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The ballerinas : a novel / by Kapelke-Dale, Rachel,author.;
"Dare Me meets Black Swan and Luckiest Girl Alive in a captivating, voice-driven debut novel about a trio of ballerinas who meet as students at the Paris Opera Ballet School. Fourteen years ago, Delphine abandoned her prestigious soloist spot at the Paris Opera Ballet for a new life in St. Petersburg--taking with her a secret that could upend the lives of her best friends, fellow dancers Lindsay and Margaux. Now 36 years old, Delphine has returned to her former home and to the legendary Palais Garnier Opera House, to choreograph the ballet that will kickstart the next phase of her career--and, she hopes, finally make things right with her former friends. But Delphine quickly discovers that things have changed while she's been away ... and some secrets can't stay buried forever. Moving between the trio's adolescent years and the present day, Rachel Kapelke-Dale's The Ballerinas explores the complexities of female friendship, the dark drive towards physical perfection in the name of artistic expression, the double-edged sword of ambition and passion, and the sublimated rage that so many women hold inside--all culminating in a twist you won't see coming, with magnetic characters you won't soon forget"--
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Psychological fiction.; Opéra de Paris. Ballet; Ambition; Ballerinas; Deception; Female friendship;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Sipping Dom Pérignon through a straw : reimagining success as a disabled achiever / by Ndopu, Eddie,author.;
"Global humanitarian Eddie Ndopu's rousing memoir about being both profoundly disabled and profoundly successful without trading one for the other. Eddie Ndopu grew up loving pop music and reruns of The Bold and the Beautiful, and as an adult he would become a globe-trotting disability activist. By his early twenties, he had rocketed through every boundary put in front of him-a queer, Black wheelchair user-challenging bias at the highest echelons of power and prestige. Born with spinal muscular atrophy, a rare degenerative motor neuron disease affecting his physical mobility, Eddie was told that he wouldn't live beyond age five. But using his razor-sharp mind and grit, Eddie became the first-ever disabled African awarded a full scholarship to the prestigious Oxford University for a master's degree in public policy, a remarkable feat worthy of a toast. But beyond the challenges that students face-making it to class on time, managing steamy crushes, and being student body president-Eddie faced obstacles as a disabled individual that often go unnoticed and unaddressed, namely a revolving door of care aides. Saddled with the burden of raising money to cover his most basic needs: a care aide, financial aid, and disability accommodations, Eddie writes about his fight for financial aid and his continued advocacy for the rights of people with disabilities. Sipping Dom Pérignon Through a Straw follows Eddie as he scales the mountain of success only to find exclusion, discrimination, and neglect still lying in wait on the other side. Written with his one good finger, Eddie's vibrant prose delivers a clarion call to underdogs everywhere to stop climbing mountains and start moving them instead"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Personal narratives.; Ndopu, Eddie.; Human rights.; People with disabilities; People with disabilities; Success.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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You should see me in a crown / by Johnson, Leah(Young adult author);
Liz Lighty has always done her best to avoid the spotlight in her small, wealthy, and prom-obsessed midwestern high school, after all, her family is black and rather poor, especially since her mother died; instead she has concentrated on her grades and her musical ability in the hopes that it will win her a scholarship to elite Pennington College and their famous orchestra where she plans to study medicine--but when that scholarship falls through she is forced to turn to her school's scholarship for prom king and queen, which plunges her into the gauntlet of social media which she hates and leads her to discoveries about her own identity and the value of true friendships.LSC
Subjects: African American teenage girls; Proms; Competition (Psychology); Identity (Psychology); High school students; Friendship;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Dixon, descending : a novel / by Outen, Karen,author.;
