Results 91 to 100 of 127 | « previous | next »
- She who became the sun / by Parker-Chan, Shelley,author.;
"Mulan meets The Song of Achilles in Shelley Parker-Chan's She Who Became the Sun, a bold, queer, and lyrical reimagining of the rise of the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty from an amazing new voice in literary fantasy. To possess the Mandate of Heaven, the female monk Zhu will do anything "I refuse to be nothing ... " In a famine-stricken village on a dusty yellow plain, two children are given two fates. A boy, greatness. A girl, nothingness ... In 1345, China lies under harsh Mongol rule. For the starving peasants of the Central Plains, greatness is something found only in stories. When the Zhu family's eighth-born son, Zhu Chongba, is given a fate of greatness, everyone is mystified as to how it will come to pass. The fate of nothingness received by the family's clever and capable second daughter, on the other hand, is only as expected. When a bandit attack orphans the two children, though, it is Zhu Chongba who succumbs to despair and dies. Desperate to escape her own fated death, the girl uses her brother's identity to enter a monastery as a young male novice. There, propelled by her burning desire to survive, Zhu learns she is capable of doing whatever it takes, no matter how callous, to stay hidden from her fate. After her sanctuary is destroyed for supporting the rebellion against Mongol rule, Zhu takes the chance to claim another future altogether: her brother's abandoned greatness"--
- Subjects: Fantasy fiction.; Historical fiction.; Famines; Orphans; Monks; Brothers and sisters;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 2
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- Liberation day : stories / by Saunders, George,1958-author.; Saunders, George,1958-Liberation day (Compilation);
"The 'best short story writer in English' (Time) is back with a masterful collection that explores ideas of power, ethics, and justice, and cuts to the very heart of what it means to live in community with our fellow humans. With his trademark prose--wickedly funny, unsentimental, and perfectly tuned--Saunders continues to challenge and surprise: here is a collection of prismatic, deeply resonant stories that encompass joy and despair, oppression and revolution, bizarre fantasy and brutal reality. 'Love Letter' is a tender missive from grandfather to grandson, in the midst of a dystopian political situation in the not-too-distant future, that reminds us of our obligations to our ideals, ourselves, and each other. 'Ghoul' is set in a Hell-themed section of an underground amusement park in Colorado, and follows the exploits of a lonely, morally complex character named Brian, who comes to question everything he takes for granted about his 'reality.' In 'Mother's Day,' two women who loved the same man come to an existential reckoning in the middle of a hailstorm. And in 'Elliott Spencer,' our eighty-nine-year-old protagonist finds himself brainwashed--his memory 'scraped'--a victim of a scheme in which poor, vulnerable people are reprogrammed and deployed as political protesters. Together, these nine subversive, profound, and essential stories coalesce into a case for viewing the world with the same generosity and clear-eyed attention as Saunders does, even in the most absurd of circumstances"--
- Subjects: Short stories.;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- Other Worlds Stories [electronic resource] : by Alexis, Andre.aut; CloudLibrary;
The award-winning author of Fifteen Dogs conjures up worlds – real, invented, uncanny – in this ingenious, electrifying collection. A Trinidadian Obeah man finds himself reborn, a hundred years after his death, in the body of a Canadian child. A writer takes up a seasonal job as the caretaker of a set of mysterious large sacks hanging from the rafters of the houses in a small town. A woman starts a relationship with the famous artist who painted portraits of her mother. The contents of a sealed envelope upend a woman’s understanding about a tragic crime she committed at the age of six. In this dazzling collection of stories, André Alexis draws fresh connections between worlds: the ones we occupy, the ones we imagine, and the ones that preceded our own. He introduces us to characters during moments of profound puzzlement, and transports us from 19th century Trinidad and Tobago to small-town Ontario, from Amherst, Massachusetts to contemporary Toronto. These captivating stories reveal flashes of reckoning, defeat, despair, alienation, and understanding, all the while playfully using a multitude of literary genres, including gothic horror and isekai, and referencing works from greats like Jane Austen, Jonathan Swift, Yasunari Kawabata, Witold Gombrowicz, and Tomasso Landolfi. Masterfully crafted, blending poignant philosophical inquiry and wry humour tinged with the absurd, here are worlds refracted and reflected back to us with pristine clarity and stunning emotional resonance as only André Alexis can.
