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James [text (large print)] : a novel / by Everett, Percival,author.; based on (work):Twain, Mark,1835-1910.Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.;
"From Percival Everett-a recipient of the NBCC Lifetime Achievement Award and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Booker Prize, and numerous PEN awards-comes James, a retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both harrowing and ferociously funny, told from the enslaved Jim's point of view. When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond. While many narrative set pieces of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remain in place (floods and storms, stumbling across both unexpected death and unexpected treasure in the myriad stopping points along the river's banks, encountering the scam artists posing as the Duke and Dauphin ... ), Jim's agency, intelligence and compassion are shown in a radically new light. Brimming with the electrifying humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a "cult literary icon" (Oprah Daily), and one of the most decorated writers of our lifetime, James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first century American literature"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Large print books.; Satirical literature.; Novels.; Finn, Huckleberry (Fictitious character); Fugitive slaves; Male friendship; Race relations; Runaway children;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Daughters of Shandong / by Chung, Eve J.,author.;
"A propulsive, extraordinary novel about a mother and her daughters' harrowing escape to Taiwan as the Communist revolution sweeps through China, by debut author Eve J. Chung, based on her family story. Daughters are the Ang family's curse. In 1948, civil war ravages the Chinese countryside, but in rural Shandong, the wealthy, landowning Angs are more concerned with their lack of an heir. Hai is the eldest of four girls and spends her days looking after her sisters. Headstrong Di, who is just a year younger, learns to hide in plain sight, and their mother-abused by the family for failing to birth a boy-finds her own small acts of rebellion in the kitchen. As the Communist army closes in on their town, the rest of the prosperous household flees, leaving behind the girls and their mother because they view them as useless mouths to feed. Without an Ang male to punish, the land-seizing cadres choose Hai, as the eldest child, to stand trial for her family's crimes. She barely survives their brutality. Realizing the worst is yet to come, the women plan their escape. Starving and penniless but resourceful, they forge travel permits and embark on a thousand-mile journey to confront the family that abandoned them. From the countryside to the bustling city of Qingdao, and onward to British Hong Kong and eventually Taiwan, they witness the changing tide of a nation and the plight of multitudes caught in the wake of revolution. But with the loss of their home and the life they've known also comes new freedom-to take hold of their fate, to shake free of the bonds of their gender, and to claim their own story. Told in assured, evocative prose, with impeccably drawn characters, Daughters of Shandong is a hopeful, powerful story about the resilience of women in war; the enduring love between mothers, daughters, and sisters; and the sacrifices made to lift up future generations"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Novels.; Mothers and daughters; Patriarchy; Rich people; Sisters; Torture; War victims; Women;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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California golden [sound recording] : a novel / by Benjamin, Melanie,1962-author.; Lakin, Christine,1979-narrator.; Random House Audio Publishing,publisher.;
Read by Christine Lakin."Southern California, 1960s: endless sunny days surfing in Malibu, followed by glittering neon nights at Whisky A-Go-Go. In an era when women are expected to be housewives, Carol Donelly is breaking the mold as a legendary female surfer struggling to compete in a male-dominated sport--and her daughters, Mindy and Ginger, bear the weight of her unconventional lifestyle. The Donnelly sisters grow up enduring their mother's absence--physically, when she's at the beach, and emotionally, the rare times she's at home. To escape questions about Carol's whereabouts--and chase their mom's elusive affection--they cut school to spend their days in the surf. From her first time on a board, Mindy shows a natural talent, but Ginger, two years younger, feels out of place in the water. As they grow up and their lives diverge, Mindy and Ginger's relationship ebbs and flows. Mindy finds herself swept up in celebrity, complete with beachside love affairs, parties at the Playboy Club, and USO tours to Vietnam. Meanwhile, Ginger--desperate for a community of her own--is tugged into the vibrant counterculture of drugs and cults. Through it all, their sense of duty to each other survives, as the girls are forever connected by the emotional damage they carry from their unorthodox childhood. A gripping, emotional story set at a time when mothers were expected to be Donna Reed, not Gidget, California Golden is an unforgettable novel about three women living in a society that was shifting as tempestuously as the breaking waves"--
Subjects: Audiobooks.; Historical fiction.; Novels.; Interpersonal relations; Mothers and daughters; Sisters;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Dirty work : my gruelling, glorious, life-changing summer in the wilderness / by Maxymiw, Anna,author.;
