Search:

Results 391 to 400 of 490 | « previous |

On the origin of time : Stephen Hawking's final theory / by Hertog, Thomas,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Stephen Hawking's closest collaborator offers the intellectual superstar's final thoughts on the cosmos--a dramatic revision of the theory that made him the heir to Einstein's legacy. Perhaps the biggest question Stephen Hawking tried to answer in his extraordinary life was how the universe could have created conditions so perfectly hospitable to life. Pondering this mystery led Hawking to study the big bang origin of the universe, but his early work ran into a crisis when the math predicted many big bangs producing a multiverse--countless different universes, most far too bizarre to harbor life. Holed up in the theoretical physics department at Cambridge, Stephen Hawking and his friend and collaborator Thomas Hertog worked shoulder to shoulder for twenty years on a new quantum theory of the cosmos. As their journey took them deeper into the big bang, they were startled to find a deeper level of evolution in which the physical laws themselves transform and simplify until particles, forces, and even time itself fades away. Once upon a time, perhaps, there was no time. This led them to a revolutionary idea: the laws of physics are not set in stone but are born and co-evolve as the universe they govern takes shape. On the Origin of Time takes the reader on a quest to understand questions bigger than our universe, peering into the extreme quantum physics of black holes and the big bang and drawing on the latest developments in string theory. As Hawking's final days drew near, the two collaborators developed a final theory proposing their radical new Darwinian perspective on the origins of our universe. Hertog offers a striking new vision that ties together more deeply than ever the nature of the universe's birth with our existence. This new theory profoundly transforms the way we think about our place in the order of the cosmos and may ultimately prove Hawking's biggest legacy"--
Subjects: Hawking, Stephen, 1942-2018.; Cosmology.; Universe.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

The spectacular [text (large print)] : a novel / by Davis, Fiona,1966-author.;
"New York Times bestselling author Fiona Davis transports us back to 1950s Manhattan and glamorous Radio City Music Hall in her thrilling new novel about a talented young Rockette and a mysterious bomber terrorizing New York City. New York City, 1956: Nineteen-year-old Marion Brooks knows she should be happy. Her college sweetheart is about to propose and sweep her off to the life everyone has always expected they'd have together: a quiet house in the suburbs, Marion staying home to raise their future children. But instead, Marion finds herself feeling trapped. So when she comes across an opportunity to audition for the famous Radio City Rockettes-the glamorous precision-dancing troupe-she jumps at the chance to exchange her predictable future for the dazzling life of a performer. Meanwhile, the city is reeling from a string of bombings orchestrated by a person the press has nicknamed the "Big Apple Bomber," who has been terrorizing the citizens of New York for sixteen years by planting bombs in popular, crowded spaces. With the public in an uproar over the lack of any real leads after a yearslong manhunt, the police turn in desperation to Peter Griggs, a young doctor at a local mental hospital who espouses a radical new technique: psychological profiling. As both Marion and Peter find themselves unexpectedly pulled in to the police search for the bomber, Marion realizes that as much as she's been training herself to blend in-performing in perfect unison with all the other identical Rockettes-if she hopes to catch the bomber, she'll need to stand out and take a terrifying risk. In doing so, she may be forced to sacrifice everything she's worked for, as well as the people she loves the most"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Large print books.; Novels.; Bombing investigation; Dancers; Physicians;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

The right side : a novel / by Quinn, Spencer,author.;
"In this riveting new novel by the New York Times bestselling author of the Chet and Bernie mystery series, a deeply damaged female soldier home from the war in Afghanistan becomes obsessed with finding a missing girl, gains an unlikely ally in a stray dog, and encounters new perils beyond the combat zone. LeAnne Hogan went to Afghanistan as a rising star in the military, and came back a much lesser person, mentally and physically. Now missing an eye and with half her face badly scarred, she can barely remember the disastrous desert operation that almost killed her. She is confused, angry, and suspects the fault is hers, even though nobody will come out and say it. Shattered by one last blow--the sudden death of her hospital roommate, Marci--LeAnne finds herself on a fateful drive across the country, reflecting on her past and seeing no future. Her native land is now unfamiliar, recast in shadow by her one good eye, her damaged psyche, her weakened body. Arriving in the rain-soaked small town in Washington State that Marci had called home, she makes a troubling discovery: Marci's eight-year-old daughter has vanished. When a stray dog--a powerful, dark, unreadable creature, no one's idea of a pet--seems to adopt LeAnne, a surprising connection is formed and something shifts inside her. As she becomes obsessed with finding Marci's daughter, LeAnne and her inscrutable canine companion are drawn into danger as dark and menacing as her last Afghan mission. This time she has a strange but loyal fellow traveler protecting her blind side. Enthralling, suspenseful, and psychologically nuanced, The Right Side introduces one of the most unforgettable protagonists in modern fiction: isolated, broken, disillusioned--yet still seeking redemption and purpose--LeAnne takes hold of the reader and never lets go"--
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Missing children; Dogs; Veterans;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

