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Picture in the sand / by Blauner, Peter,author.;
"'On rare occasions I read a book that reminds me of why I fell in love with storytelling in the first place. This is such a book.'--Stephen King. Peter Blauner's epic Picture in the Sand is a sweeping intergenerational saga told through a grandfather's passionate letters to his grandson, passing on the story of his political rebellion in 1950s Egypt in order to save his grandson's life in a post-9/11 world. When Alex Hassan gets accepted to an Ivy League university, his middle-class Egyptian-American family is filled with pride and excitement. But that joy turns to shock when they discover that he's run off to the Middle East to join a holy war instead. When he refuses to communicate with everyone else, his loving grandfather Ali emails him one last plea. If Alex will stay in touch, his grandfather will share with Alex--and only Alex--a manuscript containing the secret story of his own life that he's kept hidden from his family, until now. It's the tale of his romantic and heartbreaking past rooted in Hollywood and the post-revolutionary Egypt of the 1950s, when young Ali was a movie fanatic who attained a dream job working for the legendary director Cecil B. DeMille on the set of his epic film, The Ten Commandments. But Ali's vision of a golden future as an American movie mogul gets upended when he is unwittingly caught up in a web of politics, espionage, and real-life events that change the course of history. It's a narrative he's told no one for more than a half-century. But now he's forced to unearth the past to save a young man who's about to make the same tragic mistakes he made so long ago"--
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Historical fiction.; Novels.; DeMille, Cecil B. (Cecil Blount), 1881-1959; Ikhwān al-Muslimūn; Ten commandments (Motion picture : 1956); College students; Egyptian Americans; Family secrets; Grandparent and child; Jihad; Letters; Motion picture industry; Motion pictures; Terrorism;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Worst broommate ever! / by Coven, Wanda.; Abramskaya, Anna.;
Starting at a new boarding school that has secret classes for witches-in-training, Heidi Heckelbeck is excited until she discovers her roommate is her old rival, Melanie Maplethorpe, who is also less than thrilled, which leads to an epic prank war and magical mayhem.Ages 8-12.
Subjects: Witches; Boarding schools; Middle schools; Practical jokes; Interpersonal relations;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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Black ops : the life of a CIA shadow warrior / by Prado, Ric,author.;
"A memoir by the highest-ranking covert warrior to lift the veil of secrecy and offer a glimpse into the shadow wars that America has fought since the Vietnam Era. Enrique Prado found himself in his first firefight at age seven. The son of a middle-class Cuban family caught in the midst of the Castro Revolution, his family fled their war-torn home for the hope of a better life in America. Fifty years later, the Cuban refugee retired from the Central Intelligence Agency as the CIA equivalent of a two-star general. Black Ops is the story of Ric's legendary career that spanned two eras, the Cold War and the Age of Terrorism. Operating in the shadows, Ric and his fellow CIA officers fought a little-seen and virtually unknown war to keep USA safe from those who would do it harm. After duty stations in Central, South America, and the Philippines, Black Ops follows Ric into the highest echelons of the CIA's headquarters at Langley, Virginia. In late 1995, he became Deputy Chief of Station and co-founding member of the Bin Laden Task Force. Three years later, after serving as head of Korean Operations, Ric took on one of the most dangerous missions of his career: re-establish a once-abandoned CIA station inside a hostile nation long since considered a front line of the fight against Islamic terrorism. He and his team carried out covert operations and developed assets that proved pivotal in the coming War on Terror. A harrowing memoir of life in the shadowy world of assassins, terrorists, spies and revolutionaries, Black Ops is a testament to the courage, creativity and dedication of the Agency's Special Activities Group and its elite shadow warriors"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Personal narratives.; Prado, Ric.; United States. Central Intelligence Agency; Cold War; Refugees; Special operations (Military science); War on Terrorism, 2001-2009;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The looting machine : warlords, oligarchs, corporations, smugglers, and the theft of Africa's wealth / by Burgis, Tom.