Search:

Results 51 to 60 of 65 | « previous |

Born to walk : my journey of trials and resilience / by Nkuranga, Alpha,author.;
"'My grandparents used to tell me Rwanda is a country unlike any other, and I knew they spoke the truth. Blessed with majestic mountains and breathtaking valleys, it is a sacred and spiritual land. And yet Rwandan men drenched the land in blood in acts of hate so horrific that the stains of those three years will not fade in one hundred lifetimes.' At the age of eight, Alpha Nkuranga made a fateful decision. With war raging around her, she grabbed the hand of her younger brother, Elijah, and ran from her grandparents' home. When they came to a swamp, they hid until it was safe to escape. Weeks later, they joined a group of refugees, who were fleeing to Tanzania. 'If I kept walking,' Alpha remembers thinking, 'I could tell my story.' Alpha Nkuranga emigrated to Canada more than a decade later. She now works with women and children who face abuse and homelessness. In Born to Walk, she tells a remarkable story of resistance and survival."--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Personal narratives.; Nkuranga, Alpha; Nkuranga, Alpha.; Immigrants; Resilience (Personality trait); Victims of family violence;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

Reckoning / by V,1953-author.; V,1953-Works.Selections.;
"The newest book from V (formerly Eve Ensler), Reckoning invites you to travel the journey of a writer's and activist's life and process over forty years, representing both the core of ideas that have become global movements and the methods through which V survived abuse and self-hatred. Seamlessly moving from the internal to the external, the personal to the political, Reckoning is a moving and inspiring work of prose, poetry, dreams, letters, and essays drawn from V's lifetime journals that takes readers from Berlin to Oklahoma to Congo, from climate disaster, homelessness, and activism to family. Unflinching, intimate, introspective, courageous, Reckoning explores ways to create an unstoppable force for change, to love and survive love, to hold people and states accountable, to reckon with demons and honor the dead, to reclaim the body, and to see oneself as connected to a greater purpose. It reimagines what seems fixed and intractable, providing a path to understand one's unique experience as deeply rooted in the world, to break through one's own boundaries, and to write oneself into freedom"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; V, 1953-; Authors, American; Change (Psychology); Women authors;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

The power of kindness : why empathy is essential in everyday life / by Goldman, Brian,1956-author.;
As a veteran emergency room physician, Dr. Brian Goldman has a successful career setting broken bones, curing pneumonia, and otherwise pulling people back from the brink of medical emergency. He always believed that caring came naturally to physicians. But time, stress, errors, and heavy expectations left him wondering if he might not be the same caring doctor he thought he was at the beginning of his career. He wondered what kindness truly looks like--in himself and in others. In The Power of Kindness, Goldman leaves the comfortable, familiar surroundings of the hospital in search of his own lost compassion. A top neuroscientist performs an MRI scan of his brain to see if he is hard-wired for empathy. A researcher at Western University in Ontario tests his personality and makes a startling discovery. Goldman then circles the planet in search of the most empathic people alive, to hear their stories and learn their secrets. He visits a boulevard in São Paulo, Brazil, where he meets a woman who calls a homeless poet her soulmate and reunited him with his family; a research lab in Kyoto, Japan, where he meets a lifelike, empathetic android; and a nursing home in rural Pennsylvania, where he meets a therapist at a nursing home who has an uncanny knack of knowing what's inside the hearts and minds of people with dementia, as well as her protege, a woman who talked a gun-wielding robber into walking away from his crime. Powerful and engaging, The Power of Kindness takes us far from the theatre of medicine and into the world at large, and investigates why kindness is so vital to our existence.
Subjects: Kindness.; Empathy.; Conduct of life.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

My nemesis : a novel / by Craig, Charmaine,author.;
"From the acclaimed author of Miss Burma, longlisted for the National Book Award and the Women's Prize, comes a tense and thought-provoking exploration of an intellectual affair and its reverberations across the lives of two couples. Tessa is a successful white woman writer who develops a friendship, first by correspondence and then in person, with Charlie, a ruggedly handsome philosopher and scholar based in Los Angeles. Sparks fly as they exchange ideas about Camus and masculine desire, and their intellectual connection promises more--but there are obstacles to this burgeoning relationship. While Tessa's husband Milton enjoys Charlie's company on his visits to the East Coast, Charlie's mixed-race Asian wife Wah is a different case, and she proves to be both adversary and conundrum to Tessa. Wah's traditional femininity and subservience to her husband strike Tessa as weaknesses, and she scoffs at the sacrifices Wah makes as adoptive mother to a Burmese girl, Htet, once homeless on the streets of Kuala Lumpur. But Wah has a kind of power too, especially over Charlie, and the conflict between the two women leads to Tessa's martini-fueled declaration that Wah is "an insult to womankind." As Tessa is forced to deal with the consequences of her outburst and considers how much she is limited by her own perceptions, she wonders if Wah is really as weak as she has seemed, or if she might have a different kind of strength altogether. An exercise in empathy, an exploration of betrayal, and a charged story of the thrill of a shared connection-and the perils of feminine rivalry-My Nemesis is a brilliantly dramatic and captivating story from a hugely talented writer whose portrayals are always gracefully phrased and keenly observed"--
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Novels.; Adoptive parents; Adultery; Betrayal; Interpersonal conflict; Man-woman relationships; Married people; Racially mixed people; Self-perception; Women authors;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

