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The bad weather friend [sound recording] / by Koontz, Dean R.(Dean Ray),1945-author.; Chase, Ray,narrator.; Brilliance Audio (Firm),publisher.;
Read by Ray Chase.When he loses his job, his reputation, his fiancée and his favorite chair, Benny Catspaw gets a strange inheritance from an uncle he's never heard of - a seven-foot-tall self-described "bad weather friend" named Spike whose mission is to help people who are just too good for this world.
Subjects: Audiobooks.; Novels.; Thrillers (Fiction); Friendship; Good and evil; Inheritance and succession; Real estate agents; Uncles; Unemployment; Waitresses;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Every spiral of fate / by Mafi, Tahereh,author.;
At long last, the wedding day of the Jinn queen to the enigmatic ruler of Tulan has arrived. Cyrus, tethered by a blood oath to the bride-to-be he's falling in love with, can find nothing to celebrate in this union, knowing it will result in his death at Alizeh's hand. Sworn to an ancient, unbreakable magic, Alizeh has no choice but to end her marriage in murder in order to free her people. Alizeh has been hunted all her life by insidious forces determined to keep the Jinn suppressed, and her imminent victory has disrupted the balance of power. To prepare for war and protect her people, Alizeh must finally discover her magic--and outrun the enemies trying to stop her. Every allegiance will be tested, every darkness uncovered, and when the shattering secrets of the Tulanian king are finally revealed ... Nothing, and no one, will be the same.013+.Grades 10-12.
Subjects: Young adult fiction.; Fantasy fiction.; Novels.; Imaginary places; Inheritance and succession; Interpersonal relations; Jinn; Kings and rulers; Magic; Queens; Genies; Imaginary places; Inheritance and succession; Interpersonal relations; Kings, queens, rulers, etc.; Magic;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The witches' blade / by Mulford, A. K.,author.;
In possession of the Immortal Blade, eighteen-year-old Ruadora Dammacus, venturing into the Northern Court, must prove herself worthy of this powerful artifact to break the curse over the blue witches while wondering what her growing connection to the Northern King means for her people.
Subjects: Fantasy fiction.; Novels.; Blessing and cursing; Imaginary wars and battles; Inheritance and succession; Kings and rulers; Magic; Man-woman relationships; Princesses; Swords; Witches;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Futureproof : 9 rules for humans in the age of automation / by Roose, Kevin,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."The machines are here. After decades of sci-fi doomsaying and marketing hype, advanced A.I. and automation technologies have leapt out of research labs and Silicon Valley engineering departments and into the center of our lives. Robots once primarily threatened blue-collar manufacturing jobs, but today's machines are being trained to do the work of lawyers, doctors, investment bankers, and other white-collar jobs previously considered safe from automation's reach. The world's biggest corporations are racing to automate jobs, and some experts predict that A.I could put millions of people out of work. Meanwhile, runaway algorithms have already changed the news we see, the politicians we elect, and the ways we interact with each other. But all is not lost. With a little effort, we can become futureproof. In Futureproof: 9 Rules for Machine-Age Humans, New York Times technology columnist Kevin Roose lays out an optimistic vision of how people can thrive in the machine age by rethinking their relationship with technology, and making themselves irreplaceably human. In nine pragmatic, accessible lessons, Roose draws on interviews with leading technologists, trips to the A.I. frontier, and centuries' worth of history to prepare readers to live, work, and thrive in the coming age of intelligent machines. He shares the secrets of people and organizations that have successfully survived technological change, including a 19th-century rope-maker and a Japanese auto worker, and explains how people, organizations, and communities can apply their lessons to safeguard their own futures. The lessons include : Do work that is surprising, social, and scarce (the types of work machines can't do), break your phone addiction with the help of a rubber band, work in an office, treat A.I. like the office gorilla, resist "hustle porn" and efficiency culture and do less, slower Roose's examination of the future rejects the conventional wisdom that in order to compete with machines, we have to become more like them--hyper-efficient, data-driven, code-writing workhorses. Instead, he says, we should let machines be machines, and focus on doing the kinds of creative, inspiring, and meaningful work only humans can do"--
