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When your back's against the wall : fame, football, and lessons learned through a lifetime of adversity / by Oher, Michael,author.; Yaeger, Don,author.;
"Millions of people became part of Michael Oher's story when they watched a version of him on the big screen; read his memoir, I Beat the Odds; or cheered him on from the stands. After speaking to so many of them over the years, Oher knows that more than anything, people want to believe great things can happen, even when the situation looks bleak. His story of overcoming the toughest of odds serves as their hope. Oher's life has had a lot of unexpected highs: a college degree; two beautiful, healthy children and a happy marriage; drafted in the first round; a Super Bowl victory; and a second chance to play in the "big game." He's also run up against quite a few walls: poverty, hunger, homelessness, struggles in school, bullying, job loss, brain injury, anxiety, and depression. What he knows now is that your wall can be your opportunity. In When Your Back's Against the Wall, he offers encouragement and shows readers how to get back up-again, and again, and again"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Football players; Motivation (Psychology); Resilience (Personality trait);
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Hollywood Park : a memoir / by Jollett, Mikel,author.;
"Hollywood Park is a remarkable memoir of a tumultuous life. Mikel Jollett was born into one of the country's most infamous cults, and subjected to a childhood filled with poverty, addiction, and emotional abuse. Yet, ultimately, his is a story of fierce love and family loyalty told in a raw, poetic voice that signals the emergence of a uniquely gifted writer. We were never young. We were just too afraid of ourselves. No one told us who we were or what we were or where all our parents went. They would arrive like ghosts, visiting us for a morning, an afternoon. They would sit with us or walk around the grounds, to laugh or cry or toss us in the air while we screamed. Then they'd disappear again, for weeks, for months, for years, leaving us alone with our memories and dreams, our questions and confusion. So begins Hollywood Park, Mikel Jollett's remarkable memoir. His story opens in an experimental commune in California, which later morphed into the Church of Synanon, one of the country's most infamous and dangerous cults. Per the leader's mandate, all children, including Jollett and his older brother, were separated from their parents when they were six months old, and handed over to the cult's "School." After spending years in what was essentially an orphanage, Mikel escaped the cult one morning with his mother and older brother. But in many ways, life outside Synanon was even harder and more erratic. In his raw, poetic and powerful voice, Jollett portrays a childhood filled with abject poverty, trauma, emotional abuse, delinquency and the lure of drugs and alcohol. Raised by a clinically depressed mother, tormented by his angry older brother, subjected to the unpredictability of troubled step-fathers and longing for contact with his father, a former heroin addict and ex-con, Jollett slowly, often painfully, builds a life that leads him to Stanford University and, eventually, to finding his voice as a writer and musician. Hollywood Park is told at first through the limited perspective of a child, and then broadens as Jollett begins to understand the world around him. Although Mikel Jollett's story is filled with heartbreak, it is ultimately an unforgettable portrayal of love at its fiercest and most loyal"--
Subjects: Autobiographies.; Biographies.; Jollett, Mikel; Synanon (Foundation); Rock musicians;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The Regency years : during which Jane Austen writes, Napoleon fights, Byron makes love, and Britain becomes modern / by Morrison, Robert,1961-author.;
Includes bibliographical references (pages 307-336) and index."A surprising history of the era that brought our modern world decisively into view. Though the Victorians are often credited with ushering in our modern era, the seeds were planted in the years before. The Regency (1811- 1820) began when the profligate Prince of Wales replaced his insane father, George III, as Britain's ruler; around the regent surged a society of evangelicalism and hedonism, elegance and brutality, exuberance and despair. The arts showcased extraordinary writers and painters such as Austen, Byron, the Shelleys, Constable, and Turner. Science gave us the steam locomotive and the blueprint for the modern computer. Yet the dark side of the modern era was visible in the poverty, slavery, pornography, opium, and gothic imaginings that birthed Frankenstein. And all the while, the British Empire fought in foreign lands: the Napoleonic Wars in Europe and the War of 1812 in the United States. Exploring these crosscurrents, Robert Morrison illuminates the profound ways this period shaped and indelibly marked the modern world."-- Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Regency; Arts;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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There are rivers in the sky : a novel / by Shafak, Elif,1971-author.;
