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The transcendent brain : spirituality in the age of science / by Lightman, Alan P.,1948-author.;
Includes bibliographical references."Modern science teaches us that anything can be explained in terms of atoms and forces, including the inner workings of the brain. But certain personal experiences can challenge the idea that there's nothing beyond inert matter. Communing with nature, working through a complex problem, or experiencing a piece of art, we sometimes feel a powerful sense of transcendence, of connecting with a cosmic unity that may seem unexplainable by science. But according to acclaimed physicist and novelist Alan Lightman, we can embrace these spiritual experiences without letting go of our scientific worldview. Lightman draws on a rich intellectual history to explore this fascinating intersection between religion and science. Philosopher Moses Mendelssohn's rational arguments for the soul foreground our thinking about non-materiality; Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius' ideas predict how strict materialism might explain elusive phenomena; Neuroscientist Christof Koch lays the foundation for the material basis of consciousness; and social psychologist Cynthia Frantz provides a scientific explanation of our deep connection to nature and things larger than ourselves. Lightman weaves these ideas together to argue for a concept he calls "spiritual materialism"-the view that while spiritual experiences may arise from atoms and molecules like everything else, the physical laws of the universe may not be able to fully capture the first-person experience of transcendence. Spirituality, in this sense, is not only compatible with a strictly scientific view, but remains at the core of what it means to be human"--
Subjects: Religion and science.; Spirituality.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The silence factory : a novel / by Collins, Bridget,author.;
Sophia reluctantly accompanies her husband James to a remote Greek island, where he hopes to make his name by collecting rare biological specimens. Once there, however, she is the one set on a voyage of discovery -- as well as stumbling across the very creature he is looking for, she meets a local woman who makes her realise she has never truly known her own desires. Decades later, Henry Latimer is sent to the home of James' descendant, industrialist Sir Edward Ashmore-Percy. Tasked with curing the man's enchanting young daughter, Philomel, of her deafness, Henry is soon drawn in by both Sir Edward's magnetic charisma and the fascinating nature of his business: spinning a rare spider-silk into a cloth which has the extraordinary ability to shut out sound completely. Ignoring repeated warnings, Henry becomes more deeply involved with Sir Edward's project -- by the time he realises the terrible truth about what the silk will be used for, is it too late to turn back?
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Gothic fiction.; Magic realist fiction.; Novels.; Deaf; Factories; Governesses; Secrecy; Silence; Silk;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Oblivion [videorecording (BLURAY)] / by Coster-Waldau, Nikolaj,1970-; Cruise, Tom,1962-; Freeman, Morgan.; Kosinski, Joseph,1974-; Kurylenko, Olga,1979-; Leo, Melissa.; Riseborough, Andrea,1981-; Relativity Media.; Universal Studios Home Entertainment (Firm);
Composers, Joseph Trapanese and Anthony Gonzalez ; music by M.8.3 ; director of photography, Claudio Miranda.Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Melissa Leo, Tom Cruise, Olga Kurylenko, Andrea Riseborough, Morgan Freeman.In the distant future, Earth has been decimated by an intergalactic battle against an alien race known as the Scavs. The majority of mankind has been evacuated, leaving just a few solitary drone repairmen remaining on the planet's surface. Their job is simple -- stand guard over the ruins of a once-great empire by patrolling the skies, and ensuring the drones continue to function. Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) is nearing the end of his mission to extract resources essential to the survival of the human race when he witnesses a spacecraft fall from the sky. Upon investigating, Jack discovers the capsule contains a mysterious woman. With mission control watching his every move from high up above the clouds, Jack embarks on a spectacular adventure that will not only challenge everything he's been taught about mankind's most defining battle, but perhaps alter the entire course of human history as well.Canadian Home Video Rating: PG.BluRay.
