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How the world really works : the science behind how we got here and where we're going / by Smil, Vaclav,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."An essential analysis of the modern science and technology that makes our twenty-first century lives possible--a scientist's investigation into what science really does, and does not, accomplish. We have never had so much information at our fingertips and yet most of us don't know how the world really works. This book explains seven of the most fundamental realities governing our survival and prosperity. From energy and food production, through our material world and its globalization, to risks, our environment and its future, How the World Really Works offers a much-needed reality check--because before we can tackle problems effectively, we must understand the facts. In this ambitious and thought-provoking book we see, for example, that globalization isn't inevitable--the foolishness of allowing 70 per cent of the world's rubber gloves to be made in just one factory became glaringly obvious in 2020--and that our societies have been steadily increasing their dependence on fossil fuels, such that any promises of decarbonization by 2050 are a fairy tale. For example, each greenhouse-grown supermarket-bought tomato has the equivalent of five tablespoons of diesel embedded in its production, and we have no way of producing steel, cement or plastics at required scales without huge carbon emissions. Ultimately, Smil answers the most profound question of our age: are we irrevocably doomed or is a brighter utopia ahead? Compelling, data-rich and revisionist, this wonderfully broad, interdisciplinary guide finds faults with both extremes. Looking at the world through this quantitative lens reveals hidden truths that change the way we see our past, present and uncertain future"--
Subjects: Science and civilization.; Technology and civilization.; Science; Technological innovations;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The lantern's dance : a novel of suspense featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes / by King, Laurie R.,author.;
"Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes, hoping for a respite in the French countryside, are instead caught up in a case that turns both bewildering and intensely personal. After their recent adventures in Transylvania, Russell and Holmes look forward to spending time with Holmes' son, the famous artist Damian Adler, and his family. But when they arrive at Damian's house, they discover that the Adlers have fled from a mysterious threat. Holmes rushes after Damian while Russell, slowed down by a recent injury, stays behind to search the empty house. In Damian's studio, she discovers four crates packed with memorabilia related to Holmes' grand-uncle, the artist Horace Vernet. It's an odd mix of treasures and clutter, including a tarnished silver lamp with a rotating shade: an antique yet sophisticated form of zoetrope, fitted with strips of paper whose images dance with the lantern's spin. In the same crate is an old journal written in a nearly impenetrable code. Intrigued, Russell sets about deciphering the intricate cryptograph, slowly realizing that each entry is built around an image-the first of which is a child, bundled into a carriage by an abductor, watching her mother recede from view. Russell is troubled, then entranced, but each entry she decodes brings more questions. Who is the young woman who created this elaborate puzzle? What does she have to do with Damian, or the Vernets-or the threat hovering over the house? The secrets of the past appear to be reaching into the present. And it seems increasingly urgent that Russell figure out how the journal and lantern are related to Damian-and possibly to Sherlock Holmes himself. Could there be things about his own history that even the master detective does not perceive?"--
Subjects: Detective and mystery fiction.; Novels.; Holmes, Sherlock; Russell, Mary (Fictitious character), 1900-; Family secrets; Missing persons; Secrecy; Women private investigators;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The silver shooter [sound recording] / by Lindsey, Erin,author,narrator.; Kreinik, Barrie,narrator.; Macmillan Audio (Firm),publisher.;
Read by Barrie Kreinik with the author."Erin Lindsey's third historical mystery The Silver Shooter follows Rose Gallagher as she tracks a monster and searches for treasure in the wilds of the Dakota Territory. It's the spring of 1887, and Rose Gallagher is finally coming into her own. She's the proud owner of a lovely little home near Washington Square, where she lives with her mother and friend Pietro, and she's making a name for herself as a Pinkerton agent with a specialty in things ... otherworldly. She and her partner Thomas are working together better than ever, and mostly managing to push aside romantic feelings for one another. Mostly. Things are almost too good to be true-so Rose is hardly surprised when Theodore Roosevelt descends on them like a storm cloud, hiring them for a mysterious job out west. A series of strange occurrences in the Badlands surrounding his ranch has Roosevelt convinced something supernatural is afoot. It began with livestock disappearing from the range, their bodies later discovered torn apart by something monstrously powerful. Now people are dying, too. Meanwhile, a successful prospector has gone missing, and rumors about his lost stash of gold have attracted treasure hunters from far and wide - but they keep disappearing, too. To top it all off, this past winter, a mysterious weather phenomenon devastated the land, leaving the locals hungry, broke, and looking for someone to blame. With tensions mounting and the body count rising, Roosevelt fears a single spark will be all it takes to set the Badlands aflame. It's up to Rose and Thomas to get to the bottom of it, but they're against the clock and an unknown enemy, and the west will prove wilder than they could possibly imagine"--
