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The world : a family history / by Sebag Montefiore, Simon,1965-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."From the acclaimed author of The Romanovs--a magisterial history of humanity viewed through the lens of its most powerful dynasties In this sprawling and eye-opening book, best-selling historian Simon Sebag Montefiore chronicles the world's great dynasties across human history through engrossing tales of palace intrigue, glorious battle, and the real lives of people who held unfathomable power. He trains his eye on founders of humble origin, like Sargon, the Mesopotamian cupbearer sent to help defeat a rival who returned with an army to dethrone his own king, and Liu Bang, a peasant who became a rebel leader and founded the Han dynasty. Montefiore illuminates the achievements of fearsome emperors, including Yax Ehb Xook, whose Mayan city-state Tikal boasts some of the most monumental ancient architecture that exists today; Jayavarman II, who proclaimed himself "universal king" and whose Khmer empire in South Asia heralded a thousand years of Indic ascendancy; and Ewuare, the African emperor who built a capital city that rivaled any in Europe. He writes, too, about remarkable women rulers, like Hatshepsut, the first female pharaoh, and Maria Theresa, the only woman to rule the Habsburg empire. These families represent the breadth of human endeavor, with bloody civil wars, treacherous conspiracies, and shocking megalomania alongside flourishing culture, moving romances, and enlightened benevolence. A dazzling epic history as spellbinding as fiction, The World is testament to Montefiore's acclaimed career as our poet laureate of power"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Kings and rulers; Royal houses; Upper class; World history;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Somehow Thoughts on Love [electronic resource] : by Lamott, Anne.aut; cloudLibrary;
“Anne Lamott is my Oprah.” —Chicago Tribune From the bestselling author of Dusk, Night, Dawn and Help, Thanks, Wow, a joyful celebration of love “Love is our only hope,” Anne Lamott writes in this perceptive new book. “It is not always the easiest choice, but it is always the right one, the noble path, the way home to safety, no matter how bleak the future looks.” In Somehow: Thoughts on Love, Lamott explores the transformative power that love has in our lives: how it surprises us, forces us to confront uncomfortable truths, reminds us of our humanity, and guides us forward. “Love just won't be pinned down,” she says. “It is in our very atmosphere” and lies at the heart of who we are. We are, Lamott says, creatures of love. In each chapter of Somehow, Lamott refracts all the colors of the spectrum. She explores the unexpected love for a partner later in life. The bruised (and bruising) love for a child who disappoints, even frightens. The sustaining love among a group of sinners, for a community in transition, in the wider world. The lessons she underscores are that love enlightens as it educates, comforts as it energizes, sustains as it surprises.  Somehow is Anne Lamott’s twentieth book, and in it she draws from her own life and experience to delineate the intimate and elemental ways that love buttresses us in the face of despair as it galvanizes us to believe that tomorrow will be better than today. Full of the compassion and humanity that have made Lamott beloved by millions of readers, Somehow is classic Anne Lamott: funny, warm, and wise.
Subjects: Electronic books.; Inspiration & Personal Growth; Spirituality; Spiritual;
© 2024., Penguin Publishing Group,
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A (very) short history of life on Earth : 4.6 billion years in 12 pithy chapters / by Gee, Henry,1962-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."In the tradition of E.H. Gombrich, Stephen Hawking, and Alan Weisman-an entertaining and uniquely informed narration of Life's life story. In the beginning, Earth was an inhospitably alien place-in constant chemical flux, covered with churning seas, crafting its landscape through incessant volcanic eruptions. Amid all this tumult and disaster, life began. The earliest living things were no more than membranes stretched across microscopic gaps in rocks, where boiling hot jets of mineral-rich water gushed out from cracks in the ocean floor. Although these membranes were leaky, the environment within them became different from the raging maelstrom beyond. These havens of order slowly refined the generation of energy, using it to form membrane-bound bubbles that were mostly-faithful copies of their parents-a foamy lather of soap-bubble cells standing as tiny clenched fists, defiant against the lifeless world. Life on this planet has continued in much the same way for millennia, adapting to literally every conceivable setback that living organisms could encounter and thriving, from these humblest beginnings to the thrilling and unlikely story of ourselves. In A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth, Henry Gee zips through the last 4.6 billion years with infectious enthusiasm and intellectual rigor. Drawing on the very latest scientific understanding and writing in a clear, accessible style, he tells an enlightening tale of survival and persistence that illuminates the delicate balance within which life has always existed"--