"A powerful, heart-wrenching debut novel about ambition, survival, and our responsibility toward one another. Dixon was once an Olympic-level runner. But he missed the team by two-tenths of a second, and ever since that pain decades ago, he hasn't allowed a goal to consume him. But when his charming older brother, Nate, suggests that they attempt to be the first Black American men to summit Mount Everest, Dixon can't refuse. The brothers are determined to prove something--to themselves and to each other. Dixon interrupts his orderly life as a school psychologist, leaving behind disapproving friends, family, and one particularly fragile student, Marcus. Once on the mountain, they are met with extreme weather conditions, oxygen deprivation, and precarious terrain. But as much as they've prepared for this, Mt. Everest is always fickle. And in one devastating moment, Dixon's world is upended. Dixon returns home and attempts to resume his job, but things have shifted: for him and for the students he left behind when he chose Mt. Everest. Ultimately, Dixon must confront the truth of what happened on the mountain and come to terms with who can and cannot be saved. Dixon, descending offers us a captivating, shattering portrait of the ways we're reshaped by our decisions--and what it takes to angle ourselves, once again, toward hope"--
Subjects: Psychological fiction.; Sports fiction.; Novels.; African American men; Brothers; Middle class African Americans; Mountaineering;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Pianos and flowers : brief encounters of the romantic kind / by McCall Smith, Alexander,1948-author.; McCall Smith, Alexander,1948-Short stories.Selections.;
"A delightful compendium of short stories inspired by images in the renowned photographic archive of The Sunday Times. A picture can paint a thousand words, but what about a vintage photograph? In 2015 Alexander McCall Smith wrote a book entitled Chance Developments: Unexpected Love Stories, in which he imagined the stories behind five chanced-upon black and white photographs. Who were those people, why were they smiling, what made them sad? He so enjoyed the experience that when The Sunday Times generously offered him access to their early 20th century photograph archive he jumped at the opportunity."--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Short stories.; Photographs; Interpersonal relations;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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A knock at midnight : a story of hope, justice, and freedom / by Barnett, Brittany K.,author.;
"An urgent call to free those buried alive by America's legal system, and an inspiring true story about unwavering belief in humanity--from a gifted young lawyer and important new voice in the movement to transform the system. Brittany K. Barnett was only a law student when she came across the case that would change her life forever--that of Sharanda Jones, single mother, business owner, and, like Brittany, Black daughter of the rural South. A victim of America's devastating war on drugs, Sharanda had been torn away from her young daughter and was serving a life sentence without parole--for a first-time drug offense. In Sharanda, Brittany saw haunting echoes of her own life, both as the daughter of a formerly incarcerated mother and as the once-girlfriend of an abusive drug dealer. As she studied this case, a system came into focus: one where widespread racial injustice forms the core of America's addiction to incarceration. Moved by Sharanda's plight, Brittany set to work to gain her freedom. This had never been the plan. Bright and ambitious, Brittany was a successful accountant on her way to a high-powered future in corporate law. But Sharanda's case opened the door to a harrowing journey through the criminal justice system. By day she moved billion-dollar deals, and by night she worked pro bono to free clients in near-hopeless legal battles. Ultimately, her path transformed her understanding of injustice in the courts, of genius languishing behind bars, and the very definition of freedom itself. Brittany's riveting memoir is at once a coming-of-age story and a powerful evocation of what it takes to bring hope and justice to a system built to resist them both"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Barnett, Brittany K.; Jones, Sharanda; Clemency; Criminal defense lawyers; Judicial error; Prisoners;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Wild women and the blues / by Bryce, Denny S.,author.;
"1925: Chicago is the jazz capital of the world, and the Dreamland Cafe is the ritziest black-and-tan club in town. Honoree Dalcour is a sharecropper's daughter, willing to work hard and dance every night on her way to the top. Dreamland offers a path to the good life, socializing with celebrities like Louis Armstrong and filmmaker Oscar Micheaux. But Chicago is also awash in bootleg whiskey, gambling, and gangsters. And a young woman driven by ambition might risk more than she can stand to lose. 2015: Film student Sawyer Hayes arrives at the bedside of 110-year-old Honoree Dalcour, still reeling from a devastating loss that has taken him right to the brink. Sawyer has rested all his hope on this frail but formidable woman, the only living link to the legendary Oscar Micheaux. If he's right-if she can fill in the blanks in his research, perhaps he can complete his thesis and begin a new chapter in his life. But the links Honoree makes are not ones he's expecting ... Piece by piece, Honoree reveals her past and her secrets, while Sawyer fights tooth and nail to keep his. It's a story of courage and ambition, hot jazz and illicit passions"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; African Americans; Nightclubs; Nineteen twenties; Women dancers;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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God bless you, Otis Spunkmeyer / by Thomas, Joseph Earl,author.;