Subjects: Artificial intelligence; Computers and civilization.; Success in business.; Automation;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Thinking inside the box : adventures with crosswords and the puzzling people who can't live without them / by Raphel, Adrienne,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."The crossword is a feature of the modern world, inspiring daily devotion and obsession from not just everyday citizens looking to pass the time but icons of American life, such as Bill Clinton, Yo-Yo Ma, and Martha Stewart. It was invented in 1913, almost by accident, when a newspaper editor at the New York World was casting around for something to fill some empty column space for that year's Christmas edition. Practically overnight, it became a roaring commercial success, and ever since then has been an essential ingredient of any newspaper worth its salt. Indeed, paradoxically, its popularity has never been greater, even as the world of media and newspapers, its natural habitat, has undergone a perilous digital transformation. But why, exactly, are its satisfactions so sweet that over the decades has it become a fixture of breakfast tables, nightstands, and commutes, and even given rise to competitive crossword tournaments? Blending first-person reporting from the world of crosswords with a delightful telling of its rich literary history, Adrienne Raphel dives into the secrets of this classic pastime. At the annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, she rubs shoulders with elite solvers of the world, doing her level best to hold her own; aboard a crossword themed cruise, she picks the brains of the enthusiasts whose idea of a good time is a week on the high seas with nothing but crosswords to do; and, visiting the home and office of Will Shortz, New York Times crossword puzzle editor and NPR's official 'Puzzlemaster,' she goes behind the scenes to see for herself how the world's gold standard of puzzles is made"--
Subjects: Crossword puzzles;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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A concise history of Canada / by Conrad, Margaret,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Margaret Conrad's history of Canada begins with a challenge to its readers. What is Canada? What makes up this diverse, complex, and often contested nation-state? What was its founding moment? And who are its people? Drawing on her many years of experience as a scholar, writer, and teacher of Canadian history, Conrad offers astute answers to these difficult questions. Beginning in Canada's deep past with the arrival of its Indigenous peoples, she traces its history through the conquest by Europeans, the American Revolutionary War, and the industrialization of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, to its prosperous present. As a social historian, Conrad emphasizes the peoples' history: the relationships between Indigenous peoples and settlers, French and English, Catholic and Protestant, rich and poor. She writes of the impact of disease, how women fared in the early colonies, and the social transformations that took place after the Second World War as Canada began to assert itself as an independent nation. It is this grounded approach that drives the narrative and makes for compelling reading. In its final chapters, the author explains the social, economic, and political upheavals that have bedeviled the nation in recent years. Despite its successes and its popularity as a destination for immigrants from across the world, Canada remains a cautious and contested country. This intelligent, concise, and lucid book explains just why that is"--
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Four days a week : the life-changing solution for reducing employee stress, improving well-being, and working smarter / by Schor, Juliet,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.Around the world, long hours and intense pressure are taking their toll. When the pandemic hit in 2020, work-induced stress and burnout skyrocketed. Many reached a breaking point. Now, three-quarters of the world's employees are disengaged and struggling, including in the US and Canada, where half are experiencing high levels of daily stress. Our current work culture ,the five-day, forty-hours-a-week model--which has gone unchanged for nearly a century--is failing. But a remedial countertrend has emerged: the four-day work week. Kickstarter, Bolt, Basecamp, ThredUp, and hundreds of other employers have eliminated the fifth day of work, successfully figuring out how to maintain productivity while seeing remarkable improvements in employee well-being. Hiring is easier and fewer people are quitting. These results are global. Working a four-day week, people feel energized, capable, and more optimistic about their lives--and their jobs. Four Days a Week is the first large-scale study of this trend. Juliet Schor--an expert who has researched and written about work for more than four decades, beginning with her New York Times bestseller The Overworked American in 1992--shares her pioneering analysis of the benefits of a shorter work week, how companies can achieve them, why the concept has taken so long to emerge and gain acceptance, and why doing so will help a company's employees and its bottom line. The book is a blueprint for implementing a change that once seemed radical, but is now within reach.
