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Lady Tan's circle of women [sound recording] : a novel / by See, Lisa,author.; Chien, Justin,narrator.; Lim, Jennifer,narrator.; Simon & Schuster Audio (Firm),publisher.;
Read by Jennifer Lim, Justin Chien.According to Confucius, "an educated woman is a worthless woman," but Tan Yunxian--born into an elite family, yet haunted by death, separations, and loneliness--is being raised by her grandparents to be of use. Her grandmother is one of only a handful of female doctors in China, and she teaches Yunxian the pillars of Chinese medicine, the Four Examinations--looking, listening, touching, and asking--something a man can never do with a female patient. From a young age, Yunxian learns about women's illnesses, many of which relate to childbearing, alongside a young midwife-in-training, Meiling. The two girls find fast friendship and a mutual purpose--despite the prohibition that a doctor should never touch blood while a midwife comes in frequent contact with it--and they vow to be forever friends, sharing in each other's joys and struggles. No mud, no lotus, they tell themselves: from adversity beauty can bloom. But when Yunxian is sent into an arranged marriage, her mother-in-law forbids her from seeing Meiling and from helping the women and girls in the household. Yunxian is to act like a proper wife--embroider bound-foot slippers, pluck instruments, recite poetry, give birth to sons, and stay forever within the walls of the family compound, the Garden of Fragrant Delights. How might a woman like Yunxian break free of these traditions, go on to treat women and girls from every level of society, and lead a life of such importance that many of her remedies are still used five centuries later? How might the power of friendship support or complicate these efforts? Lady Tan's Circle of Women is a captivating story of women helping other women. It is also a triumphant reimagining of the life of a woman who was remarkable in the Ming dynasty and would be considered remarkable today.
Subjects: Audiobooks.; Historical fiction.; Novels.; Aristocracy (Social class); Arranged marriage; Female friendship; Midwives; Women physicians;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The Mountains We Call Home : The Book Woman's Legacy. by Richardson, Kim Michele.;
"Brilliant storytelling. Cussy is one of the most dynamic characters in American fiction. Without Kim Michele Richardson's heartfelt, uplifting storytelling, the world would be a sadder place, indeed. I loved The Mountains We Call Home, which is woven so seamlessly of important themes that it has the potential for changing lives." - William Kent Krueger, New York Times bestselling author In this standalone and companion novel to the The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek series, our heroine for the ages, legendary book woman, Cussy Lovett, returns home. A powerful testament of strength, survival, and the magic of the printed word, The Mountains We Call Home is wrapped into a vivid portrait of Kentucky life: examining incarceration and criminalization, exploring the effects on the poor and powerless, and tracing the societal consequences of fractured family bonds, along with nostalgic glimpses of a bustling, multifaceted Louisville, and heartwarming portraits of reading efforts in every facet of life. Meticulously researched and richly detailed with a new cast of absorbing and complex characters, this beautifully rendered, authentic Kentucky tale is gritty and heartbreaking and infused with hope, spirit, and courage known only to those with no way out. "Kim Michele Richardson brings the story of trailblazing packhorse librarian, Cussy Mary Carter, full circle in this mesmerizing tale of love, resilience, and hardscrabble determination. In the fight to survive prejudice, cruelty, and injustice, Cussy must draw upon her inner strength, the kindness of others, and the sanctuary that can be found within books. An ode to friendship, truth, and the power of the written word, this is a story readers will treasure long after the last page is turned. - Lisa Wingate, #1 New York Times bestselling author "In The Mountains We Call Home, Kim Michele Richardson once again displays her seamless blend of research and imagination that we expect in the best of historical fiction, yet as I read deeper ILibrary Bound Incorporated
Subjects: FICTION / Historical; FICTION / Historical / General; FICTION / Small Town & Rural; FICTION / Small Town & Rural *; FICTION / Women;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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Strangers to ourselves : unsettled minds and the stories that make us / by Aviv, Rachel,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."The highly anticipated debut from the acclaimed award-winning New Yorker writer Rachel Aviv compels us to examine how the stories we tell about mental illness shape our sense of who we are. Mental illnesses are often seen as chronic and intractable forces that take over our lives, that define us. But how much do the stories we tell about our illnesses--and the process of diagnosis--inform their course? In Strangers