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The Air Raid Book Club : a novel / by Lyons, Annie,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."London, 1938: The bookstore just doesn't feel the same to Gertie Bingham ever since the death of her beloved husband Harry. Bingham Books was a dream they shared together, and without Harry, Gertie wonders if it's time to take her faithful old lab, Hemingway, and retire to the seaside. But fate has other plans for Gertie. In Germany, Hitler is on the rise, and Jewish families are making the heart-wrenching decision to send their children away from the growing turmoil. After a nudge from her dear friend Charles, Gertie decides to take in one of these refugees, a headstrong teenage girl named Hedy. Willful and fearless, Hedy reminds Gertie of herself at the same age, and shows her that she can't give up just yet. With the terrible threat of war on the horizon, the world needs people like Gertie Bingham and her bookshop. When the Blitz begins and bombs whistle overhead, Gertie and Hedy come up with the idea to start an air raid book club. Together with neighbors and bookstore customers, they hold lively discussions of everything from Winnie the Pooh to Wuthering Heights. After all, a good book can do wonders to bolster people's spirits, even in the most trying times. But even the best book can only provide a temporary escape, and as the tragic reality of the war hits home, the book club faces unimaginable losses. They will need all the strength of their stories and the bonds they've formed to see them through to brighter days"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Novels.; Book clubs (Discussion groups); Books and reading; Teenage refugees; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Take my hand / by Perkins-Valdez, Dolen,author.;
"Inspired by true events that rocked the nation, a profoundly moving novel about a Black nurse in post-segregation Alabama who blows the whistle on a terrible wrong done to her patients, from the New York Times bestselling author of Wench. Montgomery, Alabama, 1973. Fresh out of nursing school, Civil Townsend has big plans to make a difference, especially in her African American community. At the Montgomery Family Planning Clinic, she intends to help women make their own choices for their lives and bodies. But when her first week on the job takes her down a dusty country road to a worn-down one-room cabin, she's shocked to learn that her new patients, India and Erica, are children--just eleven and thirteen years old. Neither of the Williams sisters has even kissed a boy, but they are poor and Black, and for those handling the family's welfare benefits, that's reason enough to have the girls on birth control. As Civil grapples with her role, she takes India, Erica, and their family into her heart. Until one day she arrives at the door to learn the unthinkable has happened, and nothing will ever be the same for any of them. Decades later, with her daughter grown and a long career in her wake, Dr. Civil Townsend is ready to retire, to find her peace, and to leave the past behind. But there are people and stories that refuse to be forgotten. That must not be forgotten. Because history repeats what we don't remember"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Legal fiction (Literature); Novels.; African American women; Eugenics; Involuntary sterilization; Reproductive rights;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Deep river night / by Lane, Patrick,1939-author.;
"In the tradition of Cormac McCarthy, Russell Banks, Guy Vanderhaeghe, and Annie Proulx, this much-anticipated new novel by the bestselling author of Red Dog, Deep River Night is set over the course of 48 hours in a remote sawmill community where violence, complicity, and inaction run deep, and explores the burden of bearing witness to a terrible crime. World War Two vet Art Kenning is the alcoholic first-aid man in an isolated sawmill village in the interior of B.C., where he dreads the sound of the five whistles that summon him to the mill floor whenever a worker is hurt. Traumatized by an incident in Holland, when he stood by while members of his unit committed a horrific act, he loses himself in drink, and in memories of the love affair he had with a woman in wartime Paris. But the sad comfort of his self-imposed detachment is shattered when one of the most powerful men at the mill arrives at his door late one evening to ask for his help. What unfolds over the course of that night and following day will force Art to confront acts of evil, both in the present and the past, as well as the tragic consequences of his own inaction. Alternating with Art's story is that of Joel, a teenaged runaway who owes his life to Art, and Wang Po, the mill's cook and a survivor of the Rape of Nanjing. Through the eyes of this trio of outsiders, the reader is brought deep into a morally ambiguous world, revealing a place where the undercurrents of violence are never far from the surface."--
Subjects: Alcoholics; World War, 1939-1945; Sawmills;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Broken bone china / by Childs, Laura,author.;
It is Sunday afternoon, and Theodosia and Drayton are catering a formal tea at a hot-air balloon rally. The view aloft is not only stunning, they are also surrounded by a dozen other colorful hot-air balloons. But as the sky turns gray and the clouds start to boil up, a strange object zooms out of nowhere. It is a drone, and it appears to be buzzing around the balloons, checking them out. As Theodosia and Drayton watch, the drone, hovering like some angry, mechanized insect, deliberately crashes into the balloon next to them. An enormous, fiery explosion erupts, and everyone watches in horror as the balloon plummets to the earth, killing all three of its passengers. Sirens scream, first responders arrive, and Theodosia is interviewed by the police. During the interview she learns that one of the downed occupants was Don Kingsley, the CEO of a local software company, SyncSoft. Not only do the police suspect Kingsley as the primary target, they learn that he possessed a rare Revolutionary War Union Jack flag that several people were rabidly bidding on. Intrigued, Theodosia begins her own investigation. Was it the CEO's soon-to-be ex-wife, who is restoring an enormous mansion at no expense? The CEO's personal assistant, who also functioned as curator of his prized collection of Americana? Two rival antiques' dealers known for dirty dealing? Or was the killer the fiance of one of Theodosia's dear friends, who turns out to be an employee--and whistle-blower--at SyncSoft?
