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The rise and fall of Osama bin Laden / by Bergen, Peter L.,1962-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.The world's leading expert on Osama bin Laden delivers for the first time the definitive biography of a man who set the course of American foreign policy for the 21st century, and whose ideological heirs we continue to battle today. In The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden, Peter Bergen provides the first reevaluation of the man responsible for precipitating America's long wars with al-Qaeda and its descendants, capturing bin Laden in all the dimensions of his life: as a family man, as a zealot, as a battlefield commander, as a terrorist leader, and as a fugitive. The book sheds light on his many contradictions: he was the son of a billionaire, yet insisted his family live like paupers. He adored his wives and children, depending on two of his wives, both of whom had PhDs, to make important strategic decisions. Yet he also brought ruin to his family. He was fanatically religious, yet willing to kill thousands of civilians in the name of Islam. He inspired deep loyalty yet, in the end, his bodyguards turned against him. And while he inflicted the most lethal act of mass murder in United States history, he failed to achieve any of his strategic goals. The lasting image we have of bin Laden in his final years is of an aging man with a graying beard watching old footage of himself, just another dad flipping through the channels with his remote. In the end, bin Laden died in a squalid suburban compound, far from the front lines of his holy war. And yet despite that unheroic denouement, his ideology lives on. Thanks to exclusive interviews with family members and associates, and documents unearthed only recently, Bergen's portrait of Osama will reveal for the first time who he really was and why he continues to inspire a new generation of jihadists.
Subjects: Biographies.; Bin Laden, Osama, 1957-2011.; Qaida (Organization); Terrorists; Terrorists; Fugitives from justice; Terrorism;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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A Good Bad Boy Luke Perry and How a Generation Grew Up [electronic resource] : by Wappler, Margaret.aut; cloudLibrary;
An artful and contemplative tribute to the late actor famed for his role as Dylan McKay in Beverly Hills, 90210. Best known for playing loner rebel Dylan McKay in Beverly Hills 90210, Luke Perry was fifty-two years old when he died of a stroke in 2019. There have been other deaths of 90’s stars, but this one hit different. Gen X was reminded of their own inescapable mortality, and robbed of an exciting career resurgence for one of their most cherished icons—with recent roles in the hit series Riverdale and Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time In Hollywood bringing him renewed attention and acclaim. Only upon his death, as stories poured out online about his authenticity and kindness, did it become clear how little was known about the exceedingly humble actor and how deeply he impacted popular culture. In A Good Bad Boy, Margaret Wappler attempts to understand who Perry was and why he was unique among his Hollywood peers. To do so, she uses an inventive hybrid narrative. She speaks with dozens who knew Perry personally and professionally. They share insightful anecdotes: how he kept connected to his Ohio upbringing; nearly blew his 90210 audition; tried to shed his heartthrob image by joining the HBO prison drama Oz; and in the last year of his life, sought to set up two of his newly divorced friends. (After his death, the pair bonded in their grief and eventually married.) Amid these original interviews and exhaustive archival research, Wappler weaves poignant vignettes of memoir in which she serves as an avatar to show how Perry shaped a generation’s views on masculinity, privilege and the ideal of “cool.” Timed to the fifth anniversary of Perry’s death, A Good Bad Boy is a profound and entertaining examination of what it means to be an artist and an adult.
