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City of time and magic / by Brackston, Paula,author.;
"Paula Brackston's City of Time and Magic is the next installment in the time-traveling Found Things Series. City of Time and Magic sees Xanthe face her greatest challenges yet. She must choose from three treasures that sing to her; a beautiful writing slope, a mourning brooch of heartbreaking detail, and a gorgeous gem-set hat pin. All call her, but the wrong one could take her on a mission other than that which she must address first, and the stakes could not be higher. While her earlier mission to Regency England had been a success, the journey home resulted in Liam being taken from her, spirited away to another time and place. Xanthe must follow the treasure that will take her to him if he is not to be lost forever. Xanthe is certain that Mistress Flyte has Liam and determined to find them both. But when she discovers Lydia Flyte has been tracking the actions of the Visionary Society, a group of ruthless and unscrupulous Spinners who have been selling their talents to a club of wealthy clients, Xanthe realizes her work as a Spinner must come before her personal wishes. The Visionary Society is highly dangerous and directly opposed to the creed of the Spinners. Their actions could have disastrous consequences as they alter the authentic order of things and change the future. Xanthe knows she must take on the Society. It will require the skills of all her friends, old and new, to attempt such a thing, and not all of them will survive the confrontation that follows"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Paranormal fiction.; Time-travel fiction.; Antique dealers; Man-woman relationships; Psychic ability; Survival; Time travel; Witches;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Everything the light touches : a novel / by Pariat, Janice,author.;
Everything the Light Touches is Janice Pariat's magnificent epic of travelers, of discovery, of time, of science, of human connection, and of the impermanent nature of the universe and life itself--a bold and brilliant saga that unfolds through the adventures and experiences of four intriguing characters. Shai is a young woman in modern India. Lost and drifting, she travels to her country's Northeast and rediscovers, through her encounters with indigenous communities, ways of being that realign and renew her. Evelyn is a student of science in Edwardian England. Inspired by Goethe's botanical writings, she leaves Cambridge on a quest to wander the sacred forests of the Lower Himalayas. Linnaeus, a botanist and taxonomist who famously declared "God creates; Linnaeus organizes," sets off on an expedition to an unfamiliar world, the far reaches of Lapland in 1732. Goethe is a philosopher, writer, and one of the greatest minds of his age. While traveling through Italy in the 1780s, he formulates his ideas for "The Metamorphosis of Plants," a little-known, revelatory text that challenges humankind's propensity to reduce plants--and the world--into immutable parts. Drawn richly from scientific and botanical ideas, Everything the Light Touches is a swirl of ever-expanding themes: the contrasts between modern India and its colonial past, urban and rural life, capitalism and centuries-old traditions of generosity and gratitude, script and "song and stone." Pulsating at its center is the dichotomy between different ways of seeing, those that fix and categorize and those that free and unify. Pariat questions the imposition of fixity--of our obsession to place permanence on plants, people, stories, knowledge, land--where there is only movement, fluidity, and constant transformation. "To be still," says a character in the book, "is to be without life." Everything the Light Touches brings together, with startling and playful novelty, people and places that seem, at first, removed from each other in time and place. Yet as it artfully reveals, all is resonance; all is connection.