Subjects: Detective and mystery fiction.; Browning, Theodosia (Fictitious character); Women detectives; Murder; Tearooms; Tea trade; Hot air balloons; Detective and mystery stories; Drone aircraft;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The Air Raid Book Club [text (large print)] : a novel / by Lyons, Annie,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."London, 1938: The bookstore just doesn't feel the same to Gertie Bingham ever since the death of her beloved husband Harry. Bingham Books was a dream they shared together, and without Harry, Gertie wonders if it's time to take her faithful old lab, Hemingway, and retire to the seaside. But fate has other plans for Gertie. In Germany, Hitler is on the rise, and Jewish families are making the heart-wrenching decision to send their children away from the growing turmoil. After a nudge from her dear friend Charles, Gertie decides to take in one of these refugees, a headstrong teenage girl named Hedy. Willful and fearless, Hedy reminds Gertie of herself at the same age, and shows her that she can't give up just yet. With the terrible threat of war on the horizon, the world needs people like Gertie Bingham and her bookshop. When the Blitz begins and bombs whistle overhead, Gertie and Hedy come up with the idea to start an air raid book club. Together with neighbors and bookstore customers, they hold lively discussions of everything from Winnie the Pooh to Wuthering Heights. After all, a good book can do wonders to bolster people's spirits, even in the most trying times. But even the best book can only provide a temporary escape, and as the tragic reality of the war hits home, the book club faces unimaginable losses. They will need all the strength of their stories and the bonds they've formed to see them through to brighter days"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Large print books.; Novels.; Book clubs (Discussion groups); Books and reading; Teenage refugees; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Monday rent boy / by Doherty, Susan,1957-author.;
"Monday Rent Boy begins in Somerset, England, in the mid-1980s, with the winning and heart-warming story of two 13-year-old friends and fellow altar boys, Arthur Barnes and Ernie Castlefrank. Endearing outcasts, they try not to speak of the secret tie that binds them: both boys are routinely preyed on by The Zipper, their nickname for Father Ziperto, the local Catholic priest. Still, they find adventure and release in the mischief they get up to together, as each also tries to survive in other ways. Arthur, a great reader and denier of reality, finds an ally in town bookseller Marina Phillips, who sets him on a path that eventually takes him to university and away. Ernie, a gifted mathematician and animal lover, is not so lucky. As he and Arthur age out of the abuse, Ernie notices younger and equally vulnerable boys being recruited. When he tries to blow the whistle, nobody believes him. At 16, he disappears, a loss that almost destroys his best friend but also confirms for Arthur that he was smart to stay silent. Arthur eventually also turns his back on the mystery of Ernie's disappearance, but his bookselling mentor and friend Marina Phillips finds a way to follow Ernie where rage and betrayal has led him--into the darkest corners of the dark web--a search that ultimately helps Arthur reckon with what happened to them both. In the novel's stunning, deeply affecting conclusion, Doherty draws a line directly from the covered-up abuse of children by Catholic priests to the current proliferation of child pornography and predators online--miraculously revealing the true heart of darkness while managing to affirm the light."--
Subjects: Bildungsromans.; Psychological fiction.; Novels.; Child pornography; Child sexual abuse; Friendship; Male sexual abuse victims; Secrecy;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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War on peace : the end of diplomacy and the decline of American influence / by Farrow, Ronan,1987-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."A harrowing exploration of the collapse of American diplomacy and the abdication of global leadership. US foreign policy is undergoing a dire transformation, forever changing America's place in the world. Institutions of diplomacy and development are bleeding out after deep budget cuts; the diplomats who make America's deals and protect its citizens around the world are walking out in droves. Offices across the State Department sit empty, while abroad the military-industrial complex has assumed the work once undertaken by peacemakers. We're becoming a nation that shoots first and asks questions