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Starkweather : the untold story of the killing spree that changed America / by MacLean, Harry N.,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."On January 21st, 1958, Charles Starkweather and his fourteen-year-old girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate changed the course of crime in the United States when they murdered her parents and sister in a house on the edge of Lincoln, Nebraska. They then drove to the nearby small town of Bennet, where they robbed and killed a farmer. When Starkweather's car broke down, the man and woman who stopped to help were murdered and jammed in a food cellar. By the time the dust settled, ten innocent people were dead, and the city of Lincoln was in a state of terror. Schools closed. Men with rifles perched on the roofs of their houses. National guardsmen patrolled the street. Every few hours, there would come a knock on the door, and a voice would ask: "Everyone all right in there?" If there is a cultural version of PTSD, the town suffered from it. Starkweather and Fugate's killing spree and the resulting trials received world-wide coverage. It was the first mass killing of the modern age--a precursor of the awakening of the country from the slumber of the fifties to the rebellious, violent sixties. From Starkweather on, people in the Midwest locked their doors. Yet, in spite of this massive exposure, the story has dropped far from the national consciousness. With new material, new reporting, and new conclusions about the possible guilt or innocence of Fugate, the tale is an updated and definitive retelling"--
Subjects: Biographies.; True crime stories.; Personal narratives.; Starkweather, Charles Raymond, 1938-1959.; Fugate, Caril Ann.; Murder; Spree murderers;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Reprieve : a novel / by Mattson, James Han,author.;
"On April 27, 1997, four contestants make it to the final cell of the Quigley House, a full-contact haunted escape room in Lincoln, Nebraska, made famous for its monstrosities, booby-traps, and ghoulishly costumed actors. If the group can endure these horrors without shouting the safe word, "reprieve," they'll win a substantial cash prize--a startling feat accomplished only by one other group in the house's long history. But before they can complete the challenge, a man breaks into the cell and kills one of the contestants. Those who were present on that fateful night lend their points of view: Kendra Brown, a teenager who's been uprooted from her childhood home after the sudden loss of her father; Leonard Grandton, a desperate and impressionable hotel manager caught in a series of toxic entanglements; and Jaidee Charoensuk, a gay international student who came to the United States in a besotted search for his former English teacher. As each character's journey unfurls and overlaps, deceits and misunderstandings fueled by obsession and prejudice are revealed--forcing all to reckon with the ways in which their beliefs and actions contributed to a horrifying catastrophe. A startlingly soulful exploration of complicity and masquerade, Reprieve combines the psychological tension of classic horror with searing social criticism, and seamlessly threads together trial transcripts, evidence descriptions, and deeply layered individual narratives to present a chilling portrait of this tangled American life"--
Subjects: Horror fiction.; Psychological fiction.; Escape room games; Haunted houses (Amusements); Murder; Prejudices;
Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 2
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The Elissas : three girls, one fate, and the deadly secrets of suburbia / by Leach, Samantha,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."In the tradition of Three Women, Bustle editor and writer Samantha Leach traces the lives of a trio of girls who met in the Troubled Teen Industry and went on to share the same tragic fate. Samantha and her best friend Elissa were typical privileged, rebellious, suburban girls. But after Elissa was kicked out of their private school, she soon disappeared. At fifteen years old, her parents quietly flew her from Providence, Rhode Island to a $10,000/month therapeutic boarding school in Nebraska. Ponca Pines Academy was part of the Troubled Teen Industry, a network of programs meant to reform wealthy, wayward teens. There she met two girls uncannily named Alissa and Alyssa, who had similar backgrounds and similar vices. In The Elissas, Samantha channels her personal grief and utilizes years of immersive research combined with her biting prose to reveal the cultural forces and systemic failings that contributed to the deaths of all three girls. In 2011, less than a year after graduating from Ponca Pines Academy, Elissa died of encephalitis. Four years later, Alyssa died of a heroin overdose. Another four years after that, Alissa died while battling an opioid addiction. Samantha endeavors to tell each of their stories, expanding on what shaped these young women before, during, and after their time in the Troubled Teen Industry. Based on interviews with other survivors, friends and family of the girls, educators, experts, and comprehensive reporting, The Elissas will challenge what you know about the opioid epidemic and the Troubled Teen Industry--and in doing so, will ultimately offer a window into the secret lives of young suburban women"--
Subjects: Opioid abuse.; Teenage girls; Youth;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The world record book of racist stories / by Ruffin, Amber,author.; Lamar, Lacey,author.;
