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Demon Copperhead [text (large print)] : a novel / by Kingsolver, Barbara,author.;
Demon Copperhead is set in the mountains of southern Appalachia. It's the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities. Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens' anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can't imagine leaving behind.
Subjects: Bildungsromans.; Large type books.; Novels.; Opioid abuse; Orphans; Teenage boys;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Outspoken : my fight for freedom and human rights in Afghanistan / by Samar, Sima,author.; Armstrong, Sally,1943-author.;
"The impassioned memoir of Afghanistan's Sima Samar: medical doctor, politician, founder of schools and hospitals, thorn in the side of the Taliban, nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize, and lifelong advocate for girls and women. "I have three strikes against me. I'm a woman, I speak out for women and I'm Hazara, the most persecuted tribe in Afghanistan." Dr. Sima Samar has been fighting for equality and justice for most of her life. Born into a polygamous family, she learned early that girls had inferior status, and had to agree to an arranged marriage if she wanted to go to university. By the time she was in medical school, she had a son, Ali, and had become a revolutionary. After her husband was disappeared by the pro-Russian regime, she escaped. With her son and medical degree, she took off into the rural areas--by horseback, by donkey, even on foot--to treat people who had never had medical help before. Her wide-ranging experiences both in her home country and on the world stage mean she has all the inside stories: the dishonesty, the collusion, the corruption, the self-serving leaders, the hijacking of religion. And as a former Vice President, she knows all the players in this chess game called Afghanistan. With stories that are at times poignant, at times terrifying, inspiring as well as disheartening, Sima provides an unparalleled view of Afghanistan's past and its present. Despite being in grave personal danger for many years, she has worked tirelessly to achieve justice and full human rights for all the citizens of her country."--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Personal narratives.; Samar, Sima.; Physicians; Political activists; Women physicians; Women political activists; Women; Women; Women's rights;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Water confidential : witnessing justice denied--the fight for safe drinking water in Indigenous and rural communities in Canada / by Blacklin, Susan,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."In Water Confidential, Susan Blacklin (formerly Sue Peterson) revisits the important work of her late ex-husband, Dr. Hans Peterson. Beginning in 1996, Peterson, growing frustrated with his work in government funded research in Saskatchewan, brought attention to the desperate need for equal access to safe drinking water after a health inspector encouraged him to visit the Yellow Quill First Nation. In response to the issue, he developed biological technology for effective water treatment, still in use today. Peterson and Blacklin joined forces with scientists from around the world to establish the registered national charity, the Safe Drinking Water Foundation. The SDWF developed accredited education programs for schools across Canada, while also educating the general public and Water Treatment Operators from Indigenous communities. Advocacy became a high priority when they discovered a variety of challenges to their mission, including questionable government practices that were blocking the reality of safe drinking water in First Nations communities. As committed activists, it became their life's work to ensure that access to Peterson's technology was available to all rural and First Nations communities. Thirty years later, the majority of First Nations communities in Canada continue to face atrocious health issues as a result of unsafe drinking water. Blacklin, now retired, shares her deep concerns at the indifference, corruption, and lack of due diligence from all levels of government in response to the safe water movement. She echoes the work of the SDWF stating that Canada needs to implement federal drinking water regulations, and that a responsible government should use rather than abuse science when accurately determining Boil Water Advisories and addressing the deplorable state of access to potable water. In this passionate and timely memoir, Blacklin shares her experiences with fundraising, activism and lobbying work. She reveals the complexities of negotiating between cultures, communities and the provincial and federal government. Blacklin emphasizes that ensuring safe drinking water to each and every First Nations community should be the top priority toward reconciliation with Indigenous people of Canada."--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Blacklin, Susan.; Drinking water; Drinking water; Human rights workers; Right to water; Water quality management; Water-supply; First Nations; First Nations;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The last thing she saw / by Laurin, Nina,author.;