Subjects: Electronic books.; Entertainment & Performing Arts; History & Criticism; Popular Culture;
© 2024., Simon & Schuster,
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A living remedy : a memoir / by Chung, Nicole,author.;
"From the bestselling author of ALL YOU CAN EVER KNOW comes a searing memoir of class, inequality, and grief--a daughter's search to understand the lives her adoptive parents led, the life she forged as an adult, and the lives she's lost. In this country, unless you attain extraordinary wealth, you will likely be unable to help your loved ones in all the ways you'd hoped. You will learn to live with the specific, hollow guilt of those who leave hardship behind, yet are unable to bring anyone else with them. When Nicole Chung graduated from high school, she couldn't hightail it out of her overwhelmingly white Oregon hometown fast enough. As a scholarship student at a private university on the East Coast, no longer the only Korean she knew, she found a sense of community she had always craved as an Asian American adoptee--and a path to the life she'd long wanted. But the middle class world she begins to raise a family in--where there are big homes, college funds, nice vacations--looks very different from the middle class world she thought she grew up in, where paychecks have to stretch to the end of the week, health insurance is often lacking, and there are no safety nets. When her father dies at only sixty-seven, killed by diabetes and kidney disease, Nicole feels deep grief as well as rage, knowing that years of financial instability and lack of access to healthcare contributed to his premature death. And then the unthinkable happens--less than a year later, her beloved mother is diagnosed with cancer, and the physical distance between them becomes insurmountable as COVID descends upon the world. Exploring the enduring strength of family bonds in the face of hardship and tragedy, A Living Remedy examines what it takes to reconcile the distance between one life, one home, and another--and sheds needed light on some of the most persistent and tragic inequalities in American society"--
Subjects: Autobiographies.; Biographies.; Chung, Nicole.; Adoptees; Adoptive parents; Equality; Grief; Income distribution; Interracial adoption;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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(S)Kin [electronic resource] : by Zoboi, Ibi.aut; cloudLibrary;
SIX STARRED REVIEWS! A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection! From award-winning, New York Times bestselling author Ibi Zoboi comes her groundbreaking contemporary fantasy debut—a novel in verse based on Caribbean folklore—about the power of inherited magic and the price we must pay to live the life we yearn for. “Our new home with its thick walls and locked doors wants me to stay trapped in my skin— but I am fury and flame.” Fifteen-year-old Marisol is the daughter of a soucouyant. Every new moon, she sheds her skin like the many women before her, shifting into a fireball witch who must fly into the night and slowly sip from the lives of others to sustain her own. But Brooklyn is no place for fireball witches with all its bright lights, shut windows, and bolt-locked doors.… While Marisol hoped they would leave their old traditions behind when they emigrated from the islands, she knows this will never happen while she remains ensnared by the one person who keeps her chained to her magical past—her mother. Seventeen-year-old Genevieve is the daughter of a college professor and a newly minted older half sister of twins. Her worsening skin condition and the babies’ constant wailing keep her up at night, when she stares at the dark sky with a deep longing to inhale it all. She hopes to quench the hunger that gnaws at her, one that seems to reach for some memory of her estranged mother. When a new nanny arrives to help with the twins, a family secret connecting her to Marisol is revealed, and Gen begins to find answers to questions she hasn’t even thought to ask. But the girls soon discover that the very skin keeping their flames locked beneath the surface may be more explosive to the relationships around them than any ancient magic.Young adult.
Subjects: Electronic books.; Diversity & Multicultural; Country & Ethnic; Novels in Verse; Emigration & Immigration; Multigenerational; Caribbean & Latin America; Contemporary; Prejudice & Racism; African American; Wizards & Witches;
© 2025., HarperCollins,
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Code dependent : living in the shadow of AI / by Murgia, Madhumita,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."A riveting story of what it means to be human in a world changed by artificial intelligence, revealing the perils and inequities of our growing reliance on automated decision-making. On the surface, a British poet, an UberEats courier in Pittsburgh, an Indian doctor, and a Chinese activist in exile have nothing in common. But they are in fact linked by a profound common experience -- unexpected encounters with artificial intelligence. In Code Dependent, Murgia shows how automated systems are reshaping our lives all over the world, from technology that marks children as future criminals, to an app that is helping to give diagnoses to a remote tribal community. AI has already infiltrated our day-to-day, through language-generating chatbots like ChatGPT and social media. But it's also affecting us in more insidious ways. It touches everything from our interpersonal relationships, to our kids' education, work, finances, public services, and even our human rights. By highlighting the voices of ordinary people in places far removed from the cozy enclave of Silicon Valley, Code Dependent explores the impact of a set of powerful, flawed, and often-exploitative technologies on individuals, communities, and our wider society. Murgia exposes how AI can strip away our collective and individual sense of agency, and shatter our illusion of free will. The ways in which algorithms and their effects are governed over the coming years will profoundly impact us all. Yet we can't agree on a common path forward. We cannot decide what preferences and morals we want to encode in these entities -- or what controls we may want to impose on them. And thus, we are collectively relinquishing our moral authority to machines. In Code Dependent, Murgia not only sheds light on this chilling phenomenon, but also charts a path of resistance. AI is already changing what it means to be human, in ways large and small, and Murgia reveals what could happen if we fail to reclaim our humanity"--