When your back's against the wall : fame, football, and lessons learned through a lifetime of adversity / by Oher, Michael,author.; Yaeger, Don,author.;
"Millions of people became part of Michael Oher's story when they watched a version of him on the big screen; read his memoir, I Beat the Odds; or cheered him on from the stands. After speaking to so many of them over the years, Oher knows that more than anything, people want to believe great things can happen, even when the situation looks bleak. His story of overcoming the toughest of odds serves as their hope. Oher's life has had a lot of unexpected highs: a college degree; two beautiful, healthy children and a happy marriage; drafted in the first round; a Super Bowl victory; and a second chance to play in the "big game." He's also run up against quite a few walls: poverty, hunger, homelessness, struggles in school, bullying, job loss, brain injury, anxiety, and depression. What he knows now is that your wall can be your opportunity. In When Your Back's Against the Wall, he offers encouragement and shows readers how to get back up-again, and again, and again"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Football players; Motivation (Psychology); Resilience (Personality trait);
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

The forgotten girls : a memoir of friendship and lost promise in rural America / by Potts, Monica,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."Growing up gifted and poor in small-town Arkansas, Monica and Darci became fast friends. The girls bonded over a shared love of reading and learning, even as they navigated the challenges of their declining town and tumultuous family lives--broken marriages, alcohol abuse, and shuttered stores and factories. They pored over the giant map in their middle school classroom, tracing their fingers over the world that awaited them, vowing to escape. In the end, Monica got out, but Darci, along with the rest of their circle of friends, did not. Years later, working as a journalist covering poverty, Monica discovered what she already intuitively knew about the women in Arkansas: Their life expectancy had steeply declined--the sharpest such fall in a century. Most painfully, her once talented and ambitious best friend was now a single mother of two, addicted to meth and prescription drugs, jobless and nearly homeless. What had happened in the years since Monica had left? Why had she escaped while Darci hurtled toward what Monica fears will be a tragic end? What was killing poor white women--and would Darci survive her own life?"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Personal narratives.; Potts, Monica; Potts, Monica.; Female friendship; Poor women; Rural poor; Women drug addicts; Women journalists;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

The address : a novel / by Davis, Fiona,1966-author.;
"Fiona Davis, author of The dollhouse, returns with a compelling novel about the thin lines between love and loss, success and ruin, passion and madness, all hidden behind the walls of The Dakota, New York City's most famous residence. After a failed apprenticeship, working her way up to head housekeeper of a posh London hotel is more than Sara Smythe ever thought she'd make of herself. But when a chance encounter with Theodore Camden, one of the architects of the grand New York apartment house The Dakota, leads to a job offer, her world is suddenly awash in possibility--no mean feat for a servant in 1884. The opportunity to move to America, where a person can rise above one's station. The opportunity to be the female manager of The Dakota, which promises to be the greatest apartment house in the world. And the opportunity to see more of Theo, who understands Sara like no one else. and is living in The Dakota with his wife and three young children. In 1985, Bailey Camdenis desperate for new opportunities. Fresh out of rehab, the former party girl and interior designer is homeless, jobless, and penniless. Two generations ago, Bailey's grandfather was the ward of famed architect Theodore Camden. But the absence of a genetic connection means Bailey won't see a dime of the Camden family's substantial estate. Instead, her 'cousin' Melinda--Camden's biologicalgreat-granddaughter--will inherit almost everything. So when Melinda offers to let Bailey oversee the renovation of her lavish Dakota apartment, Bailey jumps at the chance, despite her dislike of Melinda's vision. The renovation will take away all the character and history of the apartment Theodore Camden himself lived in. and died in, after suffering multiple stab wounds by a madwoman named Sara Smythe, a former Dakota employee who had previously spent seven months in an insane asylum on Blackwell's Island. One hundred years apart, Sara and Bailey are both tempted by and struggle against the golden excess of their respective ages--for Sara, the opulence of a world ruled by the Astors and Vanderbilts; for Bailey, the free-flowing drinks and cocaine in the nightclubs of New York City--and take refuge and solace in the Upper West Side's gilded fortress. But a building with a history as rich--and often tragic--as The Dakota's can't hold its secrets forever, and what Bailey discovers in its basement could turn everything she thought she knew about Theodore Camden--and the woman who killed him--on its head. With rich historical detail, nuanced characters, and gorgeous prose, Fiona Davis once again delivers a compulsively readable novel that peels back the layers of not only a famed institution, but the lives --and lies--of the beating hearts within"--
Subjects: Apartment houses; Housekeepers; Housing management; Architects; Poor people; Rich people; Interpersonal relations; Families; Cousins; Secrets; Dwellings;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

