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The Emperor of Gladness A Novel [electronic resource] : by Vuong, Ocean.aut; CloudLibrary;
“The Emperor of Gladness is a poetic, dramatic and vivid story. Epic in its sweep, the novel also handles intimacy and love with delicacy and deep originality. Hai and Grazina are taken from the margins of American life by Ocean Vuong and, by dint of great sympathy and imaginative genius, placed at the very center of our world.” —Colm Tóibín, author of Long Island and Brooklyn “A masterwork.” —Bryan Washington, author of Palaver and Family Meal Ocean Vuong returns with a bighearted novel about chosen family, unexpected friendship, and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive One late summer evening in the post-industrial town of East Gladness, Connecticut, nineteen-year-old Hai stands on the edge of a bridge in pelting rain, ready to jump, when he hears someone shout across the river. The voice belongs to Grazina, an elderly widow succumbing to dementia, who convinces him to take another path. Bereft and out of options, he quickly becomes her caretaker. Over the course of the year, the unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond, one built on empathy, spiritual reckoning, and heartbreak, with the power to transform Hai’s relationship to himself, his family, and a community on the brink. Following the cycles of history, memory, and time, The Emperor of Gladness shows the profound ways in which love, labor, and loneliness form the bedrock of American life. At its heart is a brave epic about what it means to exist on the fringes of society and to reckon with the wounds that haunt our collective soul. Hallmarks of Ocean Vuong’s writing—formal innovation, syntactic dexterity, and the ability to twin grit with grace through tenderness—are on full display in this story of loss, hope, and how far we would go to possess one of life’s most fleeting mercies: a second chance.
Subjects: Electronic books.; Literary; Asian American;
© 2025., Penguin Publishing Group,
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The sirens of Mars : searching for life on another world / by Johnson, Sarah Stewart,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."A young planetary scientist intimately details the search for life on Mars, tracing our centuries-old obsession with this seemingly desolate planet. Mars was once similar to Earth, but today there are no rivers, no lakes, no oceans. Coated in red dust, the terrain is bewilderingly empty. And yet multiple spacecraft are circling Mars, sweeping over Terra Sabaea, Syrtis Major, the dunes of Elysium, and Mare Sirenum--on the brink, perhaps, of a staggering find, one that would inspire humankind as much as any discovery in the history of modern science. In this beautifully observed, deeply personal book, Georgetown scientist Sarah Stewart Johnson tells the story of how she and other researchers have scoured Mars for signs of life, transforming the planet from a distant point of light into a world of its own. Johnson's fascination with Mars began as a child in Kentucky, turning over rocks with her father and looking at planets in the night sky. She now conducts fieldwork in some of Earth's most hostile environments, such as the Dry Valleys of Antarctica and the salt flats of Western Australia, developing methods for detecting life on other worlds. Here, with poetic precision, she interlaces her own personal journey--as a female scientist and a mother--with tales of other seekers, from Percival Lowell, who was convinced that a utopian society existed on Mars, to Audouin Dollfus, who tried to carry out astronomical observations from a stratospheric balloon. In the process, she shows how the story of Mars is also a story about Earth: This other world has been our mirror, our foil, a telltale reflection of our own anxieties and yearnings. Empathetic and evocative, The Sirens of Mars offers an unlikely natural history of a place where no human has ever set foot, while providing a vivid portrait of our quest to defy our isolation in the cosmos"--
Subjects: Johnson, Sarah Stewart.; Life on other planets.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Carry : a memoir of survival on stolen land / by Jensen, Toni,author.;
"A powerful, poetic memoir about what it means to exist as an indigenous woman in America, told in snapshots of the author's encounters with gun violence--for readers of Jesmyn Ward and Terese Marie Mailhot. Toni Jensen grew up in the Midwest around guns: As a girl, she learned how to shoot birds with her father, a card-carrying member of the NRA. As an adult, she's had guns waved in her face in the fracklands around Standing Rock, and felt their silent threat on the concealed-carry campus where she teaches. And she has always known she is not alone. As a Métis woman, she is no stranger to the violence enacted on the bodies of indigenous women, on indigenous land, and the ways it is hidden, ignored, forgotten. In Carry, Jensen maps her personal experience onto the historical, exploring how history is lived in the body and redefining the language we use to speak about violence in America. In the title chapter, Jensen recalls the discrimination she faced in college as a Native American student from her roommate to her faculty adviser. "The Worry Line" explores the gun and gang violence in her neighborhood the year her daughter was born. "At the Workshop" focuses on her graduate school years, during which a classmate repeatedly wrote stories in which he killed thinly veiled versions of her. In "Women in the Fracklands," Jensen takes the reader inside Standing Rock during the Dakota Access pipeline protests, as well as the peril faced by women, in regions overcome by the fracking boom. In prose at once forensic and deeply emotional, Toni Jensen shows herself to be a brave new voice and a fearless witness to her own difficult history--as well as to the violent cultural landscape in which she finds her coordinates as a Native American woman. With each chapter, Carry reminds us that surviving in one's country is not the same as surviving one's country."--
