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One minute out / by Greaney, Mark,author.;
"Is it ever the wrong time to do the right thing? That's the question the Gray Man faces in the latest explosive novel from New York Times bestselling author Mark Greaney. I am Court Gentry. In my time, I've seen plenty of bad stuff. Some things worse than others, but nothing that can match this horror show. I was on a simple mission in Bosnia. A bad guy needed to be put down; in and out, no problem. But then I stumbled across a nightmare--a room full of women and children who were being trafficked to rich scum. Since then, I've been tracking their smuggling ring around the globe, and I'm finally near the top. I've got the sociopathic ringleaders in my sights, ready for a takedown, but my CIA handlers have different plans for me. Now I've got to make a decision: duty or honor. They all think they have me boxed in, but there's one thing they're forgetting: I am the Gray Man"--
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Spy fiction.; Assassins; Spies; Human trafficking;
Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 2
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Dava Shastri's last day : a novel / by Ramisetti, Kirthana,author.;
"Dava Shastri, one of the world's wealthiest women, has always lived with her sterling reputation in mind. A brain cancer diagnosis at the age of seventy, however, changes everything, as she decides to take her death--like all matters of her life--into her own hands. Summoning her four adult children to her private island, she discloses shocking news: in addition to having a terminal illness, she has arranged for the news of her death to break early, so she can read her obituaries. As someone who dedicated her life to the arts and the empowerment of women, Dava expects to read articles lauding her philanthropic work. Instead, her "death" reveals two devastating secrets, truths she thought she had buried forever. And now the whole world knows, including her children. In the time she has left, Dava must come to terms with the decisions that have led to this moment--and make peace with those closest to her before it's too late. Compassionately written and chock-full of humor and heart, this powerful novel examines public versus private legacy, the complexities of love, and the never-ending joys--and frustrations--of family"--
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Families; Philanthropists; Rich people; Secrecy; Women philanthropists;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The roll of the drums / by Drexler, Jan,author.;
Ruby Weaver's curly red hair isn't the only thing that sets her apart from her Amish community in 1863. Twenty-eight and single, Ruby doesn't believe a woman needs to be married in order to be happy. Her ailing friend Lovinia Fischer, however, has other ideas and wants Ruby to promise to marry her husband after she dies. Never imagining she'd have to fulfill that vow, Ruby agrees. And she's not the only one. Lovinia has extracted a similar promise from her husband, Gideon. With both Ruby and Gideon reluctant to keep their promises, a compromise must be reached. Ruby will spend her days with Gideon's family-- helping to raise the children and keep the house-- but her nights will be spent at her sister's neighboring house. But this arrangement raises eyebrows in their conservative Amish community, and it soon becomes clear that Ruby must make a decision-- marry Gideon or turn her back on her friend, the children she's grown to love ... and their father.
Subjects: Religious fiction.; Historical fiction.; Amish; Single women; Single fathers; Widowers; Man-woman relationships;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Code dependent : living in the shadow of AI / by Murgia, Madhumita,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."A riveting story of what it means to be human in a world changed by artificial intelligence, revealing the perils and inequities of our growing reliance on automated decision-making. On the surface, a British poet, an UberEats courier in Pittsburgh, an Indian doctor, and a Chinese activist in exile have nothing in common. But they are in fact linked by a profound common experience -- unexpected encounters with artificial intelligence. In Code Dependent, Murgia shows how automated systems are reshaping our lives all over the world, from technology that marks children as future criminals, to an app that is helping to give diagnoses to a remote tribal community. AI has already infiltrated our day-to-day, through language-generating chatbots like ChatGPT and social media. But it's also affecting us in more insidious ways. It touches everything from our interpersonal relationships, to our kids' education, work, finances, public services, and even our human rights. By highlighting the voices of ordinary people in places far removed from the cozy enclave of Silicon Valley, Code Dependent explores the impact of a set of powerful, flawed, and often-exploitative technologies on individuals, communities, and our wider society. Murgia exposes how AI can strip away our collective and individual sense of agency, and shatter our illusion of free will. The ways in which algorithms and their effects are governed over the coming years will profoundly impact us all. Yet we can't agree on a common path forward. We cannot decide what preferences and morals we want to encode in these entities -- or what controls we may want to impose on them. And thus, we are collectively relinquishing our moral authority to machines. In Code Dependent, Murgia not only sheds light on this chilling phenomenon, but also charts a path of resistance. AI is already changing what it means to be human, in ways large and small, and Murgia reveals what could happen if we fail to reclaim our humanity"--
Subjects: Artificial intelligence; Decision making; Human-computer interaction.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The more the merrier / by Byler, Linda,author.;
It's 1931, and times are tough for the Miller family, who are raising eight children in the midst of the Great Depression. When Eli Miller passes away unexpectedly, and then a fire destroys their barn, Annie has no idea how she'll make ends meet. The Amish community rallies around her and the children, as is their custom, but as days turn into weeks and then into months, Annie's friends and neighbors return to their own routines and seem to expect Annie to do the same. Annie knows she needs to stay strong for the children and figure out a way to keep everyone warm and clothed and fed, but she is heartbroken and exhausted. She reminds herself that God will provide, but every day feels like an uphill battle. When Annie receives a letter from a widower with six children of his own, she tries to put it out of her mind. Her critical mother reminds her that it's too soon to start a new friendship with a man, and warns her that blending a family will be complicated. In the weeks and months to follow, Annie must learn to make her own decisions-- and accept the consequences, good and bad-- face her past, and embark on a new journey that will transform her and her large, complicated family. When life seems especially complicated one summer, she finds herself saying that by Christmas everything will start to come together, but she has no idea the challenges-- and ultimately blessings-- headed her way.
