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Ghost music : a novel / by Yu, An,1992-author.;
"From the author of the "original and electric" Braised Pork (Time), An Yu's enchanting and contemplative novel of music and mushrooms follows a former concert pianist searching for the truth about a vanished musician. For three years, Song Yan has filled the emptiness of her Beijing apartment with the tentative notes of her young piano students. She gave up on her own career as a concert pianist many years ago, but her husband Bowen, an executive at a car company, has long rebuffed her pleas to have a child. He resists even when his mother arrives from the southwestern Chinese region of Yunnan and begins her own campaign for a grandchild. As tension in the household rises, it becomes harder for Song Yan to keep her usual placid demeanor, especially since she is troubled by dreams of a doorless room she can't escape, populated only by a strange orange mushroom. When a parcel of mushrooms native to her mother-in-law's province is delivered seemingly by mistake, Song Yan sees an opportunity to bond with her, and as the packages continue to arrive every week, the women stir-fry and grill the mushrooms, adding them to soups and noodles. When a letter arrives in the mail from the sender of the mushrooms, Song Yan's world begins to tilt further into the surreal. Summoned to an uncanny, seemingly ageless house hidden in a hutong that sits in the middle of the congested city, she finds Bai Yu, a once world-famous pianist who disappeared ten years ago. A gorgeous and atmospheric novel of art and expression, grief and survival, memory and self-discovery, Ghost Music animates contemporary Beijing through the eyes of a lonely yet hopeful young woman and gives vivid color and texture to the promise of new beginnings"--
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Novels.; Missing persons; Musicians; Pianists; Women;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Lear's shadow : a novel / by Rothman, Claire,1958-author.;
"A captivating novel about aging fathers and their grown daughters, childhood scars, and rewriting the script with a little help from Shakespeare, from the acclaimed author of My October. During a sweltering, stormy Montreal summer, Bea Rose finds herself about to turn forty having lost her lover, her business, and her bearings. When the opportunity to work for an outdoor production of King Lear arises, she grabs it despite her utter lack of theatre experience. Things get off to a rocky start when Bea learns the artistic director, Arthur White, is a childhood friend whose presence stirs up painful memories. Then she inadvertently sparks the lascivious attentions of the aging star of the play and alienates the stage director, who happens to be his former wife. As Bea learns the ropes of her new role, her beloved but demanding father begins behaving erratically and losing himself in forgetfulness and her younger sister Cara reveals cracks in the foundation of her apparently perfect life as a devoted mother and co-owner, with her charismatic husband, of a successful raw foods restaurant. The sisters do their best to care for their father, but his deteriorating condition soon exceeds what either can handle. To make matters worse, the star of Lear is also faltering amidst the confusions of age, illness, and regret over transgressions from his past. In a masterful scene of raucous celebration whirling out of control, the various forces in Bea's life collide in a shocking act that could destroy more than one life--or reveal how those lives might come together in new and stronger ways. Tender, vivid, and powerful, Lear's Shadow is a richly satisfying exploration of how the ties of love can both bind and liberate us, and of how, even in the face of grief, we can embrace life."--
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Psychological fiction.; Fathers and daughters; Sisters;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Hard town / by Plantinga, Adam,author.;