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.A curse of riches -- Futungo, Inc. -- "It is forbidden to piss in the park" -- Incubators of poverty -- Guanxi -- when elephants fight, the grass gets trampled -- A bridge to Beijing -- Finance and cyanide -- God has nothing to do with it -- Black gold -- the new money kings -- Complicity.The trade in oil, gas, gems, metals and rare earth minerals wreaks havoc in Africa. During the years when Brazil, India, China and the other "emerging markets" have transformed their economies, Africa's resource states remained tethered to the bottom of the industrial supply chain. While Africa accounts for about 30 per cent of the world's reserves of hydrocarbons and minerals and 14 per cent of the world's population, its share of global manufacturing stood in 2011 exactly where it stood in 2000: at 1 percent. In his first book, The Looting Machine , Tom Burgis exposes the truth about the African development miracle: for the resource states, it's a mirage. The oil, copper, diamonds, gold and coltan deposits attract a global network of traders, bankers, corporate extractors and investors who combine with venal political cabals to loot the states' value. And the vagaries of resource-dependent economies could pitch Africa's new middle class back into destitution just as quickly as they climbed out of it. The ground beneath their feet is as precarious as a Congolese mine shaft; their prosperity could spill away like crude from a busted pipeline. This catastrophic social disintegration is not merely a continuation of Africa's past as a colonial victim. The looting now is accelerating as never before. As global demand for Africa's resources rises, a handful of Africans are becoming legitimately rich but the vast majority, like the continent as a whole, is being fleeced. Outsiders tend to think of Africa as a great drain of philanthropy. But look more closely at the resource industry and the relationship between Africa and the rest of the world looks rather different.LSC
Subjects: Mineral industries; Mines and mineral resources;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The dying citizen : how progressive elites, tribalism, and globalization are destroying the idea of America / by Hanson, Victor Davis,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Most of human history is full of the stories of peasants, subjects, or tribes. The concept of the "citizen," an idea we take for granted, is historically quite rare-and was, until recently, amongst America's most profoundly cherished ideals. But without shock treatment, warns historian and conservative political commentator Victor Davis Hanson, American citizenship as we have known it for well over two centuries may soon vanish. In The Dying Citizen, Hanson outlines the forces that have brought us to the twilight of American citizenship, and led to the deeply fractured politics of the present era. Over the last half-century, numerous forces from both above and below have conspired to undermine the value we place in the idea of citizenship-and our vigilance in protecting it. To be self-governing, citizens must be economically autonomous, but the evisceration of the middle class and the rise of inequality have made many Americans dependent on the federal government. Citizenship exists within delineated borders-but open borders and the elite concept of "global citizenship" have rendered meaningless the idea of allegiance to a particular place. Citizenship relies on the renunciation of tribal identity in favor of the state, but identity politics have eradicated the idea of a collective civic sense of self. A vastly expanded unelected bureaucracy has overwhelmed the power of elected officials, thereby destroying the sovereign power of the citizen. Progressive academics and activists lay siege to the institutions and traditions of constitutional citizenship. As in the revolutionary years of 1848, 1917, and 1968, 2020 has ripped away our complacency about the future of our most cherished ideals. Americans are forced to confront the fragility of citizenship-indeed, the fragility of our nation. But this calamitous year may also teach Americans to rebuild and recover what we have lost. The choice is ours"--
Subjects: Citizenship; Citizenship; Elite (Social sciences); World citizenship.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Big Nate: in a class by himself [yoto card] : Yoto card / by Peirce, Lincoln.;
Read by Fred Berman.For use with a Yoto Player, the Yoto Player app on a device or NFC touchpoint to stream.Discover Big Nate, accidental mischief maker, in this laugh-out-loud novel. In the first novel in the New York Times best-selling series, Big Nate is in a class by himself! Nate knows he's meant for big things. REALLY big things. But things don't always go your way just because you're awesome. Nate barely survives his dad's toxic oatmeal before rushing off to school - minus his lunch. He body slams the no-nonsense principal. He accidentally insults his least favorite teacher, the horrifying Mrs. Godfrey (aka Godzilla). And school has barely started! Trouble always seems to find him, but Nate keeps his cool. He knows he's destined for greatness. A fortune cookie told him so. Here comes BIG NATE, accidental mischief maker and definitely NOT the teacher's pet.Ages 8 to 12.System requirements: 1 Yoto Player smart speaker or Yoto Player app on a device or NFC touchpoint to stream.
Subjects: Humorous fiction.; Children's audiobooks.; Sound recordings.; Children; Middle school students; Middle schools; Schools; Preloaded audiobook.; Yoto audio card.;
© 2021., Yoto Inc.