End of watch [sound recording] : a novel / by King, Stephen,1947-author.; Patton, Will,narrator.; Simon & Schuster Audio (Firm),publisher.;
Read by Will Patton."The spectacular finale to the New York Times bestselling trilogy that began with Mr. Mercedes (winner of the Edgar Award) and Finders Keepers--In End of Watch, the diabolical "Mercedes Killer" drives his enemies to suicide, and if Bill Hodges and Holly Gibney don't figure out a way to stop him, they'll be victims themselves. In Room 217 of the Lakes Region Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic, something has awakened. Something evil. Brady Hartsfield, perpetrator of the Mercedes Massacre, where eight people were killed and many more were badly injured, has been in the clinic for five years, in a vegetative state. According to his doctors, anything approaching a complete recovery is unlikely. But behind the drool and stare, Brady is awake, and in possession of deadly new powers that allow him to wreak unimaginable havoc without ever leaving his hospital room. Retired police detective Bill Hodges, the unlikely hero of Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers, now runs an investigation agency with his partner, Holly Gibney--the woman who delivered the blow to Hartsfield's head that put him on the brain injury ward. When Bill and Holly are called to a suicide scene with ties to the Mercedes Massacre, they find themselves pulled into their most dangerous case yet, one that will put their lives at risk, as well as those of Bill's heroic young friend Jerome Robinson and his teenage sister, Barbara. Brady Hartsfield is back, and planning revenge not just on Hodges and his friends, but on an entire city. In End of Watch, Stephen King brings the Hodges trilogy to a sublimely terrifying conclusion, combining the detective fiction of Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers with the heart-pounding, supernatural suspense that has been his bestselling trademark. The result is an unnerving look at human vulnerability and chilling suspense. No one does it better than King"--
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Audiobooks.; Murder; Private investigators; Psychopaths; Suicide;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

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
unAPI

Intervention Earth : life-saving ideas from the world's climate engineers / by Dyer, Gwynne,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.Historian, journalist, and author Gwynne Dyer tracks down the world's top climate engineers to discuss the extraordinary measures we must contemplate to counter the irreversible effects of climate change. The global climate emergency is now an alarming fact of life. Much as we still need to get emissions under control, many are thinking that it's all too little, too late. As scientists, politicians and concerned citizens scramble for solutions to the catastrophic effects of a warming world, is it time to be exploring the controversial topic of geoengineering? For decades, discerning readers have turned to journalist and historian Gwynne Dyer for his unparalleled acumen in serving up hard geopolitical truths. 'Intervention Earth' is built around Dyer's interviews with sixty climate scientists from around the globe, including the leading figures in the geoengineering field. One of the most interesting topics: the pros and cons of Solar Radiation Management, a possible planetary Hail Mary that is rife with political risks. But 'Intervention Earth' is about more than technological mega-projects. Dyer devotes ample space to the many innovative ideas on offer, but there is no get-out-of-jail-free card. We will need a whole portfolio of techniques and technologies-and a lot of hard, thankless work-to keep the planet hospitable for humanity. What's more, many of the technologies that can help us avoid the worst outcomes require years of investment and development before they can be successfully deployed. Global cooperation will be key in implementing the life-saving strategies outlined in the book. 'Intervention Earth' offers a probing, eye-opening look at the problems we face, and the innovations that just might keep us ahead of encroaching disaster and carry us to a safe harbour.
Subjects: Climate change mitigation.; Environmental engineering.; Solar radiation.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

The limits / by Freudenberger, Nell,author.;
From Mo'orea, a tiny volcanic island off the coast of Tahiti, a French biologist obsessed with saving Polynesia's imperiled coral reefs sends her teenage daughter to live with her ex-husband in New York. By the time fifteen-year-old Pia arrives at her father Stephen's luxury apartment in Manhattan and meets his new, younger wife, Kate, she has been shuttled between her parents' disparate lives -- her father's consuming work as a surgeon at an overwhelmed New York hospital, her mother's relentless drive against a ticking ecological clock -- for most of her life. Fluent in French, intellectually precocious, moving between cultures with seeming ease, Pia arrives in New York poised for a rebellion, just as COVID sends her and her stepmother together into near total isolation. A New York City schoolteacher, Kate struggles to connect with a teenager whose capacity for destruction seems exceeded only by her privilege. Even as Kate fails to parent Pia -- and questions her own ability to become a mother -- one of her sixteen-year-old students is already caring for a toddler full time. Athyna's love for her nephew, Marcus, is a burden that becomes heavier as she struggles to finish her senior year online. Juggling her manifold responsibilities, Athyna finds herself more and more anxious every time she leaves the house. Just as her fear of what is waiting for her outside her Staten Island community feels insupportable, an incident at home makes her desperate to leave. When their lives collide, Pia and Athyna spiral toward parallel but inescapably different tragedies. Moving from a South Pacific "paradise," where rage still simmers against the colonial government and its devastating nuclear tests, to the extreme inequalities of twenty-first century New York City, The Limits is an unforgettably moving novel about nation, race, class, and family. Heart-wrenching and humane, a profound work from one of America's most prodigiously gifted novelists.
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Novels.; Dysfunctional families; Motherhood; Teenagers; COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020-;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