"When a plea for help sends retired Detroit cop Kurt Argento to the small desert town of Fenton, Arizona things immediately don't appear to be as they seem, and he finds himself unraveling secrets that want to stay hidden and questioning his own moral compass. After having survived a deadly prison break, ex-Detroit cop Kurt Argento is ready for some quiet. Still working through his grief over the passing of his wife, Argento finds himself house-sitting for a friend with his loyal companion, Hudson, a Chow Chow-Shepard mix. It's a simple life, picking up odd jobs here and there, but it's one that Argento is content to live. Then Kristin Reed shows up with her young son, Ethan, and begs Argento to help find her missing husband ... and Argento tells her he'd just be in the way. He's no investigator, not anymore. He's a handyman who fixes fences. But he's not one to ignore his gut feeling when something is wrong. After an attempt to talk with Kristin more in the next town over, just to find her and her son missing as well, Argento starts to notice that Fenton, Arizona is more than meets the eye. First there's the large, overly equipped public safety team complete with specialized tactics and sophisticated weaponry. Then there's the unusual financial boosting of failing small businesses by the U.S. government. And finally, there's one man with no name who seems to have control over this town in an unprecedented way. Argento finds himself unraveling not just the truth behind the disappearance of a family, but a conspiracy that's taken a whole town to cover up. But Fenton, Arizona is going to push him further than he's ever had to go. And along the way, he may just lose a part of himself as well. Because justice isn't as black and white as Argento would like to believe"--
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Novels.; Conspiracies; Ex-police officers; Missing persons; Secrecy;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The newcomer [sound recording] : a novel / by Andrews, Mary Kay,1954-author.; McInerney, Kathleen(Actress),narrator.; Macmillan Audio (Firm),publisher.;
Read by Kathleen McInerney."After she discovers her sister Tanya dead on the floor of her fashionable New York City townhouse, Letty Carnahan is certain she knows who did it: Tanya's ex, sleazy real estate entrepreneur Evan Wingfield. Even in the grip of grief and panic, Letty heeds her late sister's warnings: 'If anything bad happens to me--it's Evan. Promise me you'll take Maya and run. Promise me.' So Letty grabs her sister's Mercedes and hits the road with her wailing four-year-old niece, Maya. Letty is determined to outrun Evan and the law, but run to where? Tanya, a woman with a past shrouded in secrets, left behind a 'go-bag' of cash and a big honking diamond ring--but only one clue: a faded magazine story about a sleepy mom-and-pop motel in a Florida beach town with the improbable name of Treasure Island. She sheds her old life and checks into an uncertain future at the Murmuring Surf Hotel. The no vacancy sign is flashing and the sharks are circling ... And that's the good news. Because the Surf, as the regulars call it, is the winter home of a close-knit flock of retirees and snowbirds who regard this odd-duck newcomer with suspicion and downright hostility. As Letty settles into the motel's former storage room, she tries to heal Maya's heartache and unravel the key to her sister's shady past, all while dodging the attention of the owner's dangerously attractive son Joe, who just happens to be a local police detective. Can Letty find romance as well as a room at the inn--or will Joe betray her secrets and put her behind bars? With danger closing in, it's a race to find the truth and right the wrongs of the past"--Back cover.Compact discs.
Subjects: Chick lit.; Audiobooks.; Domestic fiction.; Psychological fiction.; Aunts; Justice; Motels; Nieces; Sisters;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The spoon stealer / by Crewe, Lesley,1955-author.;
"Born into a basket of clean sheets -- ruining a perfectly good load of laundry -- Emmeline never quite fit in on her family's rural Nova Scotian farm. After suffering multiple losses in the First World War, her family became so heavy with grief, toxicity, and mental illness that Emmeline felt their weight smothering her. And so, she fled across the Atlantic and built her life in England. Now she is retired and living in a small coastal town with her best friend, Vera, an excellent conversationalist. Vera is also a small white dog, and so Emmeline is making an effort to talk to more humans. When she joins a memoir-writing course at the library, her classmates don't know what to make of her. Funny, loud, and with a riveting memoir, she charms the lot. As her past unfolds for her audience, friendships form, a bonus in a rather lonely life. She even shares with them her third-biggest secret: she has liberated hundreds of spoons over her lifetime -- from the local library, Cary Grant, Winston Churchill. She is a compulsive spoon stealer. When Emmeline unexpectedly inherits the farm she grew up on, she knows she needs to leave, to see what remains of her family one last time. She arrives like a tornado in their lives, an off-kilter Mary Poppins bossing everyone around and getting quite a lot wrong. But with her generosity and hard-earned wisdom, she gets an awful lot right, too. A pinball ricocheting between people, offending and inspiring in equal measure, Emmeline, in her final years, believes that a spoonful -- perhaps several spoonfuls -- of kindness can set to rights the family so broken by loss and secrecy. The Spoon Stealer is a classic Crewe book: full of humour, family secrets, women's friendship, lovable animals, and immense heart."