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Nature fiction.; Psychological fiction.; Novels.; Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 1749-1832; Linné, Carl von, 1707-1778; Botany; Women;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Life in three dimensions : how curiosity, exploration, and experience make a fuller, better life / by Oishi, Shigehiro,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."From one of our foremost psychologists, a trailblazing new book turns the idea of a good life on its head and urges us to embrace the transformative power of variety and experience. For many people, a good life is a stable life, a comfortable life that follows a well-trodden path. This is the case for Shigehiro Oishi's father, who has lived in a small mountain town in Japan for his entire life, putting his family's needs above his own, like his father and grandfather before him. But is a happy life, or even a meaningful life, also a good life? In Life in Three Dimensions, Shige Oishi enters into a debate that has animated psychology since 1984, when Ed Diener (Oishi's mentor) published a paper that launched happiness studies. A rival followed in 1989 with a model of a good life that focused on purpose and meaning instead. In recent years, Shige Oishi's award-winning work has proposed a third dimension to a good life: psychological richness, a new concept that prioritizes curiosity, exploration, and a variety of experiences that help us grow as people. Life in Three Dimensions explores the shortcomings of happiness and meaning as guides to a good life, pointing to complacency and regret as a "happiness trap" and narrowness and misplaced loyalty as the downside of a life of meaning. Psychological richness, Oishi proposes, balances the other two, offering insight and growth spurred by new experiences and changes in perspective. Psychological richness, Oishi writes, can come in the form of anything from a spur-of-the-moment lunch date to travel, immersion in the arts, a move, new relationships, and more dramatic life changes. Drawing on studies and examples from life and literature, Oishi shows how anyone can use the three core dimensions -- happiness, meaning, and psychological richness -- to build a fuller, more satisfying life"--
Subjects: Happiness.; Meaning (Psychology); Quality of life.;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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Women's work : a reckoning with home and help / by Stack, Megan K.,author.;
When Megan Stack was living in Beijing, she left her prestigious job as a foreign correspondent to have her first child and work from home writing a book. She quickly realized that caring for a baby and keeping up with the housework while her husband went to the office each day was consuming the time she needed to write. This dilemma was resolved in the manner of many upper-class families and large corporations: she availed herself of cheap Chinese labor. The housekeeper Stack hired was a migrant from the countryside, a mother who had left her daughter in a precarious situation to earn desperately needed cash in the capital. As Stack's family grew and her husband's job took them to Dehli, a series of Chinese and Indian women cooked, cleaned, and babysat in her home. Stack grew increasingly aware of the brutal realities of their lives: domestic abuse, alcoholism, unplanned pregnancies. Hiring poor women had given her the ability to work while raising her children, but what ethical compromise had she made? Determined to confront the truth, Stack traveled to her employees' homes, met their parents and children, and turned a journalistic eye on the tradeoffs they'd been forced to make as working mothers seeking upward mobility--and on the cost to the children who were left behind. Women's Work is an unforgettable story of four women as well as an electrifying meditation on the evasions of marriage, motherhood, feminism, and privilege.
Subjects: Biographies.; Stack, Megan K.; Child care workers; Child care workers; Working mothers; Americans; Americans;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Traveling On the Path of Joni Mitchell [electronic resource] : by Powers, Ann.aut; cloudLibrary;
*An Observer Best New Biographies of 2024* Celebrated NPR music critic Ann Powers explores the life and career of Joni Mitchell in a lyrical style as fascinating and ethereal as the songs of the artist herself. “What you are about to read is not a standard account of the life and work of Joni Mitchell. Instead, it’s a tale of long journeying through a life that changed popular music: of a homesick wanderer forging ahead on routes of her own invention, and of me on her trail, heading toward the ringing of her voice.” —From the introduction For decades, Joni Mitchell’s life and music have enraptured listeners. One of the most celebrated artists of her generation, Mitchell has inspired countless musicians—from peers like James Taylor, to inheritors like Prince and Brandi Carlile—and authors, who have dissected her music and her life in their writing. At the same time, Mitchell has always been a force beckoning us still closer, as—with the other arm—she pushes us away. Given this, music critic Ann Powers wondered if there was another way to draw insights from the life of this singular musician who never stops moving, never stops experimenting. In Traveling, Powers seeks to understand Mitchell through her myriad journeys. Through extensive interviews with Mitchell's peers and deep archival research, she takes readers to rural Canada, mapping the singer’s childhood battle with polio. She charts the course of Mitchell’s musical evolution, ranging from early folk to jazz fusion to experimentation with pop synthetics. She follows the winding road of Mitchell’s collaborations with other greats, and the loves that emerged along the way, all the way through to the remarkable return of Mitchell to music-making after the 2015 aneurysm that nearly took her life. Along this journey, Powers’ wide-ranging musings on the artist’s life and career reconsider the biographer’s role and the way it twines against the reality of a fan. In doing so, Traveling illustrates the shifting nature of biography, and the ultimate contradiction of celebrity: that an icon cannot truly, completely be known to a fan. Kaleidoscopic in scope, and intimate in its detail, Traveling is a fresh and fascinating addition to the Joni Mitchell canon, written by a biographer in full command of her gifts who asks as much of herself as of her subject. 
