of the Palace of Versailles lies Deer Park, a hunting ground that also offers another pleasure: a mansion where his young mistresses are housed. But when these girls first arrive at Deer Park, it is under the guise of a different role. They are promised employment in the household of a count, and, eager to improve their stations, they leave their families to serve him. Veronique is one such girl. She is introduced to "the count," and young and naive as she is, she never doubts his identity. And as he begins to bestow affection on her, she quickly becomes consumed with love for him. It is too late when she realizes who he really is, the stakes of their affair and what she will have to give up to survive. In vivid detail and with a breathless pace, Eva Stachniak captures the story of a fast-changing France, where the once beloved Louis XV is losing ground, his grandson the Dauphin Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette are sickening the country with their opulence and the French Revolution is stirring. It is in this France that Veronique's young daughter, Marie-Louise, will grow up searching for answers about her birth. With stirring insight and dazzling intrigue, this novel questions the true meaning of legacy."--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Man-woman relationships; Mistresses; Mothers and daughters; Scandals;
Available copies: 3 / Total copies: 3
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The growing season : how I built a new life-- and saved an American farm / by Frey, Sarah,author.;
The youngest of her parents' combined twenty-one children, Sarah Frey grew up on a struggling farm in Southern Illinois, often having to grow, catch, or hunt her own dinner. She spent much of her early childhood dreaming of running away to Hollywood, Chicago -- or really anywhere with central heating. At fifteen, she moved out of her family home and started her own fresh produce delivery business with nothing more than an old pickup truck. Two years later, when the family farm faced inevitable foreclosure, Sarah gave up on her dreams of escape, and, at seventeen, took over the farm and started her own produce company there. Refusing to play by traditional rules, Sarah talked her way into suit-filled boardrooms, made deals with the nation's largest retailers, and became so legendary that the Harvard Business School published a case study on her negotiation skills. Today, Sarah's family-operated company, Frey Farms, has sold more than a billion dollars' worth of fresh produce, beverages, and consumer packaged goods, and has become one of America's largest fresh produce suppliers, with farmland spread across seven states. This is the inspiring story of how a scrappy rural childhood gave Sarah the grit and resiliency to take risks that paid off in unexpected ways. Rather than leaving her community, Sarah found adventure and opportunity in one of the most forgotten parts of our country. With fearlessness and creativity, she literally dug her destiny out of the dirt.
Subjects: Autobiographies.; Biographies.; Frey, Sarah.; Frey Farms.; Women farmers; Women chief executive officers; Produce trade; Agricultural industries;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The Madness [electronic resource] : by Kurtagich, Dawn.aut; Church, Imogen.nrt; cloudLibrary;
Award-winning author Dawn Kurtagich masterfully weaves a captivating tale of suspense and horror, in which Dr. Mina Murray returns to the windswept shores of Wales to help her childhood friend fight the mysterious illness that plagues her. When the lines between reality and delusion begin to blur, Mina must face off against a monstrous legacy—or be consumed herself. Beware what waits in the shadows… With one unexpected email from her estranged best friend, Lucy, Mina Murray’s carefully curated life is turned upside down. Leaving behind her psychiatric practice in London, she returns home to the windswept shores of Wales. Faced with everything she’s left behind, she soon discovers that Lucy’s symptoms mirror those of her mysterious amnesiac patient hundreds of miles away. With nothing but an untreatable sickness connecting the two women, and with Lucy’s life on the line, Mina finds herself asking questions and being drawn ever-deeper into a web of secrets, missing girls, and the powerful, nameless force at its center—one that has been haunting her for years. As terrible, ancient truths begin to reveal themselves, Mina prepares to confront her own darkest secrets, and with them, an evil beyond comprehension. Together with a group of smart, savvy women, Mina seizes one last, desperate chance to stop the cycle that began so long ago. But there are dangers to inviting the attentions of what might not be a man, but a monster…
Subjects: Audiobooks.; Psychological; Supernatural; Suspense;
© 2024., HarperCollins,
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The stolen queen : a novel / by Davis, Fiona,1966-author.;