"After a deployment in the Iraq War dually defined by threat and interminable mundanity, Joseph Thomas is fighting to find his footing. Now a doctoral student at The University, and an EMS worker at the hospital in North Philly, he encounters round the clock friends and family from his past life and would-be future at his job, including contemporaries of his estranged father, a man he knows little about, serving time at Holmesburg prison for the statutory rape of his then-teenage mother. Meanwhile, he and his best friend Ray, a fellow vet, are alternatingly bonding over and struggling with their shared experience and return to civilian life, locked in their own rhythms of lust, heartbreak, and responsibility. Balancing the joys and frustrations of single fatherhood, his studies, and ceaseless shifts at the hospital as he becomes closer than he ever imagined to his father, Joseph tries to articulate vernacular understandings of the sociopolitical struggles he recounts as participant-observer at home, against the assumptions of his friends and colleagues. GOD BLESS YOU, OTIS SPUNKMEYER is a powerful examination of every day black life-of health and sex, race and punishment, and the gaps between our desires and our politics"--
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Psychological fiction.; Novels.; African American men; Fathers and sons; Interpersonal relations; Veterans;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Jumanji. [videorecording] / by Kasdan, Jake,1975-film director.; Tolmach, Matt,film producer.; McKenna, Chris,screenwriter.; Sommers, Erik,screenwriter.; Rosenberg, Scott,1963-screenwriter.; Pinkner, Jeff,screenwriter.; Johnson, Dwayne,1972-actor.; Gillan, Karen,1987-actor.; Hart, Kevin,1979-actor.; Black, Jack,1969-actor.; Cannavale, Bobby,actor.; Jonas, Nick,actor.; Pados, Gyula,1969-director of photography.; Helfrich, Mark,editor of moving image work.; Edwards, Steve(Film editor),editor of moving image work.; Jackman, Henry(Henry Pryce),composer (expression); based on (work):Van Allsburg, Chris.Jumanji.; Columbia Pictures,presenter.; Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (Firm),publisher,film distributor.;
Director of photography, Gyula Pados ; edited by Mark Helfrich, Steve Edwards ; music by Henry Jackman.Dwayne Johnson, Karen Gillan, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Bobby Cannavale, Nick Jonas.When four high school kids discover an old video game console with a game they've never heard of--Jumanji--they are immediately drawn into the game's jungle setting, literally becoming the avatars they chose: gamer Spencer becomes a brawny adventurer (Dwayne Johnson); football jock Fridge loses (in his words) "the top two feet of his body" and becomes an Einstein (Kevin Hart); popular girl Bethany becomes a middle-aged male professor (Jack Black); and wallflower Martha becomes a badass warrior (Karen Gillan). What they discover is that you don't just play Jumanji--you must survive it. To beat the game and return to the real world, they'll have to go on the most dangerous adventure of their lives, discover what Alan Parrish left 20 years ago, and change the way they think about themselves--or they'll be stuck in the game forever.Canadian Home Video Rating: PG.MPAA rating: PG-13.DVD ; anamorphic widescreen presentation (2.39:1 aspect ratio) ; Dolby Digital 5.1.
Subjects: Action and adventure films.; Feature films.; Video recordings for people with visual disabilities.; Video games; High school students; Teenagers; Avatars (Virtual reality); Jungles;
For private home use only.
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Good intentions : a novel / by Ali, Kasim,author.;
"If love really is a choice, how do you decide where your loyalties lie? It's the countdown to midnight on New Year's Eve and Nur is steeling himself to tell his parents that he's seeing someone. A young British Pakistani man, Nur has spent years omitting details about his personal life to maintain his image as the golden eldest child. And it's come at a cost. Once, Nur was a restless college student, struggling to fit in. At a house party, he meets Yasmina, a beautiful and self-possessed aspiring journalist. They start a conversation-first awkward, then absorbing-that grabs Nur's attention like never before. And as their relationship develops, so too does Nur's self-destruction. He falls deeper into traps of his own making, attempting to please both Yasmina and his family until he must finally be honest and reveal the truth he's kept hidden: Yasmina isn't Pakistani, she's Black, and he loves her. Deftly transporting readers between that first night and the years beyond, Good Intentions exposes with unblinking authenticity the complexities of immigrant families and racial prejudice. It is a crackling, wryly clever depiction of standing on the precipice of adulthood, attempting to piece together who it is you're meant to be"--
Subjects: Bildungsromans.; Children of immigrants; Interracial dating; Man-woman relationships; Pakistanis; Sudanese;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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