Subjects: Four-day week.; Hours of labor.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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2020 : one city, seven people, and the year everything changed / by Klinenberg, Eric,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Crisis has a way of laying bare our truest selves: who we trust, which principles and impulses we heed, whose lives we deem expendable. As it ravaged millions of lives, the Covid-19 pandemic revealed and accentuated the dividing lines that had already, for decades, splintered American public life. Against the backdrop of the 2020 presidential election, misinformation regimes, and the transformation of the facemask into a flagrant political symbol, acclaimed sociologist Eric Klinenberg takes careful inventory of how the U.S. and other nations handled the extraordinary challenges of that seminal year. Any autopsy searches for causes, and in this book, Klinenberg uses seven people's piercingly vivid reflections to examine how communities across the globe reckoned with the profound tragedy and loss of 2020-and how they built networks of solidarity in an attempt to survive. We move from the gross negligence in Canadian for-profit nursing homes, to England's gradualist approach to instating robust Covid safety protocols, to early policy innovations in Australia, South Korea, and Taiwan, which dramatically curtailed the virus' spread. According to Klinenberg, our capacity to bear witness to the rampant failures and successful models of resilience of 2020 will help shape our responses to the escalating climate emergency, the ongoing fight for racial justice, and widening global economic disparities. This book is both mirror and roadmap-a reflection of the social divisions that plague our world and a set of principles for how we might approach the next global catastrophe differently"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020-; Equality; Presidents; Social history;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Design your next chapter : how to realize your dreams and reinvent your life / by Travis, Debbie,1960-author.;
"If you feel stuck, with no idea what you should do next, lifestyle celebrity and TV pioneer Debbie Travis's new book is for you. Drawing on the tough (sometimes hilarious) lessons Debbie learned in her own leap into a new way of living, and a multitude of stories, tips and ideas to jumpstart your dreams, she's created an inspiring roadmap for change. A few years ago, Debbie Travis realized that she just wasn't challenged any more by her wildly successful TV career and yet she was so busy she was missing out on the people and things that made her happy. She dared to dream about a whole new direction in life--a plan to turn a 13th-century farmhouse in Tuscany into a unique hotel and retreat for people who need a change as much as she did. And now, after a crazy amount of work, she is not only living that dream but sharing it with others. Her new book draws directly on her own experiences (when she started, Debbie could barely make a bed, let alone run a hotel in a foreign country) and the uplifting stories of personal u-turns shared by women who have come to her retreats. Debbie's "commandments" will inspire women (and men) who have lost track of who they are or what they want to be; who are going through the motions of a career that doesn't satisfy them anymore; who are wondering what to do with themselves now that their kids are gone or their marriage is over. On every page, Debbie shares the tools that helped her transform her life, and her example, her wit and her common sense advice will help motivate anyone who finds themselves standing at a crossroads wondering 'What's next for me?'"--
Subjects: Motivation (Psychology); Self-actualization (Psychology); Success.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Discontent : a novel / by Serrano, Beatriz,1989-author.; translation of:Serrano, Beatriz,1989-Descontento.English.; Lethem, Mara,translator.;
"On the surface, Marisa's life looks enviable. She lives in a beautiful apartment in the center of Madrid, she has a hot neighbor who is always around to sleep with her, and she's rapidly risen through the ranks at her advertising agency. And yet she's drowning in a dark hole of existential dread induced by the expectations of corporate life. Marisa hates her job and everyone at it. She spends her working hours locked in her office hiding from her coworkers, bingeing YouTube videos, and taking Valium. When she has the time, she escapes to her favorite museum where she contemplates the meaning of human life while staring at Hieronymus Bosch paintings, or trying to get hit by a car so she can go on disability. But Marisa's success, which is largely built on lies and work she's stolen from other people, is in danger of being revealed when she's forced to go on her company's annual team-building retreat. Isolated in the Spanish mountains, surrounded by a psychopathic boss, overly enthusiastic co-workers who revel in their exploitation, a flirty retreat staff, and haunted by a deeply-buried memory about a past coworker, Marisa is pushed to the brink of a complete spiral. A darkly funny, provocative, and incisive tale of our modern times, Discontent explores the unease we bury eight hours a day, and how explosive it is when it rises to the surface"--
Subjects: Psychological fiction.; Novels.; Anxiety in women; Women; Work environment;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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