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Oil people : a novel / by Huebert, David,author.;
"Weaving together family saga, gothic myth, and eco-fiction, Oil People is an audacious debut novel about history and family, land and power, and oil as both contaminant and an object of wonder. It's 1987, and thirteen-year-old Jade Armbruster lives with her parents and older sister on their family petroleum museum--an old and decaying property that their father is desperately trying to sell. While she tries to live out a normal teenage existence, avoiding her best-friend-turned-nemesis and vying for the attention of a cute farmer boy, the oil swirling beneath her family's home has left a mark on all of them. For Jade, it appears as a haunting yet familiar presence that she can't quite place. It's 1862, and Clyde Armbruster catches his big break, striking Lambton County's first gusher and helping to form a community that will be known as Oil Springs. The discovery brings wealth and opportunity to him and his wife, but his daily proximity to oil leaves him infertile and may be the cause of his periodic hallucinatory visions of a red-haired girl in strange clothing. At the same time, Clyde and his wife develop a tense friendship with their eccentric and wealthy neighbours, a relationship that promises even more success until a fateful moment intertwines the two families forever, locking them into a bitter rivalry that lasts generations. As the two narratives twist and tangle together, family secrets and deceits are slowly unveiled, and the slick and lucid spectre of oil seeps off the page, revealing a portrait of a world and a land physically bleeding from the actions of the greedy and powerful. Intense and visceral, agile and lyrical, Oil People signals the arrival of a profound and vital voice."--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Gothic fiction.; Sagas.; Novels.; Families; Family secrets; Petroleum industry and trade; Secrecy;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Seed to dust : life, nature, and a country garden / by Hamer, Marc,author.;
"For readers of Late Migrations and Vesper Flights From the acclaimed author of How to Catch a Mole, this meditative memoir explores the wisdom of plants, the joys of manual labor, and the natural cycle of growth and decay that runs through both the garden's life and our own. Marc Hamer has nurtured the same 12-acre garden in the Welsh countryside for over two decades. The garden is vast and intricate. It's rarely visited, and only Hamer knows of its secrets. But it's not his garden. It belongs to his wealthy and elegant employer, Miss Cashmere. But the garden does not really belong to her, either. As Hamer writes, 'Like a book, a garden belongs to everyone who sees it.' In Seed to Dust, Marc Hamer paints a beautiful portrait of the garden that 'belongs to everyone.' He describes a year in his life as a country gardener, with each chapter named for the month he's in. As he works, he muses on the unusual folklores of his beloved plants. He observes the creatures who scurry and hide from his blade or rake. And he reflects on his own life: living homeless as a young man, his loving relationship with his wife and children, and--now--feeling the effects of old age on body and mind. As the seasons change, Hamer also reflects on the changes he has observed in Miss Cashmere's life from afar: the death of her husband and the departure of her children from the stately home where she now lives alone. At the book's end, Hamer's connection to Miss Cashmere changes shape, and new insights into relationships and the beauty and brutality of nature emerge. Just like all good books and gardens, Seed to Dust is filled with equal parts life and death, beauty and decay, and every reader will find something different to admire."-- Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Hamer, Marc.; Gardening; Gardens; Natural history;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Orphan bachelors : a memoir : on being a confession baby, Chinatown daughter, baa-bai sister, caretaker of exotics, literary balloon peddler, and grand historian of a doomed American family / by Ng, Fae Myenne,1956-author.;
"From the bestselling, award-winning author of novels Bone and Steer Toward Rock, Fae Myenne Ng's Orphan Bachelors is a singular memoir of her beloved San Francisco's Chinatown and of a family building a life in a country bent on their exclusion. Beloved by readers for her "incantatory" (New York Times) novels and their luminous depictions of Chinatown, Fae Myenne Ng's new memoir is a personal, timely portrait of the same storied place. In pre-Communist China, Ng's father memorized a book of lies and gained entry to the United States as a stranger's son, evading the Exclusion Act, an immigration law which he believed was meant to extinguish the Chinese American family. During the McCarthy era, he entered the Confession Program only to have his citizenship revoked. Ng was her parents' precocious firstborn. A child raised by a seafaring father and a seamstress mother, by Chinatown and its legendary Orphan Bachelors--men without wives or children, exclusion's living legacy. Exclusion's shadow followed Ng from the back