Subjects: Dystopian films.; Extraterrestrial beings; Feature films.; Human-alien encounters; Man-woman relationships; Natural resources; Science fiction films.; Space vehicles; War;
© c2013., Universal,
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Love marriage : a novel / by Ali, Monica,1967-author.;
"Yasmin Ghorami is twenty-six, in training to be a doctor (like her Indian-born father) and engaged to the charismatic, upper-class Joe Sangster, whose domineering mother, Helen, is a famous feminist. Though both Yasmin's parents and Joe's mother approve of the marriage, the cultural gulf between them is vast as, it turns out, is the gulf in sexual experience between Yasmin and Joe. The novel opens as Yasmin, her parents and her brother pile into their car, packed with Indian food prepared by Yasmin's mother, to go to dinner to meet Joe's mother in her elegant townhouse in one of London's poshest neighborhoods. Contrary to all of Yasmin's fears, her unsophisticated and somewhat flamboyant mother is embraced and celebrated by Helen and her friends. Many complications ensue when Yasmin discovers that Joe has had an affair with a co-worker, and Yasmin's ne'er do well brother is banished from the house by her father, and Yasmin's mother moves to Helen's house in protest. Love Marriage is a story of emotionally fraught self-discovery and how the secrets people keep hidden affect their most intimate relationships. Joe hides the exact nature of his promiscuous past; Yasmin's brother and mother keep a monumental secret from their father; Yasmin has a wildly erotic affair of her own; and the story of her parents' love marriage proves to be a cover-up for a dark, tragic history. In the wake of extreme upheaval, Yasmin finds herself, and her life, transformed"--
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Novels.; East Indians; Interracial couples; Secrecy;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The last white rose : a novel of Elizabeth of York / by Weir, Alison,1951-author.; Weir, Alison,1951-Elizabeth of York, the last white rose.;
"New York Times bestselling author Alison Weir explores the life of Henry VIII's mother, Elizabeth, the first queen of the Tudor dynasty, in this stunning historical novel. Elizabeth of York is the oldest daughter of King Edward IV. Flame-haired, beautiful, and sweet-natured, she is adored by her family; yet her life is suddenly disrupted when her beloved father dies in the prime of life. Her uncle, the notorious Richard III, takes advantage of King Edward's death to grab the throne and imprison Elizabeth's two younger brothers, the rightful royal heirs. Forever afterwards known as the princes in the tower, the boys are never seen again. On the heels of this tragedy, Elizabeth is subjected to Richard's overtures to make her his wife, further legitimizing his claim to the throne. King Richard has murdered her brothers, yet she is obliged to accept his proposal. As if in a fairy tale, Elizabeth is saved by Henry Tudor, who challenges Richard and kills him in the legendary Battle of Bosworth Field. In recognition of his victory, Henry becomes king and asks Elizabeth to be his wife, the first queen of the Tudor line. The marriage is happy and fruitful, not only uniting the warring houses of Lancaster and York-the red and white roses-but resulting in four surviving children, one of whom, Henry VIII, will rule the country for the next thirty-six years. As in her popular Six Tudor Queens series, Alison Weir captures the personality of one of Britain's most important monarchs, conveying Elizabeth of York's dramatic life in a novel that is all the richer because of its firm basis in history"--
Subjects: Biographical fiction.; Historical fiction.; Novels.; Elizabeth, Queen, consort of Henry VII, King of England, 1465-1503; Queens;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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California golden : a novel / by Benjamin, Melanie,1962-author.;
"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: Historical fiction.; Novels.; Interpersonal relations; Mothers and daughters; Sisters;
Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 2
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The Amish wife [sound recording] : unraveling the lies, secrets, and conspiracy that let a killer go free / by Olsen, Gregg,author.; Burkdoll, James Daniel,narrator.; Brilliance Audio (Firm),publisher.;
Read by James Daniel Burkdoll."In 1977, in an Ohio Amish community, pregnant wife and mother Ida Stutzman perished during a barn fire. The coroner's report: natural causes. Ida's husband, Eli, was never considered a suspect. But when he eventually rejected the faith and took his son, Danny, with him, murder followed. What really happened to Ida? The dubious circumstances of the tragic blaze were willfully ignored and Eli's shifting narratives disregarded. Could Eli's subsequent cross-country journey of death-including that of his own son-have been prevented if just one person came forward with what they knew about the real Eli Stutzman? The questions haunted Gregg Olsen and Ida's brother Daniel Gingerich for decades. At Daniel's urging, Olsen now returns to Amish Country and to Eli's crimes first exposed in Olsen's Abandoned Prayers, one of which has remained a mystery until now. With the help of aging witnesses and shocking long-buried letters, Olsen finally uncovers the disturbing truth-about Ida's murder and the conspiracy of silence and secrets that kept it hidden for forty-five years"--
