Search:

Ella A Novel [electronic resource] : by Richards, Diane.aut; cloudLibrary;
In the vein of The Paris Wife and The Personal Librarian comes this debut novel, a magnificent work of “biographical fiction” that reimagines the turbulent and triumphant early years of Ella Fitzgerald, arguably the greatest singer of the twentieth century. When fifteen-year-old Ella Fitzgerald’s mother dies at the height of the Depression in 1932, the teenager goes to work for the mob to support herself and her family. When the law finally catches up, the “ungovernable” adolescent is incarcerated in the New York Training School for Girls in upstate New York—a wicked prison infamous for its harsh treatment of inmates, especially Black ones. Determined to be free, Ella escapes and makes her way back to Harlem, where she is forced to dance for pennies on the street. Looking for a break into show business, Ella draws straws to appear at the Apollo Theater’s Amateur Night on November 21, 1934. Rather than perform a dance routine directly after “The World Famous Edwards Sisters” number, the homeless Ella, wearing men’s galoshes a size too big, risks everything when she decides to sing Judy instead. Four years later, at barely twenty-one, Ella Fitzgerald has become the bestselling female vocalist in America. Diane Richards’ Ella Fitzgerald is inspiring and intriguing—an emotionally rich, psychologically complex character, a flawed mother and wife who struggles with deep emotional scars and trauma and battles racism, sexism, and colorism as she learns to find her voice on the stage. Ella takes us from the brothels, speakeasys, and streets of Depression-era New York City to the grand hotel suites where Ella, now older and wiser, looks back on her life and finally confronts the demons from childhood that torment her. Compelling and rich in historical detail, Ella is a remarkable debut novel about an extraordinary woman.
Subjects: Electronic books.; Contemporary Women; Biographical; Historical; Contemporary Women;
© 2024., HarperCollins,
unAPI

We All Shine On John, Yoko, and Me [electronic resource] : by Mintz, Elliot.aut; cloudLibrary;
A personal and revealing look at the last ten years of John Lennon’s life and his partnership with Yoko Ono, written by the friend who knew them best In 1972, Elliot Mintz installed a red light in his bedroom in Laurel Canyon. When it started flashing, it meant that either John Lennon or Yoko Ono—or sometimes both—were calling him. Which they did almost every day for nearly ten years, engaging Mintz in hours-long late-night phone conversations that all but consumed him for the better part of a decade. In We All Shine On, Mintz—a former radio and television host in Los Angeles—recounts the story of how their unlikely friendship began and where it led him over the years, revealing the ups and downs of a wild, touching, heartbreaking, and sometimes shocking relationship. Mintz takes readers inside John and Yoko’s inner sanctums, including their expansive seventh-floor apartment in New York’s fabled Dakota building, where Mintz was something of a semipermanent fixture, ultimately becoming the Lennons' closest and most trusted confidant. Mintz was with John and Yoko through creative highs, relationship and private challenges, fascinating interactions with the other former Beatles, and the happiest moment of their lives together, the birth of their son, Sean. He was also by Yoko’s side during the aftermath of John’s assassination on the doorstep of the Dakota—not merely a witness to it all, but a key figure in the drama of John and Yoko’s extraordinary lives.   We All Shine On is a must-read for Beatles and Lennon fans, offering an up close and intimate view of one of the most celebrated artists of the twentieth century, as well as one of the most fascinating marriages. But it’s also a relationship story that just about everyone can relate to, a tale about partnership, loyalty, and trust, and most of all, the lasting legacy of a true and deep friendship.
Subjects: Electronic books.; Personal Memoirs; Composers & Musicians; Entertainment & Performing Arts;
© 2024., Penguin Publishing Group,
unAPI