"Families may not always see eye to eye; we get on each other's nerves, have different perspectives and lives-especially if we've grown up in different generations. But for the Ruffin family and many others, there has been one constant that connects them: racism hasn't gone anywhere. From her raucous musical numbers to turning upsetting news into laughs as the host of The Amber Ruffin Show or in her Late Night with Seth Meyers segments, Amber is no stranger to finding the funny wherever she looks. With equal parts heart and humor, she and her sister Lacey Lamar shared some of the eye-opening and outrageous experiences Lacey had faced in Nebraska in their first book. Now, the dynamic duo makes it clear-Lacey isn't the only one in the family with ridiculous encounters to share! Amber and Lacey have many more uproarious stories, both from their own lives and the entire Ruffin family, in chapters awarding superlatives ranging from "The Most Racist Dog" to "Worst Gifted Program." Recounting the wildest tales of racism from their parents, their siblings, and Amber's nieces and nephews, this intergenerational look at ludicrous (but all too believable) everyday racism as experienced across age, gender, and appearance will have you gasping with shock and laughter in turn. Validating for anyone who has first-hand experience, and revealing for anyone who doesn't, Amber and Lacey's next book helps us all find the absurdity in the pervasive frustrations of racism. Illuminating and packed with love and laughter, this is a must-read for just about everyone"--
Subjects: Humor.; African American wit and humor.; Racism;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The Lost Letters from Martha's Vineyard A Novel [electronic resource] : by Callahan, Michael.aut; cloudLibrary;
“I was completely captivated by Michael Callahan’s The Lost Letters from Martha’s Vineyard. It’s a history mystery you won’t be able to put down, with strong female characters and plenty of secrets. Plus, it takes you behind the scenes in vintage Hollywood and Martha’s Vineyard. A perfect beach read!”—Lisa Scottoline, #1 bestselling author of Loyalty and The Truth About the Devlins A tantalizing novel of two women bound by blood but divided by a long-buried secret, and the island that holds the key to the fateful summer that changed everything forever. In 1959, Hollywood ingenue Mercy Welles seems to have the world at her feet. Far removed from her Nebraska roots, she has crafted herself into a glamorous Oscar-nominated actress engaged to an up-and-coming director… Until she shockingly vanishes without a trace, just as her career is taking off. Almost sixty years later, Kit O’Neill, a junior television producer in Manhattan, is packing up her recently deceased grandmother’s attic, only to discover a long-lost box of souvenirs that reveal that the grandmother who raised her and her sister was, in fact, the mysterious Mercy Welles. Putting her investigative skills to use, Kit is determined to solve the riddle of her grandmother’s missing life, and the trail eventually leads to Martha’s Vineyard. Mercy retreats to the island nursing a broken heart, only to be drawn to the roguish Ren Sewards, who is not just the simple oysterman he appears to be but a scion of one of the island’s wealthy founding families. With her attraction to Ren quickly growing, Mercy soon finds herself entangled in the intrigues of the tightly knit community and the secrets of the Sewards. Alternating between Mercy and Kit’s timelines, including excerpts from letters Mercy wrote the summer she disappeared, The Lost Letters from Martha’s Vineyard unfurls into a heart-stopping story of love, betrayal, and even murder.
Subjects: Electronic books.; Literary; Women Sleuths; Historical; Contemporary Women;
© 2024., HarperCollins,
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A tangled web : a cyberstalker, a deadly obsession, and the twisted path to justice / by Rule, Leslie,1958-author.;
In the tradition of her acclaimed mother, Ann Rule, author of The Stranger Beside Me, bestselling author Leslie Rule delivers a riveting true story for our time--as she exposes the years-long trail of a sadistic sociopath, identity thief, and killer at the dark heart of a real-life fatal attraction ... It was a bleak November in 2012 when Cari Lea Farver vanished from Omaha, Nebraska. Cari, thirty-seven, was a devoted mother, reliable employee, and loyal friend--not the type to shirk responsibilities, abandon her son, and run off on an adventure while her dying father took his last breaths. Yet, the many texts from her phone indicated she had done just that. It appeared that Cari had dumped her new boyfriend, quit her job, and relinquished custody of her son to her mother--all by text. While Cari's boyfriend, Dave Kroupa, and her supervisor were bewildered by her abrupt disappearance, they accepted the texts at face value. Her mother, Nancy Raney, however, was alarmed and reported Cari missing. Police were skeptical of her claims that a cyber impostor had commandeered her daughter's phone and online identity. While Nancy was afraid for Cari, Dave Kroupa was growing afraid of her, for he believed Cari was stalking him. Never seen or heard, the stalker was aware of his every move and seemed obsessed with his casual girlfriend, Shanna "Liz" Golyar, often calling her "a fat whore" in the twelve thousand emails and texts he received in a disturbing three-year deluge. How did the stalker know Dave's phone numbers immediately after he changed them, the names of his lady friends, even what he wore as he watched TV? He and Liz reported death threats, vandalism, and burglaries, but the stalker remained at large. The threats were vicious, vile and often obscene, sent mostly via text and always in Cari's name. There was some truth in the messages, but all of them contained one big lie. The culprit was not Cari, but had killed and planned to kill again. With mesmerizing detail and compelling narrative skill, Leslie Rule tracks every step of the heart-pounding path to long-awaited justice--from a sociopath's twisted past to the deadly deception and the high-tech forensics that condemned the killer to prison.
