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A long bridge home / by Irvin, Kelly,author.;
"When the Mast family is forced to evacuate their Montana home, Christine chooses not to move with her family to Kansas. Instead, she wants to stay closer to home and to her beau, Andy Lambright, who has yet to ask for her hand in marriage and who seems to be holding tightly to secrets from his past. Now, living with her aunt and uncle in St. Ignatius, Christine is on her own for the first time in her life. While working in her uncle's store Christine meets Raymond Old Fox, and he introduces her to his rich native culture with strong ties to the earth and nature. Despite the warnings of her aunt and uncle, Christine is inexplicably drawn to Raymond, and her mind is opened to a history and heritage far different from her own. With her newly expanding horizons, Christine wonders if she can return to the domestic life that is expected of her. Her heart still longs to be with Andy, but she isn't the same person she was before the fire, and she wonders if he can accept who she is becoming. Has too much distance grown between them? Or can they bridge the gap from past to present and find their way back together?"--Back cover.
Subjects: Religious fiction.; Amish; Man-woman relationships;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Five-star stranger : a novel / by Tang, Kat,author.;
"Would you hire someone to be the best man at your wedding? Your stand-in brother? Your husband? In Kat Tang's exciting and resonant debut, a "Rental Stranger"-a companion hired under various guises-walks the line between personal and professional in surprising new ways. In an age where online ratings are all-powerful, Five-Star Stranger follows the adventures of a top-rated man on the "Rental Stranger" app-a place where users can hire a a pretend fiancé, a wingman, or an extra mourner for a funeral. Referred to only as Stranger, the narrator navigates New York City under the guise of characters he plays, always maintaining a professional distance from his clients. When a nosy patron threatens to upend his long-term role as father to a young girl, Stranger begins to reckon with his attachment to his pretend daughter, her mother, and his own fraught past. Now, he must confront the boundaries he has drawn and explore the legacy of abandonment that shaped his life. Five-Star Stranger is a strikingly vivid novel about the commodification of relationships in a gig economy, isolation in a hyperconnected world, and the risk of asking for what we want from those who cannot give. This is the story of a man who finds out who he is by being anyone but himself"--
Subjects: Psychological fiction.; Novels.; Gig economy; Interpersonal relations; Mobile apps;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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A passage north : a novel / by Arudpragasam, Anuk,author.;
"A Passage North begins with a message: a telephone call informing Krishan, newly returned to Colombo, that his grandmother's caretaker, Rani, has died in unexpected circumstances--found at the bottom of the village well, her neck broken. The news coincides with the arrival of an email from Anjum, a woman with whom he had a brief but passionate relationship in Delhi a few years before, bringing with it the stirring of old memories and desires. As Krishan makes the long journey by train from Colombo into the war-torn northern province for the funeral, so begins an astonishing passage into the soul of a country. At once a meditation on love and longing, and an incisive account of the impact of Sri Lanka's civil war, this procession to a pyre "at the end of the earth" shines a light on the distances we bridge in ourselves and those we love, and the indelible imprints of an island's past. Anuk Arudpragasam's masterful novel is an effigy for the missing and the dead, and a vivid search for meaning, even amid tragedy"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Railroad travel; Funeral rites and ceremonies;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Ten birds that changed the world / by Moss, Stephen,1960-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."For the whole of human history, we have shared our world with birds. We have hunted and domesticated them for food, fuel and feathers; placed them at the heart of our rituals, religions, myths and legends; poisoned, persecuted and often demonized them; and celebrated them in our music, art and poetry. Even today, despite a growing disconnect between humanity and the rest of nature, birds continue to play an integral role in our lives. Ten Birds that Changed the World tells the story of this long and intricate relationship, spanning the whole of human history, and featuring birds from all seven of the world's continents. It does so through those species whose lives, and their interactions with us, have - in one way or another - changed the course of human history. From when Noah sent out the Raven from the Ark, birds have been central to our superstitions, mythology and folklore. Once humans switched from hunter-gathering to settled societies they began to domesticate wild birds: first the Rock Dove - now the domestic or feral Pigeon - used to communicate over long distances; and then the Wild Turkey and other species for food - later, they became the centerpiece of the annual family festivals of Thanksgiving and Christmas. The Dodo of the Indian Ocean is the icon of extinction, while Darwin's Finches changed the way we look at life on our planet, and the droppings of the Guanay Cormorant provided vast amounts of phosphates, kickstarting a global agricultural revolution. In North America, the Snowy Egret almost disappeared when its plumes were used for fashion; this led to the modern bird protection and conservation movement. The Bald Eagle is the proud symbol of the USA, but eagles have a checkered history, especially in Roman and Nazi propaganda. In China, Mao's 'Great Leap Forward' turned out to be the exact opposite. His call to kill millions of Tree Sparrows meant the insects they ate destroyed the grain harvest - leading to a famine in which thirty million people died. Finally, the Emperor Penguin of Antarctica stands as a potent symbol of how humanity's future is now in the balance, as it heads towards becoming the first global casualty of the Climate Emergency. It is an urgent sign, warning us about our own survival on the planet? Ten Birds that Changed the World is a 'big picture' view of global human history, seen through a unique and original viewpoint: our relationship with birds, as crucial to our lives today as is has ever been"--
Subjects: Birds; Human-animal relationships;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The girls of summer / by Bishop, Katie,author.;
""That place has been my whole life. Everything I thought I knew about myself was constructed in those few months I spent within touching distance of the sea. Everything I am is because Alistair loved me." Rachel has been in love with Alistair for fifteen years. Even though she's now married to someone else. Even though she was a teenager when they met. Even though he is twenty years older than her. Rachel and Alistair's summer love affair on a remote, sun-trapped Greek island has consumed her since she was seventeen, obliterating everything in its wake. But as Rachel becomes increasingly obsessed with reliving the events of so long ago, she reconnects with the other girls who were similarly drawn to life on the island, where the nights were long, the alcohol was free-flowing and everyone acted in ways they never would at home. And as she does so, dark and deeply suppressed secrets about her first love affair begin to rise to the surface, as well as the truth about her time working for an enigmatic and wealthy man, who controlled so much more than she could have ever realized. Joining a post #MeToo discourse, The Girls of Summer grapples with themes of power, sex, and consent, as it explores the complicated nature of memory and trauma--and what it takes to reframe, and reclaim, your own story"--
Subjects: Psychological fiction.; Novels.; Man-woman relationships; Memory; Psychic trauma; Secrecy; Self-acceptance in women;
Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 2
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Velvet was the night / by Moreno-Garcia, Silvia,author.;
"From the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic comes a riveting noir about a daydreaming secretary, a lonesome thug, and the mystery of the missing woman that brings them together. 1970s Mexico City. Maite is a secretary who lives for one thing: the latest issue of Secret Romance. While student protests and political unrest consume the city, Maite escapes into stories of passion and danger. Her next-door neighbor, Leonora, a beautiful art student, seems to live a life of intrigue and romance that Maite envies. When Leonora disappears under suspicious circumstances, Maite finds herself searching for the missing woman--and journeying deeper into Leonora's secret life of student radicals and dissidents. Meanwhile, someone else is also looking for Leonora at the behest of his boss, a shadowy figure who commands goon squads dedicated to squashing political activists. Elvis is an eccentric thug who longs to escape his own life: He loathes violence and loves old movies and rock 'n' roll. But as Elvis searches for the missing woman, he comes to observe Maite from a distance--and grows more and more obsessed with this woman who shares his love of music, and the unspoken loneliness of his heart. Now as Maite and Elvis come closer to discovering the secrets behind Leonora's disappearance, they can no longer escape the danger that threatens to consume their lives, with hitmen, government agents, and Russian spies aiming to protect Leonora's secrets--at gunpoint"--
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Noir fiction.; Missing persons; Man-woman relationships;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Near abroad : Putin, the West, and the contest over Ukraine and the Caucasus / by Toal, Gerard,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Vladimir Putin's intervention into the Georgia/South Ossetia conflict in summer 2008 was quickly recognized by Western critics as an attempt by Russia to increase its presence and power in the "near abroad", or the independent states of the former Soviet Union that Russia still regards as its wards. Though the global economic recession that began in 2008 moved the incident to the back of the world's mind, Russia surged to the forefront again six years later when they invaded the heavily Russian Crimea in Ukraine and annexed it. In contrast to the earlier Georgia episode, this new conflict has generated a crisis of global proportions, forcing European countries to rethink their relationship with Russia and their reliance on it for energy supplies, as Russia was now squeezing natural gas from what is technically Ukraine. In Near Abroad, the eminent political geographer Gerard Toal analyzes Russia's recent offensive actions in the near abroad, focusing in particular on the ways in which both the West and Russia have relied on Cold War-era rhetorical and emotional tropes that distort as much as they clarify. In response to Russian aggression, US critics quickly turned to tried-and-true concepts like "spheres of influence" to condemn the Kremlin. Russia in turn has brought back its long tradition of criticizing western liberalism and degeneracy to grandly rationalize its behavior in what are essentially local border skirmishes. It is this tendency to resort to the frames of earlier eras that has led the conflicts to "jump scales," moving from the regional to the global level in short order. The ambiguities and contradictions that result when nations marshal traditional geopolitical arguments-rooted in geography, territory, and old understandings of distance-further contributes to the escalation of these conflicts. Indeed, Russia's belligerence toward Georgia stemmed from concern about its possible entry into NATO, an organization of states thousands of miles away. American hawks also strained credulity by portraying Georgia as a nearby ally in need of assistance. Similarly, the threat of NATO to the Ukraine looms large in the Kremlin's thinking, and many Ukrainians themselves self-identify with the West despite their location in Eastern Europe."--
Subjects: Geopolitics; Geopolitics; Geopolitics; South Ossetia War, 2008.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Gambler : secrets from a life at risk / by Walters, Billy,author.; Keteyian, Armen,author.;
Anybody can get lucky. Nobody controls the odds like Billy Walters. Widely regarded as "the Michael Jordan of sports betting," Walters is a living legend in Las Vegas and among sports bettors worldwide. With an unmatched winning streak of thirty-six consecutive years, Walters has become fabulously wealthy by placing hundreds of millions of dollars a year in gross wagers, including one Super Bowl bet of $3.5 million alone. Competitors desperate to crack his betting techniques have tried hacking his phones, cloning his beepers, rifling through his trash, and bribing his employees. Now, after decades of avoiding the spotlight and fiercely protecting the keys to his success, Walters has reached the age where he wants to pass along his wisdom to future generations of sports wagerers. Gambler is more than a traditional autobiography. In addition to sharing his against-all-odds American dream story, Walters reveals in granular detail the secrets of his proprietary betting system, which will serve as a master class for anyone who wants to improve their odds at betting on sports. Walters also breaks his silence about his long and complicated relationship with Hall of Fame professional golfer Phil Mickelson. On a typical weekend gameday packed with college and pro sports, Walters will bet $10 million-a small sum for someone as wealthy as he is today, but an unbelievable fortune for the child who was raised by his grandmother in extreme poverty in rural Kentucky. By the age of nine, Walters became a shark at hustling pool and pitching pennies. As a young adult, he set records as a used-car salesman, hustled golf, and dabbled in bookmaking. He eventually moved to Las Vegas, where he revolutionized sports betting strategy and became a member of the famed Computer Group, the first syndicate to apply sophisticated algorithms and data analysis to sports gambling. He became extraordinarily wealthy while overcoming addictions and outmaneuvering organized crime figures made infamous by Martin Scorsese's film Casino. In Gambler, Walters passes along everything he's learned about sports betting. First, he shows bettors how to mine the information we have at our fingertips to develop a sophisticated betting strategy and handicapping system of our own. He explains how even avid bettors often do not grasp all of the variables that go into making an informed wager -- factors such as home field advantage, individual player values, injuries or illness, weather forecasts, each team's previous schedule (bye weeks, multiple away games in a row, etc.), travel distance/difficulty, stadium quirks, turf types, and more. Not every bettor has access to Walters's team of expert analysts, but every bettor can follow his guidelines on how to measure the detailed information available online and look for unique situations that could affect a game's outcome more than usual. Variable by variable, Walters breaks down the formulas, point systems, and principles that he's developed over decades of improving his craft. A self-made man who's repeatedly won it all, lost it all, and earned it all back again, Walters has lived a singular and wildly appealing American life, of the outlaw variety. Gambler is at once a gripping autobiography, a blistering tell-all, and an indispensable playbook for coming out on top.
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Walters, Billy.; Gamblers; Gambling.; Gambling; Sports betting.; Sports betting;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Results 21 to 28 of 28 | « previous