Subjects: Electronic books.; Women Authors; Composers & Musicians; 20th Century; Women; Folk & Traditional;
© 2024., HarperCollins,
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15-minute French : learn in just 12 weeks / by Lemoine, Caroline,author.; DK Publishing, Inc.;
"Teach yourself French in just 12 weeks with this fun-filled language course. DK's 15 Minute French is the perfect course for busy people who want to learn French fast. The 12 themed chapters are broken down into easy-to-follow 15-minute daily lessons, spanning a range of practical themes, including: leisure, business, food and drink, travel, and shopping. Each lesson combines vocabulary and grammar essentials with attractive full-color images, making it quick, easy, and fun to learn new French vocabulary. There is no writing or homework--you simply use the cover flaps to hide the answers to exercises and test yourself as you learn. Each chapter ends with a review module, so you can track your progress and identify areas where you need further practice. Fancy becoming a pro at the language? Then get stuck in to discover: Annotated photographic scenes and word lists make it easy to learn and remember new vocabulary; 12 fun chapters, each designed to take a week to master, providing an easy-to-follow structure for new learners; Easy-to-use pronunciation guide for every word, plus a dictionary and menu guide at the back of the book; Regular review modules to help you track progress and assess how well you have learned the vocabulary in each chapter. The course includes a free audio app that enables you to hear French words and phrases spoken by native speakers. Use the app alongside the book's easy-to-use pronunciation guides to perfect your pronunciation and practise French conversation in real-life situations. Whether you're a complete beginner or just in need of a refresher course, there's no easier way to learn French than with 15 Minute French."--
Subjects: Programmed instructional materials.; French language; French language; French language;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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15-minute Spanish : learn in just 12 weeks / by Bremón, Ana,author.; DK Publishing, Inc.;
"Teach yourself Spanish in just 12 weeks with this fun-filled language course. DK's 15 Minute Spanish is the perfect course for busy people who want to learn Spanish fast. The 12 themed chapters are broken down into easy-to-follow 15-minute daily lessons spanning a range of practical themes, including: leisure, business, food and drink, travel, and shopping. Each lesson combines vocabulary and grammar essentials with attractive full-color images, making it quick, easy, and fun to learn new Spanish vocabulary. There is no writing or homework--you simply use the cover flaps to hide the answers to exercises and test yourself as you learn. Each chapter ends with a review module, so you can track your progress and identify areas where you need further practice. Fancy becoming a pro at the language? Then get stuck in to discover: Annotated photographic scenes and word lists make it easy to learn and remember new vocabulary; 12 fun chapters, each designed to take a week to master, providing an easy-to-follow structure for new learners; Easy-to-use pronunciation guide for every word, plus a dictionary and menu guide at the back of the book; Regular review modules to help you track progress and assess how well you have learned the vocabulary in each chapter. The course includes a free audio app that lets you to hear Spanish words and phrases spoken by native speakers. Use the app alongside the book's easy-to-use pronunciation guides to perfect your pronunciation and practise Spanish conversation in real-life situations. Whether you're a complete beginner or just in need of a refresher course, there's no easier way to learn Spanish than with 15 Minute Spanish."--
Subjects: Programmed instructional materials.; Spanish language; Spanish language; Spanish language; Spanish language;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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The window seat : notes from a life in motion / by Forna, Aminatta,author.;