Subjects: Artificial intelligence; Decision making; Human-computer interaction.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Blackness is a gift I can give her : on race, community, and Black women in hockey / by Hess, R. Renee,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."From the founder of Black Girl Hockey Club, a collection of deeply insightful and piercing essays that aims to shed light on the history of Black excellence--in all forms--in hockey, and how we can all do better when it comes to recognizing--and upheaving--systemic and institutionalized racism. Growing up, R. Renee Hess didn't care about hockey. In fact, she was barely aware of it. She was born and raised in Southern California, hardly a hotbed for the game, despite the state having three NHL teams. But, as Hess puts it, she is "a fan of being a fan," and when she found herself stuck in traffic after a hockey game, the streets filled with screams and cheers, something sparked within her. Ever since Hess made that discovery, she has been actively trying to bust the myth that "Black folks don't like hockey." In this collection, Hess shares her hockey origin story--how she came to understand the lack of authentic engagement in hockey culture with the Black community, and her journey to becoming a true game changer. But, as an academic, Hess knows that her singular viewpoint can't tell the full story, so she reached out to former hockey players, league executives, activists, fans, media, and to the parents and youth shaping the future of the game. We hear directly from players such as Sarah Nurse, Saroya Tinker, and Angela James; from trailblazers like Bernice Carnegie; and from the less-heralded, but equally urgent collective of Black Girl Hockey Club scholarship awardees and their families, emphasizing the importance of community and support. The result is a hockey book truly unlike any other. With essays that touch on representation and harmful stereotypes, the many nuanced aspects of biracial identity, on being the "lonely only," and the virtues of a lively group chat, Blackness Is a Gift I Can Give Her reads as a love letter to Black women everywhere, as well as a scathing ode to a game that Hess loves, even if it doesn't always love her back."--
Subjects: Essays.; Hockey players, Black.; Race.; Hockey;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The woulda, coulda, shoulda guide to Canadian inventions / by Smith, Steve,1945-author.; Smith, David T.,1978-author.;
"One of Canada's greatest inventors takes on his peers, with mixed results. The author of How to do everything and Red Green's beginner's guide to women has never been reluctant to take on enormously difficult jobs that are doomed to failure. This latest project has turned out to be perhaps his nearest thing to a triumph yet. In Woulda, coulda, shoulda, Red surveys, analyzes, critiques and in some cases tells you how to replicate at home the best Canadian inventions, from the Wonderbra to the hard-cup jockstrap, by way of insulin, the walkie-talkie, synchronised swimming and more world-changing innovations than you can wave a Canadarm at. And speaking of the Canadarm, Red shows how by simply combining common household items such as a cordless drill, metal tape measure, broomstick, ice tongs, bungee cord, fishing reel and, of course, the handiman's secret weapon -- duct tape -- you will in no time at all be lifting oranges out of the fruit bowl like a trained astronaut. Elsewhere, Red tells the little-known story of how the BlackBerry inspired a freelance piccolo player from the Possum Lake area to create a WhistleBerry communication device requiring no internet connection, wireless or electricity. He explains definitively the difference between the alkaline battery and Al Kaline, who played right field for the Detroit Tigers. And he reveals how Lodge Member Dennis Holmsworth's test-run of magnetic shoes along the underside of the Mercury Creek Railway Bridge literally came undone as a result of poor lace-tying skills. The illustrations are inimitably -- because really, who else would want to? -- the work of the author himself, relieved throughout with a large number of photographs in vivid black and white. An important contribution to the sesquicentennial celebrations, and an inspiration to the handiman and handiwoman to aim high, however badly they might miss, The woulda, coulda, shoulda guide to Canadian inventions is a book no shed should be without"--
Subjects: Inventions;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Mégantic : a deadly mix of oil, rail, and avarice / by Saint-Cerny, Anne-Marie,1954-author.; translation of:Saint-Cerny, Anne-Marie,1954-Mégantic.English.; Wilson, W. Donald,1938-translator.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Lac-Mégantic, Québec, Canada--July 6, 2013. During a hot summer night, a driverless, out-of-control train, firing explosive crude-oil bombs, descends the slope that leads to the scenic town below, pulverizing the downtown area, charring forty-seven trapped victims. The devastation leaves the people dazed ... but is quickly the object of an intentional and tortuous cover-up. Who are the tragedy's real culprits? How did the accident lead to the brutal death of forty-seven people, the suicides of several others, and the devastation of a whole community? Who took control of the crime scene? Who carried out the reconstruction, and for whose good? In this fascinating piece of investigative journalism, written like a thriller, Saint-Cerny reveals the inner workings of the 2013 Lac-Mégantic rail disaster. She reveals how the tragedy, far from being just the "error of a faulty system," was knowingly caused