to Ourselves, a powerful and gripping debut, Rachel Aviv writes about how explanations for mental distress may shape our health, our sense of who we are, and the possibilities for who we can be in the world. Drawing on deep, original reporting and unpublished journals and memoirs, Aviv follows an Indian woman, celebrated as a saint, who lived in healing temples in Kerala; an incarcerated mother vying for her children's forgiveness after a period of psychosis; a man seeking revenge against a prominent psychoanalytic hospital through a lawsuit that dramatizes the clash between two irreconcilable models of the mind; an affluent young woman whose lifelong psychiatric treatment eventually leads her to go off her meds in a desperate attempt to figure out who she would be without them. Animated by a profound sense of empathy, Aviv's exploration is refracted through her own account of being institutionalized at the age of six and meeting Hava, a friend and fellow patient with whom her life runs parallel--until it no longer does. While the stories unfold in different eras and cultures, they converge in the psychic hinterlands, the outer edges of human experience. Aviv writes about people who have come up against the limits of psychiatric explanations and endeavor to recover a sense of agency, in search of new ways to understand a self in the world. Challenging conventional ideas of mental disease as something static, Aviv's accounts are testaments to the porousness and resilience of the mind"--
Subjects: Mental illness; Mentally ill;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Backstage : stories of a writing life / by Leon, Donna,author.;
"An engaging collection of stories and essays by the celebrated author of the internationally bestselling Guido Brunetti series, infused with her ever-present and delightful senses of humor and irony. Donna Leon's memoir, Wandering through Life, gave her legions of fans a colorful tour through her life, from childhood in New Jersey to adventures in China and Iran, to her love of Venice and opera. Nowhere, however, did she discuss her writing life. In Backstage, Donna reveals her admiration for, and inspiration from, the great crime novelists Ruth Rendell and Ross Macdonald, examining their approach to storytelling as she dissects her favorite books of theirs. She expresses her love for Charles Dickens's Great Expectations and her appreciation for Sir Walter Scott's generosity of spirit. And she chronicles the amount of research she undertakes to be able to present authentically, through Guido Brunetti and his colleagues, places and characters far from her own experience-from interviewing a diamond dealer in Venice to open up the world of blood diamonds, to meeting, through back channels, a courageous sex worker and women's rights activist to depict accurately the trafficking of women in Italy. By contrast, the idea and opening scene of one of her novels came to her as she was walking through Venice. Venice is central in her memory, whether recounting the semicomic irritation of a noisy elderly neighbor or the origins of the city's Carnevale. Her teaching career yields memorable tales: helping a young Black boy in a Newark, New Jersey, elementary school; instructing young Iranian pilots in English just before the 1979 Iranian Revolution; and taking her students at a Swiss private high school to the famous Frank Zappa concert in Montreux interrupted by fire. Throughout, she is as good a storyteller about herself as she is a chronicler of Guido Brunetti's crime adventures. Readers will be as caught up in her world as she is in his"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Anecdotes.; Personal narratives.; Leon, Donna; Leon, Donna; Detectives in literature.; Women authors; Women teachers; Women;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Hester : a novel / by Lico Albanese, Laurie,1959-author.;
"A vivid reimagining of the woman who inspired Hester Prynne, the tragic heroine of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, and a journey into the enduring legacy of New England's witchcraft trials. Who is the real Hester Prynne? Isobel Gamble is a young seamstress carrying generations of secrets when she sets sail from Scotland in the early 1800s with her husband, Edward. An apothecary who has fallen under the spell of opium, his pile of debts have forced them to flee Edinburgh for a fresh start in the New World. But only days after they've arrived in Salem, Edward abruptly joins a departing ship as a medic--leaving Isobel penniless and alone in a strange country, forced to make her way by any means possible. When she meets a young Nathaniel Hawthorne,the two are instantly drawn to each other: he is a man haunted by his ancestors, who sent innocent women to the gallows--while she is an unusually gifted needleworker, troubled by her own strange talents. As the weeks pass and Edward's safe return grows increasingly unlikely, Nathaniel and Isobel grow closer and closer. Together, they are a muse and a dark storyteller; the enchanter and the enchanted. But which is which? In this sensuous and hypnotizing tale, a young immigrant woman grapples with our country's