Subjects: Evolution (Biology); Life;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The origins of creativity / by Wilson, Edward O.,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Subjects: Creative ability.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The Stone Home A Novel [electronic resource] : by Kim, Crystal Hana.aut; cloudLibrary;
“It is a privilege to read Crystal Hana Kim’s fiction, which both edifies and enlightens.” —Min Jin Lee A hauntingly poetic family drama and coming-of-age story that reveals a dark corner of South Korean history through the eyes of a small community living in a reformatory center—a stunning work of great emotional power from the critically acclaimed author of If You Leave Me. In 2011, Eunju Oh opens her door to greet a stranger: a young Korean American woman holding a familiar-looking knife—a knife Eunju hasn’t seen in thirty years, and that connects her to a place she’d desperately hoped to leave behind forever. In South Korea in the 1980s, young Eunju and her mother are homeless on the street. After being captured by the police, they’re sent to live within the walls of a state-sanctioned reformatory center that claims to rehabilitate the nation’s citizens but hides a darker, more violent reality. While Eunju and her mother form a tight-knit community with the other women in the kitchen, two teenage brothers, Sangchul and Youngchul, are compelled to labor in the workshops and make increasingly desperate decisions—and all are forced down a path of survival, the repercussions of which will echo for decades to come. Inspired by real events, told through alternating timelines and two intimate perspectives, The Stone Home is a deeply affecting story of a mother and daughter’s love and a pair of brothers whose bond is put to an unfathomably difficult test. Capturing a shameful period of history with breathtaking restraint and tenderness, Crystal Hana Kim weaves a lyrical exploration of the legacy of violence and the complicated psychology of power, while showcasing the extraordinary acts of devotion and friendship that can arise in the darkness.
Subjects: Electronic books.; Literary; Sagas; Asian American; Psychological;
© 2024., HarperCollins,
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I take my coffee black : reflections on Tupac, musical theater, faith, and being Black in America / by Merritt, Tyler,author.; Kimmel, Jimmy,1967-writer of foreword.; Tieche, David,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."As a 6'2" dreadlocked black man, Tyler Merritt knows that getting too close to the wrong person can get him killed. But he also believes that proximity can be a cure for racism. Tyler Merritt's video "Before You Call the Cops" has been viewed more than 59 million times. He's appeared on Jimmy Kimmel and Sports Illustrated and has been profiled in the New York Times. The viral video's main point--that the more you know someone, the more empathy, understanding, and compassion you have for that person--is the springboard for this book, which lets us deeply into Tyler's life and his world to help bridge the divides that seem to grow wider every day. In I Take My Coffee Black, Tyler tells hilarious stories from his own life as a black man in America. He talks about growing up in a multi-cultural community and realizing that he wasn't always welcome. He shares how he quit sports for musical theater (that's where the girls were), to how Jesus barged in uninvited and changed his life forever (it all revolved around a Triple Fat Goose jacket), to how he ended up at a small Bible college in Santa Cruz because he thought they had a great theater program (they didn't). Throughout his stories, he also seamlessly weaves in lessons about privilege and the legacy of lynching and sharecropping and why you don't cross black mamas, teaching readers about the history of encoded racism that still undergirds our society today. By turns witty, insightful, and laugh-out-loud funny, I Take My Coffee Black paints a portrait of black manhood in America and enlightens, illuminates, and entertains--and, ultimately, builds the kind of empathy that might just be the antidote against the racial injustice in our society. With a foreword from Jimmy Kimmel"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Actors; African American actors;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The age of AI : and our human future / by Kissinger, Henry A.,author.; Huttenlocher, Daniel,author.; Schmidt, Eric,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) is transforming human society fundamentally and profoundly. Not since the Enlightenment and the Age of Reason have we changed how we approach knowledge, politics, economics, even warfare. In 'The Age of A.I.', three of our most accomplished and deep thinkers come together to explore what it means for us all.
