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Gwynne's grammar : the ultimate introduction to grammar and the writing of good English / by Gwynne, N. M.;
"Crushing national Debt? Climate Change? No: the greatest danger to our way of life is the decline of grammar. Thus preaches the inimitable Mr Gwynne as he shows us the way out of this sorry state. "Grammar is the science of using words rightly, leading to thinking rightly, leading to deciding rightly, without which-as both common sense and experience show-happiness is impossible. Therefore, happiness depends at least partly on good grammar." So writes Mr. Gwynne in his small but perfectly formed new book of grammar with an attitude. Mr. Gwynne believes passionately that we must regain our knowledge of the workings of our language before it is too late. Schools don't teach it, and as the Internet drives the written word to new lows of informality, we approach a tipping point of expressive dysfunction. Into the breach steps this doughty grammarian. Rejecting popular notions that language is simply a matter of the way people use it, he meticulously spells out what tradition and common sense have, over centuries, dictated to be the right and the wrong. His teaching method is also defiantly old school: no one can follow a rule he hasn't committed to memory. But not all rules are equal. For a country whose only broadly subscribed guide to writing is Strunk and White, Mr. Gwynne performs a radical procedure. He presents its original seed: Strunk's 1918 essay, which E. B. White expanded. But neither form was ever meant as a guide to grammar, and so Mr. Gwynne presents only the kernel of Strunk's useful advice as a companion: a guide to putting words together nicely set within Gwynne's wisdom about putting them together correctly. The result is the last word on the subject anyone should need."--Provided by publisher."Crushing national Debt? Climate Change? No: the greatest danger to our way of life is the decline of grammar. Thus preaches the inimitable Mr Gwynne as he shows us the way out of this sorry state."--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: English language; English language; English language;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Black skinhead : reflections on Blackness and our political future / by Collins-Dexter, Brandi,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."For fans of Bad Feminist and The Sum of Us, Black Skinhead sparks a radical conversation about Black America and political identity. In Black Skinhead, Brandi Collins-Dexter, former Senior Campaign Manager for Color Of Change, explores the fragile alliance between Black voters and the Democratic party. Through sharp, timely essays that span the political, cultural, and personal, Collins-Dexter reveals decades of simmering disaffection in Black America, told as much through voter statistics as it is through music, film, sports, and the baffling mind of Kanye West. While Black Skinhead is an outward look at Black votership and electoral politics, it is also a funny, deeply personal, and introspective look at the fragility of Black culture and identity, ultimately revealing a Black America that has become deeply disillusioned with the failed promises of its country. We had been told that everything was fine, that America was working for everyone and that the American Dream was attainable for all. But for those who had been paying attention, there had been warning signs that the Obamas' version of the American Dream wasn't working for everyone. That it hadn't been working for many white Americans was immediately and loudly discussed, but the truth-and what I set out to write this book about-was that it hadn't been working for many Black Americans either. For many, Obama's vision had been more illusion than reality all along. When someone tells you everything is fine, but around you, you see evidence that it's not, where will the quest to find answers lead you? As I went on the journey of writing this book, I found a very different tale about Black politics and Black America, one that countered white America's long-held assumption that Black voters will always vote Democrat-and even that the Democratic party is the best bet for Black Americans. My ultimate question was this: how are Black people being led away-not towards-each other, and what do we lose when we lose each other? What do we lose when, to quote Kanye West, we feel lost in the world"--
Subjects: African Americans; African Americans; Group identity; Social change; Voting research;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Acceptance : a memoir / by Nietfeld, Emi,author.;
"A brilliant, funny, generation-defining memoir about the double bind of crafting perfect adversity narratives for highly selective institutions, while fumbling through the far murkier reality of actual life in foster care and inpatient mental health treatment As a child, Emi Nietfeld was caught between a hoarder mother who got her put on antipsychotic medication, but was also the only person to believe she was exceptional, and a state system exemplified by a foster mom who tried to ban her art history flash cards because they had naked pictures (of Michelangelo's David). Even after wresting free of grim inpatient mental health institutions and getting into a prestigious boarding school, Emi scrambled for places to sleep during breaks. Realizing that her path to true independence lay in reinventing herself as a talented overcomer deserving of a full ride, she became obsessed with college admissions. While taking on the sad challenge of presenting herself as resilient to gain authorities' approval, Emi lived the untidy version of actual adversity at the same time- literally drafting her Common App statement while living out of her '92 Corolla. She found herself "trading my past for my future" in college admissions essays and scholarship applications, in an extreme example of the immense pressure on teenagers from all backgrounds to build the foundations of their entire lives. Emi's story is a harsh illumination of the near-impossible challenge set by societal expectations of coming from nothing, the brokenness of our child welfare system, and the reality that congratulatory letters from top schools couldn't keep her safe - as she found when she was raped while on a trip following her Harvard admission. Though Emi learns that entering the Ivy League, working in Big Tech, and living in a fancy apartment doesn't mean her life turns into gold, her reflections on her unlikely history, and her journey in confronting trauma and injustice, hold powerful lessons. Candid and frequently harrowing, with a ribbon of dark humor, Acceptance is a stunning human story and an invaluable view of the actual cost of upward mobility"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Nietfeld, Emi.; Child welfare; Foster children; Social mobility;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Midlife bites : anyone else falling apart or is it just me? / by Mann, Jen,author.;