"Aminatta Forna is one of our most important literary voices, and her novels have won the Windham Campbell Prize and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book. In this elegantly rendered and wide-ranging collection of new and previously published essays, Forna writes intimately about displacement, trauma and memory, love, and how we coexist and encroach on the non-human world. Movement is a constant here. In the title piece, "The Window Seat," Forna reveals the unexpected enchantments of commercial air travel. In "Obama and the Renaissance Generation," she documents how, despite the narrative of Obama's exceptionalism, his father, like her own, was one of a generation of gifted young Africans who came to the United Kingdom and the United States for education and were expected to build their home countries anew after colonialism. In "The Last Vet," time spent shadowing Dr. Jalloh, the only veterinarian in Sierra Leone, as he works with the street dogs of Freetown, becomes a meditation on what a society's treatment of animals tells us about its principles. In "Crossroads," she examines race in America from an African perspective, in "Power Walking" she describes what it means to walk in the world in a Black woman's body, and in "The Watch" she explores the raptures of sleep and sleeplessness the world over. Deeply meditative and written with a wry humor, The Window Seat confirms that Forna is a vital voice in international letters"--
Subjects: Essays.; Forna, Aminatta.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Apron strings : navigating food and family in France, Italy, and China / by Wong, Jan,author.;
"Jan Wong knows food is better when shared, so when she set out to write a book about home cooking in France, Italy, and China, she asked her 22-year-old son, Sam, to join her. While he wasn't keen on spending excessive time with his mom, he dreamed of becoming a chef. Ultimately, it was an opportunity he couldn't pass up. On their journey, Jan and Sam live and cook with locals, seeing how globalization is changing food, families, and cultures. In southeast France, they move in with a family sheltering undocumented migrants. From Bernadette, the housekeeper, they learn classic French family fare such as blanquette de veau. In a hamlet in the heart of Italy's Slow Food country, the locals teach them how to make authentic spaghetti alle vongole and a proper risotto with leeks. In Shanghai, they cook firecracker chicken and scallion pancakes with the nouveaux riches and their migrant maids, who are part of the biggest demographic shift in world history. Along the way, mother and son explore their sometimes-fraught relationship, uniting--and occasionally clashing--over their mutual love of cooking. A memoir about family, an exploration of the globalization of food cultures, and a meditation on the complicated relationships between mothers and sons, Apron Strings is complex, unpredictable, and unexpectedly hilarious."--
Subjects: Wong, Jan; Food; International cooking.; Globalization.; Families.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Meet me in Atlantis : my obsessive quest to find the sunken city / by Adams, Mark,1967-;
Includes bibliographical references and index."The New York Times bestselling author of Turn Right at Machu Picchu sets out to uncover the truth behind the legendary lost city of Atlantis. A few years ago, Mark Adams made a strange discovery: Everything we know about the lost city of Atlantis comes from the work of one man, the Greek philosopher Plato. Then he made a second, stranger discovery: Amateur explorers are still actively searching for this sunken city all around the world, based entirely on the clues Plato left behind. Exposed to the Atlantis obsession, Adams decides to track down these people and determine why they believe it's possible to find the world's most famous lost city and whether any of their theories could prove or disprove its existence. He visits scientists who use cutting-edge technology to find legendary civilizations once thought to be fictional. He examines the numerical and musical codes hidden in Plato's writings, and with the help of some charismatic sleuths traces their roots back to Pythagoras, the sixth-century BC mathematician. He learns how ancient societies transmitted accounts of cataclysmic events--and how one might dig out the 'kernel of truth' in Plato's original tale. Meet Me in Atlantis is Adams's enthralling account of his quest to solve one of history's greatest mysteries; a travelogue that takes readers to fascinating locations to meet irresistible characters; and a deep, often humorous look at the human longing to rediscover a lost world"--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Plato; Plato; Adams, Mark, 1967-; Atlantis (Legendary place); Explorers.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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