alleys of Chinatown in the sixties, to Manhattan in the eighties, to the high desert of California in the nineties, until her return home in the 2000s when the deaths of her youngest brother and her father devastated the family. As a child, Ng believed her father's lies; as an adult, she returned to her childhood home to write his truth. Orphan Bachelors weaves together the history of one doomed family; an elegy for brothers estranged and for elders lost; and insights into writing between languages and teaching between generations. In this powerful remembrance, Ng gives voice to her ancestors, her Orphan Bachelors, and her own inner self, howling in Cantonese, impossible to translate but determined to be heard"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Personal narratives.; Ng, Fae Myenne, 1956-; Chinese American authors; Chinese American families;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Confronting the presidents : no spin assessments from Washington to Biden / by O'Reilly, Bill,author.; Dugard, Martin,author.;
"Every American president, from Washington to Biden: Their lives, policies, foibles, and legacies, assessed with clear-eyed authority and wit. Authors of the acclaimed Killing books, the #1 bestselling narrative history series in the world, Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard begin a new direction with Confronting the Presidents. From Washington to Jefferson, Lincoln to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Kennedy to Nixon, Reagan to Obama and Biden, the 45 United States presidents have left lasting impacts on our nation. Some of their legacies continue today, some are justly forgotten, and some have changed as America has changed. Whether famous, infamous, or obscure, all the presidents shaped our nation in unexpected ways. The authors' extensive research has uncovered never before seen historical facts based on private correspondence and newly discovered documentation, such as George Washington's troubled relationship with his mother. In Confronting the Presidents, O'Reilly and Dugard present 45 wonderfully entertaining and insightful portraits of each president, with no-spin commentary on their achievements-or lack thereof. Who best served America, and who undermined the founding ideals? Who were the first ladies, and what were their surprising roles in making history? Which presidents were the best, which the worst, and which didn't have much impact? How do decisions made in one era, under the pressure of particular circumstances, still resonate today? And what do presidents like to eat, drink, and do when they aren't working-or even sometimes when they are? These and many more questions are answered in each fascinating chapter of Confronting the Presidents. Written with O'Reilly and Dugard's signature style, authority, and eye for telling detail, Confronting the Presidents will delight all readers of history, politics, and current affairs, especially during the 2024 election season"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Executive power; Political leadership; Presidents; Presidents;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Drive : the lasting legacy of Tiger Woods / by Harig, Bob,author.;
"Bob Harig's latest deep-dive into Tiger Woods' thrilling career, as seen through his iconic 2019 Masters comeback and win. In April of 1997, the world of golf was forever changed. At the age of 21, a young Tiger Woods won the most prestigious golf tournament in the world, the Masters, by a record of 12 strokes. Woods became the youngest golfer ever to win the Masters and the first African or Asian-American player to win a major. History had been made--and would continue to be made over the next 15 years. Woods transformed the game, turning golf geeks into keen observers, casual golf fans into ardent followers and even indifferent sports fans into curiosity mavens. He will undoubtedly be known for the raw numbers: 82 PGA Tour titles, 15 major championships, and according to Forbes, a billionaire who amassed more than $110-million in official PGA Tour earnings. Woods has proven to be a complicated figure through his decades in the spotlight. Plagued by marital scandal, a DUI arrest, and severe back injuries that resulted in what even he believed would be a career-ending spinal fusion surgery in 2017, Woods' career finally seemed to be coming to an end. That all changed through 2018 and into 2019 as Woods returned slowly from the surgery. In 2019, on the same course where he won for the first time in 1997, Tiger Woods made history once again, winning the Masters one final time. The 2019 Masters brought together all the qualities that ultimately make up someone who has been an enduring figure for 30 years. In this captivating and emotional portrait of one of the most famous figures in sports, Bob Harig brings readers the true story of the grit and perseverance of Tiger Woods in the final years of his career. Drive will show that Woods' true legacy is one of resolve and redemption"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Woods, Tiger.; Golfers;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The Listeners A Novel [electronic resource] : by Stiefvater, Maggie.aut; CloudLibrary;