In the ruins of Nineveh, that ancient city of Mesopotamia, hidden in the sand, lie the fragments of a long-forgotten poem: the Epic of Gilgamesh. In Victorian London, an extraordinary child is born at the edge of the dirt-black Thames. Arthur's only chance of escaping poverty is his brilliant memory. When his gift earns him a spot as an apprentice at a printing press, Arthur's world opens up far beyond the slums, with one book soon sending him across the seas: Nineveh and Its Remains. In 2014 Turkey, Narin, a Yazidi girl living by the River Tigris, waits to be baptized with water brought from the holy city of Lalish in Iraq. The ceremony is cruelly interrupted, and soon Narin and her grandmother must journey across war-torn lands in the hope of reaching the sacred valley of their people. In 2018 London, brokenhearted Zaleekhah moves to a houseboat on the Thames to escape the wreckage of her marriage. Zaleekhah foresees a life drained of all love and meaning--until an unexpected connection to her homeland changes everything.
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Novels.; Gilgamesh; Apprentices; Granddaughters; Grandmothers; Hydrologists; Rivers; Voyages and travels;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The singularity is nearer : when we merge with Al / by Kurzweil, Ray,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."This successor volume to The Singularity Is Near explores how technology will refashion the human race in the decades to come. In this entirely new book, Ray Kurzweil brings a fresh perspective to advances in the singularity -- assessing the progress of many of his predictions and examining the novel advancements that, in the near future, will bring a revolution in knowledge and an expansion of human potential. Among the topics he discusses are rebuilding the world atom by atom with devices like nanobots; radical life extension beyond the current age limit of 120; reinventing intelligence by expanding biological capacity with nonbiological intelligence in the cloud; how life is improving with declines in poverty and violence; and the growth of technologies that can be applied to everything from clothes to building materials to growing human organs. He also considers the potential perils of biotechnology, nanotechnology, and artificial intelligence, including such topics as how AI will impact unemployment and the safety of autonomous cars, and "After Life" technology, which will reanimate people who have passed away through a combination of data and DNA"--
Subjects: Artificial intelligence; Brain; Genetics.; Human evolution.; Nanotechnology.; Robotics.; Technology;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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Warren and Bill : Gates, Buffett, and the friendship that changed the world / by McCarten, Anthony,1961-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Few friendships have had such far-reaching implications for the world -- from finance to technology to philanthropy -- than that between Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. After meeting at a party in 1991, the two played cards and golf, shared jokes, swapped trade secrets, ate junk food, talked and listened. Their growing friendship would impact each man and lead to change on a grander scale, culminating in the development of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which holds nearly $50 billion in assets. How did such an unusual union blossom? In what ways specifically did each man begin to influence the other? How did these two avid wealth accumulators jointly decide to address some of the world's most critical problems -- poverty, disease, inequality -- by giving their wealth away? And what, finally, does their giga-wealthy partnership mean for the rest of us in an age of great wealth -- and great inequality? This book gives the fullest account yet of this extraordinary relationship and explores how it has transformed these two men -- and is changing the world for the better for all of us."--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Buffett, Warren.; Buffett, Warren; Gates, Bill, 1955-; Gates, Bill, 1955-; Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Billionaires; Businessmen; Capitalists and financiers; Capitalists and financiers; Humanitarianism.; Philanthropists.; Philanthropists; Strategic alliances (Business);
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Innie Shadows [electronic resource] : by Coetzee, Olivia M..aut; Coetzee, Olivia M..; cloudLibrary;
A taut and unsparing novel about a community plagued by violence, drugs, corruption, and prejudice—but where love and justice prevail. The unidentifiable remains of a body are discovered in a field in Shadow Heights, a neighbourhood on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa. Ley, the youngest detective at her precinct, is assigned the case and quickly begins her investigation. Soon after, Ley receives a phone call saying that Carl, a friend struggling with a meth addiction, has gone missing after being linked to the Drug King of Shadow Heights. Meanwhile, a local church group believe they are cleansing the area by burning sinners, starting with homosexuals. The search for Carl and the truth leads the reader through the vibrant lives of the residents of Shadow Heights. Violence, poverty, and shame plague the neighbourhood, but there is also love, acceptance, and hope to be found among friends and family in the shadows of everyday life. A pioneering work of fiction in which the dispossessed tell their own stories, Innie Shadows is the first novel to be translated from Kaaps, a dialect of Afrikaans that was until recently a spoken language only.General adult.
