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The girls in the wild fig tree : how I fought to save myself, my sister, and thousands of girls worldwide / by Leng'ete, Nice,author.; Butler-Witter, Elizabeth,author.;
"Nice Leng`ete was raised in a Maasai village in Kenya by relatively progressive parents. Her father established a wildlife sanctuary, which was managed by the Maasai themselves rather than outside interests, and watching how he created a consensus by meeting people where they are gave Nice a lesson for the rest of her life. In 1998, when Nice was six, her parents both fell sick and died - it took years for her to understand that they had died of AIDS. Nice and Soila were taken in by their father's brother, who had little interest in whether the girls stayed in school. He expected that the sisters would undergo the ritual referred to as "the cut" (female genital mutilation), which would make them acceptable Maasai women and signal their readiness to be married. Fearing the ritual cut, which Nice had witnessed as a painful, bloody, and sometimes deadly procedure, Nice and Soila climbed a tree to hide. Nice hoped they could eventually run away, and delay the cut forever, but Soila knew that their uncle would not let both girls defy the rules. But maybe one of them could escape it, if the other submitted. After Soila chose to undergo the surgery, sparing Nice, who was still only nine, their lives diverged in the ways Nice had predicted. While Soila married, dropped out of school, and had children - all in her teenage years - Nice continued with her education, postponing receiving the cut at each school break, and became the first in her family to attend college. While at boarding school, at around age 16, Nice began training with Amref, an organization working for healthcare advances in Africa, after they had heard that she had been successfully talking to girls in her village about FGM. Even after she departed for Nairobi for college, she continued her outreach and made inroads in improving sexual education and feminine hygiene by conversing with the young girls, using herself as an example for what was possible. Changing the minds of the men was the biggest obstacle - as a rule in Maasai culture, women do not lead discussions with men - but again she started at the base, with the young unmarried men, before bringing her ideas about new, alternative ceremonial rites for girls to the tribe's elders. One by one, families agreed to end FGM. Girls were allowed to forgo the cut and stay in school. Men began marrying women who were whole. Nice's town has since ended FGM entirely, and her goal is to end the practice worldwide. Nice's journey from "heartbroken child and community outcast, to leader of the Maasai" is an inspiration and a reminder that one person can change the world - and every girl is worth saving"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Leng'ete, Nice; Amref Health Africa.; Female circumcision; Maasai (African people); Maasai (African people); Women, Maasai;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The Prairie Chicken dance tour / by Dumont, Dawn,1978-author.;
"The hilarious story of an unlikely group of Indigenous dancers who find themselves thrown together on a performance tour of Europe in 1972. The Tour is all prepared. The Prairie Chicken dance troupe is all set for a fifteen-day trek through Europe, performing at festivals and cultural events. But then the performers all come down with the food poisoning. And John Greyeyes, a retired cowboy who hasn't danced in fifteen years, finds himself abruptly thrust into the position of leading a hastily-assembled group of replacement dancers. A group of expert dancers they are not. There's a middle-aged woman with advanced arthritis, her nineteen-year-old niece who is far more interested in flirtations than pow-wow, and an enigmatic man from the U.S. -- all being chased by Nadine, the organizer of the original tour who is determined to be a part of the action, and the handsome man she picked up in a gas-station bathroom. They're all looking to John, who has never left the continent, to guide them through a world that he knows nothing about. As the gang makes its way from one stop to another, absolutely nothing goes as planned and the tour becomes a string of madcap adventures. The Prairie Chicken Dance Tour is loosely based -- like, hospital-gown loose -- on the true story of a group of Indigenous dancers who left Saskatchewan and toured through Europe in the 1970s. Dawn Dumont brings her signature razor-sharp wit and impeccable comedic timing to this hilarious, warm, and wildly entertaining novel."--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Humorous fiction.; Friendship; Tours; First Nations; First Nations; Indigenous dancers;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Amazon woman : facing fears, chasing dreams, and a quest to kayak the world's largest river from source to sea / by Gaechter, Darcy,author.;
Includes bibliographical references.Part memoir, part feminist manifesto, Amazon Woman shows what incredible feats we are capable of and will encourage people, especially women, across all backgrounds and ages to find the courage and strength to live the life they've imagined. This 148-day journey began on Darcy Gaetcher's 35th birthday. She sold her successful outdoor adventure business, upsetting her partner and boyfriend of twelve years and getting them both fired in the process. The emotional waters that would fester and erupt on the ensuing journey were often more challenging to navigate than the mighty river itself. With blistered lips and irradiated fingernails, Darcy would tackle raging Class Five whitewater for twenty-five days straight, barely surviving a dynamite-filled canyon being prepared for a new hydroelectric plan. She and her two companions would encounter illegal loggers, narco-traffickers, murderous Shining Path rebels, and ruthless poachers in the black market trade in endangered species. They would plead for mercy at the hands of the murderous Asháninka people who were convinced that they had come to steal their children's organs. In a desperate attempt meant to give her some pretense of control, Darcy even cut off all her hair before entering Peru's notoriously dangerous Red Zone in hopes of passing for a boy and being seen as less of a target. At once a heart-pounding adventure and a celebration of pushing personal limits, Amazon Woman speaks to all of us feeling trapped by our desk-bound, online society. This a story of finding the courage and strength to challenge nature, cultures, social norms, and oneself.
