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Unbound : finding myself on top of the world / by Jagger, Steph,author.;
"A young woman follows winter across five continents on a physical and spiritual journey that tests her body and soul, in this transformative memoir, full of heart and courage, that speaks to the adventurousness in all of us. Steph Jagger had always been a force of nature. Dissatisfied with the passive, limited roles she saw for women growing up, she emulated the men in her life--chasing success, climbing the corporate ladder, ticking the boxes, playing by the rules of a masculine ideal. She was accomplished. She was living "The Dream." But it wasn't her dream. Then the universe caught her attention with a sign: Raise Restraining Device. Steph had seen this ski lift sign on countless occasions in the past, but the familiar words suddenly became a personal call to shake off the life she had built in a search for something different, something more. Steph soon decided to walk away from the success and security she had worked long and hard to obtain. She quit her job, took a second mortgage on her house, sold everything except her ski equipment and her laptop, and bought a bundle of plane tickets. For the next year, she followed winter across North and South America, Asia, Europe, and New Zealand--and up and down the mountains of nine countries--on a mission to ski four million vertical feet in a year. What hiking was for Cheryl Strayed, skiing became for Steph: a crucible in which to crack open her life and get to the very center of herself. But she would have to break herself down--first physically, then emotionally--before she could start to rebuild. And it was through this journey that she came to understand how to be a woman, how to love, and how to live authentically. Electrifying, heartfelt, and full of humor, Unbound is Steph's story--an odyssey of courage and self-discovery that, like Wild and Eat, Pray, Love, will inspire readers to remove their own restraining devices and pursue the life they are meant to lead"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Jagger, Steph.; Self-actualization (Psychology); Skiers;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Spellbound : my life as a dyslexic wordsmith / by Hanley, Phil,author.;
"The A-list comedian tells the story of his unlikely path to success while struggling with severe dyslexia. When Phil Hanley entered first grade, he realized something that would forever set him apart from his peers: he couldn't read. His teachers were ill-equipped to assist him and wrote him off as a hopeless case. Phil slipped through the school's cracks, year by year falling farther and farther behind his friends, only passing to each next grade because of his mother's interventions. Finally, he was diagnosed with dyslexia, a learning disability that would shape the rest of his life. In Spellbound, Phil Hanley shares his experience living with debilitating dyslexia. Unable to pursue college or a traditional job, Phil was thrust into a life to be defined by unconventional twists. He moved to Europe and became a successful runway model, a job that suitably kept him away from pens and paper. In search of fulfillment that couldn't be found posing for a Docker's ad, Phil retreated home to Vancouver where, desperate to manage the mental health issues connected to living with dyslexia, he turned to an all-consuming obsession with Transcendental Meditation. Finally, he found himself on a stage with a microphone, a spotlight, and five minutes of jokes. Stand-up became the first pursuit that the more Phil put into it, the more he got out, and something that he compellingly argues, saved his life. Spellbound is a story of humor and also of struggle and heartbreak, of constantly living in a world that sees things differently than you, and of triumph over adversity. Phil shows us that dyslexia can be a huge challenge, but having it does not spell certain condemnation (nor can he). Just the opposite: dyslexia has been more than a blessing in his life-it's been his north star"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Personal narratives.; Hanley, Phil.; Comedians; Comedians; Dyslexics; Male models;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Mrs. Nash's ashes / by Adler, Sarah,1991-author.;
"A starry-eyed romantic, a cynical writer, and (the ashes of) an elderly woman take the road trip of a lifetime that just might upend everything they believe about true love. Millicent Watts-Cohen is on a mission. When she promised her elderly best friend that she'd reunite her with the woman she fell in love with nearly eighty years ago, she didn't expect that would mean traveling to Key West with three tablespoons of Mrs. Nash's remains in her backpack. But Millie's determined to give her friend a symbolic happily ever after, before it's (really) too late--and hopefully reassure herself of love's lasting power in the process. She just didn't expect to have a (living) travel companion. After a computer glitch grounds flights, Millie is forced to catch a ride with Hollis Hollenbeck, an also-stranded acquaintance from her ex's MFA program. Hollis certainly does not believe in happily-ever-afters, symbolic or otherwise, and makes it quite clear that he can't fathom how Millie's plan could possibly end well for anyone. But as they contend with odd bed-and-breakfasts, peculiar small-town festivals, and suicidal deer, Millie begins to suspect that her reluctant travel partner might enjoy her company more than he lets on. Because for someone who supposedly doesn't share her views on romance, Hollis sure is becoming invested in the success of their journey. And the closer they get to their destination, the more Millie has to admit that maybe this trip isn't just about Mrs. Nash's love story after all--maybe it's also about her own"--
Subjects: Romance fiction.; Lesbian fiction.; Novels.; Automobile travel; Interpersonal relations; Lesbians;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Secrets in the sand / by Brown, Carolyn,1948-;
"Time doesn't heal all wounds... Not when they are deep within the heart like Angela Conrad's. Ten years ago, Clancy Morgan broke her heart and even though she's made a successful life as a musician, she's never gotten over that pain. Angel didn't intend to ever go back home, but when she's invited to return to her hometown to play for the high school reunion dance, she agrees, knowing full well that if Clancy sees her up on that stage, he'll regret the day he ever said goodbye."--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Romance fiction.; Man-woman relationships; Musicians; First loves;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The Lipstick Bureau : a novel / by Gable, Michelle,author.;