"From the New York Times bestselling author of People I Want to Punch in the Throat comes a smart, funny, personal examination of what it's like to be at the crossroads of a woman's midlife crisis. Jen Mann had what appeared to be the perfect life: a successful career as a bestselling author and award-winning blogger, a devoted husband, teenage kids who weren't total jerks, and a badass minivan. So imagine her surprise when, at forty-seven years old, a midlife crisis kicked her straight in the ladybits. In an attempt to deal with the resulting range of emotions and physical changes in midlife, Jen posted a completely honest now-viral post, "Anyone Else Falling Apart Or Is It Just Me?" The response was instantaneous and overwhelming. Women from all over the country flooded the comments section, glad to see they weren't the only ones experiencing this feeling of isolation and dissatisfaction. It was the beginning of a movement. Midlife Bites encompasses these important conversations and observations, and creates a space and community for women to navigate through this major point in their lives, together, offering valuable insights and takeaways. Jen shares her own story as well as advice and wisdom from the online community she built. Please note, this is not your mother's midlife crisis. Different from the typical self-help book, Jen tackles everything that bites about midlife and nothing is off-limits with her no-nonsense approach. Subjects include: raging hormones; sex (after forty); finding your purpose; learning to make new friends (yes, even as a grown-up); moving out of your comfort zone; having conversations that count, no more small talk; and how to deal with rogue chin hairs (and other nuisances). Midlife Bites is Jen Mann's call to action. She is leading the movement to create a new space where middle-aged women can share openly and honestly with one another. This no-BS collection of essays will help start the conversation and keep it going, because as women, we all have a right to be happy, fulfilled, and to feel whole, no matter what stage of life"--
Subjects: Middle-aged women.; Midlife crisis;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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This is your mind on plants / by Pollan, Michael,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Pollan, a radical challenge to how we think about drugs, and an exploration into the powerful human attraction to psychoactive plants -- and the equally powerful taboos Of all the things humans rely on plants for--sustenance, beauty, fragrance, flavor, fiber--surely the most curious is our use of them is to change consciousness: to stimulate or calm, fiddle with or completely alter, the qualities of our mental experience. Take coffee and tea: people around the world rely on caffeine to sharpen their minds. We don't usually think of caffeine as a drug, or our daily use as an addiction, because it is legal and socially acceptable. So then what is a "drug?" And why, for example, is making tea from the leaves of a tea plant acceptable, but making tea from a seed head of an opium poppy a federal crime? In THIS IS YOUR MIND ON PLANTS, Michael Pollan dives deep into three plant drugs -- opium, caffeine, and mescaline -- and throws the fundamental strangeness, and arbitrariness, of our thinking about them into sharp relief. Exploring and participating in the cultures that have grown up around these drugs, while consuming (or in the case of caffeine, trying not to consume) them, Pollan reckons with the powerful human attraction to psychoactive plants, and the equally powerful taboos with which we surround them. Why do we go to such great lengths to seek these shifts in consciousness, and then why do we fence that universal desire with laws and customs and such fraught feelings? A unique blend of history, science, memoir, as well as participatory journalism, Pollan examines and experiences these plants from several very different angles and contexts, and shines a fresh light on a subject that is all too often treated reductively -- as a drug, whether licit or illicit. But that's one of the least interesting things you can say about these plants, Pollan shows, for when we take them into our bodies and let them change our minds, we are engaging with nature in one of the most profound ways we can. Based in part on an essay written more than 25 years ago, this groundbreaking and singular consideration of psychoactive plants, and our attraction to them through time, holds up a mirror to our fundamental human needs and aspirations, the operations of our minds, and our entanglement with the natural world"--
