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Alone : Britain, Churchill, and Dunkirk : defeat into victory / by Korda, Michael,1933-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Combining epic history with rich family stories, Michael Korda chronicles the outbreak of World War II and the great events that led to Dunkirk. In an absorbing work peopled with world leaders, generals, and ordinary citizens who fought on both sides of World War II, Alone brings to resounding life perhaps the most critical year of twentieth-century history. For, indeed, May 1940 was a month like no other, as the German war machine blazed into France while the supposedly impregnable Maginot Line crumbled, and Winston Churchill replaced Neville Chamberlain as prime minister in an astonishing political drama as Britain, isolated and alone, faced a triumphant Nazi Germany. Against this vast historical canvas, Michael Korda relates what happened and why, and also tells his own story, that of a six-year-old boy in a glamorous movie family who would himself be evacuated. Alone is a work that seamlessly weaves a family memoir into an unforgettable account of a political and military disaster redeemed by the evacuation of more than 300,000 men in four days--surely one of the most heroic episodes of the war. "The incredible, almost miraculous story of what happened at Dunkirk in the year 1940--and why--is unfolded in Alone with great narrative skill and superb delineation of a highly interesting cast of characters, including, importantly, the author himself and his own remarkable family." -- David McCullough.
Subjects: Korda, Michael, 1933-; Dunkirk, Battle of, Dunkerque, France, 1940.; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Death by whoopee cushion / by Grant, Vicki.;
"The best Halloween costumes. The funniest pranks. An endless supply of chocolate fudge that looks exactly like dog poo. Most kids would love it if their parents owned a joke store. But twelve-year-old Manya isn't like most kids. She's not interested in the cheap laughs at Pranks a Million. She loves science. She wants to save the world. The only thing she finds even vaguely interesting about her parents' shop is the science behind the pranks. After all, there's chemistry at work even in itching powder and stink bombs. Manya and her best friend Isaac are thrilled when their parents agree to sign them up for Serious Science, an after-school course. It's everything Manya has dreamed of: the class is fascinating, and their teacher, Dr. C. Michaels, is both smart and charming. She can just about forget that her parents drive a bright yellow Volkswagen Beetle with a red clown nose on the hood and headlights that look like googly eyes. Maybe. But one day Manya comes back from their Serious Science class to see two police in the store. A trick cigar bought at Pranks a Million blew up in a customer's face and burnt off his eyebrows. Then there's a poisoning incident. And when a whoopee cushion explodes, actually killing an innocent bystander, things become very serious indeed: Manya's parents are arrested for murder. It's up to Manya to prove their innocence - and she may have to use some of the science behind the pranks to do so"--
Subjects: Detective and mystery fiction.; Practical jokes; False imprisonment; Murder; Science; Parent and child;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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Scattered Minds The Origins and Healing of Attention Deficit Disorder [electronic resource] : by Maté, Gabor.aut; CloudLibrary;
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • From renowned mental health expert and speaker Gabor Maté, MD, Scattered Minds explodes the myth of attention deficit disorder (ADD/ADHD) as genetically based—and offers real hope and advice for children and adults who live with the condition. In this breakthrough guide to understanding, treating, and healing attention deficit disorder, Dr. Gabor Maté, an adult with ADD and the father of three ADD children, shares information on: · The external factors that trigger ADD/ADHD · How to create an environment that promotes health and healing · Ritalin and other drugs · ADD in adults …and much more Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD/ADHD) has remained a controversial topic in recent years. Whereas other books on the subject describe the condition as inherited, Dr. Maté shows how our social and emotional environments play a key role in both the cause of and cure for the condition. In Scattered Minds, he describes the painful realities of ADD/ADHD and its effect on children as well as on careers and social paths in adults. While acknowledging that genetics may indeed play a part in predisposing a person toward ADD/ADHD, Maté moves beyond that to focus on the things we can control: changes in environment, family dynamics, and parenting choices. He draws heavily on his own experience with the disorder, as both an ADD sufferer and the parent of three diagnosed children. Providing a thorough overview of ADD/ADHD and its treatments, Scattered Minds is essential and life-changing reading for the millions of ADD/ADHD sufferers in North America today.
