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The life we chose : William "Big Billy" D'Elia and the last secrets of America's most powerful mafia family / by Birkbeck, Matt,author.;
"William "Big Billy" D'Elia is Mafia royalty. The "adopted" son of legendary organized crime boss Russell Bufalino, for decades D'Elia had unequaled access to the man the FBI and US Justice Department considered one of the leading organized crime figures in the United States. But the government had no real idea as to the breadth of Bufalino's power and influence--or that it was Bufalino, from his bucolic home base in Pittston, Pennsylvania, who reigned over the five families in New York and other organized crime families throughout the country. For nearly thirty years, D'Elia was at Bufalino's side, and "Russ's son" was a witness and participant to major historical events that have stymied law enforcement, perplexed journalists, and produced false and wild narratives in books and movies--not the least of which being the infamous disappearance of union boss Jimmy Hoffa. In addition, their reach was illustrated by their relationships with Frank Sinatra, Marlon Brando, Michael Jackson, Suge Knight, and many other celebrities and personalities. D'Elia became the de facto leader of the Bufalino family upon Russell Bufalino's imprisonment in 1979, and he officially took control upon Bufalino's death in 1994 until his arrest in 2006, when he was charged with money laundering and the attempted murder of a witness. He pled guilty to money laundering and witness tampering and was released from federal prison in 2012. Candid and unapologetic, D'Elia is finally ready to reveal the real story behind the myths and in so doing paints a complicated, compelling, and stunning portrait of crime, power, money, and finally, family."--
Subjects: Biographies.; True crime stories.; D'Elia, William.; Bufalino, Russell, 1903-1994.; Gangsters; Mafia; Organized crime;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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My girls : a lifetime with Carrie and Debbie / by Fisher, Todd,author.; Harrison, Lindsay,author.;
A revelatory and touching tribute to the lives of Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds written by the person who knew them best, Todd Fisher's poignant memoir is filled with moving stories of growing up among Hollywood royalty and illustrated with never-before-seen photos and memorabilia. In December 2016, the world was shaken by the sudden deaths of Carrie Fisher and her mother Debbie Reynolds, two unspeakable losses that occurred in less than twenty-four hours. The stunned public turned for solace to Debbie's only remaining child, Todd Fisher, who somehow retained his grace and composure under the glare of the media spotlight as he struggled with his own overwhelming grief. The son of "America's Sweethearts" Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, Todd grew up amid the glamorous wealth and pretense of Hollywood. Thanks to his funny, loving, no-nonsense mother, Todd remained down to earth, his own man, but always close to his cherished mom, and to his sister through her meteoric rise to stardom and her struggle with demons that never diminished her humor, talent, or spirit. Now, Todd shares his heart and his memories of Debbie and Carrie with deeply personal stories from his earliest years to those last unfathomable days. His book, part memoir, part homage, celebrates their legacies through a more intimate, poignant, and often hilarious portrait of these two remarkable women than has ever been revealed before. With thirty-two pages of never-before-seen photos and memorabilia from his family's private archives, Todd's book is a love letter to a sister and a mother, and a gift to countless fans who are mourning the deaths of these two unforgettable stars.
Subjects: Biographies.; Fisher, Carrie.; Reynolds, Debbie.; Actors;
Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 2
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American Daughters A Novel [electronic resource] : by Huguley, Piper.aut; cloudLibrary;
In the vein of America’s First Daughter, Piper Huguley’s historical novel delves into the remarkable friendship of Portia Washington and Alice Roosevelt, the daughters of educator Booker T. Washington and President Teddy Roosevelt. At the turn of the twentieth century, in a time of great change, two women—separated by societal status and culture but bound by their expected roles as the daughters of famed statesmen—forged a lifelong friendship.  Portia Washington’s father Booker T. Washington was formerly enslaved and spent his life championing the empowerment of Black Americans through his school, known popularly as Tuskegee Institute, as well as his political connections. Dedicated to her father’s values, Portia contributed by teaching and performing spirituals and classical music. But a marriage to a controlling and jealous husband made fulfilling her dreams much more difficult.  When Theodore Roosevelt assumed the presidency, his eldest daughter Alice Roosevelt joined him in the White House. To try to win her father’s approval, she eagerly jumped in to help him succeed, but Alice’s political savvy and nonconformist behavior alienated as well as intrigued his opponents and allies. When she married a congressman, she carved out her own agendas and continued espousing women’s rights and progressive causes.  Brought together in the wake of their fathers’ friendship, these bright and fascinating women helped each other struggle through marriages, pregnancies, and political upheaval, supporting each other throughout their lives.   A provocative historical novel and revealing portrait, Piper Huguley’s American Daughters vividly brings to life two passionate and vital women who nurtured a friendship that transcended politics and race over a century ago. 
