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Ghost towns of Ontario's cottage country / by Hind, Andrew,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Explore the remnants of vanished villages across Ontario's cottage country. Crumbling foundations lost in the forest, weathered buildings leaning wearily with age, cracked tombstones jutting from the ground--all serve as haunting reminders of once thriving villages that have since been abandoned. Each of these locales has a distinct story to tell, stories that until now were confined to fading memories and grainy photographs. From the northern shores of Georgian Bay to the eastern reaches of the Kawarthas, Ontario's cottage country is littered with vanished villages, including settlement-era farm communities, railway whistlestops, and logging hamlets. Within these pages, readers will venture into Ontario's past to learn how these communities lived and died and to meet the people who invested their hopes and dreams in them. Dozens of photographs, many historical and never before published, bring these ghost towns back to life. Join Andrew Hind in exploring over a dozen villages across the districts of Parry Sound and Nipissing,Muskoka, and the Haliburton Highlands."--
Subjects: Guidebooks.; Ghost towns; Ghost towns;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Undersong / by Winter, Kathleen,author.;
When young James Dixon, a local jack-of-all-trades recently returned from the Battle of Waterloo, meets writer Dorothy Wordsworth, he quickly realizes he's never met another woman anything like her. In her early thirties at the time of the meeting, Dorothy has already lived a wildly unconventional life. As her famous brother William Wordsworth's confidante and creative collaborator--considered by some in their circle to be the secret to his success as a poet--she has carved a seemingly idyllic existence for herself, alongside William and his wife, in England's Lake District. One day, Dixon is approached by William to do some handiwork around the Wordsworth estate. At William's urging, he takes on more and more chores--and quickly understands that his real, unspoken responsibility is to keep an eye on Dorothy, who is growing frail and melancholic. The unlikely pair of misfits form a sympathetic bond despite the sometimes troubling chasm in social class between them, and soon Dixon is the quiet witness to everyday life in Dorothy's family and glittering social circle, which includes literary legends Samuel Coleridge, Thomas de Quincy, William Blake, and Charles and Mary Lamb. Through the fictional James Dixon--a gentle but troubled soul, more attuned to the wonders of the garden he faithfully tends than to vexing worldly matters--we step inside the Wordsworth family, witnessing their dramatic emotional and artistic struggles, hidden traumas, private betrayals and triumphs. At the same time, Winter slowly weaves a darker, complex "undersong" through the novel, one as earthy and elemental as flower and tree, gradually revealing the pattern of Dorothy's rich, hidden life--that of a woman determined, against all odds, to exist on her own terms despite societal norms. But the unsettling effects of Dorothy's tragically repressed brilliance take their toll, and when at last her true voice finally sings out, it is so searing and bright that Dixon, compelled equally by love and grief and fear, must make an impossible choice.
Subjects: Biographical fiction.; Historical fiction.; Wordsworth, Dorothy, 1771-1855; Wordsworth, William, 1770-1850; Families; Man-woman relationships; Poets; Social classes; Veterans;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 2
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The golden gate / by Chua, Amy,author.;
"Amy Chua's debut novel, The Golden Gate, is a sweeping, evocative, and compelling historical thriller that paints a vibrant portrait of a California buffeted by the turbulent crosswinds of a world at war and a society about to undergo massive change. In Berkeley, California, in 1944, Homicide Detective Al Sullivan has just left the swanky Claremont Hotel after a drink in the bar when a presidential candidate is assassinated in one of the rooms upstairs. A rich industrialist with enemies among the anarchist factions on the far left, Walter Wilkinson could have been targeted by any number of groups. But strangely, Sullivan's investigation brings up the specter of another tragedy at the Claremont, ten years earlier: the death of seven-year-old Iris Stafford, a member of the Bainbridge family, one of the wealthiest in all of San Francisco. Some say she haunts the Claremont still. The many threads of the case keep leading Sullivan back to the three remaining Bainbridge heiresses, now adults: Iris's sister, Isabella, and her cousins Cassie and Nicole. Determined not to let anything distract him from the truth-not the powerful influence of Bainbridges' grandmother, or the political aspirations of Berkeley's district attorney, or the interest of China's First Lady Madame Chiang Kai-Shek in his findings-Sullivan follows his investigation to its devastating conclusion. Chua's page-turning debut brings to life a historical era rife with turbulent social forces and groundbreaking forensic advances, when race and class defined the very essence of power, sex, and justice, and introduces a fascinating character in Detective Sullivan, a mixed race former Army officer who is still reckoning with his own history"--
