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No barriers : a blind man's journey to kayak the Grand Canyon / by Weihenmayer, Erik,author.; Levy, Buddy,1960-author.;
"No Barriers is about my journey since coming down from Mt. Everest in 2001, and the path to where I am today. It is the story of my own life, the personal and professional struggles in the pursuit of growth, learning, and family, as well as a dream to kayak one of the world's great rivers as a blind athlete. It is also about the many people I've encountered along the way who possess what I call a "No Barriers" mindset, who live a No Barriers life. It highlights these pioneers who give those around them the courage to do great things. People who have risked failure, transcended their personal barriers, and shown others a way forward: scientists and innovators, artists and musicians, climbers and adventurers, activists and soldiers. No Barriers is a way of living, and it exists in all of us, like a deep internal light. But sometimes through trauma, loss, isolation, and disillusionment, people get shoved into a dark place, and that light is almost extinguished. Making hard choices is what feeds that light, and becomes the energy we need to propel us forward. This book is about making the hard choices to fuel that flickering light, so that we can ignite with purpose and become our very best selves"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Weihenmayer, Erik; Weihenmayer, Erik.; Blind athletes; Kayaking;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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A crown of ivy and glass / by Legrand, Claire,1986-author.;
Lady Gemma Ashbourne seemingly has it all. She's young, gorgeous, and rich. Her family was Anointed by the gods, blessed with incredible abilities. But underneath her glittering facade, Gemma is deeply sad. Years ago, her sister Mara was taken to the Middlemist to guard against treacherous magic. Her mother abandoned the family. Her father and eldest sister, Farrin - embroiled in a deadly blood feud with the mysterious Bask family - often forget Gemma exists. Worst of all, Gemma is the only Ashbourne to possess no magic. Instead, her body fights it like poison. Constantly ill, aching with loneliness, Gemma craves love and yearns to belong. Then she meets the devastatingly handsome Talan d'Astier. His family destroyed themselves, seduced by a demon, and Talan, the only survivor, is determined to redeem their honor. Intrigued and enchanted, Gemma proposes a bargain: She'll help Talan navigate high society if he helps her destroy the Basks. According to popular legend, a demon called The Man With the Three-Eyed Crown is behind the families' blood feud - slay the demon, end the feud. But attacks on the Middlemist are increasing. The plot against the Basks quickly spirals out of control. And something immense and terrifying is awakening in Gemma, drawing her inexorably toward Talan and an all-consuming passion that could destroy her - or show her the true strength of her power at last.
Subjects: Fantasy fiction.; Novels.; Families; Imaginary places; Magic; Man-woman relationships; Sisters; Vendetta;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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From my mother's back : a journey from Kenya to Canada / by Wane, Njoki Nathani,author.;
"In this warm and honest memoir, celebrated academic Njoki Wane shares her journey from her parents' small coffee farm in Kenya, where she helped her mother in the fields as a child, to her current work as a professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. Moving smoothly between time and place, Wane uses her past to illuminate her present. The childhood confusion caused by nuns at her boarding school dismissing her proper name and demanding she give them a Christian first name she did not possess, which resulted in many unexpected consequences, leads deftly to her requirement as a professor that her students, and all her colleagues, learn to use and correctly pronounce her first name of Njoki. In similar ways, Wane uses other memories, painful and tender, to show how her early lessons and the support given by her family allowed her to succeed as a woman of colour in the academy and to later lift up her students facing their own difficult journeys. Yet Wane does not gloss over her own growing pains as a young woman, and as an established professor she still questions whether or not her attachment to Western conveniences is wise. For, in the end, Wane never forgets that her story started with the feeling of safety and the clear field of view she received as a child carried on her mother's back."-- Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Autobiographies.; Biographies.; Wane, Njoki Nathani.; College teachers; Kenyans; Women immigrants;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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She who became the sun / by Parker-Chan, Shelley,author.;
"Mulan meets The Song of Achilles in Shelley Parker-Chan's She Who Became the Sun, a bold, queer, and lyrical reimagining of the rise of the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty from an amazing new voice in literary fantasy. To possess the Mandate of Heaven, the female monk Zhu will do anything "I refuse to be nothing ... " In a famine-stricken village on a dusty yellow plain, two children are given two fates. A boy, greatness. A girl, nothingness ... In 1345, China lies under harsh Mongol rule. For the starving peasants of the Central Plains, greatness is something found only in stories. When the Zhu family's eighth-born son, Zhu Chongba, is given a fate of greatness, everyone is mystified as to how it will come to pass. The fate of nothingness received by the family's clever and capable second daughter, on the other hand, is only as expected. When a bandit attack orphans the two children, though, it is Zhu Chongba who succumbs to despair and dies. Desperate to escape her own fated death, the girl uses her brother's identity to enter a monastery as a young male novice. There, propelled by her burning desire to survive, Zhu learns she is capable of doing whatever it takes, no matter how callous, to stay hidden from her fate. After her sanctuary is destroyed for supporting the rebellion against Mongol rule, Zhu takes the chance to claim another future altogether: her brother's abandoned greatness"--