Subjects: Electronic books.; Crime; Cultural Heritage; Crime;
© 2024., House of Anansi Press Inc,
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Pearly Everlasting : a novel / by Armstrong, Tammy,author.;
"New Brunswick, 1934. When a cook in a logging camp finds an orphaned baby bear, he brings it home to his wife, who names the cub Bruno and raises him alongside her newborn daughter, Pearly Everlasting. During the Great Depression, amidst severe poverty and dangerous work conditions, Pearly's family and the woodsmen form a close-knit community that embraces the tame, young bear in their camp. But when a new camp supervisor--who increasingly endangers the lives of the loggers for profit--arrives, he is less accepting of Bruno. When the supervisor is found dead, Bruno is blamed, and soon after is kidnapped and sold to an animal trader. Pearly, now a teenager, has no choice but to find Bruno and sets off on a hazardous solo journey through the forest--her first trip to "the Outside"--to rescue him. To make her way home again, Pearly will have to tramp more than fifty miles through ice and snow, elude the malevolent spirit of Jack in the Dark and confront the modern-day cruelty of villagers fearful of her family's way of life. Over those harrowing miles, Pearly will discover what it really means to be family to a bear."--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Gothic fiction.; Novels.; Bears; Human-animal relationships; Lumber camps; Quests (Expeditions); Voyages and travels; Young women;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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When the angels left the old country / by Lamb, Sacha,author.;
"Uriel the angel and Little Ash (short for Ashmedai) are the only two supernatural creatures in their shtetl (which is so tiny, it doesn't have a name other than Shtetl). The angel and the demon have been studying together for centuries, but pogroms and the search for a new life have drawn all the young people from their village to America. When one of those young people, Essie, goes missing, Uriel and Little Ash set off to find her. Along the way the angel and demon encounter humans in need of their help, including Rose Cohen, whose best friend (and the love of her life) has abandoned her to marry a man, and Malke Shulman, whose father died mysteriously on his way to America. But there are obstacles ahead of them as difficult as what they've left behind. Medical exams (and demons) at Ellis Island. Corrupt officials, cruel mob bosses, murderers, poverty. The streets are far from paved with gold. With cinematic sweep and tender observation, Sacha Lamb presents a totally original drama about individual purpose, the fluid nature of identity, and the power of love to change and endure"--012-018.Grades 10-12.
Subjects: Fantasy fiction.; Paranormal fiction.; Young adult fiction.; Novels.; Angels; Demonology; Identity (Philosophical concept); Immigrants; Jews; Missing persons; Angels; Demonology; Identity; Immigrants; Jews; Missing persons;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Coleman Hill : a novel / by Foote, Kim Coleman,author.;
'Coleman Hill' is the exhilarating debut novel about two American families whose fates become intertwined in the wake of the Great Migration. Braiding fact and fiction, it is a remarkable, character-rich tour de force exploring the ties that bind three generations. #diversity.
Subjects: Biographical fiction.; Historical fiction.; Novels.; African Americans; Families; Female friendship; Great Migration, ca. 1914-ca. 1970; Scandals;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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