An Oprah Daily Best Summer Read of 2025 “Maggie Stiefvater is an exceptional talent, and The Listeners is a marvel of storytelling. I really couldn’t have loved it more.” —Chris Whitaker, author of All The Colors of the Dark “A novel that will remind readers of why they fell in love with reading in the first place.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review #1 New York Times bestselling novelist Maggie Stiefvater dazzles in this mesmerizing portrait of an irresistible heroine, an unlikely romance, and a hotel—and a world—in peril. January 1942. The Avallon Hotel & Spa has always offered elegant luxury in the wilds of West Virginia, its mountain sweetwater washing away all of high society’s troubles. Local girl-turned-general manager June Porter Hudson has guided the Avallon skillfully through the first pangs of war. The Gilfoyles, the hotel’s aristocratic owners, have trained her well. But when the family heir makes a secret deal with the State Department to fill the hotel with captured Axis diplomats, June must persuade her staff—many of whom have sons and husbands heading to the front lines—to offer luxury to Nazis. With a smile. Meanwhile FBI Agent Tucker Minnick, whose coal tattoo hints at an Appalachian past, presses his ears to the hotel’s walls, listening for the diplomats’ secrets. He has one of his own, which is how he knows that June’s balancing act can have dangerous consequences: the sweetwater beneath the hotel can threaten as well as heal. June has never met a guest she couldn’t delight, but the diplomats are different. Without firing a single shot, they have brought the war directly to her. As clashing loyalties crack the Avallon’s polished veneer, June must calculate the true cost of luxury.
Subjects: Electronic books.; Historical; Contemporary Women;
© 2025., Penguin Publishing Group,
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The forgotten daughter : a novel / by Goodman, Joanna,1969-author.;
"1992. Montreal, Quebec, 60 miles from the US border. Canada is in danger of splintering as French-Canadian factions renew Quebec's fight to gain independence from Canada. Wild and beautiful Véronique Fortin, daughter of a radical French- Canadian separatist who was convicted of kidnapping and murdering a prominent politician in 1970, shares her father's cause. She harbors no moral quandaries about flouting laws against smuggling, thievery, or terror to achieve political goals. So it is a surprise to everyone when she falls for James Phénix, a fluently bi-lingual journalist of French-Canadian heritage, inhabits both worlds comfortably, and opposes Quebec separatism. Their love affair is as passionate as it is politically charged and they lie in a constant struggle between love and morals. At the same time, James's older sister Elodie Phénix, one of the Duplessis Orphans, becomes involved with a coalition demanding justice and reparations for their suffering in the 1950's when Quebec's orphanages were converted to mental hospitals. This heinous political act of Premier Maurice Duplessis affected 5000 children in the province. Two decades later they still struggle to bind their wounds. Elodie and Véronique are kindred spirits, both constrained by their pasts, but desperate to move forward, and the two become friends on their parallel journeys. And Véronique is the only person Elodie can rely on as she slowly wades into the fight for retribution, reliving all her trauma along the way, and her familial relationships begin to strain. The Forgotten Daughter is a moving portrait of true love, familial bonds, and persistence in the face of injustice. And as each character is pushed to their moral brink, the will discover exactly which lines they'll cross-and just how far they'll go for what they believe in"--
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Historical fiction.; Female friendship; Orphans;
Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 3
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Life sentence : the brief and tragic career of Baltimore's deadliest gang leader / by Bowden, Mark,1951-author.;
Includes bibliographical references."In this unprecedented deep dive into inner-city gang life, Mark Bowden takes readers inside a Baltimore gang, offers an in-depth portrait of its notorious leader, and chronicles the 2016 FBI investigation that landed eight of its members in prison. Sandtown is one of the deadliest neighborhoods in the world; it earned Baltimore its nickname "Bodymore, Murderland," and was made notorious by David Simon's classic HBO series The Wire. Drug deals dominate street corners, and ruthless, casual violence abounds. Montana Barronette grew up in the center of it all. He was the leader of the gang "Trained to Go," or TTG, and when he was finally arrested and sentenced to life in prison, he had been labeled "Baltimore's Number One Trigger Puller." Under Tana's reign, TTG dominated Sandtown. After a string of murders are linked to TTG, each with dozens of witnesses too intimidated to testify, three detectives set out to put Tana in prison for life. For them, this was never about drugs: it was about serial murder. An acclaimed journalist who spent his youth in the white suburbs of