Subjects: Fantasy fiction.; Historical fiction.; Famines; Orphans; Monks; Brothers and sisters;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 2
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Let it go : downsizing your way to a richer, happier life / by Walsh, Peter,1956-author.;
"Sorting through a lifetime's worth of accumulated possessions can be a daunting and stressful process that millions of Americans confront every year. The need to downsize often arises at a momentous life change, whether you're an empty nester or retiree selling your family home, a newlywed blending your households, or you're cleaning out your parents' property after they've moved into assisted living or passed away. Decluttering guru Peter Walsh knows the difficulty of downsizing firsthand. Along with six of his siblings, he went through the process of downsizing his family home and dividing his late parents' possessions. He realized that making these decisions about mementos and heirlooms creates strong emotions and sometimes sibling rivalries. After this experience, he downsized his own home. Peter doesn't see downsizing as a difficult chore, rather, it's a freeing, rejuvenating process. Now, in Let It Go, you'll access Peter's many tips and practical takeaways, such as how to: Understand the emotional challenges that accompany downsizing. Create strategies for working with your spouse, adult kids, or siblings without drama. Calculate the amount of stuff you can bring into your new life. Identify the objects that will bring you real happiness, and the rest that you should let go Peter will walk you through every step of the process and show you how to use downsizing as a positive experience that sets you up to better enjoy the opportunities that the next phase in your life will offer."--
Subjects: Simplicity.; Orderliness.; Personal belongings.; House cleaning.; Home economics.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The omega factor / by Berry, Steve,1955-author.;
"The Ghent Altarpiece is the most violated work of art in the world. Thirteen times it has been vandalized, dismantled, or stolen. Why? What secrets does it hold? Enter UNESCO investigator, Nicholas Lee, who works for the United Nations' Cultural Liaison and Investigative Office (CLIO). Nick's job is to protect the world's cultural artifacts--including countless lesser-known objects and national treasures. When Nick travels to Belgium for a visit with a woman from his past, he unwittingly stumbles on the trail of the twelfth panel for the Ghent Altarpiece, stolen in 1934 under cover of night and never seen since. Soon Nick is plunged into a bitter conflict, one that has been simmering for nearly two thousand years. On one side is the Maidens of Saint-Michael, les Vautours, Vultures, a secret order of nuns and the guardians of a great truth. Pitted against them is the Vatican, which has wanted for centuries to both find and possess what the nuns guard. Because of Nick the maidens have finally been exposed, their secret placed in dire jeopardy--a vulnerability that the Vatican swiftly moves to exploit utilizing an ambitious cardinal and a corrupt archbishop, both with agendas of their own. From the tranquil canals of Ghent, to the towering bastions of Carcassonne, and finally into an ancient abbey high in the French Pyrenees, Nick Lee must confront a modern-day religious crusade intent on eliminating a shocking truth from humanity's past. Success or failure--life and death--all turn on the Omega Factor"--
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Novels.; Catholic Church; Unesco; Antiquities; Art thefts; Art; Nuns; Secrecy; Secret societies; Theft;
Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 2
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The comfort of ghosts / by Winspear, Jacqueline,1955-author.;
"London, 1945: Four adolescent orphans with a dark wartime history are squatting in a vacant Belgravia mansion - the owners having fled London under heavy Luftwaffe bombing. Soon after a demobilized British soldier, ill and reeling from his experiences overseas, takes shelter with the group, Maisie Dobbs visits the mansion on behalf of the owners. Maisie is deeply puzzled by the children's reticence. Their stories are evasive and, more mysteriously, they appear to possess self-defense skills one might expect of trained adults in wartime. Her quest to bring comfort and the promise of a future to the youngsters and to the ailing soldier brings to light a decades-old mystery concerning Maisie's first husband, James Compton, who was killed while piloting an experimental aircraft. As Maisie picks apart the threads of her dead husband's life, she is forced to examine her own painful past and question beliefs she has always accepted as true. The award-winning Maisie Dobbs series has garnered hundreds of thousands of followers around the world, readers who are drawn to a woman who is of her time, yet familiar in ours - and who inspires with her resilience and capacity for endurance at the worst of times. This final assignment of her own choosing not only opens a new future for Maisie Dobbs and her family, but serves as a fascinating portrayal of the challenges facing the people of Britain at the close of the Second World War"--
Subjects: Detective and mystery fiction.; Novels.; Dobbs, Maisie (Fictitious character); Orphans; Reflection (Philosophy); Women private investigators; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 2
