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Cosplay : a history : the builders, fans, and makers who bring your favorite stories to life / by Liptak, Andrew,author.; Savage, Adam,writer of foreword.;
Includes bibliographical references.In recent years, cosplay-the practice of dressing up in costume as a character-has exploded, becoming a mainstream cultural phenomenon. But what are the circumstances that made its rise possible? Andrew Liptak-a member of the legendary 501st Legion, an international fan-based organization dedicated to the dark side of Star Wars-delves into the origins and culture of cosplay to answer this question. Cosplay: A History looks at the practice's ever-growing fandom and conventions, its roots in 15th-century costuming, the relationship between franchises and the cosplayers they inspire, and the technology that brings even the most intricate details in these costumes to life. Cosplay veterans and newcomers alike will find much to relish in this rich and comprehensive history.
Subjects: Informational works.; Cosplay; Costume;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The winemaker's wife / by Harmel, Kristin,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."At the dawn of the Second World War, Ines is the young wife of Michel, owner of the House of Chauveau, a small champagne winery nestled among rolling vineyards near Reims, France. Marrying into a storied champagne empire was supposed to be a dream come true, but Ines feels increasingly isolated, purposely left out of the business by her husband; his chef de cave, Theo; and Theo's wife, Sarah. But these disappointments pale in comparison to the increasing danger from German forces pouring across the border. At first, it's merely the Nazi weinfuhrer coming to demand the choicest champagne for Hitler's cronies, but soon, there are rumors of Jewish townspeople being rounded up and sent east to an unspeakable fate. The war is on their doorstep, and no one in Ines's life is safe--least of all Sarah, whose father is Jewish, or Michel, who has recklessly begun hiding munitions for the Resistance in the champagne caves. Ines realizes she has to do something to help. Sarah feels as lost as Ines does, but she doesn't have much else in common with Michel's young wife. Ines seems to have it made, not least of all because as a Catholic, she's "safe." Sarah, on the other hand, is terrified about the fate of her parents--and about her own future as the Germans begin to rid the Champagne region of Jews. When Sarah makes a dangerous decision to follow her heart in a desperate bid to find some meaning in the ruin, it endangers the lives of all those she cares about--and the champagne house they've all worked so hard to save. In the present, Liv Kent has just lost her job--and her marriage. Her wealthy but aloof Grandma Edith, sensing that Liv needs a change of scenery before she hits rock bottom, insists that Liv accompany her on a trip to France. But the older woman has an ulterior motive--and some difficult but important information to share with her granddaughter. As Liv begins to uncover long-buried family secrets, she finds herself slowly coming back to life. When past and present intertwine at last, she may finally find a way forward, along a difficult road that leads straight to the winding caves beneath the House of Chauveau. Perfect for fans of Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale and Kate Quinn's The Alice Network, The Winemaker's Wife is an evocative and gorgeously wrought novel that examines how the choices we make in our darkest hours can profoundly change our lives--and how hope can come from the places we least expect"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Family secrets; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 2
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All we ever wanted : a novel / by Giffin, Emily,author.;
"The new novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of First comes love raises the daunting question: In the midst of a scandal that threatens a perfect life, how far are you willing to go to protect the ones you love? Nina Browning married a third-generation Nashvillian, enjoys a newly lavish lifestyle thanks to the sudden success of her husband's tech business, and has a son, Finch, who just got accepted to Princeton. Thomas Talone is a single dad, works multiple jobs and has a daughter, Lyla, who was recently accepted to Nashville's most prestigious private high school on a scholarship. They couldn't be prouder. Then scandal strikes, and the worlds of these very different families collide. Lyla passes out at a party, drunk and half-naked. Finch snaps a picture, types out a caption and click--sends it out to a few friends. The photo spreads quickly, and soon heated reactions bubble throughout the already-divided community. Before long, the families find themselves in the midst of an ethical war as their community takes sides, throws blame and implodes. The gray area between right and wrong grows thick, and Nina and Tom are forced to question every assumption they've held about love and family loyalty. Emily Giffin tells a riveting story of characters who face impossible choices--but emerge to live a life truer to themselves than they ever had before."--
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Psychological fiction.; Married women; Single fathers; Teenagers; Families; Rich people; Scandals;
Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 3
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Counting lost stars : a novel / by Alkemade, Kim van,author.;