Casino Royale [videorecording] ; Quantum of solace / by Abkarian, Simon.; Amalric, Mathieu,1965-; Arterton, Gemma.; Bankolé, Isaach de.; Broccoli, Barbara,1960-; Campbell, Martin.; Christensen, Jesper,1948-; Craig, Daniel,1968-; Dench, Judi,1934-; Fleming, Ian,1908-1964.Casino Royale.Videorecording.; Forster, Marc,1969-; Giannini, Giancarlo.; Giannini, Giancarlo.; Green, Eva,1980-; Haggis, Paul.; Harbour, David.; Kurylenko, Olga,1979-; Mikkelsen, Mads,1965-; Milicevic, Ivana.; Murino, Caterina.; Norman, Monty.; Purvis, Neal.; Wade, Robert,1962-; Wilson, Michael G.,1942-; Wright, Jeffrey.; Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures.; Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Inc.;
Casino Royale (ca. 144 min.) -- Quantum of solace (ca. 106 min.).Casino Royale / Director of photography, Phil Méheux ; editor, Stuart Baird ; music, David Arnold ; James Bond theme, Monty Norman ; screenplay by Neal Purvis & Robert Wade and Paul Haggis ; produced by Michael G. WIlson and Barbara Broccoli ; directed by Martin Campbell -- Quantum of solace / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer ; Columbia Pictures ; Danjag ; Eon Productions ; United Artists ; produced by Barbara Broccoli, Michael G. Wilson ; written by Paul Haggis and Neal Purvis & Robert Wade ; directed by Marc Forster.Casino Royale: Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen, Judi Dench, Jeffrey Wright, Giancarlo Giannini, Caterina Murino, Simon Abkarian, Isaach De Bankolé, Jesper Christensen, Ivana Milicevic.Quantum of solace: Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko, Mathieu Amalric, Judi Dench, Giancarlo Giannini, Gemma Arterton, Jeffrey Wright, David Harbour, Jesper Christensen.Casino Royale: With two professional assassinations in quick succession, James Bond is quickly elevated to '00' status. Bond's first 007 mission takes him to Uganda where he is to spy on a terrorist, Mollaka. Not everything goes to plan and Bond decides to investigate, independently of MI6, in order to track down the rest of the terrorist cell.Quantum of solace: James Bond descends into mystery as he tries to stop a mysterious organization from eliminating a country's most valuable resource. All the while, he still tries to seek revenge over the death of his love.Canadian Home Video Rating: 14A.DVD, region 1, anamorphic widescreen (2.40:1) presentation; Dolby Digital 5.1 surround.
Subjects: Great Britain. MI6; Action and adventure films.; Agents provocateurs; Bond, James (Fictitious character); Criminal behavior; Feature films.; James Bond films.; Man-woman relationships; Murder; Poker; Spy films.; Terrorists; Video recordings for the hearing impaired.;
© c2012., Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios : Distributed by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment,
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

38 Londres Street : on impunity, Pinochet in England, and a Nazi in Patagonia / by Sands, Philippe,1960-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."In this intimate legal and historical detective story, the world-renowned lawyer and acclaimed author of East West Street traces the footsteps of two of the twentieth century's most merciless criminals -- accused of genocide and crimes against humanity -- testing the limits of immunity and impunity after Nuremberg. On the evening of October 16, 1998, Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was arrested at a medical clinic in London. After a brutal, seventeen-year reign marked by assassinations, disappearances, and torture -- frequently tied to the infamous detention center at the heart of Santiago, Londres 38 -- Pinochet was being indicted for international crimes and extradition to Spain, opening the door to criminal charges that would follow him to the grave, in 2006. Three decades earlier, on the evening of December 3, 1962, SS-Commander Walter Rauff was arrested in his home in Punta Arenas, at the southern tip of Chile. As the overseer of the development and use of gas vans in World War II, he was indicted for the mass murder of tens of thousands of Jews and faced extradition to West Germany. Would these uncommon criminals be held accountable? Were their stories connected? The Nuremberg Trials -- where Rauff's crimes had first been read into the record, in 1945 -- opened the door to universal jurisdiction, and Pinochet's case would be the first effort to ensnare a former head of state. In this unique blend of memoir, courtroom drama, and travelogue, Philippe Sands gives us a front row seat to the Pinochet trial -- where he acted as a barrister for Human Rights Watch -- and teases out the dictator's unexpected connection to a leading Nazi who ended up managing a king crab cannery in Patagonia. A decade-long journey exposes the chilling truth behind the lives of two men and their intertwined destinies on 38 Londres Street"--
Subjects: Pinochet Ugarte, Augusto; Rauff, Walter; Crimes against humanity (International law); Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); Political crimes and offenses; State-sponsored terrorism; Trials (Political crimes and offenses); War crimes;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