--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Domestic fiction.; Families; Family secrets; Homecoming; Human-animal relationships; Inheritance and succession;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Magnificent rebels : the first romantics and the invention of the self / by Wulf, Andrea,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."From the best-selling author of The Invention of Nature comes an exhilarating story about a remarkable group of young rebels-poets, novelists, philosophers-who, through their epic quarrels, passionate love stories, heartbreaking grief, and radical ideas launched Romanticism onto the world stage, inspiring some of the greatest thinkers of the time. When did we begin to be as self-centered as we are today? At what point did we expect to have the right to determine our own lives? When did we first ask the question, How can I be free? It all began in a quiet university town in Germany in the 1790s, when a group of playwrights, poets, and writers put the self at center stage in their thinking, their writing, and their lives. This brilliant circle included the famous poets Goethe, Schiller, and Novalis; the visionary philosophers Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel; the contentious Schlegel brothers; and, in a wonderful cameo, Alexander von Humboldt. And at the heart of this group was the formidable Caroline Schlegel, who sparked their dazzling conversations about the self, nature, identity, and freedom. The French revolutionaries may have changed the political landscape of Europe, but the young Romantics incited a revolution of the mind that transformed our world forever. We are still empowered by their daring leap into the self, and by their radical notions of the creative potential of the individual, the highest aspirations of art and science, the unity of nature, and the true meaning of freedom. We also still walk the same tightrope between meaningful self-fulfillment and destructive narcissism, between the rights of the individual and our responsibilities toward our community and future generations. At the heart of this inspiring book is the extremely modern tension between the dangers of selfishness and the thrilling possibilities of free will"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Authors, German; Romanticism; Self in literature.; Self-realization.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Tiananmen Square / by Wen, Lai,author.;
As a child in Beijing in the 1970s, Lai lives with her family in a lively, working-class neighborhood near the heart of the city. Thoughtful yet unassuming, she spends her days with her friends beyond the attention of her parents: Her father is a reclusive figure who lingers in the background, while her mother, an aging beauty and fervent patriot, is quick-tempered and preoccupied with neighborhood gossip. Only Lai's grandmother, a formidable and colorful maverick, seems to really see Lai and believe that she can blossom beyond their circumstances. But Lai is quickly awakened to the harsh realities of the Chinese state. A childish prank results in a terrifying altercation with police that haunts her for years; she also learns that her father, like many others, was broken during the Cultural Revolution. As she enters adolescence, Lai meets a mysterious and wise bookseller who introduces her to great works-Hemingway, Camus, and Orwell, among others-that open her heart to the emotional power of literature and her mind to thrillingly different perspectives. Along the way, she experiences the ebbs and flows of friendship, the agony of grief, and the first steps and missteps in love. A gifted student, Lai wins a scholarship to study at the prestigious Peking University where she soon falls in with a theatrical band of individualists and misfits dedicated to becoming their authentic selves, despite the Communist Party's insistence on conformity-and a new world opens before her. When student resistance hardens under the increasingly restrictive policies of the state, the group gets swept up in the fervor, determined to be heard, joining the masses of demonstrators and dreamers who display remarkable courage and loyalty in the face of danger. As 1989 unfolds, the spirit of change is in the air.