Subjects: Biographies.; Jensen, Toni.; Métis women; Indigenous women activists; Indigenous women;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Horizon / by Lopez, Barry Holstun,1945-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."From the National Book Award-winning writer, humanitarian, environmentalist and author of the now-classic Arctic Dreams: a vivid, poetic, capacious work that recollects the travels around the world and the encounters--human, animal, and natural--that have shaped his extraordinary life. Poignantly, powerfully, it also asks "How do we move forward?" Taking us nearly from pole to pole--from modern megacities to some of the most remote regions on the earth--Barry Lopez, hailed by the Los Angeles Times Book Review as "one of our finest writers," gives us his most far-ranging yet personal work to date, in a book that moves through decades of his life as it describes his travels to six regions of the world: from the Oregon coast where he lives to the northernmost reaches of Canada; to the Galapagos; to the Kenyan desert; to Botany Bay in Australia; and in the resounding last section of this magisterial book, unforgettably to the ice shelves of Antarctica. As he revisits his growing up and these myriad travels, Lopez also probes the long history of humanity's quests and explorations, including the prehistoric peoples who trekked across Skraeling Island in northern Canada; the colonialists who plundered Central Africa; an Enlightenment-era Englishman who sailed the Pacific and a Native American emissary who arrived in Japan before it opened to the West. He confronts today's ecotourism in the tropics and visits the haunting remnants of a French colonial prison on Île du Diable in French Guiana. Through these journeys, and friendships forged along the way with scientists, archeologists, artists and local residents, Lopez searches for meaning and purpose in a broken world. With tenderness and intimacy, Horizon evokes the stillness and the silence of the hottest, the coldest and the most desolate places on the globe. It speaks with beauty and urgency to the invisible ties that unite us; voices concern and frustration alongside humanity and hope; and looks forward to our shared future as much as it looks back at a single life. Revelatory, powerful, profound, this is an epic work of nonfiction that makes you see the world differently: a crowning achievement by one of our most humane voices--one needed now more than ever."--
Subjects: Lopez, Barry Holstun, 1945-; Travel; Tourism; Natural history.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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One blood / by Millner, Denene,author.;
"Homegoing meets The Mothers where three women are tied together by blood, love, and family secrets in this searing novel by New York Times bestseller Denene Millner. Raised by her beloved grandmother in tension-filled, post-segregation Virginia, Grace is barely a teenager when she loses her Maw Maw. Shellshocked, she is shipped up North to live with her formidably ambitious Aunt Hattie--a woman who firmly left behind her "undesirable" Southern roots in pursuit of upward mobility. Thrust into the world of the Black and socially ambitious, Grace finds herself trapped in a society of stifling respectability, fancy teas, and coveted debutante balls. Feeling like a fish out of water, Grace's only place of sweet comfort is with the smart, handsome son of one of the society's grand dames. However, when Dale gets caught up in a racial police killing and Grace ends up pregnant, she is quickly hidden away and he is promptly shipped off to college. Then in the ultimate act of betrayal, Grace is deceived by Hattie, and her brand new baby girl is given up for adoption. Beautiful, intelligent and fierce, Delores a.k.a. Lolo has never had it easy. Her life has been riddled with pain and loss. Once she makes it up north, she puts aside her dream of being a model to do what she has to do to survive as a woman with little money and no mooring: get married and have a family of her own. And she will tell lies and keep secrets to obtain it. Then Lolo does have it all: a doting husband, a beautiful son and daughter, and a lovely home. When secrets start to spill out and she and her family slowly begin to unravel, Lolo is willing to do whatever it takes to keep her dream intact and those she loves together. When Lolo's headstrong daughter, Rae discovers that she is adopted, it is just one secret among others that her family is keeping. Not out of a desire to deceive, but out of a determination to survive and protect. When Rae finds out that she is about to become a mother herself, she knows that there is an important reckoning that must be faced about herself and her two mothers. Potent, poetic, powerful, told with deep love, and spanning from the Great Migration to the civil unrest of the 1960s to the quest for women's equality in early 2000s, Denene Millner's beautifully wrought novel explores three women's intimate struggle with generational trauma and healing"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Novels.; Adoption; African American women; African Americans; Families; Family secrets; Mother and child; Pregnancy; Secrecy; Social classes;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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She Is Conann. by Mandico, Bertrand,film director.; Buzek, Agata,actor.; Theret, Christa,actor.; Löwensohn, Elina,actor.; Riedler, Julia,actor.; Richard, Nathalie,actor.; Parfait, Sandra,actor.; Altered Innocence (Firm),dst; Kanopy (Firm),dst;