How big things get done : the surprising factors that determine the fate of every project, from home renovations to space exploration and everything in between / by Flyvbjerg, Bent,author.; Gardner, Dan,1968-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Nothing is more inspiring than a big vision that becomes a triumphant reality. Think of how the Empire State Building went from sketch to the jewel of the New York skyline in twenty-one months; how Amazon started in a garage and became a global retail giant in five years; how, when coronavirus broke out in the city of Wuhan, the Chinese goverment built a 1,500-room hospital in under a week. These grand visions make for inspiring stories. But even for endeavors of far smaller and more modest scales, turning a vision into a plan and a plan into reality isn't easy. Whether it's delivering a key report to a client, organizing a big event, implementing a department-wide process, launching a small business, inventing a product, or renovating a home, many of our everyday projects are in fact complex feats of planning and coordination. Understanding what distinguishes the triumphs from the failures has been the life's work of Oxford professor Bent Flyvbjerg, dubbed "the world's leading megaproject expert" by KPMG. In Big Plans, he identifies the errors in judgement and decision-making that lead projects to fail, and offers research-based strategies for avoiding common pitfalls. For example: Think slow, act fast: It may seem obvious that we should spend less time planning and more time executing, but in practice this is exceedingly difficult. Plan backwards: Start with your goal, then identify the steps to get there. Eliminate the unpredictable: when a project gets derailed, we often cite "unforeseen problems." However, most problems can be foreseen, through a method called reference-class forecasting. Full of vivid examples ranging from the building of the Sydney Opera House to the making of Pixar's first film, Big Plans reveals how to get any ambitious project done: on time and on budget"--
Subjects: Project management; Project management;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

Wish you were here : a novel / by Picoult, Jodi,1966-author.;
"From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Small Great Things and The Book of Two Ways comes a deeply moving novel about the resilience of the human spirit in a moment of crisis. Diana O'Toole is perfectly on track. She will be married by thirty, done having kids by thirty-five, and move out to the New York City suburbs, all while climbing the professional ladder in the cutthroat art auction world. She's a junior appraiser at Sotheby's now, but her boss has hinted at a promotion if she can close a deal with a high-profile client. She's not engaged just yet, but she knows her boyfriend Finn, a surgical resident, is about to propose on their romantic getaway to the Galapagos--days before her thirtieth birthday. Right on time. But then a virus that felt worlds away has appeared in the city, and on the eve of their departure, Finn breaks the news: it's all hands on deck at the hospital. He has to stay behind. You should still go, he assures her, since it would be a shame for their nonrefundable trip to go to waste. And so, reluctantly, she goes. Almost immediately, Diana's dream vacation goes awry. Her luggage is lost, the Wi-Fi is nearly nonexistent, and the hotel they'd booked is shut down due to the pandemic. In fact, the whole island is now under quarantine, and she is stranded until borders reopen. Completely isolated, she must venture beyond her comfort zone. Slowly, she carves out a connection with a local family when a teenager with a secret opens up to her, despite her father's suspicion of outsiders. In the Galapagos Islands, where Darwin's theory of natural selection was formed, Diana finds herself examining her relationships, her choices, and herself--and wondering if when she goes home, she too will have evolved into someone completely different."--
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Art auctions; COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020-; Life change events; Man-woman relationships;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 2
unAPI

Wish you were here [sound recording] : a novel / by Picoult, Jodi,1966-author.; Ireland, Marin,narrator.; Random House Audio Publishing,publisher.;
Read by Marin Ireland."From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Small Great Things and The Book of Two Ways comes a deeply moving novel about the resilience of the human spirit in a moment of crisis. Diana O'Toole is perfectly on track. She will be married by thirty, done having kids by thirty-five, and move out to the New York City suburbs, all while climbing the professional ladder in the cutthroat art auction world. She's a junior appraiser at Sotheby's now, but her boss has hinted at a promotion if she can close a deal with a high-profile client. She's not engaged just yet, but she knows her boyfriend Finn, a surgical resident, is about to propose on their romantic getaway to the Galapagos--days before her thirtieth birthday. Right on time. But then a virus that felt worlds away has appeared in the city, and on the eve of their departure, Finn breaks the news: it's all hands on deck at the hospital. He has to stay behind. You should still go, he assures her, since it would be a shame for their nonrefundable trip to go to waste. And so, reluctantly, she goes. Almost immediately, Diana's dream vacation goes awry. Her luggage is lost, the Wi-Fi is nearly nonexistent, and the hotel they'd booked is shut down due to the pandemic. In fact, the whole island is now under quarantine, and she is stranded until borders reopen. Completely isolated, she must venture beyond her comfort zone. Slowly, she carves out a connection with a local family when a teenager with a secret opens up to her, despite her father's suspicion of outsiders. In the Galapagos Islands, where Darwin's theory of natural selection was formed, Diana finds herself examining her relationships, her choices, and herself--and wondering if when she goes home, she too will have evolved into someone completely different."--
Subjects: Audiobooks.; Domestic fiction.; Art auctions; COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020-; Life change events; Man-woman relationships;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

Results 391 to 400 of 490 | « previous |