"1960, New York City: College student Rita Klein is a pioneering woman in the new field of computer programming--until she unexpectedly becomes pregnant. At the Hudson Home for Unwed Mothers, social workers pressure her into surrendering her baby for adoption. Rita is struggling to get on with her life when she meets Jacob Nassy, a charming yet troubled man from the Netherlands who is traumatized by his childhood experience of being separated from his mother during the Holocaust. When Rita learns that Hitler's Final Solution was organized using Hollerith punch-card computers, she sets out to find the answers that will help Jacob heal. 1941, The Hague: Cornelia Vogel is working as a punch-card operator at the Ministry of Information when a census of Holland's population is ordered by the Germans. After the Ministry acquires a Hollerith computer made in America, Cornelia is tasked with translating its instructions from English into Dutch. She seeks help from her fascinating Jewish neighbor, Leah Blom, an unconventional young woman whose mother was born in New York. When Cornelia learns the census is being used to persecute Holland's Jews, she risks everything to help Leah escape. After Rita uncovers a connection between Cornelia Vogel and Jacob's mother, long-buried secrets come to light. Will shocking revelations tear them apart, or will learning the truth about the past enable Rita and Jacob to face the future together?"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Novels.; Dutch; Holocaust survivors; Jews; Mothers and sons; Unplanned pregnancy; Women college students; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 2
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Only the brave [text (large print)] : a novel / by Steel, Danielle,author.;
"Sophia Alexander, the beautiful daughter of a famous surgeon in Berlin, has had to grow up faster than most young women. When her mother falls ill, Sophia must take charge of her younger sister, Theresa, and look after her father and the household, while also volunteering at his hospital after school. Meanwhile, Hitler's rise to power and the violence in her very own town have Sophia concerned, but only her mother is willing to share her fears openly. After tragedy strikes and her mother dies, Sophia becomes increasingly involved in the resistance, attending meetings of dissidents and helping however she can. Circumstances become increasingly dangerous and personal when Sophia assists her sister's daring escape from Germany, fleeing Germany with her young husband and his family. Her father also begins to resist the regime, secretly healing those hiding from persecution, only to have his hospital burned to the ground. When he is arrested and sent to a concentration camp, Sophia is truly on her own, but more determined than ever to help. While working as a nurse with the convent nuns, the Sisters of Mercy, Sophia continues her harrowing efforts to transport Jewish children to safety and finds herself under surveillance. As the political tensions rise and the brutal oppression continues, Sophia is undeterred, risking it all, even her own freedom, as she rises to the challenge of helping those in need--no matter the cost."--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Domestic fiction.; Large print books.; Novels.; Anti-Nazi movement; Families; Fathers and daughters; Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); Man-woman relationships; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The trouble with you : a novel / by Feldman, Ellen,1941-author.;
"Set in New York City in the heady aftermath of World War II when the men were coming home, the women were exhaling in relief, and everyone was having babies, The Trouble With You is the story of a young woman whose rosy future is upended in a single instant. Raised never to step out of bounds, educated in one of the Sister Seven Colleges for a career as a wife and mother, torn between her cousin Mimi who is determined to keep her a "nice girl" - the kind that marries a doctor - and her aunt Rose who has a rebellious past of her own, Fanny struggles to raise her young daughter and forge a new life by sheer will and pluck. When she gets a job as a secretary to the "queen" of radio serials - never to be referred to as soaps - she discovers she likes working, and through her friendship with an actress who stars in the series and a man who writes them, comes face to face with the blacklist which is destroying careers and wrecking lives. Ultimately, Fanny must decide between playing it safe or doing what she knows is right in this vivid evocation of a world that seems at once light years away and strangely immediate"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Novels.; Blacklisting of authors; Nineteen fifties; Private secretaries; Single mothers; Widows;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The life and times of Hannah Crafts : the true story of The Bondwoman's Narrative / by Hecimovich, Gregg A.,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."A groundbreaking study of the first Black female novelist and her life as an enslaved woman, from the biographer who solved the mystery of her identity, with a preface by Henry Louis Gates Jr. In 1857, a woman escaped enslavement on a North Carolina plantation and fled to a farm in New York. In hiding, she worked on a manuscript that would make her famous long after her death. The novel, The Bondwoman's Narrative, was first published in 2002 to great acclaim, but the author's identity remained unknown. Over a decade later, Professor Gregg Hecimovich unraveled the mystery of the author's name and, in The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts, he finally tells her story. In this remarkable biography, Hecimovich identifies the novelist as Hannah Bond “Crafts.” She was not only the first known Black woman to compose a novel but also an extraordinarily gifted artist who honed her literary skills in direct opposition to a system designed to deny her every measure of humanity. After escaping to New York, the author forged a new identity--as Hannah Crafts--to make sense of a life fractured by slavery. Hecimovich establishes the case for authorship of The Bondwoman's Narrative by examining the lives of Hannah Crafts's friends and contemporaries, including the five enslaved women whose experiences form part of her narrative. By drawing on the lives of those she knew in slavery, Crafts summoned into her fiction people otherwise stolen from history. At once a detective story, a literary chase, and a cultural history, The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts discovers a tale of love, friendship, betrayal, and violence set against the backdrop of America's slide into Civil War."--