Subjects: Electronic books.; Attention-Deficit Disorder (ADD-ADHD); Self-Management; Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD-ADHD);
© 2011., Knopf Canada,
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The big one : how we must prepare for future deadly pandemics / by Osterholm, Michael T.,author.; Olshaker, Mark,1951-author.;
"The COVID-19 pandemic was the most devastating natural event in over a century, killing more than 7 million people around the globe, straining the fabric of societies internationally, and shaking the foundations of the global economy. And yet, as horrifying as the experience was, Covid-19 was not actually "the Big One" -- the dreaded potential pandemic that haunts the nightmares of epidemiologists and public health officials everywhere, and which will alter life across the world on every meaningful level unless we are ready to deal with it. Indeed, even as we learn to live with Covid-19 and continue to recover from its worst effects, the next pandemic is already lurking around the corner -- and it may very well be worse. In The Big One, founding director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy Michael T. Osterholm and Mark Olshaker examine past pandemics, highlighting the ways societies both succeeded and failed to address them; trace the Covid-19 pandemic and evaluate how it was handled; and look to the future, projecting what the next pandemics might look like and what must be done to mitigate them. Drawing on years of high-level research as well as cutting-edge analysis and an innovative hypothetical scenario threaded throughout each chapter, The Big One is a gripping, comprehensive, and urgent wake-up call. Because Covid-19 was just a taste of what's to come. If we're going to survive the next big pandemic, we need to be prepared"--
Subjects: Communicable diseases.; Communicable diseases; COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020-2023.; Epidemiology.; Pandemics.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Place to Hide, A A Novel [electronic resource] : by Balson, Ronald H..aut; Berman, Fred.nrt; cloudLibrary;
From the winner of the National Jewish Book Award Theodore “Teddy” Hartigan is the scion of a wealthy Washington, D.C. family who place him into a comfortable job at the State Department and a placid diplomat’s career. In 1938, as Hitler’s inexorable rise continues, Teddy is re-assigned to the US Consulate in Amsterdam to replace fleeing staff. Teddy’s job is to process visa applications, and by 1939, refugees from Nazi-conquered Poland, Austria, and other countries are desperate to secure safe passage to America. As Hitler sweeps through France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark, and Holland, the screws tighten and law after virulent law is passed to threaten the lives, indeed the very existence of the Jewish people. When Teddy and his girlfriend Sara are introduced to an orphaned young girl named Katy, who has been abandoned on the grounds of a nursery school, they agree to adopt her. Teddy comes to realize that he holds the key to saving lives, whether five, fifty, or five hundred—and makes the dangerous and selfless decision to join with underground groups and use his position at the Consulate to rescue those with no other avenue of escape. Powerful and dramatic, National Jewish Book Award winner Ronald H. Balson’s A Place to Hide explores the deeply-moving actions of an ordinary man who resolves, under perilous circumstances, to make a difference. A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press.
Subjects: Audiobooks.; Jewish;
© 2024., Macmillan Audio,
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Written on the Dark [electronic resource] : by Kay, Guy Gavriel.aut; CloudLibrary;
From the internationally bestselling author of Tigana, All the Seas of the World, and A Brightness Long Ago comes a majestic new novel of love and war that brilliantly evokes the drama and turbulence of medieval France. Thierry Villar is a well-known—even notorious—tavern poet, intimately familiar with the rogues and shadows of that world, but not at all with courts and power. He is an unlikely person, despite his quickness, to be swept into the deadly contests of ambitious royals, assassins, and invading armies. But he is indeed drawn into all these things on a savagely cold night in his beloved city of Orane. And so Thierry must use all the intelligence and charm he can muster as power struggles merge with a decades-long war to bring his country to the brink of destruction. As he does, he meets his poetic equal in an aristocratic woman and is drawn to more than one unsettling person with a connection to the world beyond this one. He also crosses paths with an extraordinary young woman driven by voices within to try to heal the ailing king — and help his forces in war. A wide and varied set of people from all walks of life take their places in the rich tapestry of this story. Both sweeping and intimate, Written on the Dark is an elegant tour de force about power and ambition playing out amid the equally intense human need for art and beauty, and memories to be left behind.