Leadership : six studies in world strategy / by Kissinger, Henry,1923-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Henry Kissinger, consummate diplomat and statesman, examines the strategies of six great twentieth-century figures and brings to life a unifying theory of leadership and diplomacy "Leaders," writes Henry Kissinger in this compelling book, "think and act at the intersection of two axes: the first, between the past and the future; the second, between the abiding values and aspirations of those they lead. They must balance what they know, which is necessarily drawn from the past, with what they intuit about the future, which is inherently conjectural and uncertain. It is this intuitive grasp of direction that enables leaders to set objectives and lay down a strategy." In Leadership, Kissinger analyses the lives of six extraordinary leaders through the distinctive strategies of statecraft, which he believes they embodied. After the Second World War, Konrad Adenauer brought defeated and morally bankrupt Germany back into the community of nations by what Kissinger calls "the strategy of humility." Charles de Gaulle set France beside the victorious Allies and renewed its historic grandeur by "the strategy of will." During the Cold War, Richard Nixon gave geostrategic advantage to the United States by "the strategy of equilibrium." After twenty-five years of conflict, Anwar Sadat brought a vision of peace to the Middle East by a "strategy of transcendence." Against the odds, Lee Kuan Yew created a powerhouse city-state, Singapore, by "the strategy of excellence." And, though Britain was known as "the sick man of Europe" when Margaret Thatcher came to power, she renewed her country's morale and international position by "the strategy of conviction." To each of these studies, Kissinger brings historical perception, public experience and-because he knew each of the subjects and participated in many of the events he describes-personal knowledge. Leadership is enriched by insights and judgements that only Kissinger could make and concludes with his reflections on world order and the indispensability of leadership today"--
Subjects: Diplomacy; Heads of state; Political leadership; World politics;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

The book of eels : our enduring fascination with the most mysterious creature in the natural world / by Svensson, Patrik,1972-author.; Broomé, Agnes,translator.; translation of:Svensson, Patrik,1972-Ålevangeliet.English.;
Includes bibliographical references."Part H Is for Hawk, part The Soul of an Octopus, The Book of Eels is both a meditation on the world's most elusive fish--the eel--and a reflection on the human condition. Remarkably little is known about the European eel, Anguilla anguilla. So little, in fact, that scientists and philosophers have, for centuries, been obsessed with what has become known as the "eel question": Where do eels come from? What are they? Are they fish or some other kind of creature altogether? Even today, in an age of advanced science, no one has ever seen eels mating or giving birth, and we still don't understand what drives them, after living for decades in freshwater, to swim great distances back to the ocean at the end of their lives. They remain a mystery. Drawing on a breadth of research about eels in literature, history, and modern marine biology, as well as his own experience fishing for eels with his father, Patrik Svensson crafts a mesmerizing portrait of an unusual, utterly misunderstood, and completely captivating animal. In The Book of Eels, we meet renowned historical thinkers, from Aristotle to Sigmund Freud to Rachel Carson, for whom the eel was a singular obsession. And we meet the scientists who spearheaded the search for the eel's point of origin, including Danish marine biologist Johannes Schmidt, who led research efforts in the early twentieth century, catching thousands upon thousands of eels, in the hopes of proving their birthing grounds in the Sargasso Sea. Blending memoir and nature writing at its best, Svensson's journey to understand the eel becomes an exploration of the human condition that delves into overarching issues about our roots and destiny, both as humans and as animals, and, ultimately, how to handle the biggest question of all: death. The result is a gripping and slippery narrative that will surprise and enchant."--
Subjects: Eels.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