complicated past, and learns that America's ideas of freedom and liberty often fall short of their promise. Interwoven with Isobel and Nathaniel's story is a vivid interrogation of who gets to be a "real" American in the first half of the 19th century, a depiction of the early days of the Underground Railroad in New England, and atmospheric interstitials that capture the long history of "unusual" women being accused of witchcraft. Meticulously researched yet evocatively imagined, Laurie Lico Albanese's Hester is a timeless tale of art, ambition, and desire that examines the roots of female creative power and the men who try to shut it down"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Novels.; Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864; Man-woman relationships; Authors; Women;
Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 2
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Clean : the new science of skin / by Hamblin, James,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."The things we do every day to keep ourselves clean can have surprising and unintended effects, as this entertaining introduction to the new science of skin microbes and probiotics reveals Keeping skin healthy is a booming industry, and yet it seems like almost no one agrees on what actually works. What one person says is vital another says is toxic. We have not cured acne or eczema, allergies keep getting worse, and autoimmune conditions are becoming increasingly common. In Clean, doctor and journalist James Hamblin explores how we got here, examining the science and culture of how we care for our skin today. He talks to dermatologists, microbiologists, allergists, immunologists, aestheticians, bar-soap enthusiasts, venture capitalists, Amish people, theologians, and straight-up scam artists, trying to figure out what it really means to be clean. He even experiments with giving up showers entirely, and discovers that he is not alone. Along the way he realizes that most of our standards of cleanliness are less related to health than most people think. In fact, our overuse of soap, sanitizers, and untested, misleading skin-care products may be to blame for many problems. But a little-known area of science is shining light on our skin microbiome-the trillions of microbes that live on our skin and in our pores. These microbes influence everything from acne, eczema, and dry skin to how we smell. The new goal of skin care will be to cultivate a healthy biome-and to embrace the meaning of "clean" in the natural sense. This can mean doing much less, saving time, money, energy, water, and plastic bottles in the process. Lucid, accessible, and deeply researched, Clean explores the ongoing, radical change in the way we think about our skin, introducing readers to the emerging science that will be at the forefront of health and wellness conversations in coming years"--
Subjects: Beauty, Personal.; Hygiene.; Self-care, Health.; Skin;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Cardiovascular System - Anatomy of the Great Vessels. by A. Goodman, Anthony,actor.; The Great Courses (Firm),dst; Kanopy (Firm),dst;
Anthony A. GoodmanOriginally produced by The Great Courses in 2004.This lecture examines the anatomy of the three vessel networks that circulate blood. We identify and describe the structure of the vessels that form these networks. Next, we examine the major circulatory routes for the blood: arterial and venous systemic circulation, pulmonary circulation, and hepatic portal circulation.Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Subjects: Feature films.; Television series.; Motion pictures.;
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The explorer's gene : why we seek big challenges, new flavors, and the blank spots on the map / by Hutchinson, Alex,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Off the beaten path, on unmarked trails, we are wired to explore. More than just a need to get outside, the search for the unknown is a specific, primal urge that has shaped the history of our species and continues to mold our behavior in ways we are just beginning to understand. In fact, the latest evolutionary neuroscience suggests that exploration is an essential ingredient of human life. Exploration, it turns out, isn't merely a hobby-it's our story. In this long-awaited follow-up to his New York Times bestseller Endure, Alex Hutchinson dives headfirst into a fascinating and provocative new field of research, examining how exploration is a fundamental part of what makes us human and revealing how, even in our fully mapped modern world, the pursuit of the unknown remains an indispensable mindset in all walks of life. And yet, it has never been easier to live an exploration-free life, without the struggle and uncertainty that true exploration-of places, experiences, and ideas-requires. With the digital world frequently exploiting the neural circuitry behind our drive to explore, we receive the illusion of novelty without accompanying growth. This despite mounting evidence that our lives are better-more productive, more satisfying, and more fun-when we ditch the maps on our phones and find our own way. From paddling the lost rivers of the northern Canadian wilderness to the ocean-spanning voyages of the Polynesians, The Explorer's Gene combines riveting stories of exploration with cutting-edge insights from behavioral psychology and neuroscience. The end result offers a singular approach to finding meaning in our past struggles, embracing the possibility of failure in our future, and crucially, recognizing when our present is good enough"--