Ella A Novel [electronic resource] : by Richards, Diane.aut; cloudLibrary;
In the vein of The Paris Wife and The Personal Librarian comes this debut novel, a magnificent work of “biographical fiction” that reimagines the turbulent and triumphant early years of Ella Fitzgerald, arguably the greatest singer of the twentieth century. When fifteen-year-old Ella Fitzgerald’s mother dies at the height of the Depression in 1932, the teenager goes to work for the mob to support herself and her family. When the law finally catches up, the “ungovernable” adolescent is incarcerated in the New York Training School for Girls in upstate New York—a wicked prison infamous for its harsh treatment of inmates, especially Black ones. Determined to be free, Ella escapes and makes her way back to Harlem, where she is forced to dance for pennies on the street. Looking for a break into show business, Ella draws straws to appear at the Apollo Theater’s Amateur Night on November 21, 1934. Rather than perform a dance routine directly after “The World Famous Edwards Sisters” number, the homeless Ella, wearing men’s galoshes a size too big, risks everything when she decides to sing Judy instead. Four years later, at barely twenty-one, Ella Fitzgerald has become the bestselling female vocalist in America. Diane Richards’ Ella Fitzgerald is inspiring and intriguing—an emotionally rich, psychologically complex character, a flawed mother and wife who struggles with deep emotional scars and trauma and battles racism, sexism, and colorism as she learns to find her voice on the stage. Ella takes us from the brothels, speakeasys, and streets of Depression-era New York City to the grand hotel suites where Ella, now older and wiser, looks back on her life and finally confronts the demons from childhood that torment her. Compelling and rich in historical detail, Ella is a remarkable debut novel about an extraordinary woman.
Subjects: Electronic books.; Contemporary Women; Biographical; Historical; Contemporary Women;
© 2024., HarperCollins,
unAPI

Between two trailers : a memoir / by Trent, J. Dana,author.;
"An unforgettable memoir about a girl who escapes her childhood as a preschool drug dealer to earn a divinity degree from Duke University--and then realizes she must confront her past to truly find her way home. "Home, it turns out, is where the war is. It's also where the healing begins." Born to drug-dealing parents in rural Indiana, Dana Trent is a preschooler the first time she uses a razor blade to cut up weed and fill dime bags for her schizophrenic father, King. While King struggles with his unmedicated psychosis, Dana's mother, the Lady, a cold and self-absorbed woman whose personality disorders rule the home, guards large bricks of drugs from the safety of their squalid trailer, where she watches TV evangelist Tammy Faye on repeat. Growing up, Dana tries to be the daughter each of her parents wants: a drug lord's heir and a debutante minister. But when the Lady impulsively plucks Dana from the Midwest and moves the two of them south, their fresh start results in homelessness and bankruptcy. In North Carolina, Dana becomes torn between her gritty midwestern past and her desire to be a polite southern girl, hiding her homelife of drugs and parents whose severe mental illnesses have left them debilitated. Dana imagines that her hidden Indiana life is finally behind her after she graduates from Duke University and becomes a professor and an ambivalent female Southern Baptist minister. But Dana was a child of the drug trade. Though she escapes flyover country, she realizes that she will never be able to escape her father's legacy, and that her childhood secrets have kept her from making peace with the people and places that shaped her. Ultimately, Dana finds that no one can really "make it" until they return to where their story began: home"--
Subjects: Autobiographies.; Personal narratives.; Trent, J. Dana.; Children of drug addicts; Drug addicts; Women clergy;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

The dead we honor / by Johnstone, William W.,author.; Johnstone, J. A.,author.;
Welcome to Maverick, Iowa. Once a thriving farm community, the peaceful little town is now a bristling hotbed of drugs, crime, and homelessness. Thanks to the misguided policies of a new state governor, the floodgates have been opened to a devastating and very unwelcome wave of newcomers, grifters, fentanyl dealers, thieves, and roving gangs of smash-and-grabbers--and one powerful billionaire who's buying up the farmland. Lifelong residents watch helplessly as their beloved Main Street becomes a bloody battleground in a divided America. This is more than a culture war; it's a hostile takeover. Returning home for the first time since Afghanistan, war veteran Bryan Branch barely recognizes his old stomping ground. Back in the day, he was the town hellraiser--until the military gave him a sense of purpose and appreciation for our hard-fought freedoms. Now those freedoms are under attack--and this time, it's personal. As the violence and destruction of Maverick spirals out of control, Bryan enlists the help of his army buddies, a group of veterans who call themselves "The Night Warriors." They're armed and ready to clean up the town. But their enemies are armed, too--and ready to blow the whole country straight to hell.
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Novels.; Rural crimes; Small cities; Veterans;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

Results 51 to 60 of 65 | « previous |