In winter I get up at night / by Urquhart, Jane,author.;
Includes bibliographical references.In the early morning dark, Emer McConnell rises for a day of teaching music in the schools of rural Saskatchewan. While she travels the snowy roads in the gathering light, she begins another journey, one of recollection and introspection, and one that, through the course of Jane Urquhart's brilliant new novel, will leave the reader forever changed. Moving as effortlessly through time as the drift of memory itself, In Winter I Get Up at Night brings Emer and her singular story to life. At the age of 11, she is terribly injured in an enormous prairie storm--the "great wind" that shifts her trajectory forever. As she recovers, separated from her family in a children's ward, Emer gets to know her fellow patients, a memorable group including a child performer who stars in a travelling theatre company, the daughter of a Dukhobor community, and the son of a leftist Jewish farm collective. The children are tended to by three nursing sisters and two doctors, whom the ever-imaginative Emer comes to call Doctor Angel and Doctor Carpenter. Emer's tale grows outwards from that ward, reaching through time and space in a dreamlike fashion, recounting the stories of her mother's entanglement with a powerful yet mysterious teacher; her brother's dawning spirituality, which eventually leads him to the priesthood; the remarkable lives of the nuns who care for her; and the passionate yet distant love affair of Emer and an enigmatic man she calls Harp--a brilliant scientist whose great discovery has forever altered millions of lives around the world. In luminous prose, and with exhilarating nuance and depth, Jane Urquhart charts an unforgettable life, while also exploring some of the grandest themes of the twentieth century--colonial expansion, scientific progress, and the sinister forces that seek to divide societies along racial and cultural lines. In Winter I Get Up at Night is a major work of imagination and self-exploration from one of the greatest writers of our time.
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Psychological fiction.; Novels.; Country life; Families; Interpersonal relations; Life change events; Recollection (Psychology); Women teachers; Women;
Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 2
unAPI

Do not say we have nothing / by Thien, Madeleine,1974-author.;
"An extraordinary novel set in China before, during and after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989--the breakout book we've been waiting for from a bestselling, Amazon.ca First Novel Award winner. Madeleine Thien's new novel is breathtaking in scope and ambition even as it is hauntingly intimate. With the ease and skill of a master storyteller, Thien takes us inside an extended family in China, showing us the lives of two successive generations--those who lived through Mao's Cultural Revolution in the mid-twentieth century; and the children of the survivors, who became the students protesting in Tiananmen Square in 1989, in one of the most important political moments of the past century. With exquisite writing sharpened by a surprising vein of wit and sly humour, Thien has crafted unforgettable characters who are by turns flinty and headstrong, dreamy and tender, foolish and wise. At the centre of this epic tale, as capacious and mysterious as life itself, are enigmatic Sparrow, a genius composer who wishes desperately to create music yet can find truth only in silence; his mother and aunt, Big Mother Knife and Swirl, survivors with captivating singing voices and an unbreakable bond; Sparrow's ethereal cousin Zhuli, daughter of Swirl and storyteller Wen the Dreamer, who as a child witnesses the denunciation of her parents and as a young woman becomes the target of denunciations herself; and headstrong, talented Kai, best friend of Sparrow and Zhuli, and a determinedly successful musician who is a virtuoso at masking his true self until the day he can hide no longer. Here, too, is Kai's daughter, the ever-questioning mathematician Marie, who pieces together the tale of her fractured family in present-day Vancouver, seeking a fragile meaning in the layers of their collective story. With maturity and sophistication, humour and beauty, a huge heart and impressive understanding, Thien has crafted a novel that is at once beautifully intimate and grandly political, rooted in the details of daily life inside China, yet transcendent in its universality."--
Subjects: Political fiction.; Domestic fiction.; Composers; Storytellers; Musicians; Mathematicians; Chinese Canadians;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

