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My road from Damascus : a memoir / by Saeed, Jamal,1959-author.; Cobham, Catherine,translator.;
"Jamal Saeed arrived as a refugee in Canada in 2016. In his native Syria, as a young man, his writing pushed both social and political norms. For this reason, as well as his opposition to the regimes of the al-Assads, he was imprisoned on three occasions for a total of 12 years. In each instance, he was held without formal charge and without judicial process. My Road from Damascus not only tells the story of Saeed's severe years in Syria's most notorious military prisons but also his life during the country's dramatic changes. Saeed chronicles modern Syria from the 1950s right up to his escape to Canada in 2016, recounting its descent from a country of potential to a pawn of cynical and corrupt powers. It paints a picture of village life, his rebellion as a young Marxist and evolution into a free thinker, living in hiding as a teenager for 30 months while being hunted by the secret police, his youthful love affairs, how he survived his brutal prison years, his final release, and his family's harrowing escape to Canada. While many prison memoirs focus on the cruelty of incarceration, My Road from Damascus offers a tapestry of Saeed's whole life. It looks squarely at brutality, but also at beauty and poetry, hope and love."-- Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Saeed, Jamal, 1959-; Authors, Canadian; Political refugees; Political refugees;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Promises to keep : a novel / by Rossiter, Nan Parson,author.;
"Thirty-four-year-old Maeve Lindstrom loves her job at Willow Pond Senior Care. Her older sister Macey thinks Maeve is the only human being on earth who can make working in a nursing home sound like fun. Maeve enjoys being around the sundowners, as she calls them, helping them navigate their senior years--brightening a time that can be, all too often, a lonely, sad stage of life. Thirty-three-year-old Gage Tennyson--who brings his mischievous yellow Lab, Gus, to whatever restoration job he is working on with Macey's husband, Ben--loves Maeve with all his heart. He's a handsome country boy and a true southern gentleman. But as he and Maeve grow closer, they both sense that they haven't been completely forthcoming about their pasts. When Maeve realizes Gage might be planning to propose, she knows she must finally be honest with everyone she holds dear. She can no longer live with the secret she's been dragging around like an anchor, and she knows the only way she will be free to build a lifetime relationship with Gage is to risk everything--including his (and her family's) love and respect. Before she finds the courage, however, her past comes careening into her life in a shocking and unexpected way"--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Recipes.; Families; Man-woman relationships; Older people; Secrecy;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 2
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Written in the stars : a novel / by Bellefleur, Alexandria,author.;
"After a disastrous blind date, Darcy Lowell is desperate to stop her well-meaning brother from playing matchmaker ever again. Love--and the inevitable heartbreak--is the last thing she wants. So she fibs and says her latest set up was a success. Darcy doesn't expect her lie to bite her in the ass. Elle Jones, one of the astrologers behind the popular Twitter account Oh My Stars, dreams of finding her soul mate. But she knows it is most assuredly not Darcy ... a no-nonsense stick-in-the-mud, who is way too analytical, punctual, and skeptical for someone as free-spirited as Elle. When Darcy's brother--and Elle's new business partner--expresses how happy he is that they hit it off, Elle is baffled. Was Darcy on the same date? Because ... awkward. Darcy begs Elle to play along and she agrees to pretend they're dating. But with a few conditions: Darcy must help Elle navigate her own overbearing family during the holidays and their arrangement expires on New Year's Eve. The last thing they expect is to develop real feelings during a faux relationship. But maybe opposites can attract when true love is written in the stars?"--
Subjects: Humorous fiction.; Lesbian fiction.; Actuaries; Astrologers; Blind dates; Brothers and sisters; Dating (Social customs); Lesbians; Truthfulness and falsehood;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Death by a thousand cuts : stories / by Bhat, Shashi,1983-author.;
Includes bibliographical references."In this dazzling collection of stories, characters confront the painful absurdities and everyday horrors that come with being a woman. A writer discovers that her ex-boyfriend has published a novel about their breakup. An immunocompromised woman falls in love. A Reddit post about a man's habit of grabbing his girlfriend's breasts prompts a dark confession. A teenager contends with an unsettling shift at home after her beautiful mother has a disfiguring accident. A child-free woman goes on a date with a man who tests her boundaries. A college student vows to end things with her aspiring geneticist boyfriend, who wishes she had blue eyes. And when a woman unexpectedly begins to lose her hair, she embarks on an increasingly nightmarish search for answers. The characters in Death by a Thousand Cuts seek connection while facing longing, fear, rage, and the impossible expectations placed on women. With bracing honesty and a skewering wit, these stories boldly wrestle with themes of illness, pain, desire, bodily autonomy, and their inescapable impacts on a woman's relationships with others and with herself."--