Subjects: Religious fiction.; Historical fiction.; Christmas fiction.; Amish; Widows; Depressions; Man-woman relationships; Families;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Imagine summer : a novel / by Noble, Shelley,author.;
The New York Times bestselling author of Whisper Beach delights with her latest beach read about two estranged sisters who must decide to face the past or risk history repeating itself. As a child, Skylar Mackenzie's imagination always got her in trouble. Now it's making her a fortune. She owns Imagine That, a toy and bookstore and creativity center in a small Rhode Island beach town where children, and adults, can use their imagination free from judgment. Skye is about to embark on her biggest venture yet, a weekend retreat of family exploration. But it begins to unravel when she finds her estranged half-sister Amy on the doorstep. And Amy's not alone. She's brought Skye's first love, Connor Reid--the boy who broke her heart; the man who could break it again. Amy claims she wants to make amends--but how can Skye trust her? It was Amy's lies that drove her from home fifteen years before. Suddenly, Skye's perfectly imagined summer is in jeopardy. Not to mention her perfectly ordered life. Or her beloved town's financial future. With Amy back to her old trouble-making ways, and Connor making Skye wonder what might have been, Skye makes a decision that may cost her everything. Imagine Summer is a story of discovery, trust, and the courage to dream.
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Businesswomen; Sisters; Man-woman relationships; Beaches;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Children of the state : stories of survival and hope in the juvenile justice system / by Hobbs, Jeff,1980-author.;
Includes bibliographical references."Very little has been written about juvenile justice. In the greater consciousness, the word "justice" in this context has been leeched of meaning; it just signifies prison for kids. But to those living and working in various capacities within that system, the word "justice" holds a sepulchral gravity. In Children of the State, bestselling author of The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace Jeff Hobbs presents three different true stories that show the day-to-day life and the existential challenges faced by those living and working in juvenile programs: educators, counselors, administrators, and--most importantly--children. While serving a year-long detention in Wilmington, DE--perennially one of the violent crime capitols of America--a bright but stunted young man considers the benefits and also the immense costs of striving for college acceptance while imprisoned. A career juvenile hall English Language Arts teacher struggles to align the small moments of wonder in her work alongside its overall statistical futility, all while the city government presumes to design a new juvenile system without cinderblocks--and possibly without those teaching in the current system. A territorial fistfight in Paterson, NJ is characterized by the media as a hate crime, and the boy held accountable for that crime seeks redemption and friendship in a rigorous Life & Professional Skills class in lower Manhattan. These stories are followed to their knotty conclusions in triptych form. In chronicling the work of this constellation of people trying to accomplish good work in abjectly horrible systems and circumstances, Children of the State asks: What should society do with young people who have made terrible decisions? For many kids, a woeful mistake made at age thirteen or fourteen--often as a result of external factors bearing upon a biologically immature brain--will resonate through the rest of their lives, making high school difficult, college nearly impossible, and a middle class life a foolish fantasy. To observe these missteps and raw challenges and small triumphs from shoulder height, through the experiences of thinking, feeling, poignant young people, is to be moved to consider altering the fixed narrative currently laid out of them. As Hobbs demonstrates in piercing, vivid prose: No one so young should ever be considered irredeemable"--
Subjects: Juvenile delinquents; Juvenile delinquents; Juvenile justice, Administration of;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Brave [videorecording] / by Andrews, Mark.; Chapman, Brenda.; Coltrane, Robbie.; Connolly, Billy.; Ferguson, Craig,1962-; MacDonald, Kelly,1976-; Purcell, Steve.; Ratzenberger, John.; Thompson, Emma.; Walters, Julie,1950-; Pixar (Firm); Walt Disney Pictures.; Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment (Firm);