Subjects: Electronic books.; Historical; Romantic; Action & Adventure;
© 2025., Penguin Canada,
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Another one goes tonight / by Lovesey, Peter,author.;
"Two police officers are about to head home after a long night shift when they receive one last call: a suspicious nude person has been spotted in the wee hours of the morning. En route to the call, the patrol car spins off the road, killing one of the exhausted cops instantly and leaving the other in critical condition. Whenever a police car is involved in an accident, the matter must be taken very seriously. Inspector Peter Diamond is assigned to look into the case. His supervisor is desperately hoping Diamond will not discover that the car was speeding or that the driver was under the influence of drugs or alcohol--that would make the police look very bad indeed. Instead, Diamond discovers something even worse--a civilian on a motorized tricycle was involved in the crash, and has been lying on the side of the road by the accident for hours undiscovered. Diamond administers CPR, but no one can say whether the man will pull through. If a civilian has been killed by a police vehicle, the department has very big problems on its hands. Meanwhile, Diamond has become suspicious of the civilian victim, and begins a private inquiry. Why was he out in the middle of the night, carrying a funeral urn of ashes? Diamond's somewhat illegal and highly secret break-in into the man's house only exposes increasingly awful information, and leads Diamond to a trail of uninvestigated deaths. As the man lingers on life support, Diamond must wrestle with the fact that he may have saved the life of a serial killer"--
Subjects: Detective and mystery fiction.; Diamond, Peter (Fictitious character); Private investigators;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Lapvona / by Moshfegh, Ottessa,author.;
"In a village in a medieval fiefdom buffeted by natural disasters, a motherless shepherd boy finds himself the unlikely pivot of a power struggle that puts all manner of faith to a savage test, in a spellbinding novel that represents Ottessa Moshfegh's most exciting leap yet Little Marek, the abused and delusional son of the village shepherd, never knew his mother; his father told him she died in childbirth. One of life's few consolations for Marek is his enduring bond with the blind village midwife, Ina, who suckled him when he was a baby, as she did so many of the village's children. Ina's gifts extend beyond childcare: she possesses a unique ability to communicate with the natural world. Her gift often brings her the transmission of sacred knowledge on levels far beyond those available to other villagers, however religious they might be. For some people, Ina's home in the woods outside of the village is a place to fear and to avoid, a godless place. Among their number is Father Barnabas, the town priest and lackey for the depraved lord and governor, Villiam, whose hilltop manor contains a secret embarrassment of riches. The people's desperate need to believe that there are powers that be who have their best interests at heart is put to a cruel test by Villiam and the priest, especially in this year of record drought and famine. But when fate brings Marek into violent proximity to the lord's family, new and occult forces upset the old order. By year's end, the veil between blindness and sight, life and death, the natural world and the spirit world, will prove to be very thin indeed"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Novels.; Fiefs; Middle Ages; Midwives; Shepherds;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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In on the joke : the original queens of standup comedy / by Levy, Shawn,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Today, women are ascendant in standup comedy, even preeminent. They make headlines, fill arenas, spawn blockbuster movies. But before Amy Schumer slayed, Tiffany Haddish killed, and Ali Wong drew roars, the very idea of a female comedian seemed, to most of America, like a punchline. And it took a special sort of woman-indeed, a parade of them-to break and remake the mold. In on the Joke is the story of a group of unforgettable women who knocked down the doors of standup comedy so other women could get a shot. It spans decades, from Moms Mabley's rise in Black vaudeville between the World Wars, to the roadhouse ribaldry of Belle Barth and Rusty Warren in the '50s and '60s, to Elaine May's co-invention of improv comedy, to Joan Rivers' and Phyllis Diller's ferocious ascent to mainstream stardom. These women refused to be defined by type and tradition, facing down indifference, puzzlement, nay-saying, and unvarnished hostility. They were discouraged by agents, managers, audiences, critics, fellow performers-even their families. And yet they persevered against the tired notion that women couldn't be funny, making space not only for themselves but for the women who followed them. Meticulously researched and irresistibly drawn, Shawn Levy's group portrait forms a new pantheon of comedy excellence. In on the Joke shows how women broke into the boys' club, offered new ideas of womanhood, and had some laughs along the way"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Stand-up comedy; Women comedians;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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More and more and more : an all-consuming history of energy / by Fressoz, Jean-Baptiste,author,translator.; Orr, David W.,1944-translator.; translation of:Fressoz, Jean-Baptiste.Sans transition.English.;
Includes bibliographical references."It has become habitual to think of our relationship with energy as one of transition: with wood superseded by coal, coal by oil, oil by nuclear and then at some future point all replaced by green sources. Jean-Baptiste Fressoz's devastating but unnervingly entertaining book shows what an extraordinary delusion this is. Far from the industrial era passing through a series of transformations, each new phase has in practice remained almost wholly entangled with the previous one. Indeed the very idea of transition turns out to be untrue. The author shares the same acute anxiety about the need for a green transition as the rest of us, but shows how, disastrously, our industrial history has in fact been based on symbiosis, with each major energy source feeding off the others. Using a fascinating array of examples, Fressoz describes how we have gorged on all forms of energy-with whole forests needed to prop up coal mines, coal remaining central to the creation of innumerable new products and oil still central to our lives. The world now burns more wood and coal than ever before. This book reveals an uncomfortable truth: 'transition' was originally itself promoted by energy companies, not as a genuine plan, but as a means to put off any meaningful change. More and More and More forces its readers to understand the modern world in all its voracious reality, and the true nature of the challenges heading our way"--
Subjects: Energy consumption; Energy development; Energy industries; Energy transition.; Power resources; Science; Technology;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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