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Bildungsromans.; Novels.; Books and reading; College students; Politicians; Protest movements; Young women;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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A boy is not a bird / by Ravel, Edeet,1955-;
A young boy named Natt finds his world overturned when his family is uprooted and exiled to Siberia during the occupation of the Soviet Ukraine by Nazi Germany. In 1941, life in Natt's small town of Zastavna is comfortable and familiar, even if the grown ups are acting strange, and his parents treat him like a baby. Natt knows there's a war on, of course, but he's glad their family didn't emigrate to Canada when they had a chance. His mother didn't want to leave their home, and neither did he. He especially wouldn't want to leave his best friend, Max. Max is the ideas guy, and he hears what's going on in the world from his older sisters. Together the boys are two brave musketeers. Then one day Natt goes home and finds his family huddled around the radio. The Russians are taking over. The churches and synagogues will close, Hebrew school will be held in secret, and there are tanks and soldiers in the street. But it's exciting, too. Natt wants to become a Young Pioneer, to show outstanding revolutionary spirit and make their new leader, Comrade Stalin, proud. But life under the Russians is hard. The soldiers are poor. They eat up all the food and they even take over Natt's house. Then Natt's father is arrested, and even Natt is detained and questioned. He feels like a nomad, sleeping at other people's houses while his mother works to free his father. As the adults try to protect him from the reality of their situation, and local authorities begin to round up deportees bound for Siberia, Natt is filled with a sense of guilt and grief. Why wasn't he brave enough to look up at the prison window when his mother took him to see his father for what might be the last time? Or can just getting through war be a heroic act in itself?LSC
Subjects: Historical fiction.; World War, 1939-1945; Exile (Punishment); Friendship; Families;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 2
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The poet's game : a spy in Moscow / by Vidich, Paul,author.;
"Alex Matthews thought he had left it all behind: his CIA career, the viper's den of bureaucracy at headquarters, the deceits of the cat-and-mouse game of double agents, and the sudden trips to Russia, which poisoned his marriage and made him an absentee husband and father, with tragic results. But then the Director came asking for a favor. Something that only Alex could do because it involved the asset Byron -- a Russian agent whom Alex had recruited. Byron had something of great interest to the CIA; the Director said it was a matter of grave national security that implicated the White House, and that Byron would hand over the kompromat once he was extricated from Russia. But Alex is a different man than when he had run Moscow station: he has pieced his life back together after a tragic accident killed his wife and daughter -- but the scars remain. He left the agency; started a financial firm that made him wealthy; and met a new woman, Anna, who works as an interpreter in the CIA. Anna is beautiful and supportive and helps him find love again after years of drowning in grief alongside his son. Throughout the last years, Alex has remained, in his mind, a patriot, and so he begrudgingly accepts the Director's request. Something, though, doesn't feel right about the whole operation from the start. The Russians seem one step ahead and the CIA suspects there is a traitor in the agency, passing along secrets to the Russians. Alex realizes that, by getting back into the game, he has risked everything he has worked for: his marriage, his family's safety, and the trust of his closest colleagues -- one of whom is betraying him. As the noose tightens around Alex, and the FSB closes in on Byron, the operation becomes a hall of mirrors with no exits. To find redemption, Alex must uncover Byron's secrets or risk losing everything."--
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Spy fiction.; Novels.; United States. Central Intelligence Agency; Betrayal; Intelligence officers; Secrecy;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Nobody's magic / by Birdsong, Destiny O.,1981-author.;
"In this glittering triptych novel, Suzette, Maple and Agnes, three Black women with albinism, call Shreveport, Louisiana, home. At the bustling intersection of the American South and Southwest, these three women find themselves at the crossroads of their own lives. Suzette, a pampered twenty-year-old, has been sheltered from the outside world since a dangerous childhood encounter. Now, a budding romance with a sweet mechanic allows Suzette to seek independence, which unleashes dark reactions in those closest to her. In discovering her autonomy, Suzette is forced to decide what she is willing to sacrifice in order to make her own way in the world. Maple is reeling from the unsolved murder of her free-spirited mother. She flees the media circus and her judgmental grandmother by shutting herself off from the world in a spare room of the motel where she works. One night, Maple connects with Chad, someone who may understand her pain more than she realizes, and discovers that the key to her mother's death may be within her reach. Agnes is far from home, working yet another mind-numbing job. She attracts the interest of a lonely security guard and army veteran who's looking for a traditional life for himself and his young son. He's convinced that she wields a certain "magic," but Agnes soon unleashes a power within herself that will shock them both and send her on a trip to confront not only her family and her past, but also herself. This novel, told in three parts, is a searing meditation on grief, female strength, and self-discovery set against a backdrop of complicated social and racial histories. Nobody's Magic is a testament to the power of family-the ones you're born in and the ones you choose. And in these three narratives, among the yearning and loss, each of these women may find a seed of hope for the future"--
Subjects: Bildungsromans.; Psychological fiction.; African American women; Albinos and albinism; Man-woman relationships; Self-actualization (Psychology) in women;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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