- Subjects: Electronic books.; Literary; Mashups; Short Stories (single author);
- © 2025., McClelland & Stewart,
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- Not the end of the world : how we can be the first generation to build a sustainable planet / by Ritchie, Hannah,author.;
"It has become common to tell kids that they're going to die from climate change. If a heatwave doesn't get them then a wildfire will. Or a hurricane, a flood, or starvation. It shouldn't, then, come as a surprise that most young people feel their future is in peril. Climate scientist Hannah Ritchie understands that pessimism is not a catalyst, and that reading about climate change can often leave us in a state of despair, rendering us unable to enact any sort of meaningful change. Thankfully, the future of our planet is not as bleak as it's been made out to be -- in fact, most of the assumptions we make about the climate crisis are wrong. The truth is that, if you are living today, you are in a truly unique position to achieve something that was unthinkable for any of our ancestors: to deliver a sustainable future. In Not the End of the World, Hannah Ritchie debunks popular doom narratives and argues that we have the power to enact worldwide change. In each chapter, Dr. Ritchie addresses key issues such as pollution, deforestation, and the food industry, among others; and she offers tangible solutions for each problem. With urgent optimism and a few actionable steps, readers will discover their potential to become the first generation to live in a world that prioritizes the health of our planet. A unique blend of history, scientific research, and prescriptive elements, Not the End of the World is the book we need to show how far we've come -- and how close to a better future we actually are"--
- Subjects: Climatic changes.; Climate change mitigation.;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- Doppelganger : a trip into the mirror world / by Klein, Naomi,1970-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Over the past twenty-five years, Naomi Klein has charted and documented our politics and culture with a series of trenchant bestselling books laying bare the effects of branding, austerity, and climate profiteering on our societies and souls. With Doppelganger, Klein takes a more personal turn, braiding together elements of tragicomic memoir, chilling political reportage, and cobweb-clearing cultural analysis, as she dives deep into what she calls the Mirror World--our destabilized present rife with doubles and confusion, where far right movements playact solidarity with the working class, AI-generated content blurs the line between genuine and spurious, New Age wellness entrepreneurs turned anti-vaxxers further scramble our familiar political allegiances, and so many of us project our own carefully curated digital doubles out into the social media sphere. Klein begins this richly nuanced intellectual adventure story by grappling with her own doppelganger--a fellow author and public intellectual whose views are antithetical to Klein's own, but whose name and public persona are sufficiently similar that many people have confused the two over the years. From there, she turns her gaze both inward to our psychic landscapes--drawing on the work of Sigmund Freud, Jordan Peele, Alfred Hitchcock, and bell hooks, to name a few--and outward, to our intersecting economic, environmental, medical, and political crises. Ultimately seeking to escape the Mirror World and chart a path beyond confusion and despair, Klein delivers a revelatory treatment of the way many of us think and feel now."--
- Subjects: Conservatism; Conservatism; Misinformation.; Social media and society.; Social media; Social media; Social media;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- All things aside : (absolutely correct opinions) / by Shlesinger, Iliza,1983-author.; Cho, Margaret,writer of foreword.;
From the razor-sharp mind of comedian Iliza Shlesinger comes a collection of hilarious and insightful essays about the exasperating issues of everyday life. All Things Aside is a punchy, honest, incisive book that shares a view of the world through the eyes of the inimitable Iliza Shlesinger. From the macro to micro, Shlesinger tackles it all with her no-bullshit comedic style. Throughout the book, Shlesinger dives from one subject into the next, making her hilarious asides the basis of her stories, much like she does in her stand-up comedy. Topics range from dissecting social expectations to the notion that products marketed specifically to women are scams, and all manner of things in between. She even dares to ask herself the all-important question that every woman is forced to consider at some point--Am I actually an annoying person? Shlesinger also shares intimate moments, including a devastating miscarriage, which she manages to navigate not only with grace but somehow with side-splitting humor. As Margaret Cho explains in the book's foreword, "Every woman has something to gain from the Everywoman Iliza presents in her hilarious and astute worldview ... I've learned [from Iliza] that you don't have to quit when you are in pain, that you can write your way out of the suffering. That there is beautiful truth to be unearthed from the depths of despair. That the stupid can be smart and that we put ourselves through hell for nothing." All Things Aside offers unexpected insights, much-needed truths, and tons and tons of laughs.