Subjects: Detective and mystery fiction.; Audiobooks.; Historical fiction.; Paranormal fiction.; Pinkerton's National Detective Agency; Women detectives;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Growing an edible landscape : how to transform your outdoor space into a food garden / by Pilarchik, Gary,author.; D'Amore, Chiara,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.Convert your unproductive lawn and landscape areas into fruitful edible gardens with this practical guide overflowing with ideas, plans, designs, and know-how. Out with the lawn and in with the food! That's the battle cry of millions of modern gardeners who are not only looking to reduce the amount of time and energy they have to spend tending a lawn, but they're also looking to improve the lives of their family, friends, and neighbors by supplying them with fresh, homegrown food. In the United States alone, 46 million acres of land are covered in turfgrass (that's more acreage than corn and soybeans combined!). Imagine all the good that would come if that land were dedicated to growing food instead! Converting unused areas of the landscape into food gardens helps mitigate the effects of climate change, reduces food miles, improves food security, and allows us to be a better steward of our little slice of the planet. But how do you get started? Which plants do you choose? Is there a series of best practices to follow to successfully convert your yard into an edible oasis so that it's not just high-yielding, but it's also attractive? Growing an Edible Landscape is here to help answer all of these questions and many more. Setting up an edible landscape is much more than just placing a few tomato-filled raised beds in the middle of the lawn, though for some gardeners, this might be a logical place to start. The eventual goal, however, is to have a landscape filled with layers of fruitful plants combined together to produce edible harvests for as many months of the year as possible. To reach that end, there's much to plan and do to ensure your success.
Subjects: Fruit-culture.; Plants, Edible.; Vegetable gardening.;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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Arctic storm rising : a novel / by Brown, Dale,1956-author.;
After a CIA covert mission goes badly awry, U.S. Air Force intelligence officer Nicholas Flynn is exiled to guard a remote radar post along Alaska's Arctic frontier. This dead-end assignment is designed to put his career permanently on ice, but Flynn's not the type to fade quietly into obscurity. As winter storms pound Alaska and northern Canada, Russian aircraft begin penetrating deep into friendly airspace. Are these rehearsals for a possible first strike, using Russia's new long-range stealth cruise missiles? Or is some other motive driving the Kremlin to take ever-increasing risks along the hostile Arctic frontier separating two of the world's great powers? When an American F-22 collides with one of the Russian interlopers, things go south fast, in seconds, missiles are fired. There are no survivors. Despite horrific weather, Flynn and his security team are ordered to parachute into the area in a desperate bid to reach the crash sites ahead of the Russians. It's now obvious that the Pentagon and CIA are withholding vital information, but Flynn and his men have no choice but to make the dangerous jump. Soon they're caught in a deadly game of hide-and-seek with Spetsnaz commandos operating covertly on American soil. It seems that the F-22s and their Russian counterparts aren't the first aircraft to have gone missing in these desolate mountains. The Kremlin is hunting for the first prototype of its new stealth bomber, which vanished on what was supposed to be a test flight, while loaded with nuclear-armed stealth cruise missiles. As Russia and the U.S. square off on the brink of all-out-war, it's up to Nick to find the missing bomber, and prevent a potential nuclear holocaust.
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); United States. Air Force; Intelligence officers; Aircraft accidents; Exile (Punishment); Bombings;
Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 3
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Small acts of courage : a legacy of endurance and the fight for democracy / by Velshi, Ali,author.;
"A captivating family history that illustrates how small actions can have an outsized political impact. Small acts of courage matter. Sometimes, they change the world. Our history books are filled with the stories of those who fought for democracy and freedom -- for idealism itself-against all odds, from Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela to Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. These iconic struggles for social change illustrate the importance of engagement and activism, and offer a template for the battles we are fighting today. But using the right words is often easier than taking action; action can be hard, and costly. More than a century ago, MSNBC host Ali Velshi's great-grandfather sent his seven-year-old son to live at Tolstoy Farm, Gandhi's ashram in South Africa. This difficult decision would change the trajectory of his family history forever. From childhood, Velshi's grandfather was imbued with an ethos of public service and social justice, and a belief in absolute equality among all people -- ideals that his children carried forward as they escaped apartheid, emigrating to Kenya and ultimately Canada and the United States. In Small Acts of Courage, Velshi taps into 125 years of family history to advocate for social justice as a living, breathing experience -- a way of life more than an ideology. With rich detail and vivid prose, he relates the stories of regular people who made a lasting commitment to fight for change, even when success seemed impossible. This heartfelt exploration of how we can breathe new life into the principles of pluralistic democracy is an urgent call to action -- for progress to be possible, we must all do whatever we can to make a difference"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Personal narratives.; Velshi, Ali.; Canadians; Immigrants; Muslims; Television journalists; Television personalities;
