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- This is what America looks like : my journey from refugee to Congresswoman / by Omar, Ilhan,1981-author.; Paley, Rebecca,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."An intimate and rousing memoir by progressive trailblazer Ilhan Omar-the first African refugee, the first Somali-American, and one of the first Muslim women, elected to Congress. Ilhan Omar was only eight years old when war broke out in Somalia. The youngest of seven children, her mother had died while Ilhan was still a little girl. She was being raised by her father and grandfather when armed gunmen attacked their compound and the family decided to flee Mogadishu. They ended up in a refugee camp in Kenya, where Ilhan says she came to understand the deep meaning of hunger and death. Four years later, after a painstaking vetting process, her family achieved refugee status and arrived in Arlington, Virginia. Aged twelve, penniless, speaking only Somali and having missed out on years of schooling, Ilhan rolled up her sleeves, determined to find her American dream. Faced with the many challenges of being an immigrant and a refugee, she questioned stereotypes and built bridges with her classmates and in her community. In under two decades she became a grassroots organizer, graduated from college and was elected to congress with a record-breaking turnout by the people of Minnesota-ready to keep pushing boundaries and restore moral clarity in Washington D.C. A beacon of positivity in dark times, Congresswoman Omar has weathered many political storms and yet maintained her signature grace, wit and love of country-all the while speaking up for her beliefs. Similarly, in chronicling her remarkable personal journey, Ilhan is both lyrical and unsentimental, and her irrepressible spirit, patriotism, friendship and faith are visible on every page. As a result, This is What America Looks Like is both the inspiring coming of age story of a refugee and a multidimensional tale of the hopes and aspirations, disappointments and failures, successes, sacrifices and surprises, of a devoted public servant with unshakable faith in the promise of America"--- Subjects: Autobiographies.; Biographies.; Omar, Ilhan, 1981-; United States. Congress. House; Women legislators; Legislators; African American women legislators; Somali Americans; Muslims;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- Driven : the secret lives of taxi drivers / by Di Cintio, Marcello,1973-author.;
Includes bibliographical references."The taxi," writes Marcello Di Cintio, "is a border." Occupying the space between public and private, a cab brings together people who might otherwise never have met--yet most of us sit in the back and stare at our phones. Nowhere else do people occupy such intimate quarters and share so little. In a series of interviews with drivers, their backgrounds ranging from the Iraqi National Guard, to the Westboro Baptist Church, to an arranged marriage that left one woman stranded in a foreign country with nothing but a suitcase, Driven seeks out those missed conversations, revealing the unknown stories that surround us. Travelling across borders of all kinds, from battlefields and occupied lands to midnight fares and Tim Hortons parking lots, Di Cintio chronicles the many journeys each driver made merely for the privilege to turn on their rooflight. Yet these lives aren't defined by tragedy or frustration but by ingenuity and generosity, hope and indomitable hard work. From night school and sixteen-hour shifts to schemes for athletic careers and the secret Shakespeare of Dylan's lyrics, Di Cintio's subjects share the passions and triumphs that drive them. Like the people encountered in its pages, Driven is an unexpected delight, and that most wondrous of all things: a book that will change the way you see the world around you. A paean to the power of personality and perseverance, it's a compassionate and joyful tribute to the men and women who take us where we want to go.- Subjects: Taxicab drivers;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- Between the world and me / by Coates, Ta-Nehisi.;
"For Ta-Nehisi Coates, history has always been personal. At every stage of his life, he's sought in his explorations of history answers to the mysteries that surrounded him -- most urgently, why he, and other black people he knew, seemed to live in fear. What were they afraid of? In Tremble for my country, Coates takes readers along on his journey through America's history of race and its contemporary resonances through a series of awakenings -- moments when he discovered some new truth about our long, tangled history of race, whether through his myth-busting professors at Howard University, a trip to a Civil War battlefield with a rogue historian, a journey to Chicago's South Side to visit aging survivors of 20th century America's 'long war on black people,' or a visit with the mother of a beloved friend who was shot down by the police. In his trademark style -- a mix of lyrical personal narrative, reimagined history, essayistic argument, and reportage -- Coates provides readers a thrillingly illuminating new framework for understanding race: its history, our contemporary dilemma, and where we go from here"--Provided by publisher.- Subjects: Race discrimination; African Americans; African Americans; Whites;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- Exile music / by Steil, Jennifer,author.;