"After a flood destroys the historic center of a rural Quebec town, a child's body is discovered. The remains are decades-old and nearly impossible to identify, yet the whole town knows at once who they belong to. Nine-year-old Michelle Fortier vanished without a trace in 1979, and her fate remained unknown--until now. Stephanie O'Malley grew up in her mother's crumbling trailer listening to stories of Michelle's vanishing-stories she once tried to turn into a podcast without much success. Although Stephanie left Marly fifteen years ago and vowed never to return, she finds herself back with her tempestuous mother Laura, her high school sweetheart Luc, and the entire town in an uproar as it grapples with its long-buried secrets. While Stephanie struggles to separate the truth from wild rumors about witchcraft and town-wide conspiracies, Laura is consumed by the strange feeling that all this has happened before. But as the story takes a turn for the sordid, the bombshell drops: the body might not be Michelle after all"--
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Psychological fiction.; Novels.; Conspiracies; Homecoming; Missing children; Mothers and daughters; Secrecy; Small cities; Young women;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Good morning, monster : five heroic journeys to recovery / by Gildiner, Catherine,1948-author.;
"Catherine Gildiner is a bestselling memoirist, a novelist, and a psychologist who practiced privately for 25 years. This book focuses on five brave men and women who overcame enormous trauma--in her view, heroes who should be celebrated. With a novelist's storytelling gift, Gildiner recounts the details of her patients' struggles and their paths to recovery and weaves in her own tale of her growth as a psychologist. In therapy, patients have to become vulnerable by stripping away their defenses, but so do therapists, who cannot hide behind a title, a desk, or even their specialized knowledge. The five cases described include a successful but lonely musician suffering sexual dysfunction; a young woman who, at the age of eight, had looked after her two siblings after her father, likely a murderer, abandoned them in a rural cottage; a glamorous workaholic whose wealthy, hideously negligent mother had greeted her each morning with "Good Morning, Monster"; an indigenous man who'd suffered greatly at a residential school; and a young woman whose abuse at the hands of her father led to a severe personality disorder. Each patient presents a mystery at first, one that will only be unpacked over years. They arrive, sometimes unwillingly, to try to overcome an immediate challenge in their lives, but discover that the source of their suffering is an entirely different matter. It will take courage to face those realities, and it requires creativity and resourcefulness from their therapist. Each patient embodies the virtues of self-reflection, stoicism, perseverance, and forgiveness as they confront the real source of their problems and work unflinchingly to face the truth. Gildiner's account of her journeys with them is moving and insightful and sometimes humorous. It offers a behind-the-scenes look into the therapist's office and explains how the process can heal even the most unimagineable wounds."--
Subjects: Psychotherapy.; Psychotherapy; Psychologists.; Psychologists;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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In the country of others / by Slimani, Leïla,1981-author.; Taylor, Sam,1970-translator.; translation of:Slimani, Leïla,1981-Pays des autres.English.;
"In her first new novel since The Perfect Nanny launched her onto the world stage and won her acclaim for her "devastatingly perceptive character studies" (The New York Times Book Review), Leila Slimani draws on her own family's inspiring story for the first volume in a planned trilogy about race, resilience, and women's empowerment. Mathilde, a spirited young Frenchwoman, falls in love with Amine, a handsome Moroccan soldier in the French army during World War II. After the war, the couple settles in Morocco. While Amine tries to cultivate his family farm's rocky terrain, Mathilde feels her vitality sapped by the isolation, the harsh climate, the lack of money, and the mistrust she inspires as a foreigner. Left increasingly alone to raise her two children in a world whose rules she does not understand, and with her daughter taunted at school by rich French girls for her secondhand clothes and unruly hair, Mathilde goes from being reduced to a farmer's wife to defying the country's chauvinism and repressive social codes by offering medical services to the rural population. As tensions mount between the Moroccans and the French colonists, Amine finds himself caught in the crossfire: in solidarity with his Moroccan workers yet also a landowner, despised by the French yet married to a Frenchwoman, and proud of his wife's resolve but ashamed by her refusal to be subjugated. All of them live in the country of others--especially the women, forced to live in the land of men--and with this novel, Leila Slimani issues the first salvo in their emancipation"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Domestic fiction.; Slimani, Leïla, 1981-; Women immigrants;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Crow : a novel / by Spurway, Amy,1976-author.;