Subjects: Short stories.; Women;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Nosy Parker / by Crewe, Lesley,1955-author.;
"It's 1967 in Montreal, the Expo is in full swing, and Audrey Parker has just moved with her dad to Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, a whole new neighbourhood full of different kinds of people to spy on. Audrey is a lot of things: articulate, disarming, forthright. And, as her father reminds her often, indecently nosy. Audrey scribbles every observation down in her notebooks -- from which foods her new teacher eats for lunch, to how blue the water is in Greece, to what time the one-legged man across the street gets home. She is certain she will soon root out a murderer or uncover a mystery. But there's only one mystery that really matters to her: her mother. Who was she? How did she die? Why won't her father ever talk about her? Over a year of Audrey's life, we bike with her through the streets of NDG, encountering stray animals, free-range kids, and adults both viciously cruel and wonderful. And we walk with Audrey across the threshold from childhood to adolescence, where she will discover the truth about her mother. Balancing humour and sadness as expertly as ever, author Lesley Crewe -- who has so often captured Cape Breton perfectly on the page -- turns her incisive observations for the first time to the NDG of the 1960s, where she grew up."--Publisher.
Subjects: Bildungsromans.; Historical fiction.; Humorous fiction.; Novels.; Coming of age; Family secrets; Fathers and daughters; Mothers and daughters; Nineteen sixties; Preteen girls;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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Fang fiction : a novel / by Stayman-London, Kate,author.;
"Tess Rosenbloom is used to living in the dark. She's a trauma survivor and chronic insomniac, the night manager of a chic Brooklyn hotel who spends her free time reading Blood Feud, a massively popular book series about two warring clans of vampires trapped on a mysterious Isle. Tess even dabbles in online conspiracies theorizing that the world of Blood Feud is real - it's fun to hunt for clues! But deep down, Tess doesn't believe vampires actually exist ... Until one walks through her door. It turns out the sexy villain of Blood Feud is trapped, and his sister is desperate for Tess to help rescue him. Eager to escape her own life, Tess agrees, and soon she's in a fantasia of lavish palaces and dark forests, on a secret island where the sun never shines, everything is magical, and she's surrounded by deadly vampires - and against her better judgment, she's falling in love with one of them. Visiting the world of your favorite story is any fan's dream, but will Tess be able to outrun the demons of her past (and the vampires of her present) before it becomes a nightmare? In this darkly glamorous rom-com, Tess will find out whether it's worth risking her neck-and her heart-for a chance to reclaim her future"--
Subjects: Vampire fiction.; Paranormal fiction.; Romance fiction.; Novels.; Books and reading; Interpersonal relations; Islands; Magic; Man-woman relationships; Vampires;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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We are still here : Afghan women on courage, freedom, and the fight to be heard / by Atwood, Margaret,1939-writer of foreword.; Shahalimi, Nahid,1973-editor.;
Includes bibliographical references."A collection of first-hand accounts from courageous Afghan women who refuse to be silenced in the face of the Taliban. After decades of significant progress, the prospects of women and girls in Afghanistan are once again dependent on radical Islamists who reject gender equality. When the United States announced the end of their twenty-year occupation and the Taliban seized control of the country on August 15th, 2021, so began a steep regression of social, political, and economic freedoms for women in the country. But just because a brutal regime has taken over doesn't mean Afghan women will stand by while their rights are stripped away. In We Are Still Here, artist and activist Nahid Shahalimi compiles the voices of thirteen powerful, insightful, and influential Afghan women who have worked as politicians, journalists, scientists, filmmakers, artists, coders, musicians, and more. As they reflect on their country's past, stories of their own upbringing and the ways they have been able to empower girls and women over the past two decades emerge. They report on the fear and pain caused by the impending loss of their homeland, but above all on what many girls and women in Afghanistan have already lost: freedom, self-determination, and joy. The result is an arresting book that issues an appeal to remember Afghan girls and women and to show solidarity with them. Like us, they have a right to freedom and dignity, and together we must fight for their place in the free world because Afghanistan is only geographically distant. Extremist ideas know no limits."