Subjects: Adaptability (Psychology); Cognitive psychology.; Curiosity.; Demographic anthropology.; Discoveries in geography.; Evolutionary developmental biology.; Experiential learning.; Human beings; Voyages and travels.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Orwell's roses / by Solnit, Rebecca,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."A fresh take on George Orwell as a far more nature-loving figure than is often portrayed, and a dazzlingly rich meditation on roses, gardens, and the value and use of beauty and pleasure in the face of brutality and horror. "In the spring of 1936 a man planted roses." That man was George Orwell, shortly before he went off to fight against fascism in Spain. Today, those rosebushes are still thriving. This is the starting point for Rebecca Solnit's new book, which presents another side of Orwell, a neglected arcadian Orwell who took enormous pleasure in the natural world and found great meaning and value in it. Orwell's planting of the roses is an axle from which Solnit's chapters radiate out like spokes as she brilliantly explores its various contexts, perspectives, and meanings, following the contours of Orwell's life and tracking how deeply enmeshed the love of nature is in all his writing. Journeying to the cottage in Wallingford where Orwell lived in 1936, she examines his desire to be agrarian and settled, how gardening restored him, and how planting something can be an act of fidelity and faith. Probing at the beauty and meaning of roses, she draws in the revolutionary photography and politics of Tina Modotti and makes a clandestine visit to a Columbian rose factory, where 80% of America's roses for sale are grown. She tracks the history of gardening, showing how the desire to garden is culturally determined and often rooted in class, recounts the immense battles over breeding and genetics in Russia during Stalin's time, and probes into the colonialist roots of Orwell's forebears, who worked in opium production in India and profiteered from sugar and slavery in Jamaica. Solnit shows how these points of intersection illuminate Orwell's work, and how that illumination shines forth on larger questions about beauty, pleasure, meaning, relationship, and hope. Her book establishes that "Orwellian" could stand for something more than ominous, corrupt, and sinister"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Orwell, George, 1903-1950; Orwell, George, 1903-1950.; Authors, English; Gardening.; Nature.; Roses.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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How civil wars start : and how to stop them / by Walter, Barbara F.,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."A leading political scientist examines the dramatic rise in violent extremism around the globe and sounds the alarm on the increasing likelihood of a second civil war in the United States. Political violence rips apart several towns in southwest Texas. A far-right militia plots to kidnap the governor of Michigan and try her for treason. An armed mob of Trump supporters and conspiracy theorists storms the U.S. Capitol. Are these isolated incidents? Or is this the start of something bigger? Barbara F. Walter has spent her career studying civil conflict in places like Iraq and Sri Lanka, but now she has become increasingly worried about her own country. Perhaps surprisingly, both autocracies and healthy democracies are largely immune from civil war; it's the countries in the middle ground that are most vulnerable. And this is where more and more countries, including the United States, are finding themselves today. Over the last two decades, the number of active civil wars around the world has almost doubled. Walter reveals the warning signs-where wars tend to start, who initiates them, what triggers them-and why some countries tip over into conflict while others remain stable. Drawing on the latest international research and lessons from over twenty countries, Walter identifies the crucial risk factors, from democratic backsliding to factionalization and the politics of resentment. A civil war today won't look like America in the 1860s, Russia in the 1920s, or Spain in the 1930s. It will begin with sporadic acts of violence and terror, accelerated by social media. It will sneak up on us and leave us wondering how we could have been so blind. In this urgent and insightful book, Walter redefines civil war for a new age, providing the framework we need to confront the danger we now face-and the knowledge to stop it before it's too late"--
Subjects: Civil war.; Democratization.; Domestic terrorism.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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