Baltimore, Mark Bowden returns to the city with exclusive access to key FBI files and unprecedented insight into one of the city's deadliest gangs and its notorious leader. As he traces the rise and fall of TTG, Bowden uses wiretapped drug buys, police interviews, undercover videos, text messages, social media posts, trial transcripts, and his own ongoing conversations with Tana's family and community to create the most in-depth account of an inner-city gang ever written. With his signature precision and propulsive narrative, Mark Bowden positions Tana-as a boy, a gang leader, a killer, and now a prisoner-in the context of Baltimore and America, illuminating his path for what it really was: a life sentence"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; True crime stories.; Barronette, Montana, 1995-; Crime; Gang members; Gangs;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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And there was light : Abraham Lincoln and the American struggle / by Meacham, Jon,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."A president who governed a divided country has much to teach us in a twenty-first-century moment of polarization and political crisis. Abraham Lincoln was president when implacable secessionists gave no quarter in a clash of visions inextricably bound up with money, power, race, identity, and faith. He was hated and hailed, excoriated and revered. In Lincoln we can see the possibilities of the presidency as well as its limitations. At once familiar and elusive, Lincoln tends to be seen in popular minds as the greatest of American presidents--a remote icon--or as a politician driven more by calculation than by conviction. This illuminating new portrait gives us a very human Lincoln--an imperfect man whose moral antislavery commitment was essential to the story of justice in America. Here is the Lincoln who, as a boy, was steeped in the sermons of emancipation by Baptist preachers; who insisted that slavery was a moral evil; and who sought, as he put it, to do right as God gave him light to see the right. This book tells the story of Lincoln from his birth on the Kentucky frontier in 1809 to his leadership during the Civil War to his tragic assassination at Ford's Theater on Good Friday 1865: his rise, his self-education through reading, his loves, his bouts of depression, his political failures, his deepening faith, and his persistent conviction that slavery must end. In a nation shaped by the courage of the enslaved of the era and by the brave witness of Black Americans of the nineteenth century, Lincoln's story illuminates the ways and means of politics, the marshaling of power in a belligerent democracy, the durability of white supremacy in America, and the capacity of conscience to shape the maelstrom of events"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865; Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865; Presidents; Slavery; Slaves;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The elements of Marie Curie : how the glow of radium lit a path for women in science / by Sobel, Dava,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."'Even now, nearly a century after her death, Marie Curie remains the only female scientist most people can name,' writes Dava Sobel at the opening of her shining portrait of the sole Nobel laureate decorated in two separate fields of science -- Physics in 1903 with her husband Pierre and Chemistry by herself in 1911. And yet, Sobel makes clear, as brilliant and creative as she was in the laboratory, Marie Curie was equally passionate outside it. Grieving Pierre's untimely death in 1906, she took his place as professor of physics at the Sorbonne; devotedly raised two brilliant daughters; drove a van she outfitted with x-ray equipment to the front lines of World War I; befriended Albert Einstein and other luminaries of twentieth-century physics; won support from two U.S. presidents; and inspired generations of young women the world over to pursue science as a way of life ... [Dava Sobel] approaches Marie Curie from a unique angle, narrating her remarkable life of discovery and fame alongside the women who became her legacy -- from France's Marguerite Perey, who discovered the element francium, and Norway's Ellen Gleditsch, to Mme. Curie's elder daughter, Irène, winner of the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. For decades the only woman in the room at international scientific gatherings that probed new theories about the interior of the atom, Marie Curie traveled far and wide, despite constant illness, to share the secrets of radioactivity, a term she coined. Her two triumphant tours of the United States won her admirers for her modesty even as she was mobbed at every stop; her daughters, in Ève's later recollection, 'discovered all at once what the retiring woman with whom they had always lived meant to the world.'"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Curie, Marie, 1867-1934.; Curie, Marie, 1867-1934; Chemical elements; Chemists; Mentoring in science; Physicists; Women chemists; Women physicists;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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