--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Women's rights; Women; Women;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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You don't have to quit : 20 science-backed strategies to help your loved one drink less / by Palmer, Maureen,author.; Pond, Michael,1953-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.A paradigm-shifting approach to caring for someone who drinks too much that will transform your relationship, and may save your partner's life. Steeped in a culture that glorifies drinking while new health regulations suggest no level of alcohol consumption is risk-free, more and more people are struggling with excessive alcohol use and alcohol use disorder. Their loved ones want to help, science tells us they are best positioned to help, but the culture discourages this and in fact shames and blames those who want to help. Counter to everything you've ever heard, you're not a codependent or an enabler for wanting to help. You've seen your beloved person drunk. Maybe a lot. There are few human experiences less dignified. And then in your attempts to get them to quit, you may have inadvertently overlaid a layer of shame and humiliation perhaps almost as destructive as the alcohol. The more frustrated you get because they won't quit, the more your reptilian brain runs the show, the less dignified you may find yourself behaving. What if, instead, you assumed the goal of "any positive change" as it relates to your partner's drinking. What if, rather than total abstinence, together, you found a way to reduce the harms associated with their alcohol use? The word "reduce," rather than "quit," is key, because a harm reduction approach to alcohol bests your chances that you both come out the other side of this process successful with your dignity intact. In You Don't Have to Quit, Maureen Palmer offers you twenty shame-free strategies for supporting your loved one to make healthier choices related to their alcohol use. It all starts with taking care of yourself, letting go of the wretched and pervasive ideology of codependence, and valuing positive change, even in small increments. The twenty tips offered here maximize your chances of maintaining your dignity as individuals, further bolstering the strength of your relationship.
Subjects: Alcoholics' spouses.; Alcoholics; Alcoholism; Controlled drinking.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The lieutenant's nurse / by Ackerman, Sara,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."She's never even seen the ocean before, but Eva Cassidy has her reasons for making the crossing to Hawaii, and they run a lot deeper than escaping a harsh Michigan winter. Newly enlisted as an Army Corps nurse, Eva is stunned by the splendor she experiences aboard the steamship SS Lurline; even more so by Lt. Clark Spencer, a man she is drawn to but who clearly has secrets of his own. But Eva's past--and the future she's trying to create--means that she's not free to follow her heart. Clark is a navy intelligence officer, and he warns her that the United States won't be able to hold off joining the war for long, but nothing can prepare them for the surprise attack that will change the world they know. In the wake of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Eva and her fellow nurses band together for the immense duty of keeping the American wounded alive. And the danger that finds Eva threatens everything she holds dear. Amid the chaos and heartbreak, Eva will have to decide whom to trust and how far she will go to protect those she loves" -- Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Romance fiction.; Historical fiction.; United States. Army Nurse Corps; United States. Navy; Women nurses ; Man-woman relationships; Pearl Harbor (Hawaii), Attack on, 1941; Secrecy;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Talk money to me : save well, spend some, and feel good about your money / by Keehn, Kelley,1975-author.;
Includes bibliographical references."No matter your age, salary, social or relationship status, money is an important part of your life. Yet somehow, talking about your money situation is hard. Why is it that you know more about what goes on in your friend's bedroom than with their bank account? Do you know if your parents have a will, or if they'll leave a legacy? How many of your colleagues are still paying off student debt, but are jet-setting around the globe on multiple credit cards? Since no one is talking about it, you can't be expected to learn how to manage your money on your own. With years of experience as a personal finance advisor and educator, Kelley Keehn will answer your most burning questions about money, and will talk you through how to avoid mistakes along the way. You can gain control of your debt, learn to save for your future, have a life, and feel good about money all at the same time. And spoiler alert-- you don't need a budget to do any of this! You'll learn: How to build good credit (and get rid of bad credit-- especially credit card debt); what all these dreaded acronyms mean and how they can work for you-- TFSA, RRSP, RESP, CFP, CPP; how and when to invest for your future; how to talk about money with your partner-- and everyone else in your life; how to save for a mortgage, and then work towards being mortgage-free; how to have fun, splurge once in a while, and still save money With her unique blend of empathy and no-nonsense candor, Kelley takes you through the basics of personal finance with relatable anecdotes that expose the most common money pitfalls-- and how to avoid them-- so you can make financial decisions that are right for you."-- Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Finance, Personal;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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