Subjects: Biographies.; Crafts, Hannah.; African American women novelists; Enslaved women; Fugitive slaves; Autobiographical fiction, American;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The daughter of Sherlock Holmes : a novel / by Goldberg, Leonard S.,author.;
"From USA Today and internationally bestselling author Leonard Goldberg comes a new thrilling tale of Sherlock Holmes' daughter and her companion Dr. John Watson, Jr. as they investigate a murder at the highest levels of British society. 1910. Joanna Blalock's keen mind and incredible insight lead her to become a highly-skilled nurse, one of the few professions that allow her to use her finely-tuned brain. But when she and her ten-year-old son witness a man fall to his death, apparently by suicide, they are visited by the elderly Dr. John Watson and his charming, handsome son, Dr. John Watson Jr. Impressed by her forensic and deductive skills, they invite her to become the third member of their deductive team. Caught up in a Holmesian mystery that spans from hidden treasure to the Second Afghan War of 1878-1880, Joanna and her companions must devise an ingenious plan to catch a murderer in the act while dodging familiar culprits, Scotland Yard, and members of the British aristocracy. Unbeknownst to her, Joanna harbors a mystery of her own. The product of a one-time assignation between the now dead Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler, the only woman to ever outwit the famous detective, Joanna has unwittingly inherited her parents' deductive genius. The daughter of Sherlock Holmes is full of excitement and intrigue, sure to be enjoyed by fans of Sherlock Holmes as well as the works of Laurie R. King and Charles Finch"--
Subjects: Detective and mystery fiction.; Blalock, Joanna (Fictitious character); Women private investigators; Murder;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Wandering souls : a novel / by Pin, Cecile,author.;
"A boldly imagined debut novel about three Vietnamese siblings who seek refuge in the UK, expanding into a luminous meditation on ancestry and love. After the last American troops leave Vietnam, siblings Anh, Thanh, and Minh begin a perilous journey to Hong Kong with the promise that their parents and younger siblings will soon follow. But when tragedy strikes, the three children are left orphaned, and sixteen-year-old Anh becomes the caretaker for her two younger brothers overnight. In the years that follow, Anh and her brothers resettle in the UK and confront their new identities as refugees, first in overcrowded camps and resettlement centers and then, later, in a modernizing London plagued by social inequality and raging anti-immigrant sentiment. Anh works in a clothing factory to pay their bills. Minh loiters about with fellow unemployed high school dropouts. Thanh, the youngest, plays soccer with his British friends after class. As they mature, each sibling reckons with survivor's guilt, unmoored by their parents' absence. With every choice they make, their paths diverge further, until it's unclear if love alone can keep them together. Told through lyrical narrative threads, historical research, voices from lost family, and notes by an unnamed narrator determined to chart their fate, Wandering Souls captures the lives of a family marked by war and loss yet relentless in the pursuit of a better future. With urgency and precision, it affirms that the most important stories are those we claim for ourselves, establishing Cecile Pin as a masterful new literary voice"--
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Psychological fiction.; Novels.; Families; Immigrants; Orphans; Siblings; Vietnamese;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Courtiers : intrigue, ambition, and the power players behind the House of Windsor / by Low, Valentine,author.;
Includes bibliographical references (pages 341-359) and index."Throughout history, the British monarchy has relied on its courtiers-the trusted advisers in the King or Queen's inner circle-to ensure its survival as a family and a pillar of the country. Today, as ever, a carefully selected team of people hidden from view steers the royal family's path between public duty and private life. Queen Elizabeth II, after a remarkable 70 years of service, saw the final seasons of her reign without her husband Philip to guide her. Now, a newly ascended Charles seeks to define what his future as King, and that of his court, will be. The question of who is entrusted to guide the royals has never been more vital. Yet, as the tensions within the family are exposed to global scrutiny like never before, the task these courtiers face has never been more challenging. With a dark cloud hanging over Prince Andrew as well as Harry and Meghan's controversial departure from royal life, William and Kate-equipped with a very 21st century approach to press and public relations-now hold the responsibility of making an ancient institution relevant for the decades to come. In fascinating and explosive detail, Valentine Low explores the previously unknown relationship between modern courtiers and the royal family. Courtiers pulls back the veil to reveal an ever-changing system of complex characters, shifting alliances, and a battle of ideas over what the future of the institution should be. This is the inside story of how the monarchy really works, at a pivotal moment in its history."--
Subjects: Charles III, King of Great Britain, 1948-; Elizabeth II, Queen of Great Britain, 1926-2022.; Windsor, House of.; Monarchy;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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