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Get the truth : former CIA officers teach you how to persuade anyone to tell all / by Houston, Philip,author.; Carnicero, Susan,author.; Floyd, Michael(CIA officer),author.; Romary, Peter,writer of added commentary.; Tennant, Don,writer.;
"Getting someone to tell the truth is an essential skill that very few people possess. In the boardroom, classroom, or our own homes, every day we interact with others and try to get the truth from them. People are often untruthful out of fear of negative consequences associated with divulging information. But if a person is made to forget the long-term outcomes, he or she can be influenced to disclose sensitive information that's being withheld. The aim is to encourage the person to remain in short-term thinking mode, shifting focus away from the long-term ramifications of telling the truth. As former CIA agents and bestselling authors of Spy the Lie, Philip Houston, Mike Floyd, and Susan Carnicero are among the world's best at recognizing deceptive behavior and eliciting the truth from even the most accomplished liars. Get the Truth is a step-by-step guide that empowers readers to elicit the truth from others. It also chronicles the fascinating story of how the authors used a methodology Houston developed to elicit the truth in the counterterrorism and criminal investigation realms, and how these techniques can be applied to our daily lives. Using thrilling anecdotes from their careers in counterintelligence, and with easy-to-follow instructions, the authors provide a foolproof means of getting absolutely anybody to give an honest answer. Get the Truth is the easy and effective way to learn how to get the truth every time"--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Confidential communications.; Data protection.; Disclosure of information.; Persuasion (Psychology); Truthfulness and falsehood.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Murder, madness and mayhem : twenty-five tales of true crime and dark history / by Browne, Mike,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."Mike Browne, host of the popular Canadian podcast Dark Poutine, chronicles some of his all-time favourite stories of true crime and dark history from Canada and around the world. Divided into four sections--Murders with a Twist, Perpetual Puzzles, The Madness of Crowds and Notable Disasters--all the stories in this collection (except two) are brand new and haven't been covered by the podcast. In Murders with a Twist, Browne recounts seven true crime stories with atypical elements, including weird motives, unusual perpetrators and bizarre murder weapons. In one case, we meet a man who is willing to kill to possess a human voice. In another, two women play a deadly game to prove their love to each other. Perpetual Puzzles covers six stories that remain unresolved and will leave you with more questions than answers. They include the archaeological find of the century, which turns out to be something far more sinister, as well as the discovery of a dead man on the beach with a mysterious clue in his pocket. The Madness of Crowds reveals that murder and mayhem are sometimes a group effort. We meet two young Canadians who leave home one summer to find work and instead end up on a murder spree, and a bizarre California cult that asks its members to topple the Mormon church. The book concludes with Notable Disasters, which describes some of the most tragic and deadly events in history, including the deadly tsunami in the Indian Ocean on December 26, 2004, as well as the devastating Grenfell Tower fire in London in June 2017."--
Subjects: True crime stories.; Cold cases (Criminal investigation); Disasters.; Murder.; True crime stories.;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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The omega factor [sound recording] / by Berry, Steve,1955-author.; Brick, Scott,narrator.; Hachette Audio (Firm),publisher.;
Read by Scott Brick."The Ghent Altarpiece is the most violated work of art in the world. Thirteen times it has been vandalized, dismantled, or stolen. Why? What secrets does it hold? Enter UNESCO investigator, Nicholas Lee, who works for the United Nations' Cultural Liaison and Investigative Office (CLIO). Nick's job is to protect the world's cultural artifacts--including countless lesser-known objects and national treasures. When Nick travels to Belgium for a visit with a woman from his past, he unwittingly stumbles on the trail of the twelfth panel for the Ghent Altarpiece, stolen in 1934 under cover of night and never seen since. Soon Nick is plunged into a bitter conflict, one that has been simmering for nearly two thousand years. On one side is the Maidens of Saint-Michael, les Vautours, Vultures, a secret order of nuns and the guardians of a great truth. Pitted against them is the Vatican, which has wanted for centuries to both find and possess what the nuns guard. Because of Nick the maidens have finally been exposed, their secret placed in dire jeopardy--a vulnerability that the Vatican swiftly moves to exploit utilizing an ambitious cardinal and a corrupt archbishop, both with agendas of their own. From the tranquil canals of Ghent, to the towering bastions of Carcassonne, and finally into an ancient abbey high in the French Pyrenees, Nick Lee must confront a modern-day religious crusade intent on eliminating a shocking truth from humanity's past. Success or failure--life and death--all turn on the Omega Factor"--
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Audiobooks.; Novels.; Catholic Church; Unesco; Antiquities; Art thefts; Art; Nuns; Secrecy; Secret societies; Theft;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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