Includes bibliographical references."Egypt, 1936. When anthropology student Charlotte Cross is offered a coveted spot on an archaeological dig in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, she leaps at the opportunity. But after an unbearable tragedy strikes, Charlotte knows her future will never be the same. New York City, 1978: Eighteen-year-old Annie Jenkins is thrilled when she lands an opportunity to work for iconic former Vogue fashion editor Diana Vreeland, who's in the midst of organizing the famous Met Gala, hosted at the museum and known across the city as the "party of the year." Though Annie soon realizes she'll have her work cut out for her, scrambling to meet Diana's capricious demands and exacting standards. Meanwhile, Charlotte, now leading a quiet life as the associate curator of the Met's celebrated Department of Egyptian Art, wants little to do with the upcoming gala. She's consumed with her research on Hathorkare -- a rare female pharaoh dismissed by most other Egyptologists as unimportant. That is, until the night of the gala. When one of the Egyptian art collection's most valuable artifacts goes missing ... and there are signs Hathorkare's legendary curse might be reawakening. As Annie and Charlotte team up to search for the missing antiquity, a desperate hunch leads the unlikely duo to one place Charlotte swore she'd never return: Egypt. But if they're to have any hope of finding the artifact, Charlotte will need to confront the demons of her past -- which may mean leading them both directly into danger"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Novels.; Costume Institute (New York, N.Y.); Archaeology and history; Art, Egyptian; Curatorship; Pharaohs; Theft of relics; Women Egyptologists;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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Behind You A Novel [electronic resource] : by Hernandez, Catherine.aut; Hernandez, Catherine.nrt; cloudLibrary;
As terror grips a city, a young girl faces danger closer to home and chilling memories that last a lifetime. Catherine Hernandez's most gripping and affecting novel yet, Behind You is inspired by a horrifying chapter in Canadian history and follows fictional characters terrorized by a fictional perpetrator. Alma is a Filipina woman who works as a film editor for a cheesy True Crime series featuring the most notorious killers of the 20th century called Infamous. On the surface she seems to live a good life with her wife Nira and teenage son, Mateo. But there is so much left unsaid. It's not until Infamous' last episode features the Scarborough Stalker that she remembers coming of age while the serial rapist and killer was attacking women and girls in Scarborough in the late 80s and early 90s. What unfolds are two storylines: In the past, young Alma watches an entire city become consumed with a manhunt for an elusive, terrifying suspect, while she herself is in jeopardy from closer corners. In the present, adult Alma must come to terms with her own ideas of consent to stop her son's dangerous behaviour towards his girlfriend. Weaving back and forth in time, Behind You, is a moving story of one girl’s resilience into adulthood and a chilling portrayal of the insidiousness if rape culture. It daringly turns the Whodunit genre on its head by asking the question ""Who hasn't done it?"" As in, who has not been complicit in sexual harm?
Subjects: Audiobooks.; Crime;
© 2024., HarperCollins,
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Rivers of power : how a natural force raised kingdoms, destroyed civilizations, and shapes our world / by Smith, Laurence C.,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.From a renowned geographer and professor of earth, planetary and space sciences, a sweeping natural history of rivers and their complex and ancient relationship with human civilization. Rivers, more than any road, technology, or political leader, have shaped the course of civilization. They have opened frontiers, founded cities, settled borders, and fed billions. They promote life, forge peace, grant power, and capriciously destroy everything in their path. And even as they have become increasingly domesticated, rivers remain a powerful global force, one that is more critical than ever to our future. In Rivers of Power, geographer Laurence Smith takes a deep dive into the timeless and vastly underappreciated relationship between rivers and civilization as we know it. Rivers are of course important to us in all the obvious ways (like water supply, sanitation, transport, etc.). But they also shape us in less obvious ways. Massive amounts of river water support the global food trade; huge volumes are consumed to provide the world's electricity -- not just by hydropower, but by coal, nuclear, and natural gas power plants too; most of our globally important cities are positioned on the banks of rivers or river deltas. The territories of nations, their cultural and economic ties to one another, and the migrations of people trace to rivers and the topographic divides they carve on the world. Beautifully told and expansive in scope, Rivers of Power, reveals how and why rivers have so profoundly shaped civilization, and examines the importance this vast, arterial power holds for our present, past, and future.