Subjects: Detective and mystery fiction.; Historical fiction.; Novels.; Murder; Presidential candidates; Racially mixed people;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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As death draws near / by Huber, Anna Lee,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."The latest mystery from the national bestselling author of A Study in Death tangles Lady Kiera Darby and Sebastian Gage in a dangerous web of religious and political intrigue. July 1831. In the midst of their idyllic honeymoon in England's Lake District, Kiera and Gage's seclusion is interrupted by a missive from Kiera's new father-in-law. A deadly incident involving a distant relative of the Duke of Wellington has taken place at an abbey south of Dublin, Ireland, and he insists that she and Gage look into the matter. Intent on discovering what kind of monster could murder a woman of the cloth, the couple travels to Rathfarnham Abbey school. Soon, a second nun is slain in broad daylight near a classroom full of young girls. With the sinful killer growing bolder, the mother superior would like to send the students home, but the growing civil unrest in Ireland would make the journey treacherous. Before long, Kiera starts to suspect that some of the girls may be hiding a sinister secret. With the killer poised to strike yet again, Kiera and Gage must make haste and unmask the fiend before their matrimonial bliss comes to an untimely end."--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Detective and mystery fiction.; Historical fiction.; Serial murder investigation;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The song of the jade lily : a novel / by Manning, Kirsty,author.; Manning, Kirsty.Jade lily.;
Includes bibliographical references.1939: Two young girls meet in Shanghai, also known as the "Paris of the East". Beautiful local Li and Jewish refugee Romy form a fierce friendship, but the deepening shadows of World War II fall over the women as they slip between the city's glamorous French Concession district and the teeming streets of the Shanghai Ghetto. Yet soon the realities of war prove to be too much for these close friends as they are torn apart. 2016: Fleeing London with a broken heart, Alexandra returns to Australia to be with her grandparents, Romy and Wilhelm. Her grandfather is dying, and over the coming weeks Romy and Wilhelm begin to reveal the family mysteries they have kept secret for more than half a century. As fragments of her mother's history finally become clear, Alexandra struggles with what she learns while more is also revealed about her grandmother's own past in Shanghai. After Wilhelm dies, Alexandra flies to Shanghai, determined to trace her grandparents' past. Peeling back the layers of their hidden lives, she is forced to question what she knows about her family-- and herself.
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Jews; Family secrets; Female friendship; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 2
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Home for erring and outcast girls : a novel / by Kibler, Julie,author.;
"In turn-of-the-twentieth-century Texas, the Berachah Home for the Redemption of Erring Girls is an unprecedented beacon of hope for young women consigned to the dangerous poverty of the streets by birth, circumstance, or personal tragedy. Built in 1903 on the dusty outskirts of Arlington, a remote dot between the red-light districts of Dallas and Fort Worth, the progressive home bucks public opinion by offering faith, training, and rehabilitation to prostitutes, addicts, unwed mothers, and "ruined" girls without forcibly separating mothers from children. When Lizzie Bates and Mattie McBride meet there-- one sick and abused, but desperately clinging to her young daughter, the other jilted by the beau who fathered her ailing son-- they form a friendship that will see them through unbearable loss, heartbreak, difficult choices, and ultimately, diverging paths. A century later, Cate Sutton, a reclusive university librarian, uncovers the hidden histories of the two troubled women when she stumbles upon the cemetery on Berachah's former grounds. She begins to comb through the home's archives in university's library. Pulled by an indescribable connection, Cate confronts her own heartbreaking past, and to reclaim the life she thought she had forever let go of."-- Dust jacket flap.
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Unmarried mothers; Women; Reformatories for women; Female friendship; Librarians;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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