Score, Patrick Doyle.Kelly Macdonald, Billy Connolly, Emma Thompson, Julie Walters, Robbie Coltrane, Craig Ferguson, John Ratzenberger.An impetuous princess discovers that her reckless choice has put both her family and her father's kingdom in peril in this animated adventure from Pixar films. Merida may be the daughter of royalty, but all she wants out of life is to become a truly great archer. When Merida and her mother clash over the willful girl's future, the decisions she makes have greater repercussions that she ever imagined. Now, in order to save her mother's life and bring peace back to the Highlands, Merida will have to face off against the forces of nature and contend with an ancient curse.Canadian Home Video Rating: PG.DVD; widescreen presentation ; Dolby Digital, 2.0 surround (English), 5.1 surround (English, French and Spanish).
Subjects: Animated films.; Archers; Children's films.; Feature films.; Good and evil; Magic; Mothers and daughters; Princesses; Video recordings for children.;
© c2012., Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment,
Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 3
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Brave [videorecording (BLURAY)] / by Andrews, Mark.; Chapman, Brenda.; Coltrane, Robbie.; Connolly, Billy.; Ferguson, Craig,1962-; MacDonald, Kelly,1976-; Purcell, Steve.; Ratzenberger, John.; Thompson, Emma.; Walters, Julie,1950-; Pixar (Firm); Walt Disney Pictures.; Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment (Firm);
Score, Patrick Doyle.Kelly Macdonald, Billy Connolly, Emma Thompson, Julie Walters, Robbie Coltrane, Craig Ferguson, John Ratzenberger.An impetuous princess discovers that her reckless choice has put both her family and her father's kingdom in peril in this animated adventure from Pixar films. Merida may be the daughter of royalty, but all she wants out of life is to become a truly great archer. When Merida and her mother clash over the willful girl's future, the decisions she makes have greater repercussions that she ever imagined. Now, in order to save her mother's life and bring peace back to the Highlands, Merida will have to face off against the forces of nature and contend with an ancient curse.Canadian Home Video Rating: PG.DVD; widescreen presentation ; Dolby Digital, 2.0 surround (English), 5.1 surround (English, French and Spanish).
Subjects: Animated films.; Archers; Children's films.; Feature films.; Good and evil; Magic; Mothers and daughters; Princesses; Video recordings for children.;
© c2012., Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment,
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Hum if you don't know the words / by Marais, Bianca,1976-author.;
"Perfect for readers of The secret life of bees and The help, a perceptive and searing look at Apartheid-era South Africa, told through one unique family brought together by tragedy. Life under Apartheid has created a secure future for Robin Conrad, a ten-year-old white girl living with her parents in 1970s Johannesburg. In the same nation but worlds apart, Beauty Mbali, a Xhosa woman in a rural village in the Bantu homeland of the Transkei, struggles to raise her children alone after her husband's death. Both lives have been built upon the division of race, and their meeting should never have occurred. Until the Soweto Uprising, in which a protest by black students ignites racial conflict, alters the fault lines on which their society is built, and shatters their worlds when Robin's parents are left dead and Beauty's daughter goes missing. After Robin is sent to live with her loving but irresponsible aunt, Beauty is hired to care for Robin while continuing the search for her daughter. In Beauty, Robin finds the security and family that she craves, and the two forge an inextricable bond through their deep personal losses. But Robin knows that if Beauty finds her daughter, Robin could lose her new caretaker forever, so she makes a desperate decision with devastating consequences. Her quest to make amends and find redemption is a journey of self-discovery in which she learns the harsh truths of the society that once promised her protection. Told through Beauty and Robin's alternating perspectives, the interwoven narratives create a rich and complex tapestry of the emotions and tensions at the heart of Apartheid-era South Africa. Hum if you don't know the words is a beautifully rendered look at loss, racism, and the creation of family"--
Subjects: Apartheid; Family life;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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