Subjects: Psychotropic plants.; Opium.; Mescaline.; Caffeine.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Becoming Kim Jong Un : a former CIA officer's insights into North Korea's enigmatic young dictator / by Pak, Jung H.,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."A groundbreaking account of the rise of North Korea's dictator Kim Jong Un, from his nuclear ambitions to his summits with President Donald J. Trump--from a former CIA analyst considered one of the leading American experts on the North Korean leader inside and outside the U.S. government. When Kim Jong Un became the leader of North Korea following his father's death in 2011, predictions about his imminent fall were rife. North Korea was isolated, poor, unable to feed its people, and clinging to its nuclear program for legitimacy. Surely this twentysomething with the bizarre haircut and no leadership experience would soon be usurped by his elders. Instead the opposite happened. Now in his mid-thirties, Kim Jong Un has solidified his grip on his country and brought the U.S. and the region to the brink of war. Still, we know so little about him--or how he rules. Enter former CIA analyst Jung Pak, whose brilliant Brookings Institution essay "The Education of Kim Jong Un" cemented her status as the go-to authority on the calculating young leader. From the beginning of Kim's reign, Pak has been at the forefront of shaping U.S. policy on North Korea and providing strategic assessments for leadership at the highest levels in the government, and in this masterly book, she traces and explains Kim's ascent on the world stage, from the brutal purges he carried out to consolidate his power to his abrupt pivot to diplomatic engagement that led to his historic--and still poorly understood--summits with President Trump. She also sheds light on how a top intelligence analyst assesses thorny national security problems, avoiding biases, questioning assumptions, and identifying risks as well as opportunities. In piecing together Kim's wholly unique life, Pak argues that his personality, perceptions, and preferences are underestimated by Washington policy wonks who assume he sees the world as they do. As the North Korea nuclear threat grows, Becoming Kim Jong Un gives readers the first authoritative, behind-the-scenes look at Kim's personality and motivations, creating an insightful biography of the enigmatic man who will likely rule the Hermit Kingdom for decades--and has already left an indelible imprint on world history"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Kim, Chŏng-ŭn, 1984-; Kim, Chŏng-ŭn, 1984-;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The worst person in the world [videorecording] / by Brenner, Hans Olav,actor.; Danielsen Lie, Anders,1979-actor.; Di Meo, Maria Grazia,actor.; Reinsve, Renate,actor.; Trier, Joachim,film director.; Criterion Collection (Firm),publisher,presenter.;
Renate Reinsve, Anders Danielsen Lie, Maria Grazia Di Meo, Hans Olav Brenner, Mia Mcgovern Zaini.A young woman battles indecisiveness as she traverses the troubled waters of her love life and struggles to find her career path.Canadian Home Video Rating: 14A.MPAA rating: R.Subtitled for the deaf and hard-of-hearing (SDH).DVD ; wide screen presentation ; Dolby Digital 5.1.
Subjects: Comedy films.; Feature films.; Foreign films.; Motion pictures, Norwegian.; Romantic comedy films.; Video recordings for the hearing impaired.; Man-woman relationships; Young women; Young women;
For private home use only.
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Drive my car [videorecording] / by Hamaguchi, Ryūsuke,1978-film director.; Kirishima, Reika,1972-actor.; Miura, Toko,actor.; Nishijima, Hidetoshi,1971-actor.; Criterion Collection (Firm),publisher.;
Hidetoshi Nishijima, Toko Miura, Reika Kirishima, Masaki Okada.Two years after his wife's unexpected death, Yusuke Kafuku arrives in Hiroshima to direct a production of Uncle Vanya for a theater festival and, through relationships with an actor with whom he shares a tangled history and a chauffeur with whom he develops a surprising rapport, finds himself confronting emotional scars. This quietly mesmerizing tale of love, art, grief, and healing is ultimately a cathartic exploration of what it means to go on living when there seems to be no road ahead. Contains Korean sign language.Canadian Home Video Rating: 14A.Subtitled for the deaf and hard-of-hearing (SDH).DVD ; wide screen presentation ; Dolby Digital 5.1.
Subjects: Feature films.; Fiction films.; Foreign films.; Motion pictures, Japanese.; Video recordings for the hearing impaired.; Adultery; Chauffeurs; Death; Husband and wife; Man-woman relationships;
For private home use only.
Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 3
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The act of killing [videorecording] / by Anif, Haji.; Arifin, Syamsul.; Asmara, Sakhyan.; Oppenheimer, Joshua.; Sørensen, Signe Byrge.; Cinedigm (Firm); Drafthouse Films.; Final Cut For Real (Firm);
With Haji Anif, Syamsul Arifin, Sakhyan Asmara.The filmmakers examine a country where death squad leaders are celebrated as heroes, challenging them to reenact their real-life mass-killings in the style of the American movies they love. The hallucinatory result is a cinematic fever dream, a journey into the imaginations of mass murderers and the banal regime of corruption and impunity they inhabit.E.DVD ; Dolby digital 5.1.
Subjects: Pemuda Pancasila (Organization); Death squads; Documentary films.; Mass murderers; Political persecution;
© c2014., Cinedigm Entertainment,
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Phoenix [German] [1 DVD - 98 min.] / by Petzold, Christian,1960-film director.; Hoss, Nina,actor.; Zehrfeld, Ronald,1977-actor.; Kunzendorf, Nina,1971-actor.; Criterion Collection (Firm),publisher.;
Nina Hoss, Ronald Zehrfeld, Nina Kunzendorf.Set in a rubble-strewn Berlin in 1945, is like no other film about post-World War II Jewish identity. After surviving Auschwitz, a former cabaret perfromer, her face disfigured and reconstructed, returns to her war-ravaged hometown to seek out the gentile husband who may or may not have betrayed her to the Nazis. Without recognizing her, he enlists her to play his wife in a bizarre hall-of-shattered-mirrors story that's as richly metaphorical as it is preposterously engrossing.PG.DVD ; widescreen presentation ; 5.1 surround.
Subjects: Foreign films.; Motion pictures, German.; Film noir.; Feature films.; World War, 1939-1945; Married people; Betrayal; Holocaust survivors;
For private home use only.
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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