Subjects: Biographies.; Gaechter, Darcy; Kayakers; Kayaking;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Rock concert : an oral history as told by the artists, backstage insiders, and fans who were there / by Myers, Marc,1956-author.;
"A lively, entertaining, wide-ranging oral history of the golden age of the rock concert based on over ninety interviews with musicians, promoters, stagehands, and others who contributed to the huge cultural phenomenon that is live rock. Between 1950 and 1985, the rock concert developed its allure and power as a unifying experience-and became an influential multi-billion-dollar industry. In Rock Concert, acclaimed interviewer Marc Myers sets out to uncover the history of this compelling phenomenon, weaving together groundbreaking accounts from the people who were there. Myers combines the tales of icons like Bob Weir, Todd Rundgren, Tina Weymouth, Ian Anderson, Alice Cooper, Steve Miller, Roger Waters, and Angus Young with figures such as the disc jockeys who first began playing rock on the radio, like Alan Freed in Cleveland and New York; music journalists, like Rolling Stone's Cameron Crowe; and the promoters who organized it all, like Michael Lang, cofounder of Woodstock. The result is a rounded and vivid account of live rock's stratospheric rise. Rock Concert provides a fascinating, immediate look at the evolution of live rock performances-spanning from the rise of R&B in the late 1940s and emergence of rock 'n' roll in the '50s, through the hippie gatherings of the '60s, to the arena and stadium tours of the '70s and '80s. Featuring dozens of key players and filled with colorful anecdotes, Rock Concert will speak to anyone who has experienced the transcendence of live rock"--
Subjects: Oral histories.; Rock concerts;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Rediscovering travel : a guide for the globally curious / by Kugel, Seth,author.;
Includes bibliographical references.In his insightful and fun book, Kugel, former New York Times "Frugal Traveler" columnist, takes on the increasingly commercial and technological aspects of 21st-century travel. His advice will stimulate travelers' curiosity while rescuing a sense of adventure that has been eclipsed by technology and corporate tourism. Kugel bemoans the spawning of neighborhoods that have become "cultural amusement parks" brought on by the exploding business of apartment rental services in cities around the globe. Kugel stresses the benefits of traveling inexpensively: more trips can be taken, and travelers will be closer to the everyday life and will have more opportunities for discovering intriguing people, tasty food, and exhilarating sites. He admits that technology and travel media have made traveling "easier, faster, and cheaper" but cautions against overuse of online resources such as hotel and restaurant reviews, Google Maps, and GPS ("Studies show that drivers using GPS to get somewhere don't pay attention to their surroundings and thus have more trouble finding their way back"). Although Kugel acknowledges that the travel industry will always be necessary "to transport people to their destinations," he believes that adventurous souls will have more luck finding inspiration, personalization, and self-discovery with "just a tiny push toward less-planned travel experiences." Kugel's advice for discovery-filled travel is thought-provoking and surprisingly simple.
