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Age of anger : a history of the present / by Mishra, Pankaj,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."One of our most important public intellectuals reveals the hidden history of our current global crisis. How can we explain the origins of the great wave of paranoid hatreds that seem inescapable in our close-knit world--from American 'shooters' and ISIS to Trump, from a rise in vengeful nationalism across the world to racism and misogyny on social media? In Age of Anger, Pankaj Mishra answers our bewilderment by casting his gaze back to the eighteenth century, before leading us to the present. He shows that as the world became modern those who were unable to fulfill its promises--freedom, stability and prosperity--were increasingly susceptible to demagogues. The many who came late to this new world or were left, or pushed, behind, reacted in horrifyingly similar ways: intense hatred of invented enemies, attempts to re-create an imaginary golden age, and self-empowerment through spectacular violence. It was from among the ranks of the disaffected that the militants of the 19th century arose--angry young men who became cultural nationalists in Germany, messianic revolutionaries in Russia, bellicose chauvinists in Italy, and anarchist terrorists internationally. Today, just as then, the wider embrace of mass politics, technology, and the pursuit of wealth and individualism has cast many more billions adrift in a literally demoralized world, uprooted from tradition but still far from modernity--with the same terrible results. Making startling connections and comparisons, Age of Anger is a book of immense urgency and profound argument. It is a history of our present predicament unlike any other"--
Subjects: Anger; Civilization, Modern.; Civilization, Western.; Nationalism; Religion and politics; Social change; Terrorism; World politics; World politics; Youth;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The city of the living / by Lagioia, Nicola,1973-author.; Goldstein, Ann,1949-translator.; translation of:Lagioia, Nicola,1973-Città dei vivi.English.;
In March 2016, in a nondescript apartment on the outskirts of Rome, Manuel Foffo and Marco Prato, two "ordinary" young men from good families, brutally murdered twenty-three year old Luca Varani. News of the seemingly inexplicable crime sent shockwaves through Rome and beyond. What motivated such extreme violence? Were the killers evil or in the grip of societal evils? Did they know what they were doing? Or were they possessed? And if the latter, possessed by what? Based on months of interviews, court documentation, and correspondence with the killers themselves, The City of the Living is not only a fast-paced, revelatory thriller in the style of Lisa Taddeo's Animal, it is also a descent into the dark heart of Rome--a city that is unlivable and yet teeming with life, overrun by rats and wild animals, and plagued by corruption, drugs, and violence. Yet, the Eternal City is also a place that, more than any other in the world, seems to inspire a sense of absolute freedom in its inhabitants. Proceeding in concentric circles, Nicola Lagioia leads us through a maze of betrayed expectations, sexual confusion, inability to grow up, economic grievances, crises of identity--progressively tightening the focus of the analysis to locate the breaking point after which anything is possible. As hypnotic as Erik Larson's Devil in the White City, an heir to Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, and destined to cast on spell on fans of the Morbid podcast, The City of the Living is Nicola Lagioia's most gripping, bestselling, and critically acclaimed novel to-date. Razor-sharp, unputdownable, devastating, it is the story not only of a crime but of human nature itself; of the tension between responsibility and guilt, between the drive to oppress and the desire to be free; of who we are and who we can become.
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Novels.; Varani, Luca, 1993-2016; Assassination;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Sparkly gems / by Romero, Libby.;
Use your reading superpowers to learn all about beautiful gems, how they are made and used - a high-quality, fun, nonfiction reader - carefully leveled to help children progress. Sparkly Gems is a beautifully designed reader all about gems, and how some are naturally beautiful and others are grown in labs - but they all make fabulous jewelry!
Subjects: Readers (Publications); Gems;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 2
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Dirty work : my gruelling, glorious, life-changing summer in the wilderness / by Maxymiw, Anna,author.;
"Wild meets Priestdaddy in this humorous, affecting, keenly observed memoir about daring to go outside of what's comfortable--and being open and ready for all the possibilities. When Anna Maxymiw accepts a summer job as a housekeeper at a fishing lodge in Northern Ontario, she has little idea what to expect. As a child, she goes fishing with her father and brother in Toronto's High Park; as a teenager on a family fishing trip, following the death of her uncle, she finds herself indelibly altered by the thrill of bringing a pike to the surface. At 23, when she decides to leave behind her masters degree and city life, and board a floatplane bound for the remote boreal forest near James Bay, new challenges and unexpected joy await. For 67 days, Anna is one of a group of young women and men who will keep the lodge running. While the male dockhands and fishing guides head out on the water with the fishermen who are the lodge's guests, the women housekeep and serve. Against the backdrop of a vast lake; wild storms; and hot days and eerily still nights, friendships develop, and Anna encounters bears, bugs, and the lore surrounding the lake's legendary pike. As the summer progresses, and the ownership of the lodge changes hands, tensions build to a breaking point. Warm, funny, vulnerable, and wise, Anna Maxymiw gives us a singular perspective on an age-old impulse. She shows us what it's really like to let go of yourself, your insecurities and fears--all the things that hold us back--and move through a summer welcoming all the surprises and possibilities, both good and bad, with open arms and a willingness to be changed by them. An unforgettable memoir, Dirty Work is for anyone who's ever felt the urge to feel uncomfortable and wondered how they'd fare and who they'd be when they came out on the other side."--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Autobiographies.; Biographies.; Maxymiw, Anna.; Authors, Canadian (English); Fishing lodges; Outdoor life.; Self-actualization (Psychology);
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Defiant dreams : the journey of an Afghan girl who risked everything for education / by Mahfouz, Sola,1996-author.; Kapoor, Malaina,author.;
"A searing, deeply personal memoir of a tenacious Afghan girl who educated herself behind closed doors and fought her way to a new life. Sola Mahfouz was born in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in 1996. That same year, the Taliban took over her country for the first time. They banned television and photographs, presided over brutal public executions, and turned the clock backwards on women's rights, practically imprisoning women within their own homes and forcing them to wear cruel, tent-like burqas. At age eleven, Sola was forced to stop attending school after a group of men threatened to throw acid in her face if she continued. After that she was confined to her home, required to cook and clean and prepare for an arranged marriage. She saw the outside world only a handful of times each year. As time passed, Sola began to understand that she was condemned to the same existence as millions of women in Afghanistan. Her future was empty. The rest of her life would be controlled entirely by men, fathers and husbands and sons who would never allow her to study, to earn money, or even to dream. Driven by this devastating realization, Sola began a years-long fight to change the trajectory of her life. She decided that education would be her way out. At age sixteen, without even a basic ability to add or subtract, she began secretly to teach herself math and English. She progressed rapidly, and within just two years she was already studying topics such as philosophy and physics. Faced with obstacles at every turn, Sola still managed to sneak into Pakistan to take the SAT. In 2016, she escaped to the United States, where she is now a quantum computing researcher at Tufts University. An engrossing, dramatic memoir, co-written with young Indian American human rights activist Malaina Kapoor, Defiant Dreams is the story of one girl, but it's also the untold story of a generation of women brimming with potential and longing for freedom"--
Subjects: Autobiographies.; Personal narratives.; Mahfouz, Sola, 1996-; Girls; Sex discrimination in education; Women;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The last politician : inside Joe Biden's White House and the struggle for America's future / by Foer, Franklin,author.;
Includes bibliographical references (pages 379-397) and index."On January 20, 2021, standing where only two weeks earlier police officers had battled with right-wing paramilitaries, Joe Biden took his oath of office. The American people were still sick with COVID-19, his economists were already warning him of an imminent financial crisis, and his party, the Democrats, had the barest of majorities in the Senate. Yet, faced with an unprecedented set of crises, Joe Biden decided he would not play defense. Instead, he set out to transform the nation. He proposed the most ambitious domestic spending bills since the 1960s and vowed to withdraw American forces from Afghanistan, ending the nation's longest war and reorienting it toward a looming competition with China. With unparalleled access to the tight inner circle of advisers who have surrounded Biden for decades, Franklin Foer dramatizes in forensic detail the first two years of the Biden presidency, concluding with the historic midterm elections. The result is a gripping and high-definition portrait of a major president at a time when democracy itself seems imperiled. With his back to the wall, Biden resorted to old-fashioned politics: deal-making and compromise. It was a gamble that seemed at first disastrously anachronistic, as he struggled to rally even the support of his own party. Yet, as the midterms drew near, via a series of bills with banal names, Biden somehow found a way to invest trillions of dollars in clean energy, the domestic semiconductor industry, and new infrastructure. Had he done the impossible-breaking decisively with the old Washington consensus to achieve progressive goals? The Last Politician is a landmark work of political reporting-which includes thrilling, blow-by-blow insider reports of the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan and the White House's swift response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine-that is destined to shape history's view of a president in the eye of the storm."--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Biden, Joseph R., Jr.; Political culture; Presidents;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Humankind : a hopeful history / by Bregman, Rutger,1988-author.; Manton, Elizabeth,translator.; Moore, Erica,translator.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."If one basic principle has served as the bedrock of bestselling author Rutger Bregman's thinking, it is that every progressive idea -- whether it was the abolition of slavery, the advent of democracy, women's suffrage, or the ratification of marriage equality -- was once considered radical and dangerous by the mainstream opinion of its time. With Humankind, he brings that mentality to bear against one of our most entrenched ideas: namely, that human beings are by nature selfish and self-interested. By providing a new historical perspective of the last 200,000 years of human history, Bregman sets out to prove that we are in fact evolutionarily wired for cooperation rather than competition, and that our instinct to trust each other has a firm evolutionary basis going back to the beginning of Homo sapiens. Bregman systematically debunks our understanding of the Milgram electrical-shock experiment, the Zimbardo prison experiment, and the Kitty Genovese "bystander effect." In place of these, he offers little-known true stories: the tale of twin brothers on opposing sides of apartheid in South Africa who came together with Nelson Mandela to create peace; a group of six shipwrecked children who survived for a year and a half on a deserted island by working together; a study done after World War II that found that as few as 15% of American soldiers were actually capable of firing at the enemy. The ultimate goal of Humankind is to demonstrate that while neither capitalism nor communism has on its own been proven to be a workable social system, there is a third option: giving "citizens and professionals the means (left) to make their own choices (right)." Reorienting our thinking toward positive and high expectations of our fellow man, Bregman argues, will reap lasting success. Bregman presents this idea with his signature wit and frankness, once again making history, social science and economic theory accessible and enjoyable for lay readers"--
Subjects: Human beings.; Philosophical anthropology.; Human behavior.; Civilization; World history.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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This is what America looks like : my journey from refugee to Congresswoman / by Omar, Ilhan,1981-author.; Paley, Rebecca,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."An intimate and rousing memoir by progressive trailblazer Ilhan Omar-the first African refugee, the first Somali-American, and one of the first Muslim women, elected to Congress. Ilhan Omar was only eight years old when war broke out in Somalia. The youngest of seven children, her mother had died while Ilhan was still a little girl. She was being raised by her father and grandfather when armed gunmen attacked their compound and the family decided to flee Mogadishu. They ended up in a refugee camp in Kenya, where Ilhan says she came to understand the deep meaning of hunger and death. Four years later, after a painstaking vetting process, her family achieved refugee status and arrived in Arlington, Virginia. Aged twelve, penniless, speaking only Somali and having missed out on years of schooling, Ilhan rolled up her sleeves, determined to find her American dream. Faced with the many challenges of being an immigrant and a refugee, she questioned stereotypes and built bridges with her classmates and in her community. In under two decades she became a grassroots organizer, graduated from college and was elected to congress with a record-breaking turnout by the people of Minnesota-ready to keep pushing boundaries and restore moral clarity in Washington D.C. A beacon of positivity in dark times, Congresswoman Omar has weathered many political storms and yet maintained her signature grace, wit and love of country-all the while speaking up for her beliefs. Similarly, in chronicling her remarkable personal journey, Ilhan is both lyrical and unsentimental, and her irrepressible spirit, patriotism, friendship and faith are visible on every page. As a result, This is What America Looks Like is both the inspiring coming of age story of a refugee and a multidimensional tale of the hopes and aspirations, disappointments and failures, successes, sacrifices and surprises, of a devoted public servant with unshakable faith in the promise of America"--
Subjects: Autobiographies.; Biographies.; Omar, Ilhan, 1981-; United States. Congress. House; Women legislators; Legislators; African American women legislators; Somali Americans; Muslims;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The beautiful dream : a memoir / by Hutchinson, Atiba,author.;
"Out of the Toronto suburb of Brampton comes an irresistible story of trials, perseverance, the limelight of professional and international soccer, and -- above all -- heart. Despite debuting on Canada's senior national soccer team 20 years ago, scarce is known of Atiba Hutchinson. We've watched him win Canadian Men's Player of the Year six times; celebrated his club team championships; and mourned his injuries. We've lamented the state of Canadian soccer and cursed the lost potential -- and years. Yet, we know not of Atiba's personal life, or how he rose from small-town (and not soccer-crazy) Brampton to becoming Canada's most-capped national men's team player. For the first time, Atiba is ready to share the extraordinary story of his ascent to the heights of professional soccer, nationally and internationally, and what he believes makes a true champion. The Beautiful Dream is an intimate account of Atiba's awe-inspiring career, from his humble beginnings to playing across Europe; the crushing disappointment of failing national team competitions in the 2010s that nearly lead to his resignation from the national program; all the way to his triumphant arrival in Qatar to face off against 31 other nations at the world's most pre-eminent soccer competition. He has strived to better not only his own game but the landscape of Canadian soccer for over two decades, culminating in Canada's first trip to the FIFA World Cup since 1986. Yet, as the reflective midfielder shows, this isn't just his story: The Beautiful Dream is the story of countless Canadians, who strive and scrape for a seemingly unreachable dream -- until their fingertips finally graze the surface. Atiba's journey mirrors the progression of Canadian soccer, and the story of Canada itself: dreams that may begin as outsized but as we work towards them, our world changes with us. Hutchinson's journey of hope, belief, and resilience connects the country's modest soccer past to a bold, exciting future in the game. It's a story that transcends the pitch, exploring what it means to be a kid who dares to dream of achieving the impossible, and the man who perseveres to get there."--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Hutchinson, Atiba.; Soccer players;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The summer before the war : a novel / by Simonson, Helen,author.;
It's the summer of 1914 and life in the sleepy village of Rye, England is about to take an interesting turn. Agatha Kent, a canny force for progress, is expecting an unusual candidate to be the school's Latin teacher: Beatrice Nash, a young woman of good breeding in search of a position after the death of her father.
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Authors; Country life; Interpersonal relations; Man-woman relationships; Women teachers; World War, 1914-1918;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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