"When Stacey Fortune is diagnosed with three highly unpredictable - and inoperable - brain tumours, she abandons the crumbling glamour of her life in Toronto for her mother Effie's scruffy trailer in rural Cape Breton. Back home, she's known as Crow, and everybody suspects that her family is cursed. With her future all but sealed, Crow decides to go down in a blaze of unforgettable glory by writing a memoir that will raise eyebrows and drop jaws. She'll dig up "the dirt" on her family tree, including the supposed curse, and uncover the truth about her mysterious father, who disappeared a month before she was born. But first, Crow must contend with an eclectic assortment of characters, including her gossipy Aunt Peggy, hedonistic party-pal Char, homebound best friend Allie, and high-school flame Willy. She'll also have to figure out how to live with her mother and how to muddle through the unsettling visual disturbances that are becoming more and more vivid each day. Witty, energetic, and crackling with sharp Cape Breton humour, Crow is a story of big twists, big personalities, big drama, and even bigger heart."--
Subjects: Psychological fiction.; Humorous fiction.; Families; Life change events;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Safe and sound : a novel / by McHugh, Laura,author.;
"Amelia and Kylee, two young sisters, were found unharmed in their upstairs bedroom the night their teenage cousin Grace, who was babysitting them, vanished from the farmhouse in rural Missouri, leaving behind evidence of a violent struggle. Grace had been on the verge of escaping their dead-end town, the first in their family to go to college instead of getting married and going to work at the meatpacking plant. Her disappearance is a warning to any local girl who dared hope for better. Now about to graduate high school, Amelia and Kylee dream about getting out of their small town of Beaumont one day, but the likelihood of that happening seems as low as that of Grace being found. When a discovery of human remains reveals a disturbing connection to Grace, the sisters think they finally know who took her, but as they dig deeper into Grace's past, they unearth long-buried secrets and a growing list of suspects. In a town no one ever leaves, there are only so many places to hide, and the sisters vow to find Grace, dead or alive. As they draw closer to the truth and slip deeper into danger, they question how far someone would go to put a woman in her place, or to cover up a crime. The answer is worse than they could have imagined, and in the end, it won't just be Grace they're trying to save-they'll have to fight for their lives"--
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Novels.; City and town life; Missing persons; Secrecy; Sisters; Small cities;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Moone Boy: S2. by Fitzgibbon, Ian,film director.; Huberman, Amy,actor.; O'Dowd, Chris,actor.; Rawle, David,actor.; O'Kane, Deirdre,actor.; Vegas, Johnny,actor.; McDonald, Peter,actor.; Day, Simon,actor.; BBC Studios (Firm),dst; Kanopy (Firm),dst;
Amy Huberman, Chris O'Dowd, David Rawle, Deirdre O'Kane, Johnny Vegas, Peter McDonald, Simon DayOriginally produced by BBC Studios in 2014.The hilarious award-winning comedy series returns with further adventures of Martin, the youngest member of the large, loud and chaotic Moone family living in rural Ireland. The semi-autobiographical series is co-written by and stars Chris O’Dowd as Martin’s imaginary friend Sean Murphy. Martin’s unique view on life, combined with Sean’s not always helpful advice, draws him into a whole new series of ridiculous schemes – although his parents and sisters are far too distracted by their own lives to notice what Martin's up to. It's now 1990 and things are changing in the Moone household. There’s the prospect of a new arrival in the family, Ireland's World Cup campaign threatens to throw a spanner in the works for their annual holiday, and Martin's move to a new school sees him standing out for all the wrong reasons when he tries to impress his beautiful but quirky art teacher. Dad Liam faces a dilemma when a group of Travellers move into the field next door, but for Martin, first love blossoms when he meets the lovely Majella.Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Subjects: Feature films.; Television series.; Motion pictures.; Comedy films.;
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The grapes of wrath / by Steinbeck, John,1902-1968.;
This book is part of our Book Sanctuary collection. A Book Sanctuary is a physical or digital space that actively protects the freedom to read. It provides shelter and access to endangered books. Launched by Chicago Public Library in 2022, The Book Sanctuary initiative brings attention to challenged titles, and commits to making these books accessible. Innisfil ideaLAB & Library's Book Sanctuary Collection represents books that have been challenged, censored or removed from a public library or school in North America. More than 50 adult, teen, and children's books are in our collection and are available for browsing and borrowing in our branches and online. Explore the collection to learn more about why these books were challenged.Depicts the hardships and suffering endured by the Joad family as they journey from Oklahoma to California during the Depression.Includes bibliographical references (p. xli-xlvii).Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.Pulitzer prize for fiction winner, 1940.
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Fiction.; Domestic fiction.; General fiction.; Banned book sanctuary.; Classics; Literary; Migrant agricultural laborers; Rural families; Depressions; Labor camps;
© 2000., Penguin,
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 3
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