- Subjects: Anecdotes.; Essays.; Women; Women;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- Poverty, by America / by Desmond, Matthew,author.;
"The Pulitzer Prize-winning, bestselling author of Evicted reimagines the debate on poverty, making a new and bracing argument about why it persists in America: because the rest of us benefit from it. The United States, the richest country on earth, has more poverty than any other advanced democracy. Why? Why does this land of plenty allow one in every eight of its children to go without basic necessities, permit scores of its citizens to live and die on the streets, and authorize its corporations to pay poverty wages? In this landmark book, acclaimed sociologist Matthew Desmond draws on history, research, and original reporting to show how affluent Americans knowingly and unknowingly keep poor people poor. Those of us who are financially secure exploit the poor, driving down their wages while forcing them to overpay for housing and access to cash and credit. We prioritize the subsidization of our wealth over the alleviation of poverty, designing a welfare state that gives the most to those who need the least. And we stockpile opportunity in exclusive communities, creating zones of concentrated riches alongside those of concentrated despair. Some lives are made small so that others may grow. Elegantly written and fiercely argued, this compassionate book gives us new ways of thinking about a morally urgent problem. It also helps us imagine solutions. Desmond builds a startlingly original and ambitious case for ending poverty. He calls on us all to become poverty abolitionists, engaged in a politics of collective belonging to usher in a new age of shared prosperity and, at last, true freedom"--
- Subjects: Poor; Poverty; Poverty;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- The last beekeeper / by Dalton, Julie Carrick,author.;
"Julie Carrick Dalton's The Last Beekeeper is a celebration of found family, an exploration of truth versus power, and the triumph of hope in the face of despair. "Fans of Delia Owens will swoon to find their new favorite author." (Hank Phillippi Ryan) It's been more than a decade since the world has come undone, and Sasha Severn has returned to her childhood home with one goal in mind-find the mythic research her father, the infamous Last Beekeeper, hid before he was incarcerated. There, Sasha is confronted with a group of squatters who have claimed the quiet, idyllic farm as a way to escape the horrific conditions of state housing. While she feels threatened by their presence at first, the friends soon become her newfound family, offering what she hasn't felt since her father was imprisoned: security and hope. Maybe it's time to forget the family secrets buried on the farm and focus on her future. But just as she settles into her new life, Sasha witnesses the impossible. She sees a honeybee, presumed extinct. People who claim to see bees are ridiculed and silenced for reasons Sasha doesn't understand, but she can't shake the feeling that this impossible bee is connected to her father's missing research. Fighting to uncover the truth could shatter Sasha's fragile security and threaten the lives of her new-found family-or it could save them all. Sasha's journey is a meditation on forgiveness and redemption and a reminder to cherish the beauty that still exists in this fragile world. Also by Julie Carrick Dalton: Waiting for the Night Song"--
- Subjects: Apocalyptic fiction.; Ecofiction.; Novels.; Bees; Families; Family secrets; Farms; Fathers and daughters;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- Heiresses : the lives of the million dollar babies / by Thompson, Laura,1964-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."New York Times bestselling author Laura Thompson returns with Heiresses, a fascinating look at the lives of heiresses throughout history and the often tragic truth beneath the gilded surface. Heiresses: surely they are among the luckiest women on earth. Are they not to be envied, with their private jets and Chanel wardrobes and endless funds? Yet all too often those gilded lives have been beset with trauma and despair. Before the 20th century a wife's inheritance was the property of her husband, making her vulnerable to kidnap, forced marriages, even confinement in an asylum. And in modern times, heiresses fell victim to fortune-hunters who squandered their millions. Heiresses tells the stories of these women: Mary Davies, who inherited London's most valuable real estate, and was bartered from the age of twelve; Consuelo Vanderbilt, the original American "Dollar Heiress", forced into a loveless marriage; Barbara Hutton, the Woolworth heiress who married seven times and died almost penniless; Patty Hearst, heiress to a newspaper fortune who was arrested for terrorism. However, there are also stories of achievement: Angela Burdett-Coutts, who became one of the greatest philanthropists of Victorian England; Nancy Cunard, who lived off her mother's fortune and became a pioneer of the civil rights movement; Daisy Fellowes, elegant linchpin of interwar high society and noted fashion editor. Heiresses is about the lives of the rich, who-as F. Scott Fitzgerald said-are 'different'. But it is also a bigger story about how all women fought their way to equality, and sometimes even found autonomy and fulfilment"--
- Subjects: Biographies.; Anecdotes.; Personal narratives.; Heiresses; Rich people; Upper class women; Women;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- Antoinette's sister / by Giovinazzo, Diana,author.;
"Austria 1767: Maria Carolina Charlotte--ninth daughter and sixteenth child of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria--knows her position as a Hapsburg archduchess will inevitably force her to leave her home, her family, and her beloved country. But not yet. The Hapsburg family is celebrating a great triumph: Charlotte's older sister, Josepha, has been promised to King Ferdinand IV of Naples, and will soon take her place as queen. Before Josepha can journey to her new home, however, tragedy strikes: after visiting the family crypt, Josepha contracts smallpox and dies. Shocked, Charlotte is forced to face an unthinkable new reality: she must now marry Ferdinand in her sister's stead. Bereft and alone, Charlotte finds that her new life in Naples is more complicated than she could ever have imagined. Ferdinand is weak and feckless, and a disastrous wedding night plunges her into despair. Her husband's regent, Tenucci, is a controlling and power-hungry man who has pushed the country to the brink of ruin. Overwhelmed, she asks her brother Leopold, now the Holy Roman Emperor, to send help--which he does in the form of John Acton, a handsome military man twenty years Charlotte's senior who is tasked to take over the Navy. Now, Charlotte must gather the strength to do what her mother did before her: take control of a country. In a time of political uprisings, royal executions, and the increasingly desperate crisis her favorite sister, Queen Marie Antoinette, is facing in France, how is a young monarch to keep hold of everything--and everyone--she loves? Find out in this sweeping, luxurious tale of family, court intrigue, and power"--
- Subjects: Biographical fiction.; Historical fiction.; Maria Carolina, Queen, consort of Ferdinand I, King of the Two Sicilies, 1752-1814;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Results 91 to 100 of 127 | « previous | next »