"An atmospheric and meditative novel based on an unexplored slice of World War II history, following a young Jewish girl whose family flees refined and urbane Vienna for safe harbor in the mountains of Bolivia. As a young girl growing up in Vienna in the 1930s, Orly has an idyllic childhood filled with music. Her father plays the viola in the Philharmonic, her mother is a well-regarded opera singer, her beloved and charismatic older brother holds the neighborhood in his thrall, and most of her eccentric and wonderful extended family live within the city limits. Only vaguely aware of Hitler's rise or how definitive her Jewish heritage will become to her family's identity, Orly spends her days immersed in play with her best friend and upstairs neighbor, Analiese. Together they dream up vivid and elaborate worlds, where all of the things they love about their own lives can exist forever. But in 1938, Orly's peaceful life is shattered. Her older brother flees Vienna first, and soon Orly, her father, and her mother procure refugee visas for La Paz, a city high up in the Bolivian Andes. La Paz couldn't be more different from Vienna--the altitude alone sabotages her mother's efforts to bake the pastries they loved back home. Even as the number of Jewish refugees in the small town grows, her family is haunted by the music that can no longer be their livelihood, by the missing brother who was once the heart of their family, and Orly yearns for the solace of her friendship with Analiese. Yet they find a daily rhythm in this strange, new land. Years pass, the war ends, and suddenly the threat they fled looms again. Just as Bolivia took in Jewish refugees, the country now accepts a small number of Nazi refugees. Orly reckons with a darkness that not even victory at war can extinguish, and she must decide: Is the security and joy of her day to day life in La Paz what defines home, or is the pull of her past in Europe too strong to ignore? In lyrical and atmospheric prose, Exile Music illuminates one girl's coming of age in a family separated and defined by war, whose hope takes root on an unfamiliar shore"--- Subjects: Bildungsromans.; World War, 1939-1945; Refugees; Refugees; Refugee children;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- King of the armadillos / by Chin-Tanner, Wendy,author.;
"A transcendent debut novel about family, love, and belonging, set against the backdrops of 1950s New York City and a historical leprosarium in Louisiana, following one young man's quest to not only survive, but live a full and vibrant life. Perfect for fans of Jacqueline Woodson's Red at The Bone, Netflix's Atypical, and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Victor Chin's life is turned upside down at the tender age of 15. Diagnosed with Hansen's disease, otherwise known as leprosy, he's forced to leave the familiar confines of his father's laundry business in the Bronx - the only home he's known since emigrating from China with his older brother - to quarantine alongside patients from all over the country at a federal institution in Carville. At first, Victor is scared not only of the disease, but of the confinement, and wants nothing more than to flee. Between treatments he dreams of escape and imagines his life as a fugitive. But soon he finds a new sense of freedom far from home - one without the pull of obligations to his family, or the laundry business, or his mother back in China. Here, in the company of an unforgettable cast of characters, Victor finds refuge in music and experiences first love, jealousy, betrayal, and even tragedy. But with the promise of a life-changing cure on the horizon, Victor's time at Carville is running out, and he has some difficult choices to make. A groundbreaking work of historical fiction, King of the Armadillos announces Wendy Chin-Tanner as an extraordinary new voice. Inspired by her father's experience as a young patient at Carville, this tender coming-of-age novel is a captivating look at a forgotten radical community and a lyrical exploration of the power of art"--- Subjects: Bildungsromans.; Historical fiction.; Novels.; Chinese Americans; Families; Leprosy;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- All happy families : a memoir / by McCulloch, Jeanne,author.;
"The Glass Castle meets The Nest in this stunning debut, an intimate family memoir that gracefully brings us behind the dappled beachfront vista of privilege, to reveal the inner lives of two wonderfully colorful, unforgettable families. On a mid-August weekend, two families assemble for a wedding at a rambling family mansion on the beach in East Hampton, in the last days of the area's quietly refined country splendor, before traffic jams and high-end boutiques morphed the peaceful enclave into the "Hamptons." The weather is perfect, the tent is in place on the lawn. But as the festivities are readied, the father of the bride, and "pater familias" of the beachfront manse, suffers a massive stroke from alcohol withdrawal, and lies in a coma in the hospital in the next town. So begins Jeanne McCulloch's vivid memoir of her wedding weekend in 1983 and its after effects on her family, and the family of the groom. In a society defined by appearance and protocol, the wedding goes on at the insistence of McCulloch's theatrical mother. Instead of a planned honeymoon, wedding presents are stashed in the attic, arrangements are made for a funeral, and a team of lawyers arrive armed with papers for McCulloch and her siblings to sign. As McCulloch reveals, the repercussions from that weekend will ripple throughout her own family, and that of her in-law's lives as they grapple with questions of loyalty, tradition, marital honor, hope, and loss. Five years later, her own brief marriage ended, she returns to East Hampton with her mother to divide the wedding presents that were never opened. Impressionistic and lyrical, at turns both witty and poignant, All Happy Families is McCulloch's clear-eyed account of her struggle to hear her own voice amid the noise of social mores and family dysfunction, in a world where all that glitters on the surface is not gold, and each unhappy family is ultimately unhappy in its own unique way"--- Subjects: Autobiographies.; Biographies.; McCulloch, Jeanne.; Editors; Periodical editors;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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