by powerful people and institutions distant from the town itself. Iconic in more ways than one, Lac-Mégantic is a perfect capitalist tale. Conceived in the offices of Wall Street hedge funders, of Dakota black-gold cowboy magnates, of oil conglomerates, and set up by a political class entirely devoted to the interests of the rail industry, the disaster hit a population which, while still in shock, found itself at the mercy of local predators--the perfect illustration of Naomi Klein's shock doctrine. Despite everything, the transport of crude oil and dangerous products today has increased so much that it constitutes the rail industry's main source of profit. But the Government of Canada stubbornly refuses to shed light on the 2013 tragedy and identify its causes. The fruit of five years of work and interviews with nearly a hundred people from various backgrounds, including victims and their relatives, Mégantic: A Tragedy in Waiting, tells the story of the disaster in three acts--before, during, and after--in an investigation whose ultimate goal is to prevent the preventable."--
Subjects: Disaster victims; Lac-Mégantic Derailment, Lac-Mégantic, Québec, 2013.; Railroad accidents;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Hell's half-acre : the untold story of the Benders, a serial killer family on the American frontier / by Jonusas, Susan,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."In 1873 the people of Labette County in Kansas made a grisly discovery. Buried on a homestead seven miles south of the town of Cherryvale, in a bloodied cellar and under frost-covered soil, were countless bodies in varying states of decay. The discovery sent the local community and national newspapers into a frenzy that continued for over two decades, and the land on which the crimes took place became known as 'Hells Half-Acre.' When it emerged that a family of four known as the Benders had been accused of the slayings, the case was catapulted to infamy. The idea that a family of seemingly respectable homesteaders--one among thousands who were relocating further west looking for land and opportunity after the Civil War--were capable of operating 'a human slaughter pen' appalled and fascinated the nation. But who the Benders really were, why they committed such a vicious killing spree, and what became of them when they fled from the law is a mystery that has remains unsolved to this day--not that there aren't some convincing theories. Part gothic western, part literary whodunnit, and part immersive study of postbellum America, Hell's Half-Acre sheds new light on one of the most notorious cases in our nation's history while holding a torch to a society under the strain of rapid change and moral disarray. Susan Jonasus draws on extensive original archival material, and introduces us to a fascinating cast of characters, including the despairing families of the victims as well as the fugitives that helped the murderers escape. Hell's Half-Acre is not simply a book about a mass murder. It is a journey into the turbulent heart of nineteenth century America, a place where modernity stalks across the landscape, violently displacing existing populations and wearily building new ones. It is a world where folklore can quickly become fact, and an entire family of criminals can slip right through a community's fingers, only to reappear at the most unexpected of times"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Bender family.; Frontier and pioneer life.; Serial murderers;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The killing fields of East New York : the first subprime mortgage scandal, a white-collar crime spree, and the collapse of an American neighborhood / by Horn, Stacy,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."In this groundbreaking work of investigative journalism and true crime, Stacy Horn sheds light on how the subprime mortgage scandal of the 1970s and a long history of white-collar crime slowly devastated East New York, a Brooklyn neighborhood that would come to be known as the Killing Fields. On a warm summer evening in 1991, seventeen-year-old Julia Parker was murdered in the Brooklyn neighborhood of East New York. An area known for an exorbitant level of violence and crime, East New York had come to be known as the Killing Fields. In the six months after Julia Parker's death, 62 more people were murdered in the same area. In the early 1990s, murder rates in the neighborhood climbed to the highest in NYPD history. East New York was dying. But how did this once thriving, diverse, family neighborhood fall into such ruin? The answer can be found two decades earlier. In response to redlining and discriminatory housing practices, the Johnson administration passed the Housing and Urban Development Act in 1968. The Federal Housing Authority aimed to use this piece of legislation to help low-income families of color finally achieve homeownership. But they could never have predicted how banks, lenders, realtors, and corrupt FHA officials themselves would use the newly passed law to make victims of the very people they were trying to help, and the devastation they would leave in their wake. A compulsively readable hybrid of true crimeand investigative journalism, The Killing Fields of East New York reveals how white-collar crime reduced a prospering neighborhood to abandoned buildings and empty lots. Following the dual threads of the hunt for the network of criminals behind the first subprime mortgage scandal and the ensuing downfall of East New York, Stacy Horn weaves a compelling narrative of government failure, a desperate community, and ultimately the largest series of mortgage fraud prosecutions in American history. The Killing Fields of East New York deftly demonstrates how different types of crime are profoundly entangled, and how the crimes committed in nice suits and corner offices are just as destructive as those committed on the street"--
Subjects: True crime stories.; Criminology.; Fraud investigation.; Murder; Scandals.; White collar crime investigation;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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