Subjects: Audiobooks.; Biographies.; Case studies.; Personal narratives.; Stutzman, Eli E., 1950-2007.; Stutzman, Ida; Amish women; Amish; Amish; Murder; Murder;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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Commanding hope : the power we have to renew a world in peril / by Homer-Dixon, Thomas F.,author.;
"Calling on history, cutting-edge research, complexity science and even Lord of the Rings, Homer-Dixon lays out the tools we can command to rescue a world on the brink. For three decades, the renowned author of The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization, and The Ingenuity Gap: Can We Solve the Problems of the Future?, has examined the threats to our future security--predicting a deteriorating global environment, extreme economic stresses, mass migrations, social instability and wide political violence if humankind continued on its current course. He was called The Doom Meister, but we now see how prescient he was. Today just about everything we've known and relied on (our natural environment, economy, societies, cultures and institutions) is changing dramatically--too often for the worse. Without radical new approaches, our planet will become unrecognizable as well as poorer, more violent, more authoritarian. In his fascinating long-awaited new book (dedicated to his young children), he calls on his extraordinary knowledge of complexity science, of how societies work and can evolve, and of our capacity to handle threats, to show that we can shift human civilization onto a decisively new path if we mobilize our minds, spirits, imaginations and collective values. Commanding Hope marshals a fascinating, accessible argument for reinvigorating our cognitive strengths and belief systems to affect urgent systemic change, strengthen our economies and cultures, and renew our hope in a positive future for everyone on Earth."-- Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Creative ability.; Environmental responsibility.; Social change.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Mend! : a refashioning manual and manifesto / by Sekules, Kate,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."A guide to the art, history, and politics of visible mending--at once a practical instruction guide for techniques, a statement on the beauty of repairing and reimagining clothes, and a manifesto against fast fashion. Part manifesto, part how-to, this book persuasively calls for a new way of thinking and handling clothes, flying in the face of the supposedly life-changing magic of throwing them away. Kate Sekules's message is simple: If your sweater gets a hole in it, don't discard it--mend it! Changing the way we dress is easier and cheaper than we think, and with enthusiasm and wit, Sekules shows you how to fix your garments and make your wardrobe more interesting with visible mending techniques, and help save the planet (and your soul) in the process.The environmental and human impacts of our clothing consumer habits cannot be overstated. When we continually buy and discard clothes, we are contributing to pollution, exploitation, and the waste of natural resources. Instead, we should be buying less and better, swapping, embracing vintage, and of course, mending. Sharp and incredibly timely, Mend! is a push for a slow fashion revolution in which we stop to think critically about what we buy, where it comes from, who makes it, and what it is doing to the environment, and is simultaneously a fun, crafty manual that will inspire readers to roll up their (freshly mended) sleeves and get creative, share their designs, and form radical creative communities to change closets, lives, and the world"--
Subjects: Instructional and educational works.; Clothing and dress; Clothing and dress;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Model Home A Novel [electronic resource] : by Solomon, Rivers.aut; Beans, Gabby.nrt; cloudLibrary;
Welcome to Rivers Solomon's dark and wondrous Model Home, a new kind of haunted-house novel. The three Maxwell siblings keep their distance from the lily-white gated enclave outside Dallas where they grew up. When their family moved there, they were the only Black family in the neighborhood. The neighbors acted nice enough, but right away bad things, scary things—the strange and the unexplainable—began to happen in their house. Maybe it was some cosmic trial, a demonic rite of passage into the upper-middle class. Whatever it was, the Maxwells, steered by their formidable mother, stayed put, unwilling to abandon their home, terrors and trauma be damned. As adults, the siblings could finally get away from the horrors of home, leaving their parents all alone in the house. But when news of their parents' death arrives, Ezri is forced to return to Texas with their sisters, Eve and Emanuelle, to reckon with their family’s past and present, and to find out what happened while they were away. It was not a “natural” death for their parents . . . but was it supernatural? Rivers Solomon turns the haunted-house story on its head, unearthing the dark legacies of segregation and racism in the suburban American South. Unbridled, raw, and daring, Model Home is the story of secret histories uncovered, and of a queer family battling for their right to live, grieve, and heal amid the terrors of contemporary American life. A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Subjects: Audiobooks.; Literary; Supernatural; Horror;
© 2024., Macmillan Audio,
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