Agata Buzek, Christa Theret, Elina Löwensohn, Julia Riedler, Nathalie Richard, Sandra ParfaitOriginally produced by Altered Innocence in 2023.In a barbaric fantasy sci-fi trip through time, sword-and-sorcery mythology is bent, fractured, and gender-swapped by master visionary Bertrand Mandico in his third feature epic. Six lives, six eras, and six deaths mark Conann’s poetic journey through different incarnations and lesbian loves. Guiding Conann through her many epic lives is Elina Löwensohn as Rainer, a Cerberus of many otherworldly dimensions whose paparazzi camera sees all.Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Subjects: Feature films.; Foreign films.; Motion pictures.; Drama.; Science fiction.; Queer cinema.; Motion pictures, French.; Action and adventure films.; Fantasy fiction.;
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A Snowman in Africa. by Losansky, Rolf,film director.; Barry, Hadiatou,actor.; Penz, Wolfgang,actor.; Winkler, Wolfgang,actor.; DEFA Film Library (Firm),dst; Kanopy (Firm),dst;
Hadiatou Barry, Wolfgang Penz, Wolfgang WinklerOriginally produced by DEFA Film Library in 1977.Every day on the beach at imaginary place in Africa, called Coccatuttibana, Asina, a little girl, waits for the ship from Rostock with the young sailor Karli. He has promised to bring her a unique gift that does not exist in Africa. Finally, the day arrives, and Asina gets her present: a talking snowman! But the frozen man cannot survive the African sun for long, so Asina needs to come up with a plan. A funny, poetic and imaginative film by Rolf Losansky, an internationally praised and awarded children’s film director.Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Subjects: Feature films.; Foreign films.; Motion pictures.; Comedy.; Science fiction.; Motion Pictures.; Fantasy fiction.;
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Marona's Fantastic Tale. by Damian, Anca,film director.; Salomone, Bruno,actor.; Brochere, Lizzie,actor.; Boutefeu, Nathalie,actor.; Hancisse, Thierry,actor.; GKIDS Films (Firm),dst; Kanopy (Firm),dst;
Bruno Salomone, Lizzie Brochere, Nathalie Boutefeu, Thierry HancisseOriginally produced by GKIDS Films in 2019.From award-winning director Anca Damian comes the poetic and life-affirming story of Marona, an optimistic stray dog who looks back on the human companions she has loved throughout her life. Born the last in the litter, little Marona’s adventures take her through a series of names and owners – a colorful acrobat, a sensitive construction worker, and a little girl – with dazzling style, pushing animation in bold new directions. But through all of her ups and downs, MARONA'S FANTASTIC TALE is told with the patient, boundless love of a dog, reminding us that happiness is a small thing.Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Subjects: Feature films.; Foreign films.; Motion pictures.; Drama.;
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Oceans Are the Real Continents. by Santambrogio, Tommaso,film director.; Alain Alfonso González, Alain,actor.; Diego, Alexander,actor.; Ibarra, Edith,actor.; Ernesto Lam, Frank,actor.; Llanes Martinez, Milagros,actor.; Film Movement (Firm),dst; Kanopy (Firm),dst;
Alain Alain Alfonso González, Alexander Diego, Edith Ibarra, Frank Ernesto Lam, Milagros Llanes MartinezOriginally produced by Film Movement in 2023.Three stories of migration, exile and memory develop in the Cuban town of San Antonio de los Baños, a place that time forgot. Alex and Edith, a young couple in their thirties, build their lives upon small gestures, reminisces and a deep connection amidst the nation's ruins. Milagros survives selling peanut cones on the street, spending her days listening to the radio and reading old letters. Nine-year-old best friends Frank and Alain go to school and dream of emigrating to the U.S. to become baseball players.“Beautifully realized” and “exquisite” (The Hollywood Reporter), OCEANS ARE THE REAL CONTINENTS brilliantly captures the complexity of life in Cuba today. With striking cinematography and a remarkable cast of first-time actors, this debut feature from writer/director Tommaso Santambrogio is a “wistful and poetic journey sure to linger on in memory” (InReview Online).Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Subjects: Feature films.; Foreign films.; Motion pictures.; Drama.; Cuba.; Motion pictures--Latin America.;
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Before, Now & Then. by Andini, Kamila,film director.; Bening, Arswendy,actor.; Salma, Happy,actor.; Jamil, Ibnu,actor.; Basuki, Laura,actor.; Film Movement (Firm),dst; Kanopy (Firm),dst;
Arswendy Bening Swara, Happy Salma, Ibnu Jamil, Laura BasukiOriginally produced by Film Movement in 2022.Set amid the political violence of late-1960s Indonesia, Kamila Andini's intoxicating film BEFORE, NOW & THEN follows Nana, the beautiful wife of a wealthy plantation owner whose inner life remains with her deceased first husband, murdered in the civil war a decade prior. A survivor, Nana values her safety and material comforts, but carries out a haunted existence, dreaming of her lost love. Forced to confront her husband's blatant infidelity, Nana makes an unusual connection with his younger mistress, Ino. The two women, sharing their secrets and desires, discover a newfound freedom and intimacy withheld from them both by the strictures of patriarchal society. Framed by elegant cinematography and a lush score, BEFORE, NOW & THEN is a lyrical, transporting character study in the lineage of Wong Kar-wai and Apichatpong Weerasethakul, "wreathed in poetic melancholy and never less than beautiful" (Deadline).Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Subjects: Feature films.; Foreign films.; Motion pictures.; Drama.; Historical drama.;
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