"1944, Rome. Newlywed Niki Novotná is recruited by a new American spy agency to establish a secret branch in Italy's capital. One of the OSS's few female operatives abroad and multilingual, she's tasked with crafting fake stories and distributing propaganda to lower the morale of enemy soldiers. Despite limited resources, Niki and a scrappy team of artists, forgers, and others--now nicknamed The Lipstick Bureau--find success, forming a bond amid the cobblestoned streets and storied villas of the newly liberated city. But her work is also a way to escape devastating truths about the family she left behind in Czechoslovakia and a future with her controlling American husband. As the war drags on and the pressure intensifies, Niki begins to question the rules she's been instructed to follow, and a colleague unexpectedly captures her heart. But one step out of line, one mistake, could mean life or death ... "--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; War fiction.; Novels.; United States. Office of Strategic Services; Americans; Anti-Nazi propaganda; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 2
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A life's work [videorecording] / by Darden, Bob,1954-on-screen participant.; Licata, David,film director.; Soleri, Paolo,1919-2013,on-screen participant.; Milarch, David,on-screen participant.; Milarch, Jared,on-screen participant.; Tarter, Jill C.,on-screen participant.; Kino Lorber, Inc.,publisher.;
Jill Tarter, Robert Darden, David Milarch, Jared Milarch, Paolo Soleri.What's it like to dedicate your life to work that won't be completed in your lifetime? Fifteen years ago, filmmaker David Licata focused on four projects and the people behind them in an effort to answer this universal question. The subjects include Jill Tarter, Director of the SETI Institute, who has been involved in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence since the 1970s; David and Jared Milarch, father and son tree farmers and co-founders of the Champion Tree Project, who clone old-growth trees to combat climate change; gospel music archivist Robert Darden, who founded the Black Gospel Music Restoration Project, an organization that is trying preserve at-risk recordings from the black gospel music tradition; and Paolo Soleri, controversial architect behind Arcosanti, a town designed to test his theories about housing an overpopulated planet. We discover what inspired them to begin, what obstacles they face, what drives and sustains them, and how they measure success of an endeavor they will not live to see completed.E.DVD.
Subjects: Biographical films.; Documentary films.; Personal narratives.; Video recordings for the hearing impaired.; SETI Institute.; Champion trees; Extraterrestrial beings.; Gospel music; Life on other planets.; Radio astronomy.; Sound recordings;
For private home use only.
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Horse / by Brooks, Geraldine,author.;
"A discarded painting in a junk pile, a skeleton in an attic, and the greatest racehorse in American history: from these strands, a Pulitzer Prize winner braids a sweeping story of spirit, obsession, and injustice across American history. Kentucky, 1850. Jarrett, an enslaved groom, and a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South. As the nation erupts in civil war, an itinerant young artist who has made his name painting the racehorse takes up arms for the Union. On a perilous night, he reunites with the stallion and his groom, very far from the glamor of any racetrack. New York City, 1954. Martha Jackson, a gallery owner celebrated for taking risks on edgy contemporary painters, becomes obsessed with a 19th equestrian oil painting of mysterious provenance. Washington, DC, 2019. Jess, a Smithsonian scientist from Australia, and Theo, a Nigerian-American art historian, find themselves unexpectedly drawn to one another through their shared interest in the horse--one studying the stallion's bones for clues to his power and endurance, the other uncovering the lost history of the unsung Black horsemen who were critical to his racing success. Based on the remarkable true story of the record-breaking thoroughbred, Lexington, who became America's greatest stud sire, Horse is a gripping, multi-layered reckoning with the legacy of enslavement and racism in America"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Novels.; African American horsemen and horsewomen; Horse grooms; Horses; Horses in art; Painting; Race horses; Slavery;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 2
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Fire on the horizon / by Smith, Wilbur A.,author.; Robertson, Imogen,1973-author.;
South Africa, 1899 - the smouldering hostility between the Boers of the Transvaal and Orange Free State and the British colonies of the Cape and Natal is about to burst into flame. War is coming and no one can prevent it. Colonel Penrod Ballantyne, hero of Abu Klea and Omdurman, is sent to Mafeking, 'the place of stones', to recruit and train men for the fighting ahead. Amber, his wife, the successful novelist, accompanies him - eager to see more of the country her husband is about to risk his life for. But when war is declared, Amber must flee with their baby son and pray for her husband's survival against impossible odds. Eight hundred miles to the south, in Cape Town, Ryder Courtney - adventurer, maverick, industrialist - is using his wealth and connections to bankroll the British war effort. His artist wife Saffron, frustrated by stuffy Cairo society, has joined him with their three children. There is peace in the Courtney household, or so Saffron believes, until their eldest son, Leon, stows away on a train to the front line, determined to join his distinguished uncle, Penrod Ballantyne, in changing the course of history. Saffron and Ryder have no choice but to leave the safety of the Cape Colony and follow. Leon is convinced that his parents are without honour and courage. Little does he realise that he has no chance of escaping the people they used to be. Two families torn apart, caught up in a battle for the heart of a country at war with itself.