Subjects: Kugel, Seth; Tourism.; Travel.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Confidence man : the making of Donald Trump and the breaking of America / by Haberman, Maggie,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."From the Pulitzer-Prize-winning New York Times reporter who has defined Donald J. Trump's presidency like no other journalist: a magnificent and disturbing reckoning that moves beyond simplistic caricature, chronicling his rise in New York City to his tortured post-presidency and his potential comeback. Few journalists working today have covered Donald Trump more extensively than Maggie Haberman. And few understand him and his motivations better. Now, demonstrating her majestic command of this story, Haberman reveals in full the depth of her understanding of the 45th president himself, and of what the Trump phenomenon means. Interviews with hundreds of sources and numerous interviews over the years with Trump himself portray a complicated and often contradictory historical figure. Capable of kindness but relying on casual cruelty as it suits his purposes. Pugnacious. Insecure. Lonely. Vindictive. Menacing. Smarter than his critics contend and colder and more calculating than his allies believe. A man who embedded himself in popular culture, galvanizing support for a run for high office that he began preliminary spadework for 30 years ago, to ultimately become a president who pushed American democracy to the brink. The through-line of Trump's life and his presidency is the enduring question of what is in it for him or what he needs to say to survive short increments of time in the pursuit of his own interests. Confidence Man is also, inevitably, about the world that produced such a singular character, giving rise to his career and becoming his first stage. It is also about a series of relentlessly transactional relationships. The ones that shaped him most were with girlfriends and wives, with Roy Cohn, with George Steinbrenner, with Mike Tyson and Don King and Roger Stone, with city and state politicians like Robert Morgenthau and Rudy Giuliani, with business partners, with prosecutors, with the media, and with the employees who toiled inside what they commonly called amongst themselves the "Trump Disorganization." That world informed the one that Trump tried to recreate while in the White House. All of Trump's behavior as President had echoes in what came before. In this revelatory and newsmaking book, Haberman brings together the events of his life into a single mesmerizing work. It is the definitive account of one of the most norms-shattering and consequential eras in American political history"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Trump, Donald, 1946-; Trump, Donald, 1946-; Trump Organization (New York, N.Y.); Businesspeople; Presidents;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Fever Beach A Novel [electronic resource] : by Hiaasen, Carl.aut; CloudLibrary;
Another instant classic from Carl Hiaasen—laugh-out-loud funny, tackling the current chaotic and polarized American culture (following in the path of Squeeze Me), with two wonderful Hiaasen heroes “The afternoon of September first, dishwater-gray and rainy, a man named Dale Figgo picked up a hitchhiker on Gus Grissom Boulevard in Tangelo Shores, Florida. The hitchhiker, who reminded Figgo of Danny DeVito, asked for a lift to the interstate. Figgo said he’d take him there after finishing an errand.” Thus begins Fever Beach, with an errand that leads—in pure Hiaasen-style—into the depths of Florida at its most Floridian: a sun-soaked bastion of right-wing extremism, white power, greed, and corruption. Figgo, it turns out, is the only hate-monger ever to be kicked out of the Proud Boys for being too dumb and incompetent. On January 6, 2021 he thought he was defacing a statue of Ulysses S. Grant, but he wound up spreading feces all over a statue of James Zacharia George, a Civil War Confederate war leader. Figgo's already messy life is about to get more complicated, thanks to two formidable adversaries. Viva Morales is a newly transplanted Floridian, a clever woman recently taken to the cleaners by her ex-husband, now working at the Mink Foundation, a supposedly philanthropic organization, and renting a room in Figgo’s apartment because there’s no place else she can afford. Twilly Spree has an anger management problem, especially when it comes to those who deface the environment, and way too many inherited millions of dollars. He's living alone a year after his dog died, two years after he sank a city councilman’s party barge, and three years after his divorce. Viva and Twilly are plunged into a mystery—involving dark money and darker motives—they are determined to solve, and become entangled in a world populated by some of Hiaasen’s most outrageous characters: Claude and Electra Mink—billionaire philanthropists with way too much plastic surgery and a secret right-wing agenda—and Congressman Clure Boyette—who dreams of being Florida’s (and maybe America’s) most important politician. The only things standing in his way are his love for hookers and young girls, and his total lack of intelligence. We meet Noel Kristianson—a Scandinavian agnostic injured when Figgo thinks he’s a Jewish threat to humanity and runs him over with his car; Jonas Onus—Figgo’s partner in white power idiocy; and many, many more. Hiaasen ties them all together and delivers them to their appropriate fates, in his wildest and most entertaining novel to date.