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Wilmington's lie : the murderous coup of 1898 and the rise of white supremacy / by Zucchino, David,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."By 1898 Wilmington, North Carolina, was a shining example of a mixed-race community-a bustling port city with a thriving African American middle class and a government made up of Republicans and Populists, including black alderman, police officers, and magistrates. But across the state-and the South-white supremacist Democrats were working to reverse the advances made by former slaves and their progeny. They were plotting to take back the state legislature in the November 8th election and then use a controversial editorial published by black newspaper editor Alexander Manly to trigger a "race riot" to overthrow the elected government in Wilmington. With a coordinated campaign of intimidation and violence, the Democrats sharply curtailed the black vote and stuffed ballot boxes to steal the 1898 mid-term election. Two days later, more than 2,000 heavily armed white nightriders known as Red Shirts swarmed through Wilmington, terrorizing women and children and shooting at least sixty black men dead in the streets. The rebels forced city officials and leading black citizens to flee at gun point while hundreds of local African Americans took refuge in nearby swamps and forests. This brutal insurrection is the only violent overthrow of an elected government in U.S. history. It halted gains made by blacks and restored racism as official government policy, cementing white rule for another seventy years. It was not a "race riot" as the events of November 1898 came to be known, but rather a racially-motivated rebellion launched by white supremacists. In Wilmington's Lie, David Zucchino uses contemporary newspaper reports, diaries, letters, and official communications to create a gripping narrative that weaves together individual stories of hate, fear, and brutality. This is a dramatic and definitive account of a remarkable but forgotten chapter of American history"--
Subjects: African Americans; White supremacy movements; Wilmington Race Riot, Wilmington, N.C., 1898.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Ordinary mishaps and inevitable catastrophes / by Vivat, Booki.;
Things are looking up for Abbie Wu: this year she will run for class president and get a brand-new shiny locker. Until she doesn't. Ages 8-12.LSC
Subjects: Humorous fiction.; Girls; Middle schools; Schools;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Woman enough : how a boy became a woman and changed the world of sport / by Worley, Kristen,author.; Schneller, Johanna,author.;
"From a high-performance Canadian cyclist and transgender woman comes a powerful and inspiring story of self-realization and legal victory that upends our basic assumptions about sexual identity. Kristen Worley, a world-class cyclist, aspired to compete in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Having begun her transition in 1998, she became the first athlete in the world to submit to the International Olympic Committee's Stockholm Consensus, a gender verification process that would allow her to engage in sport as the person she knew she was meant to be. An all-male jury determined she fit their biological criteria. Three decades earlier, Kristen was Chris, a male baby adopted by an upper-middle-class Toronto family. From early childhood, Chris felt ill-at-ease as a boy and like an outsider in his conservative family. An obsession with sports -- running, waterskiing, and cycling -- helped him survive what he would eventually understand to be a profound disconnect between his anatomical sexual identity and his gender identity. In his twenties, with the support of newfound friends and family and the medical community, Chris became Kristen. Sport had always been her means of escape, and now she wanted to compete for her country and herself. Though she passed the hurdle of gender verification, the IOC, international and local cycling associations and the World Anti-Doping Agency insisted that transitioned male-to-female athletes should not receive testosterone supplements. They viewed such supplements as performance-enhancing, failing to recognize that women produce varying levels of the hormone too. Kristen's transitioned body had stopped producing any hormones at all -- she needed hormone support to stay healthy and to compete. So Kristen fought back on behalf of all female athletes. She filed a complaint against the IOC and the other sports bodies standing in her way with the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal. And she won. Born to Be Kristen is the account of a human rights battle with global repercussions for the world of sport; it's a challenge to rethink fixed ideas about gender; and it's the extraordinary story of a boy who was rejected for who he wasn't, and who fought back until she found out who she is"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Worley, Kristen.; Women cyclists; Transgender athletes; Gender identity in sports.; Sports;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Sunny days : the children's television revolution that changed America / by Kamp, David,author.; Questlove,writer of foreword.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."In 1970, in soundstage on Manhattan's Upper West Side, a group of men and women of various ages and races met to finish the first season of a children's TV program. They had identified a social problem: poor children were entering kindergarten without the learning skills of their middle-class counterparts. They hoped, too, that they had identified a solution: to use television to better prepare these disadvantaged kids for school. No one knew then, but this children's TV program would go on to start a cultural revolution. It was called Sesame Street. Sesame Street was part of a larger movement that saw media professionals and thought leaders leveraging their influence to help children learn. A year and a half earlier, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood premiered. Fast on its heels came Schoolhouse Rock!, a video series dreamed up by Madison Avenue admen to teach kids times tables, civics, and grammatical rules, and Free to Be ... You and Me, the TV star Marlo Thomas's audacious multi-pronged campaign (it was first a record album, and then a book and a television special) to instill the concept of gender equality in young minds. There was more: programs such as The Electric Company, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, ZOOM, and others followed, and captivated young viewers. In Sunny Days, bestselling author David Kamp takes readers behind the scenes to show how these programs made it on air. He draws on hundreds of hours of interviews from the creators and participants of these programs-among them Joan Ganz Cooney, Lloyd Morrisett, Newton Minow, Sonia Manzano, Loretta Long, Bob McGrath, Marlo Thomas, and Rita Moreno-as well as archival research. Kamp explains how these like-minded individuals found their way into television, not as fame- or money-hungry would-be auteurs and stars, but as people who wanted to use TV to help children. This is both a fun and fascinating story, and a masterful work of cultural history. Sunny Days captures a period in children's television where enlightened progressivism prevailed, and shows how this period changed the lives of millions. Nothing had ever happened like this before, Kamp forcefully and eloquently argues, and nothing has ever happened like it since"--
Subjects: Children's television programs; Television programs;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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