Subjects: Electronic books.; Contemporary Women; Historical; Contemporary Women;
© 2024., HarperCollins,
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Pebble & Dove / by Jones, Amy,1976-author.;
"In the tradition of Karen Russell's Swamplandia!, a once-famous but now-abandoned aquarium-in-a-ship in Florida is the captivating backdrop for a novel of family secrets and dysfunction, and the ways in which it can sometimes take an animal to remind us how to be human. This is the story of a family falling apart, only to be brought back together again by an unlikely champion--a 1,000-pound aquatic mammal named Pebble. Lauren's life is a mess. She has a storage unit full of candles she can't sell, a growing mountain of debt, and a teenage daughter, Dove, who barely speaks to her. Then her husband sends her a text that changes everything. Eager to escape her problems, she drives herself and Dove south to her late mother's rundown trailer in Florida. While keeping her eccentric new neighbours at Swaying Palms at bay, Lauren begins to untangle the truth about her estranged mother. How did world-famous portrait photographer Imogen Starr end up at Swaying Palms?And what happened to her fortune and her photographs? Meanwhile, Dove has secrets of her own. A mysterious photograph leads her to discover the abandoned Flamingo Key Aquarium and Tackle, where she meets Pebble, the world's oldest manatee in captivity. It is Pebble, a former star attraction, and her devoted caretaker, Ray, who will hold the key to helping Lauren and Dove come to terms with Imogen's unexpected legacy. Darkly funny and sharply observed, Pebble & Dove is a moving novel about the complicated relationship between mothers and daughters, and learning how to choose between what's worth saving and what needs to be let go."--
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Novels.; Aquariums; Captive wild animals; Dysfunctional families; Family secrets; Manatees; Mothers and daughters;
Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 2
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This shining life : a novel / by Kline, Harriet,author.;
"Meet Ollie. He's eleven years old. He loves rules, has memorized every world capital and every soccer player in the Premier League, and hasn't yet met a Killer Sodoku puzzle he can't solve. He hates being asked two questions at once, or when grown-ups use words with double meanings. He loves his family fiercely, but sometimes he cannot control his temper. And now, he must face a sudden tragedy for which there is no solution. When Ollie's happy-go-lucky, larger-than-life father, Rich, dies of brain cancer, Ollie's life is thrown into disarray. His mother, Ruth, won't get out of bed. His aunt Nessa, Rich's best friend, tries to take charge in her forceful, no-nonsense way, but to no avail. His eccentric grandmother, who lives in a ramshackle cottage in the woods, wants them to move in with her. His other grandparents are struggling with their own health issues as they mourn the loss of their only son. The only thing that makes sense to Ollie is the puzzle he's convinced his dad left behind for him to solve: six gifts, one for each member of the family, that will spell out the secret he's sure his dad figured out right before he died: what it means to be alive. Alternating between Ollie's point of view and the five other members of his family, this beautiful, touching novel paints a portrait of a family who must learn to come together in their grief. How these six characters each undertake this journey of healing is at the heart of this deeply poignant yet ultimately uplifting read"--
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Families; Bereavement;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The Californians : a novel / by Castleberry, Brian,author.;
"It's 2024, and Tobey Harlan-college dropout, temporary waiter, recently dumped-steals from the wall of his father's house three paintings by the venerated and controversial artist Di Stiegl. Tobey's just lost everything he owns to a Northern California wildfire, and if he can sell the paintings (albeit in a shady way to an infamous tech bro) he can start life anew in a place no one will ever find him, perhaps even Oregon. A hundred years before, Klaus Aaronsohn-German-Jewish immigrant, resident of the Lower East Side-inveigles his way into a film studio in Astoria, Queens. In love with silent cinema, Klaus restyles himself Klaus von Stiegl, a mysterious aristocratic German film director. In true Hollywood fashion, he will court fame, fortune, romance, and betrayal, and end his career directing Brackett: a radical, notorious 60s-era detective show. Weaving between Tobey and Klaus is the story of Diane "Di" Stiegl: Klaus's granddaughter, raised in Palm Springs, who claws out a career as an artist in gritty '80s NYC. As America yields the presidency to a Hollywood cowboy, as Diane's grifter father and free-spirited mother circle in and out of her life, Diane will reflect America's most urgent and hypocritical years back to itself, uneasily finding critical adoration as well as great fame and wealth. As dazzling as it is moving, The Californians is an ambitious and sweeping journey across a century. Nuanced and textured, gloriously funny, a critical portrait of the collective American consciousness that has brought us to today, it showcases Brian Castleberry as an inventive, stylish storyteller and a sharp observer of the human condition"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Sagas.; Novels.; Families; Intergenerational relations; Interpersonal relations; Women artists;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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While the city slept : a love lost to violence and a young man's descent into madness / by Sanders, Eli,author.;