Interpretations of love : a novel / by Campbell, Jane,1942-author.;
"From the acclaimed author of the "trail-blazing" (Oprah Daily) collection of stories Cat Brushing comes a profound and entertaining debut novel about the ways we experience, perceive, and misunderstand love. When Jane Campbell published Cat Brushing in her eightieth year, the debut was lauded as an "excellent, pathbreaking collection" (New York Times Book Review). Blending unique insight with a wry sense of humor, Jane Campbell brought a fresh and much-needed perspective to a generation of women often overlooked. In her incisive debut novel, Interpretations of Love, she digs even deeper into the psyches and emotional barriers of a demographic shaped by war and by the social strictures of the twentieth century. It's the week of Dr. Agnes Stacey's only daughter's wedding, and each of the eleven attendees of the small family gathering is bringing their own simmering tensions to the event. Agnes's uncle, Professor Malcolm Miller, has harbored a family secret since her parents -- his sister and brother-in-law -- died in a car crash when she was a young girl. Dr. Joseph Bradshaw, who distantly married into the family, has nursed a secret obsession with Agnes since his brief stint as her therapist. Agnes herself will be returning to her ex-husband's home for the first time, just as she's trying to extricate herself from a potent love affair. Each of them has the tools to analyze the love lives of others, yet find themselves unable to recognize the love in their own lives. And though they've each muddled through painful years in emotional isolation, only Malcolm knows that the origins of their thwarted attachments all lie in the same English seaside town. Where better to lay bare the failures and secrets of one's advancing age than at an intimate celebration of love? In this utterly involving novel, Campbell parses the fraught inner lives of ordinary people doing their best to process the aftershocks of war, the parenting they do and don't receive, and the many different forms love can take in one family"--
Subjects: Psychological fiction.; Novels.; Families; Interpersonal relations; Love; Weddings;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

Althea : the life of tennis champion Althea Gibson / by Jacobs, Sally H.,1957-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.""A captivating book that brilliantly reveals an American sports legend long overlooked. Sally Jacobs tells the riveting story of Althea Gibson, my personal shero, who overcame daunting odds-on the tennis court and off-to stand at the world pinnacle of her sport and became an inspiration to many."--Billie Jean King. In 1950, three years after Jackie Robinson first walked onto the diamond at Ebbets Field, the all-white, upper-crust US Lawn Tennis Association opened its door just a crack to receive a powerhouse player who would integrate "the game of royalty." The player was a street-savvy young Black woman from Harlem named Althea Gibson who was about as out-of-place in that rarefied and intolerant world as any aspiring tennis champion could be. Her tattered jeans and short-cropped hair drew stares from everyone who watched her play, but her astonishing performance on the court soon eclipsed the negative feelings being cast her way as she eventually became one of the greatest American tennis champions. Gibson had a stunning career. Raised in New York and trained by a pair of tennis-playing doctors in the South, Gibson's immense talent on the court opened the door for her to compete around the world. She won top prizes at Wimbledon and Forest Hills time and time again. The young woman underestimated by so many wound up shaking hands with Queen Elizabeth II, being driven up Broadway in a snowstorm of ticker tape, and ultimately became the first Black woman to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated and the second to appear on the cover of Time. In a crowning achievement, Althea Gibson became the No. One ranked female tennis player in the world for both 1957 and 1958. Seven years later she broke the color barrier again where she became the first Black woman to join the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA). In Althea, prize-winning former Boston Globe reporter Sally H. Jacobs tells the heart-rending story of this pioneer, a remarkable woman who was a trailblazer, a champion, and one of the most remarkable Americans of the twentieth century"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Gibson, Althea, 1927-2003.; African American women tennis players; Discrimination in sports; Racism in sports; Tennis players; Women tennis players;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI