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The forgotten letters of Esther Durrant / by Nunn, Kayte,author.;
Includes bibliographical references.1951. Esther Durrant, a young mother, is committed to an isolated mental asylum by her husband. Run by a pioneering psychiatrist, the hospital is at first Esther's prison but soon surprisingly becomes her refuge. 2018. Free-spirited marine scientist Rachel Parker embarks on a research posting in the Isles of Scilly, off the Cornish coast. When a violent storm forces her to take shelter on a far-flung island, she discovers a collection of hidden love letters. Captivated by their passion and tenderness, Rachel determines to track down the intended recipient. But she has no idea of the far-reaching consequences her decision will bring. Meanwhile, in London, Eve is helping her grandmother, a renowned mountaineer, write her memoirs. When she is contacted by Rachel, it sets in motion a chain of events that threatens to reveal secrets kept buried for more than sixty years.
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Historical fiction.; Grandmothers; Islands; Love-letters; Nineteen fifties; Psychiatric hospital patients; Reminiscing in old age; Secrecy; Women marine scientists; Women;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Unrooted : botany, motherhood, and the fight to save an old science / by Zimmerman, Erin,author.;
"An exploration of science, motherhood, and academia, and a stirring account of a woman at a personal and professional crossroads. Growing up in rural Ontario, Erin Zimmerman became fascinated with plants -- an obsession that led to a life in academia as a professional botanist. But as her career choices narrowed in the face of failing institutions and subtle, but ubiquitous, sexism, Zimmerman began to doubt herself. Unrooted: Botany, Motherhood, and the Fight to Save an Old Science is a scientist's memoir, a glimpse into the ordinary life of someone in a fascinating field. This is a memoir about plants, about looking at the world with wonder, and about what it means to be a woman in academia -- an environment that pushes out mothers and those with any outside responsibilities. Zimmerman delves into her experiences as a new mom, her decision to leave her position in post-graduate research, and how she found a new way to stay in the field she loves. She also explores botany as a "dying science" worth fighting for. While still an undergrad, Zimmerman's university started the process of closing the Botany Department, a sign of waning funding for her beloved science. Still, she argues for its continuation, not only because we have at least 100,000 plant species yet to be discovered, but because an understanding of botany is crucial in the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss. Zimmerman is also a botanical illustrator and will provide 12 original illustrations for the book"--
Subjects: Autobiographies.; Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Zimmerman, Erin.; Botanists; Botany.; Motherhood.; Women botanists;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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A billion butterflies : a life in climate and chaos theory / by Shukla, J.,1944-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."The amazing true story of the man behind modern weather prediction. Consider a world without weather prediction. How would we know when to evacuate communities ahead of fires or floods, or figure out what to wear tomorrow? Until 40 years ago, we couldn't forecast weather conditions beyond ten days. Renowned climate scientist Dr. Jagadish Shukla is largely to thank for modern weather forecasting. Born in rural India with no electricity, plumbing, or formal schools, he attended classes that were held in a cow shed. Shukla grew up amid turmoil: overwhelming monsoons, devastating droughts, and unpredictable crop yields. His drive brought him to the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, despite little experience. He then followed an unlikely path to MIT and Princeton, and the highest echelons of climate science. His work, which has enabled us to predict weather farther into the future than previously thought possible, allows us to feed more people, save lives, and hold on to hope in a warming world. Paired with his philanthropic endeavors and extreme dedication to the field, Dr. Shukla has been lauded internationally for his achievements, including a shared Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore for his governmental research on climate change. A Billion Butterflies is a wondrous insider's account of climate science and an unbelievable memoir of his life. Understanding dynamical seasonal prediction will change the way you experience a thunderstorm or interpret a forecast; understanding its origins and the remarkable story of the man who discovered it will change the way you see our world"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Personal narratives.; Shukla, J., 1944-; Dynamic meteorology; Meteorologists; Weather forecasting;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Over work : transforming the daily grind in the quest for a better life / by Schulte, Brigid,1962-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."From the author of Overwhelmed, a deeply reported exploration of why American work isn't working and how our lives can be made more meaningful. Following Overwhelmed, Brigid Schulte's groundbreaking examination of time management and stress, the prize-winning journalist now turns her attention to the greatest culprit in America's quality-of-life crisis: the way our economy and culture conceive of work. Americans across all demographics, industries, and socioeconomic levels report exhaustion, burnout, and the wish for more meaningful lives. This full-system failure in our structure of work affects everything from gender inequality to domestic stability, and it even shortens our lifespans. Drawing on years of research, Schulte traces the arc of our discontent, from a time before the 1980s, when work was compatible with well-being and allowed a single earner to support a family, until today, with millions of people working multiple hourly jobs or in white-collar positions where no hours are ever off-duty. She casts a wide net in search of solutions, exploring the movement to institute a four-day workweek, introducing Japan's Housewives Brigade -- which demands legal protection for family time -- and embedding with CEOs who are making the business case for humane conditions. And she demonstrates the power of a collective and creative demand for change, showing that work can be organized in an infinite number of ways that are good for humans and for business. Fiercely argued and vividly told, rich with stories and informed by deep investigation, Over Work lays out a clear vision for ending our punishing grind and reclaiming leisure, joy, and meaning"--
Subjects: Quality of life.; Work-life balance.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Alien earths : the new science of planet hunting in the cosmos / by Kaltenegger, Lisa,1977-author.;
"Riveting and timely, a look at the research that is transforming our understanding of the cosmos in the quest to discover whether we are alone. For thousands of years, humans have wondered whether we're alone in the cosmos. Now, for the first time, we have the technology to investigate. But once you look for life elsewhere, you realize it is not so simple. How do you find it over cosmic distances? What actually is life? As founding director of Cornell University's Carl Sagan Institute, astrophysicist Lisa Kaltenegger has built a team of tenacious scientists from many disciplines to create a specialized toolkit to find life on faraway worlds. In Alien Earths, she demonstrates how we can use our homeworld as a Rosetta Stone, creatively analyzing Earth's history and its astonishing biosphere to inform this search. With infectious enthusiasm, she takes us on an eye-opening journey to the most unusual exoplanets that have shaken our worldview-planets covered in oceans of lava, lonely wanderers lost in space, and others with more than one sun in their sky! And the best contenders for Alien Earths. We also see the imagined worlds of science fiction and how close they come to reality. With the James Webb Space Telescope and Dr. Kaltenegger's pioneering work, she shows that we live in an incredible new epoch of exploration. As our witty and knowledgeable tour guide, Dr. Kaltenegger shows how we discover not merely new continents, like the explorers of old, but whole new worlds circling other stars and how we could spot life there. Worlds from where aliens may even be gazing back at us. What if we're not alone?"--
Subjects: Extrasolar planets.; Life on other planets.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The stolen queen : a novel / by Davis, Fiona,1966-author.;
Includes bibliographical references."Egypt, 1936. When anthropology student Charlotte Cross is offered a coveted spot on an archaeological dig in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, she leaps at the opportunity. But after an unbearable tragedy strikes, Charlotte knows her future will never be the same. New York City, 1978: Eighteen-year-old Annie Jenkins is thrilled when she lands an opportunity to work for iconic former Vogue fashion editor Diana Vreeland, who's in the midst of organizing the famous Met Gala, hosted at the museum and known across the city as the "party of the year." Though Annie soon realizes she'll have her work cut out for her, scrambling to meet Diana's capricious demands and exacting standards. Meanwhile, Charlotte, now leading a quiet life as the associate curator of the Met's celebrated Department of Egyptian Art, wants little to do with the upcoming gala. She's consumed with her research on Hathorkare -- a rare female pharaoh dismissed by most other Egyptologists as unimportant. That is, until the night of the gala. When one of the Egyptian art collection's most valuable artifacts goes missing ... and there are signs Hathorkare's legendary curse might be reawakening. As Annie and Charlotte team up to search for the missing antiquity, a desperate hunch leads the unlikely duo to one place Charlotte swore she'd never return: Egypt. But if they're to have any hope of finding the artifact, Charlotte will need to confront the demons of her past -- which may mean leading them both directly into danger"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Novels.; Costume Institute (New York, N.Y.); Archaeology and history; Art, Egyptian; Curatorship; Pharaohs; Theft of relics; Women Egyptologists;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 2
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Commanding hope : the power we have to renew a world in peril / by Homer-Dixon, Thomas F.,author.;
"Calling on history, cutting-edge research, complexity science and even Lord of the Rings, Homer-Dixon lays out the tools we can command to rescue a world on the brink. For three decades, the renowned author of The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization, and The Ingenuity Gap: Can We Solve the Problems of the Future?, has examined the threats to our future security--predicting a deteriorating global environment, extreme economic stresses, mass migrations, social instability and wide political violence if humankind continued on its current course. He was called The Doom Meister, but we now see how prescient he was. Today just about everything we've known and relied on (our natural environment, economy, societies, cultures and institutions) is changing dramatically--too often for the worse. Without radical new approaches, our planet will become unrecognizable as well as poorer, more violent, more authoritarian. In his fascinating long-awaited new book (dedicated to his young children), he calls on his extraordinary knowledge of complexity science, of how societies work and can evolve, and of our capacity to handle threats, to show that we can shift human civilization onto a decisively new path if we mobilize our minds, spirits, imaginations and collective values. Commanding Hope marshals a fascinating, accessible argument for reinvigorating our cognitive strengths and belief systems to affect urgent systemic change, strengthen our economies and cultures, and renew our hope in a positive future for everyone on Earth."-- Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Creative ability.; Environmental responsibility.; Social change.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The professor / by Nossett, Lauren,1986-author.;
"On a spring afternoon in Athens, Georgia, Ethan Haddock is discovered in his apartment, dead, apparently by his own hand. His fatality immediately garners media attention: not because his death reflects the troubling increase of depression and mental health issues among college students, but because the media has caught the whiff of a scandal. His professor, Dr. Verena Sobek, has been taken in for questioning, and there are rumors his death is the result of a bad romance. A Title IX investigation is opened, the professor is suspended, and social media crusaders and trolls alike are out for blood. Marlitt Kaplan never investigated love affairs. A former detective turned research assistant, she misses the excitement of her old job, but most of all the friendship of her partner, Teddy. When her mother, a professor at the university and colleague of the accused professor, asks for her help, she finds herself in the impossible position of proving something didn't happen. Without the credentials to interview suspects or access phone records, she will have to get closer to a victim's life than ever before. And she quickly finds herself in his apartment, having dinner with his roommates, even sleeping in his bed. But is she too close to see the truth? In her relentless pursuit to uncover the mystery behind Ethan's death, Marlitt will be forced to confront the power structures ingrained in the classroom against the backdrop of a historic campus and an institution that sometimes fails its most vulnerable members"--
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Campus fiction.; Novels.; College students; Criminal investigation; Ex-police officers; Women college teachers;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The Elissas : three girls, one fate, and the deadly secrets of suburbia / by Leach, Samantha,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."In the tradition of Three Women, Bustle editor and writer Samantha Leach traces the lives of a trio of girls who met in the Troubled Teen Industry and went on to share the same tragic fate. Samantha and her best friend Elissa were typical privileged, rebellious, suburban girls. But after Elissa was kicked out of their private school, she soon disappeared. At fifteen years old, her parents quietly flew her from Providence, Rhode Island to a $10,000/month therapeutic boarding school in Nebraska. Ponca Pines Academy was part of the Troubled Teen Industry, a network of programs meant to reform wealthy, wayward teens. There she met two girls uncannily named Alissa and Alyssa, who had similar backgrounds and similar vices. In The Elissas, Samantha channels her personal grief and utilizes years of immersive research combined with her biting prose to reveal the cultural forces and systemic failings that contributed to the deaths of all three girls. In 2011, less than a year after graduating from Ponca Pines Academy, Elissa died of encephalitis. Four years later, Alyssa died of a heroin overdose. Another four years after that, Alissa died while battling an opioid addiction. Samantha endeavors to tell each of their stories, expanding on what shaped these young women before, during, and after their time in the Troubled Teen Industry. Based on interviews with other survivors, friends and family of the girls, educators, experts, and comprehensive reporting, The Elissas will challenge what you know about the opioid epidemic and the Troubled Teen Industry--and in doing so, will ultimately offer a window into the secret lives of young suburban women"--
Subjects: Opioid abuse.; Teenage girls; Youth;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Could it happen here? : Canada in the age of Trump and Brexit / by Adams, Michael,1946 Sept. 29-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."From award-winning author Michael Adams, Could It Happen Here? draws on groundbreaking new social research to show whether Canadian society is at risk of the populist forces afflicting the rest of the world. In vote after shocking vote, Western publics have pushed their anger to the top of their countries' political agendas. The votes have varied in their particulars, but their unifying feature has been rejection of moderation, incrementalism, and the status quo. Britons opted to leave the European Union. Americans elected Donald Trump. Far-right, populist politicians channeling anger at out-of-touch "elites" are gaining ground across Europe. Amid this roiling international scene, Canada appears placid, at least on its surface. As other societies retrench, the international media have taken notice of Canada's welcome of Syrian refugees, its half-female federal cabinet, its acceptance of climate science and mixed efforts to limit its emissions, the absence of a prominent hard-right ethno-nationalist movement. After a year in power, the centrist federal government continues to enjoy majority approval, suggesting an electorate not as bitterly split as the ones to the south or in Europe. As sceptics point out, however, Brexit and a Trump presidency were unthinkable until they happened. Could it be that Canada is not immune to the same forces of populism, social fracture, and backlash that have afflicted other parts? Our largest and most cosmopolitan city elected Rob Ford. Conservative Party leadership hopeful Kellie Leitch proposes a Canadian test for immigrants and has called the Trump victory "exciting." Anti-tax demonstrators in Alberta chanted "lock her up" in reference to Premier Rachel Notley, an elected leader accused of no wrongdoing, only policy positions the protesters disliked. In Could It Happen Here?, pollster and social values researcher Michael Adams takes Canadians into the examining room to see whether we are at risk of coming down with the malaise affecting other Western democracies. Drawing on major social values surveys of Canadians and Americans in 2016--as well as decades of tracking data in both countries--Adams examines our economy, institutions, and demographics to answer the question: could it happen here?"--
Subjects: Demographic surveys; Populism; Social prediction; Social surveys; Social values;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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