"A Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter's gripping account of one young man's path to murder--and a wake-up call for mental health care in America. On a summer night in 2009, three lives intersected in one American neighborhood. Two people newly in love--Teresa Butz and Jennifer Hopper, who spent many years trying to find themselves and who eventually found each other--and a young man on a dangerous psychological descent: Isaiah Kalebu, age twenty-three, the son of a distant, authoritarian father and a mother with a family history of mental illness. All three paths forever altered by a violent crime, all three stories a wake-up call to the system that failed to see the signs. In this riveting, probing, compassionate account of a murder in Seattle, Eli Sanders, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his newspaper coverage of the crime, offers a deeply reported portrait, in microcosm, of the state of mental health care in this country--as well as an inspiring story of love and forgiveness. Culminating in an account of Kalebu's dangerous slide toward violence--observed by family members, police, mental health workers, lawyers, and judges, but stopped by no one--While the City Slept is the story of a crime of opportunity and of the string of missed opportunities that made it possible. It shows what can happen when a disturbed member of society repeatedly falls through the cracks, and in the tradition of The Other Wes Moore and The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace, is an indelible human-level story, brilliantly told, with the potential to inspire social change"--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Kalebu, Isaiah.; Lesbians; Mentally ill offenders; Murder; Rape;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Metropolis / by Kerr, Philip,author.;
"New York Times-bestselling author Philip Kerr treats readers to his beloved hero's origins, exploring Bernie Gunther's first weeks on Berlin's Murder Squad. A portrait of Bernie Gunther in his twenties: He's young, but he's seen four bloody years of trench warfare. And he's not stupid. So when he receives a promotion and a ticket out of Vice squad, he knows he's not really leaving behind the criminal gangs, the perverse sex clubs, and the laundry list of human corruption. It's 1928 and Berlin is a city on the edge of chaos, where nothing is truly verboten. But soon a new wave of shockingly violent murders sweeps up society's most vulnerable, prostitutes and wounded ex-soldiers begging on the streets. As Bernie Gunther sets out to make sense of multiple murders with different MOs in a city that knows no limits, he must face the fact that his own police HQ is not immune. The Nazi party has begun to inflitrate the Alex, Berlin's central office, just as the shakey Weimar government makes a last, desperate attempt to control a nation edging toward to the Third Reich. It seems like the only escape for most Berliners is the theater and Bernie's no exception. As he gets deeper into the city's sordid underground network, he seeks comfort with a make-up artist who is every bit a match for his quick wit and increasingly sardonic view of the world. But even this space can't remain untouched, not with this pervasive feeling that everything is for sale in Berlin if you're man enough to kill for it"--
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Historical fiction.; Gunther, Bernhard (Fictitious character); Detectives; Murder;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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1945 : the year that made modern Canada / by Cuthbertson, Ken,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."1945 was a watershed year for Canada and the world. It ushered in the modern era and set Canada on a new course. With the momentous dropping of the Atomic bomb on Japan, everything had changed. There was a sense of relief at the ending of hostilities, but there was also great uncertainty and fear of the brave new world unfolding. On the eve of WWII, Canada's population was just 10 million. The country was a sleepy backwater where nothing of much significance ever happened. If we accept that the country forged its national identity in World War I, it's fair to say that it came of age in the six years of WWII. As a result, Canada stepped into the modern era in 1945 completely changed and ready to assume its place in the world as an independent nation, no longer under the colonial sway of the mother country. As he did with The Halifax Explosion, bestselling author Ken Cuthbertson has written a compelling narrative about the year 1945 and the events and personalities that shaped our country and created our future. From Mackenzie King, Rocket Richard, and Emily Carr to E.P. Taylor, Igor Gouzenko, Hugh MacLennan, Agnes McPhail and Gabrielle Roy, among others, 1945 weaves an unforgettable portrait of our nation at the moment of its modern birth. Just as writer Bill Bryson's recent bestseller One Summer: America, 1927 chronicled a pivotal year in American history by focusing on the experiences of a select group of American historical figures, 1945: The Year That Made Modern Canada will tell the stories of Canadians - some celebrated, some just ordinary people - who left their mark on this country during 1945 as they seeded its future."-- Provided by publisher.
Subjects: History.; Canadians;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Last call : a true story of love, lust, and murder in queer New York / by Green, Elon,author.;
Includes bibliographical references.""In this astonishing and powerful work of nonfiction, Green meticulously reports on a series of baffling and brutal crimes targeting gay men. It is an investigation filled with twists and turns, but this is much more than a compelling true crime story. Green has shed light on those whose lives for too long have been forgotten, and rescued an important part of American history." -David Grann, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon The gripping true story, told here for the first time, of the Last Call Killer and the gay community of New York City that he preyed upon. The Townhouse Bar, midtown, July 1992: The piano player seems to know every song ever written, the crowd belts out the lyrics to their favorites, and a man standing nearby is drinking a Scotch and water. The man strikes the piano player as forgettable. He looks bland and inconspicuous. Not at all what you think a serial killer looks like. But that's what he is, and tonight, he has his sights set on a gray haired man. He will not be his first victim. Nor will he be his last. The Last Call Killer preyed upon gay men in New York in the '80s and '90s and had all the hallmarks of the most notorious serial killers. Yet because of the sexuality of his victims, the skyhigh murder rates, and the AIDS epidemic, his murders have been almost entirely forgotten. This gripping true-crime narrative tells the story of the Last Call Killer and the decades-long chase to find him. And at the same time, it paints a portrait of his victims and a vibrant community navigating threat and resilience"--
Subjects: Anderson, Peter Stickney.; Serial murderers; Murder; Trials (Murder); Gay men;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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