Available copies: 0 / 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 second coming : a novel / by Hallberg, Garth Risk,author.;
"When 13-year-old Jolie Aspern drops her phone onto the subway tracks in the springtime of 2011, how can she imagine it might bring her estranged dad, Ethan, crashing back into her life? Ethan is an ex-con and recovering addict who even in his more honest moments has difficulty seeing outside himself. But now he's starting to fear that Jolie's in the kind of trouble her mom, Sarah, could never understand. Convinced that he is the only one who can save her, he decides to offer up for Jolie the whole of his life, its hard-won achievements and most harrowing mistakes - in hope of breaking through. So begins the doubled journey of Jolie and Ethan: child and adult, apart and together, different yet the same. Their story as it unfolds will test Jolie's bond with her grandparents and Ethan's with his sister. It will forge unlikely alliances with a smooth-talking teacher and a doubt-filled probation officer. It will confront father and daughter with the turbulence of youthful romance (Jolie's with a mysterious admirer; Ethan's with Sarah herself). And around each bend, new vistas beckon: from group therapy in recession-era Bellevue to a mid-'90s Howard Johnson on Maryland's Eastern Shore, from the world of fading surf breaks to the heights of the Brooklyn Bridge and beyond. The Second Coming is an utterly timely work of fiction that explores an enduring mystery: whether we can ever really outrun the past, if it's possible to hold onto what anchors us while still chasing something new. Full of compassion, full of music and intimacy-full of blues-this beautifully attuned novel renews the extraordinary promise of this writer's "boundless and unflagging talents" (Michiko Kakutani, New York Times)"--
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Novels.; Fathers and daughters;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Funny Story [electronic resource] : by Henry, Emily.aut; cloudLibrary;
Named a Most Anticipated book of 2024 by TIME ∙ The New York Times ∙ Goodreads ∙ Entertainment Weekly ∙ Today.com ∙ Paste ∙ SheReads ∙ BookPage ∙ Woman's World ∙ The Nerd Daily and more! A shimmering, joyful new novel about a pair of opposites with the wrong thing in common, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry. Daphne always loved the way her fiancé Peter told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it…right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra.   Which is how Daphne begins her new story: Stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, without friends or family but with a dream job as a children’s librarian (that barely pays the bills), and proposing to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra’s ex, Miles Nowak.   Scruffy and chaotic—with a penchant for taking solace in the sounds of heart break love ballads—Miles is exactly the opposite of practical, buttoned up Daphne, whose coworkers know so little about her they have a running bet that she’s either FBI or in witness protection. The roommates mainly avoid one another, until one day, while drowning their sorrows, they form a tenuous friendship and a plan. If said plan also involves posting deliberately misleading photos of their summer adventures together, well, who could blame them?   But it’s all just for show, of course, because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex…right?
Subjects: Electronic books.; Contemporary; Romantic Comedy; Contemporary Women;
© 2024., Penguin Publishing Group,
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Counting miracles : a novel / by Sparks, Nicholas,author.;
"From the acclaimed author of The Longest Ride and The Notebook comes an emotional, powerful novel about wondering if we can change-or even make our peace with-the path we've taken. Tanner Hughes was raised by his grandparents, following in his grandfather's military footsteps to become an Army Ranger. His whole life has been spent abroad, and he is the proverbial rolling stone: happiest when off on his next adventure, zero desire to settle down. But when his grandmother passes away, her last words to him are find where you belong. She also drops a bombshell, telling him the name of the father he never knew-and where to find him. Tanner is due at his next posting soon, but his curiosity is piqued, and he sets out for Asheboro, North Carolina, to ask around. He's been in town less than twenty-four hours when he meets Kaitlyn Cooper, a doctor and single mom. They both feel an immediate connection; Tanner knows Kaitlyn has a story to tell, and he wants to hear it. To Kaitlyn, Tanner is mysterious, exciting-and possibly leaving in just a few weeks. Meanwhile, nearby, eighty-three-year-old Jasper lives alone in a cabin bordering a national forest. With only his old dog, Arlo, for company, he lives quietly, haunted by a tragic accident that took place decades before. When he hears rumors that a white deer has been spotted in the forest-a creature of legend that inspired his father and grandfather-he becomes obsessed with protecting the deer from poachers. As these characters' fates orbit closer together, none of them is expecting a miracle ... but that may be exactly what is about to alter their futures forever"--
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Psychological fiction.; Novels.; Families; Family secrets; Interpersonal relations; Man-woman relationships; Single mothers; Soldiers;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 5
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