Subjects: Rivers.; Rivers; Water and civilization.; Science.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The adult / by Fischer, Bronwyn,author.;
"An engrossing, page-turning story about an introverted student and the mysterious older woman whose unexpected interest in her sparks an insidious, all-consuming love affair. Eighteen-year-old Natalie has just arrived for her first year of university in Toronto, leaving her remote, forested hometown for an unfamiliar city. Everyone she encounters seems to know exactly who they are. Chatty, confident Clara from down the hall, who wants to be her friend; intense, determined Rachel from her poetry class, who is going to be a writer. Natalie doesn't know what she wants. She reads advice listicles and watches videos online and thinks about how to fit in, how to really become someone. Just as she is trying to find her footing, she meets Nora, an older woman who takes an unexpected interest in her. Natalie is drawn magnetically into Nora's orbit. She begins spending more and more of her time off campus at Nora's home, enveloped by the intensity of her feelings and the version of adulthood she imagines Nora leads. Worried about how her floormates will react to news of her relationship with a woman, Natalie explains her absence by inventing a secret boyfriend called Paul; she carefully protects the intimate, sacred adulthood she is building for herself. But when it becomes clear that Nora is lying, too, her secrets begin to take an alarming shape in Natalie's life, even as Natalie tries to look away. What, or who, is Nora hiding? The Adult is a startlingly gorgeous and perceptive debut novel examining identity, love, insecurity, desire, and deceit."--
Subjects: Bildungsromans.; Lesbian fiction.; Novels.; College students; Identity (Psychology); Introverts; Lesbians; Secrecy; Truthfulness and falsehood;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Black dove : a novel / by McAdam, Colin,author.;
"In a tall and narrow house, on a stained and busy street, live twelve-year-old Oliver and his father, a story-loving writer. Haunted by the ghost of his alcoholic mother, Oliver finds comfort in his father's impromptu tales: the Black Dove, an elusive flower that gives strength; the girl who consumes it as she battles attackers and yearns for happier realms. Stories where lonely souls keep searching despite their losses and grief. Running from a bully one night, Oliver finds refuge in a junk shop owned by an enigmatic man. Soon, instead of hiding in the janitor's closet after school, Oliver spends afternoons in the shop, a cavernous place full of storied oddities and grubby wonders where creatures rise up from the basement. A snake in the shape of a boy. A hunter named Night, part panther, part hound, who proves to Oliver that the world holds invisible wonder. Wanting to forget his mother, afraid of his own genes, constantly harassed by bullies, Oliver decides to follow the shop-owner down the path of genetic editing. As he begins his transformation he meets the girl from across the street, and their friendship grows in a neighbourhood where magic is real, where murderers gather, and where the darker consequences of fantasies play out. A twisting story of grief and revenge, Black Dove is a thrilling read with its own kind of magic. In rich but tightly reined prose, McAdam celebrates the value and shortfalls of storytelling, finding a light in all the darkness to conjure a tender portrait of childhood's end"--
Subjects: Magic realist fiction.; Psychological fiction.; Novels.; Authors; Boys; Fathers and sons; Genetic engineering; Revenge; Storytelling; Victims of bullying;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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My absolute darling : a novel / by Tallent, Gabriel,author.;
"A brilliant and immersive, all-consuming read about one fourteen-year-old girl's heart-stopping fight for her own soul. Turtle Alveston is a survivor. At fourteen, she roams the woods along the northern California coast. The creeks, tide pools, and rocky islands are her haunts and her hiding grounds, and she is known to wander for miles. But while her physical world is expansive, her personal one is small and treacherous: Turtle has grown up isolated since the death of her mother, in the thrall of her tortured and charismatic father, Martin. Her social existence is confined to the middle school (where she fends off the interest of anyone, student or teacher, who might penetrate her shell) and to her life with her father. Then Turtle meets Jacob, a high-school boy who tells jokes, lives in a big clean house, and looks at Turtle as if she is the sunrise. And for the first time, the larger world begins to come into focus: her life with Martin is neither safe nor sustainable. Motivated by her first experience with real friendship and a teenage crush, Turtle starts to imagine escape, using the very survival skills her father devoted himself to teaching her. The reader tracks Turtle's escalating acts of physical and emotional courage, and watches, heart in throat, as she struggles to become her own hero -- band in the process, becomes ours as well. Shot through with striking language in afierce natural setting, My absolute darling is an urgently told, profoundly moving read that marks the debut of an extraordinary new writer"--
Subjects: Bildungsromans.; Teenage girls;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The stolen queen [text (large print)] : a novel / by Davis, Fiona,1966-author.;
Includes bibliographical references."Egypt, 1936. When anthropology student Charlotte Cross is offered a coveted spot on an archaeological dig in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, she leaps at the opportunity. But after an unbearable tragedy strikes, Charlotte knows her future will never be the same. New York City, 1978: Eighteen-year-old Annie Jenkins is thrilled when she lands an opportunity to work for iconic former Vogue fashion editor Diana Vreeland, who's in the midst of organizing the famous Met Gala, hosted at the museum and known across the city as the "party of the year." Though Annie soon realizes she'll have her work cut out for her, scrambling to meet Diana's capricious demands and exacting standards. Meanwhile, Charlotte, now leading a quiet life as the associate curator of the Met's celebrated Department of Egyptian Art, wants little to do with the upcoming gala. She's consumed with her research on Hathorkare -- a rare female pharaoh dismissed by most other Egyptologists as unimportant. That is, until the night of the gala. When one of the Egyptian art collection's most valuable artifacts goes missing ... and there are signs Hathorkare's legendary curse might be reawakening. As Annie and Charlotte team up to search for the missing antiquity, a desperate hunch leads the unlikely duo to one place Charlotte swore she'd never return: Egypt. But if they're to have any hope of finding the artifact, Charlotte will need to confront the demons of her past -- which may mean leading them both directly into danger"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Large print books.; Novels.; Costume Institute (New York, N.Y.); Archaeology and history; Art, Egyptian; Curatorship; Pharaohs; Theft of relics; Women Egyptologists;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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