"Wild meets Priestdaddy in this humorous, affecting, keenly observed memoir about daring to go outside of what's comfortable--and being open and ready for all the possibilities. When Anna Maxymiw accepts a summer job as a housekeeper at a fishing lodge in Northern Ontario, she has little idea what to expect. As a child, she goes fishing with her father and brother in Toronto's High Park; as a teenager on a family fishing trip, following the death of her uncle, she finds herself indelibly altered by the thrill of bringing a pike to the surface. At 23, when she decides to leave behind her masters degree and city life, and board a floatplane bound for the remote boreal forest near James Bay, new challenges and unexpected joy await. For 67 days, Anna is one of a group of young women and men who will keep the lodge running. While the male dockhands and fishing guides head out on the water with the fishermen who are the lodge's guests, the women housekeep and serve. Against the backdrop of a vast lake; wild storms; and hot days and eerily still nights, friendships develop, and Anna encounters bears, bugs, and the lore surrounding the lake's legendary pike. As the summer progresses, and the ownership of the lodge changes hands, tensions build to a breaking point. Warm, funny, vulnerable, and wise, Anna Maxymiw gives us a singular perspective on an age-old impulse. She shows us what it's really like to let go of yourself, your insecurities and fears--all the things that hold us back--and move through a summer welcoming all the surprises and possibilities, both good and bad, with open arms and a willingness to be changed by them. An unforgettable memoir, Dirty Work is for anyone who's ever felt the urge to feel uncomfortable and wondered how they'd fare and who they'd be when they came out on the other side."--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Autobiographies.; Biographies.; Maxymiw, Anna.; Authors, Canadian (English); Fishing lodges; Outdoor life.; Self-actualization (Psychology);
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Red roulette : an insider's story of wealth, power, corruption and vengeance in today's China / by Shum, Desmond,author.;
Includes bibliographical resources and index."After the Communist Revolution, Desmond Shum's grandfather was marked as belonging to a "black category" that included former landlords and rich peasants--meaning the Shums would be stigmatized and impoverished. As Desmond was growing up, he vowed his life would be different. Through hard work and sheer tenacity Shum earned an American college degree and returned to China to establish himself in business. There, he met his future wife, the highly intelligent and equally ambitious Whitney Duan who was determined to make her mark within China's male-dominated society. Whitney and Desmond formed an effective team and, aided by relationships they formed with top members of the red aristocracy, vaulted into China's billionaire class. Soon they were developing the massive air cargo facility at Beijing International Airport, and they followed that feat with the creation of one of Beijing's premier hotels. They were dazzlingly successful, traveling in private jets, funding multi-million-dollar buildings and endowments, and purchasing expensive homes, vehicles, and art. But in 2017, their fates diverged irrevocably when Desmond, while residing overseas with his son, learned that his now ex-wife Whitney had vanished along with three coworkers. This is both Desmond's story and Whitney's, because she cannot tell it herself."---Amazon.
Subjects: Shum, Desmond.; Duan, Whitney.; Businesspeople; Political corruption;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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A light in the dark : a history of movie directors / by Thomson, David,1941-author.;
"Directors operate behind the scenes managing actors, establishing a cohesive creative vision, at times literally guiding our eyes with the eye of the camera. But we are often so dazzled by the visions onscreen that it is easy to forget the individual who is off-screen orchestrating the entire production--to say nothing of their having marshalled a script, a studio, and other people's money. David Thomson, in his usual brilliantly insightful way, shines a light on the visionary directors who have shaped modern cinema and, through their work, studies the very nature of film direction. With his customary candor about his own delights and disappointments, Thomson analyzes both landmark works and forgotten films from classic directors such as Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Jean Renoir and Jean-Luc Godard, as well as contemporary powerhouses such as Jane Campion, Spike Lee and Quentin Tarantino. He shrewdly interrogates their professional legacies and influence in the industry, while simultaneously assessing the critical impact of an artist's personal life on his or her work. He explores the male directors' dominance of the past, and describes how diversity can change the landscape. Judicious, vivid and witty, A Light in the Dark is yet another required Thomson text for every movie lover's shelf"--
Subjects: Motion pictures; Motion picture producers and directors;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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I'm afraid of men / by Shraya, Vivek,1981-author.;
"A powerful meditation on the damaging effects of masculinity from a trans girl--a writer with celebrated indie roots and a knack for dismantling assumptions and challenging the status quo. Toxic masculinity takes many insidious forms, from misogyny and sexual harassment to homophobia, transphobia, and bullying. Vivek Shraya has firsthand experience with nearly all of them. As a boy, Vivek exhibited "feminine" qualities. The men in her life immediately and violently disapproved. They taught her to fear the word girl by turning it into a weapon used to hurt her. They taught her to hate her femininity, to destroy the best parts of herself. In order to survive, Vivek had to learn to convincingly perform masculinity. As a girl, she's still afraid. Having spent years undoing the damage and salvaging her lost girlhood, she is haunted by the violence of men, seldom dressing the way she wants in public. As a result she is often still perceived as male, stirring feelings of guilt and self-doubt: Am I not feminine enough? Is this my fault for striving to be the perfect man and excelling at it? I'm afraid of men is a culmination of the years Vivek spent observing men and creating her own version of manhood. Through deeply personal reflection, she offers a rare and multifaceted perspective on gender and a hopeful reimagining of masculinity at a time when it's needed more than ever"--
Subjects: Autobiographies.; Biographies.; Shraya, Vivek, 1981-; Transgender people; Gender expression; Gender identity; Sex differences.; Masculinity.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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American mermaid : a novel / by Langbein, Julia(Art historian),author.;
"A brilliantly funny and razor-tongued debut which follows a writer lured to Los Angeles to adapt her feminist mermaid novel into a big-budget action film, who believes her heroine has come to life to take revenge for Hollywood's violations. Penelope Schleeman, a consistently broke Connecticut high school teacher, is as surprised as anyone when her sensitive debut novel, "American Mermaid"--the story of a wheelchair-bound scientist named Sylvia who discovers that her withered legs are the vestiges of a powerful tail--becomes a bestseller. Penelope soon finds herself lured to LA by promises of easy money to co-write the "American Mermaid" screenplay for a major studio with a pair of male hacks. As the studio pressures Penelope to change "American Mermaid" from the story of a fierce, androgynous eco-warrior to a teen sex object in a clam bra, strange things start to happen. Threats appear in the screenplay draft; siren calls lure people into danger. When Penelope's screenwriting partners try to kill Sylvia off entirely in a bitterly false but cinematic end, matters off the page escalate. Is Penelope losing her mind, or is Sylvia among us? American Mermaid follows a young woman braving a world of casual smiles and ruthless calculation, where she discovers a beating heart in her own fiction--a creature she'll do anything to protect. By turns both a comic and fabulously insightful tale of two female characters in search of truth, love, and self-acceptance as they move between worlds without giving up their voices"--
Subjects: Humorous fiction.; Novels.; High school teachers; Motion picture industry; Screenwriters; Women novelists;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Wolf hustle : a Black woman on Wall Street / by Fabré, Cin,author.;
"Growing up, Cin Fabrae didn't know anything about the stock market. But she learned how to hustle from her immigrant parents, saving money so that one day she could escape her abusive father and poverty in the Bronx. Through a tip from a friend, Cin pushed her way into brokerage firm VTR Capital-an offshoot of Stratton Oakmont, the company where the Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort, had reigned. She was shocked to find an army of young, mostly Black and Brown, workers with no real prospects for promotion sitting at phones doing the drudge work of finding investment leads for white male brokers. But she felt the pull of profit and knew she would do whatever she had to do to be successful. Pulling back the curtain on the inequities she and so many others faced, Wolf Hustle reveals how Cin worked grueling hours, ascending from cold caller to stockbroker to become the only Black woman to do so at her firm. She also discloses the excesses she took part in on 1990s Wall Street-the strip clubs, the Hamptons parties, the Gucci shopping sprees-while reveling in the thrill of making money. From landing clients worth hundreds of millions to gaining, losing, then gaining back fortunes in seconds, Cin examines her years spent trading frantically and hustling successfully, grappling with what it takes to build a rich life, and, ultimately, beating Wall Street at its own game"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Fabré, Cin.; African American investment advisors; African American women; Securities industry; Women stockbrokers;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The case against the sexual revolution : a new guide to sex in the 21st century / by Perry, Louise,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."Ditching the stuffy hang-ups and benighted sexual traditionalism of the past is an unambiguously positive thing. The sexual revolution has liberated us to enjoy a heady mixture of erotic freedom and personal autonomy. Right? Wrong, argues Louise Perry in her provocative new book. Although it would be neither possible nor desirable to turn the clock back to a world of pre-60s sexual mores, she argues that the amoral libertinism and callous disenchantment of liberal feminism and our contemporary hypersexualised culture represent more loss than gain. The main winners from a world of rough sex, hook-up culture and ubiquitous porn - where anything goes and only consent matters - are a tiny minority of high-status men, not the women forced to accommodate the excesses of male lust. While dispensing sage advice to the generations paying the price for these excesses, she makes a passionate case for a new sexual culture built around dignity, virtue and restraint. This counter-cultural polemic from one of the most exciting young voices in contemporary feminism should be read by all men and women uneasy about the mindless orthodoxies of our ultra-liberal era"--Publisher's description.
Subjects: Sex customs.; Sexual ethics.; Sex;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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