Subjects: Electronic books.; Suspense; Mystery & Detective; Humorous;
© 2025., Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group,
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Unbound : my story of liberation and the birth of the Me Too movement / by Burke, Tarana,author.;
"From the founder and activist behind one of the largest movements of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the "me too" movement, Tarana Burke debuts a powerful memoir about her own journey to saying those two simple yet infinitely powerful words-me too-and how she brought empathy back to an entire generation in one of the largest cultural events in American history. Tarana didn't always have the courage to say "me too." As a child, she reeled from her sexual assault, believing she was responsible. Unable to confess what she thought of as her own sins for fear of shattering her family, her soul split in two. One side was the bright, intellectually curious third generation Bronxite steeped in Black literature and power, and the other was the bad, shame ridden girl who thought of herself as a vile rule breaker, not of a victim. She tucked one away, hidden behind a wall of pain and anger, which seemed to work ... until it didn't. Tarana fought to reunite her fractured soul, through organizing, pursuing justice, and finding community. In her debut memoir she shares her extensive work supporting and empowering Black and brown girls, and the devastating realization that to truly help these girls she needed to help that scared, ashamed child still in her soul. She needed to stop running and confront what had happened to her, for Heaven and Diamond and the countless other young Black women for whom she cared. They gave her the courage to embrace her power. A power which in turn she shared with the entire world. Through these young Black and brown women, Tarana found that we can only offer empathy to others if we first offer it to ourselves. Unbound is the story of an inimitable woman's inner strength and perseverance, all in pursuit of bringing healing to her community and the world around her, but it is also a story of possibility, of empathy, of power, and of the leader we all have inside ourselves. In sharing her path toward healing and saying "me too," Tarana reaches out a hand to help us all on our own journeys"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Burke, Tarana.; African American women; MeToo movement.; Sexual abuse victims; Sexual harassment of women;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Every Arc Bends Its Radian A Novel [electronic resource] : by De La Pava, Sergio.aut; cloudLibrary;
From PEN Award­­–winning author Sergio de la Pava comes an existential detective novel about a private investigator who flees New York City for Colombia after a personal tragedy and finds himself entangled in a young woman’s strange disappearance—which may be connected to one of the world’s most ruthless criminal organizations. Riv—poet, philosopher, private eye—arrives in Cali, Colombia, hoping to find reprieve. Running away from an unspeakable event surrounding his ex Jane, Riv accidentally connects with his cousin Mauro and family friend Carlotta, who asks him to find her daughter Angelica Alfa-Ochoa. No sooner is Riv on the trail when it becomes clear that not only are the cops not looking for Angelica, but they are actively preventing him from finding her. This could be a good thing because the police are clearly in the pocket of one Exeter Mondragon, a name best never uttered in public if one wants to stay alive. But Riv is not one to leave things incomplete. When his investigation leads him straight into the heart of Mondragon’s criminal empire, he is forced not only to face unimaginable horrors, but also to plunge into the deepest and most perplexing conundrums of the human condition. Lightning fast on the page and steeped in the cultural history of Colombia, Every Arc Bends Its Radian is a novel only Sergio de la Pava could write. As incredibly funny as it is ridiculously smart, it poses large philosophical questions while keeping you laughing. A novel idea about the biggest idea of them all—what in God’s name are we even put on earth for, this book is a singular exploration of the human mind.
Subjects: Electronic books.; Hispanic & Latino; Literary; Mystery & Detective;
© 2024., Simon & Schuster,
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Hurricane lizards and plastic squid : the fraught and fascinating biology of climate change / by Hanson, Thor,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."In his three previous books-Feathers, The Triumph of Seeds, and Buzz-Thor Hanson has taken his readers on unforgettable journeys into nature, rendered with great storytelling, the soul of a poet, and the insight of a biologist. In this new book, he is doing it again, but exploring one of the most vital scientific and cultural issues of our time: climate change. As a young biologist, Hanson by his own admission watched with some detachment as our warming planet presented plants and animals with an ultimatum: change or face extinction. But his detachment turned to both concern and awe, as he observed the remarkable narratives of change playing out in each plant and animal he studied. In Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid, Hanson tells the story of how nature-both plants and animals, from beech trees to beetles-are meeting the challenges of rapid climate change head-on, adjusting, adapting, and sometimes noticeably evolving. Brown pelicans are fleeing uphill, seeking out new lives in the mountains. Gorillas in Uganda are turning to new food sources, such as eucalyptus trees (which humans only imported to Africa in the past several decades), as their old sources wain. Auklets, a little sea bird, aren't so lucky: changes in the lifecycles of their primary food source means they return at specific times of year to oceanic feeding grounds expecting plankton blooms that are no longer there. As global warming transforms and restructures the ecosystems in which these animals and others live, Hanson argues, we are forced to conclude that climate change will not have just one effect: Some transformations are beneficial. Others, and perhaps most, are devastating, wiping out entire species. One thing is constant: with each change an organism undergoes, the delicate balance of interdependent ecosystems is tipped, forcing the evolution of thousands more species, including us. To understand how, collectively, these changes are shaping the natural world and the future of life, Hanson looks back through deep time, examining fossil records, pollen, and even the tooth enamel of giant wombats and mummified owl pellets. Together, these records of our past tell the story of ancient climate change, shedding light on the challenges faced by today's species, the ways they will respond, and how these strategies will determine the fate of ecosystems around the globe. Ultimately, the story of nature's response to climate change is both fraught and fascinating, a story of both disaster and resilience, and, sometimes, hope. Lyrical and thought-provoking, Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid is poised to transform the conversation around climate change, shifting the focus from humans to the lattice of life, of which humans are just a single point"--
Subjects: Adaptation (Biology); Bioclimatology.; Biotic communities.; Climatic changes.; Global environmental change.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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