Subjects: True crime stories.; Farver, Cari Lea.; Cyberstalking.; Stalkers.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The Lincoln Highway A Novel [electronic resource] : by Towles, Amor.aut; cloudLibrary;
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER More than ONE MILLION copies sold A TODAY Show Read with Jenna Book Club Pick A New York Times Notable Book, a New York Times Readers’ Choice Best Book of the Century, and Chosen by Oprah Daily, Time, NPR, The Washington Post, Bill Gates and Barack Obama as a Best Book of the Year “Wise and wildly entertaining . . . permeated with light, wit, youth.” —The New York Times Book Review   “A classic that we will read for years to come.” —Jenna Bush Hager, Read with Jenna book club   “Fantastic. Set in 1954, Towles uses the story of two brothers to show that our personal journeys are never as linear or predictable as we might hope.” —Bill Gates “A real joyride . . . elegantly constructed and compulsively readable.” —NPR The bestselling author of A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility and master of absorbing, sophisticated fiction returns with a stylish and propulsive novel set in 1950s America In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he has just served fifteen months for involuntary manslaughter. His mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed upon by the bank, Emmett's intention is to pick up his eight-year-old brother, Billy, and head to California where they can start their lives anew. But when the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm have hidden themselves in the trunk of the warden's car. Together, they have hatched an altogether different plan for Emmett's future, one that will take them all on a fateful journey in the opposite direction—to the City of New York. Spanning just ten days and told from multiple points of view, Towles's third novel will satisfy fans of his multi-layered literary styling while providing them an array of new and richly imagined settings, characters, and themes. “Once again, I was wowed by Towles’s writing—especially because The Lincoln Highway is so different from A Gentleman in Moscow in terms of setting, plot, and themes. Towles is not a one-trick pony. Like all the best storytellers, he has range. He takes inspiration from famous hero’s journeys, including The Iliad, The Odyssey, Hamlet, Huckleberry Finn, and Of Mice and Men. He seems to be saying that our personal journeys are never as linear or predictable as an interstate highway. But, he suggests, when something (or someone) tries to steer us off course, it is possible to take the wheel.” – Bill Gates
Subjects: Electronic books.; Literary; Coming of Age; Historical;
© 2021., Penguin Publishing Group,
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The dead are arising : the life of Malcolm X / by Payne, Les,1941-author.; Payne, Tamara,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."An epic biography of Malcolm X finally emerges, drawing on hundreds of hours of the author's interviews, rewriting much of the known narrative. Les Payne, the renowned Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist, embarked in 1990 on a nearly thirty-year-long quest to interview anyone he could find who had actually known Malcolm X-all living siblings of the Malcolm Little family, classmates, street friends, cellmates, Nation of Islam figures, FBI moles and cops, and political leaders around the world. His goal was ambitious: to transform what would become over a hundred hours of interviews into an unprecedented portrait of Malcolm X, one that would separate fact from fiction. The result is this historic biography that conjures a never-before-seen world of its protagonist, a work whose title is inspired by a phrase Malcolm X used when he saw his Hartford followers stir with purpose, as if the dead were truly arising, to overcome the obstacles of racism. Setting Malcolm's life not only within the Nation of Islam but against the larger backdrop of American history, the book traces the life of one of the twentieth century's most politically relevant figures "from street criminal to devoted moralist and revolutionary." In tracing Malcolm X's life from his Nebraska birth in 1925 to his Harlem assassination in 1965, Payne provides searing vignettes culled from Malcolm's Depression-era youth, describing the influence of his Garveyite parents: his father, Earl, a circuit-riding preacher who was run over by a street car in Lansing, Michigan, in 1929, and his mother, Louise, who continued to instill black pride in her children after Earl's death. Filling each chapter with resonant drama, Payne follows Malcolm's exploits as a petty criminal in Boston and Harlem in the 1930s and early 1940s to his religious awakening and conversion to the Nation of Islam in a Massachusetts penitentiary. With a biographer's unwavering determination, Payne corrects the historical record and delivers extraordinary revelations-from the unmasking of the mysterious NOI founder "Fard Muhammad," who preceded Elijah Muhammad; to a hair-rising scene, conveyed in cinematic detail, of Malcolm and Minister Jeremiah X Shabazz's 1961 clandestine meeting with the KKK; to a minute-by-minute account of Malcolm X's murder at the Audubon Ballroom. Introduced by Payne's daughter and primary researcher, Tamara Payne, who, following her father's death, heroically completed the biography, The Dead Are Arising is a penetrating and riveting work that affirms the centrality of Malcolm X to the African American freedom struggle"--
Subjects: Biographies.; X, Malcolm, 1925-1965.; African American civil rights workers; African American Muslims; African Americans; Black Muslims; Black nationalism;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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