Subjects: Action and adventure fiction.; War fiction.; Novels.; British; Courtney family (Fictitious characters); Families; South African War, 1899-1902; War and families;
Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 2
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Africville : a novel / by Colvin, Jeffrey,author.; Colvin, Jeffrey.Africaville.;
"A ferociously talented writer makes his stunning debut with this richly woven tapestry, set in a small Nova Scotia town settled by former slaves, that depicts several generations of one family bound together and torn apart by blood, faith, time, and fate. Structured as a triptych, Africaville chronicles the lives of three generations of the Sebolt family-- Kath Ella, her son Omar/Etienne, and her grandson Warner-- whose lives unfold against the tumultuous events of the twentieth century from the Great Depression of the 1930s, through the social protests of the 1960s to the economic upheavals in the 1980s. A century earlier, Kath Ella's ancestors established a new home in Nova Scotia. Like her ancestors, Kath Ella's life is shaped by hardship-- she struggles to conceive and to provide for her family during the long, bitter Canadian winters. She must also contend with the locals' lingering suspicions about the dark-skinned "outsiders" who live in their midst. Kath Ella's fierce love for her son, Omar, cannot help her overcome the racial prejudices that linger in this remote, tight-knit place. As he grows up, the rebellious Omar refutes the past and decides to break from the family, threatening to upend all that Kath Ella and her people have tried to build. Over the decades, each successive generation drifts further from Africaville, yet they take a piece of this indelible place with them as they make their way to Montreal, Vermont, and beyond, to the deep South of America. As it explores notions of identity, passing, cross-racial relationships, the importance of place, and the meaning of home, Africaville tells the larger story of the black experience in parts of Canada and the United States."--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Blacks; African Americans; Families; Slaves; Conflict of generations;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The farewell tour : a novel / by Clifford, Stephanie,author.;
Includes bibliographical references.It's 1980, and Lillian Waters is hitting the road for the very last time. Jaded from her years in the music business, perpetually hungover, and diagnosed with career-ending vocal problems, Lillian cobbles together a nationwide farewell tour featuring some old hands from her early days playing honky-tonk bars in Washington State and Nashville, plus a few new ones. She yearns to feel the rush of making live music one more time and bask in the glow of a packed house before she makes the last, and most important, stop on the tour: the farm she left behind at age ten and the sister she is finally ready to confront about an agonizing betrayal in their childhood. As the novel crisscrosses eras, moving between Lillian's youth--the Depression, the Second World War, the rise of Nashville--and her middle-aged life in 1980, we see her striving to build a career in the male-dominated world of country music, including the hard choices she makes as she tries to redefine music, love, aging, and womanhood on her own terms. Nearing her final tour stop, Lil is forced to confront those choices and how they shaped her life. Would a different version of herself have found the happiness and success that has eluded her? When she reaches her Washington hometown for her very last show, though, she'll undergo a reckoning with the past that forces her to reconsider her entire life story. Exploring one unforgettable woman's creativity, ambition, and sacrifices in a world--and an art form--made for men, The Farewell Tour asks us to consider how much of our past we can ever leave behind.
Subjects: Psychological fiction.; Novels.; Country musicians; Homecoming; Identity (Psychology); Self-actualization (Psychology); Sisters; Tours; Women ; Women country musicians;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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