Subjects: Artificial intelligence;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Rightsize today to create your best life tomorrow : a motivational guide for those seeking their ideal home later in life / by Jameson, Marni,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Moving is no fun. Neither is getting rid of stuff. And both jobs get harder as we get older. So, when those over a certain age - say, in the last third of life - are looking to downsize and move all at the same time, many will conclude, "I'll just stay put, thank you very much." It's not just the acquired possessions holding them back, but also the intangibles. Their memories, their family history, their identities are all in jeopardy, they think. And yet, that reluctance to lighten up, let go, and move on is commonly all that stands between them and a better life. Rightsize Today to Create Your Best Life Tomorrow will help this group of root-bound home dwellers cross the bridge between stuck in the past and a lighter, better future. It will encourage them to embrace the fact that now, when they're no longer tethered to a school system or to a job, they need to be near, is their chance to live where they want to live. Every section contains checklists: some soul-searching (should you or shouldn't you move?), some practical (what every kitchen must have), and some logistical (where's your happy place?), to help readers on their journey. Included are enlightening profiles of those who proactively changed their housing in the last third of their life. Whether they moved to a smaller place, remodeled their existing home, or even moved to a larger home, which one third do; whether they moved to a new city, to a senior community, or to a new home in the same neighborhood, they all reimagined their lives, re-evaluated their belongings and made a move toward a better and possibly their best life yet. To live your best life now requires an honest appraisal of who you are and who you're becoming, where you are in your life and where you're going or want to go. This book is designed to help those who are stuck explore what's holding them back, and provide them with the insights, experiences, and courage to move forward"--
Subjects: House cleaning.; Moving, Household.; Older people; Orderliness.; Personal belongings.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The bookseller of Florence : the story of the manuscripts that illuminated the Renaissance / by King, Ross,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."The Renaissance in Florence conjures images of beautiful frescoes and elegant buildings-the dazzling handiwork of the city's skilled artists and architects. But equally important for the centuries to follow were geniuses of a different sort: Florence's manuscript hunters, scribes, scholars, and booksellers, who blew the dust off a thousand years of history and, through the discovery and diffusion of ancient knowledge, imagined a new and enlightened world. At the heart of this activity, which bestselling author Ross King relates in his exhilarating new book, was a remarkable man: Vespasiano da Bisticci. Born in 1422, he became what a friend called "the king of the world's booksellers." At a time when all books were made by hand, over four decades Vespasiano produced and sold many hundreds of volumes from his bookshop, which also became a gathering spot for debate and discussion. Besides repositories of ancient wisdom by the likes of Plato, Aristotle, and Quintilian, his books were works of art in their own right, copied by talented scribes and illuminated by the finest miniaturists. His clients included a roll-call of popes, kings, and princes across Europe who wished to burnish their reputations by founding magnificent libraries. Vespasiano reached the summit of his powers as Europe's most prolific merchant of knowledge when a new invention appeared: the printed book. By 1480, the king of the world's booksellers was swept away by this epic technological disruption, whereby cheaply produced books reached readers who never could have afforded one of Vespasiano's elegant manuscripts. A chronicle of intellectual ferment set against the dramatic political and religious turmoil of the era, Ross King's The Bookseller of Florence is also an ode to books and bookmaking that charts the world-changing shift from script to print through the life of an extraordinary man long lost to history-one of the true titans of the Renaissance"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Vespasiano, da Bisticci, 1421-1498.; Booksellers and bookselling; Booksellers and bookselling; Publishers and publishing;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Digital minimalism : choosing a focused life in a noisy world / by Newport, Cal,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.Minimalism is the art of knowing how much is just enough. Digital minimalism applies this idea to our personal technology. It's the key to living a focused life in an increasingly noisy world. In this timely and enlightening book, the bestselling author of Deep Work introduces a philosophy for technology use that has already improved countless lives. Digital minimalists are all around us. They're the calm, happy people who can hold long conversations without furtive glances at their phones. They can get lost in a good book, a woodworking project, or a leisurely morning run. They can have fun with friends and family without the obsessive urge to document the experience. They stay informed about the news of the day, but don't feel overwhelmed by it. They don't experience "fear of missing out" because they already know which activities provide them meaning and satisfaction. Now, Newport gives us a name for this quiet movement, and makes a persuasive case for its urgency in our tech-saturated world. Common sense tips, like turning off notifications, or occasional rituals like observing a digital sabbath, don't go far enough in helping us take back control of our technological lives, and attempts to unplug completely are complicated by the demands of family, friends and work. What we need instead is a thoughtful method to decide what tools to use, for what purposes, and under what conditions. Drawing on a diverse array of real-life examples, from Amish farmers to harried parents to Silicon Valley programmers, Newport identifies the common practices of digital minimalists and the ideas that underpin them. He shows how digital minimalists are rethinking their relationship to social media, rediscovering the pleasures of the offline world, and reconnecting with their inner selves through regular periods of solitude. He then shares strategies for integrating these practices into your life, starting with a thirty-day "digital declutter" process that has already helped thousands feel less overwhelmed and more in control. Technology is intrinsically neither good nor bad. The key is using it to support your goals and values, rather than letting it use you. This book shows the way.
Subjects: Self-help publications.; Information technology; Internet addiction; Technological innovations;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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