later. In an astonishing journey from the corridors of power in Washington, DC, to some of the most remote and dangerous places on earth--Afghanistan, Somalia, and North Korea among them--acclaimed investigative journalist Ronan Farrow illuminates one of the most consequential and poorly understood changes in American history. His firsthand experience as a former State Department official affords a personal look at some of the last standard bearers of traditional statecraft, including Richard Holbrooke, who made peace in Bosnia and died while trying to do so in Afghanistan. Drawing on newly unearthed documents, and richly informed by rare interviews with warlords, whistle-blowers, and policymakers--including every living secretary of state from Henry Kissinger to Hillary Clinton to Rex Tillerson--[this book] makes a powerful case for an endangered profession. Diplomacy, Farrow argues, has declined after decades of political cowardice, shortsightedness, and outright malice--but it may just offer America a way out of a world at war."--Dust jacket.
Subjects: United States. Department of State.; Diplomacy.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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On book banning / by Wells, Ira,1981-author.;
Includes bibliographical references."A lively, accessible survey of literary censorship through the ages. The freedom to read is under attack. There are, today, more efforts to ban books from libraries than ever before. The supposed "dangers" posed by books including The Handmaid's Tale, Gender Queer, Huckleberry Finn, and the works of Dr. Seuss ... leading children down a path of sexual deviance, or harming them with racist language or non-inclusive narratives ... fuel the puritanical zeal of De Santis Republicans and progressive educators alike. On Book Banning argues that today's culture warriors proceed from a misunderstanding of literature as instrumental to the pursuit of their ideological agendas. In treating libraries as sites of contagion and exposure, censors are warping our children's relationship with literature and teaching them that the solution to opposing viewpoints is cancellation or outright expurgation. On Book Banning provides a lively, accessible survey of literary censorship through the ages ... from the destruction of libraries in ancient Rome, to the Catholic Church's attempts to tamp down religious dissent and scientific innovation, to state-sponsored efforts to suppress LGBTQ literature in the 1980s and beyond. Throughout, Ira Wells demonstrates how today's book bans stem from the ineradicable human impulse toward social control. In a whistle-stop tour of landmark legal cases, literary controversies, and philosophical arguments, we discover that the freedom to read and publish is the aberration in human history, and that censorship and restriction have been the rule. At a moment in which our democratic institutions are buckling under the stress of polarization, On Book Banning is both rallying cry and guide to resistance for those who reject the conflation of art and propaganda, for whom books remain sacred vessels of our shared humanity, and who will always insist upon reading for ourselves."--
Subjects: Censorship.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Pain hustlers : crime and punishment at an opioid startup / by Hughes, Evan,1975-author.;
Includes bibliographical references."The blistering inside story of a startup that made millions pushing opioids--until its cutthroat tactics were exposed and its executives put behind bars. John Kapoor had amassed a small fortune in pharmaceuticals when he conceived of a new product. It was the 2000s, and opioids were big business. If Kapoor, an immigrant and the billionaire founder of Insys, could find a new way to administer the highly potent fentanyl, he could patent his invention and sell it to those in need--at a steep price. The only problem: There weren't enough people in need. Kapoor's drug was approved for breakthrough cancer pain. If Subsys was going to turn a profit, the company would need to persuade doctors to prescribe it 'off-label,' for other, lesser forms of pain. This is the story of how Insys turned a niche drug into big business. With executives leading the charge, Insys sales reps seduced doctors with charm, money, and sex. Its administrators lied to health care providers, claiming recipients had cancer when they did not. It pushed drugs onto patients that would have benefited from safer options, or no drugs at all. The strategy worked: When Insys went public, it notched the biggest IPO of its year. But several employees reached their limit and quietly blew the whistle, bringing the full force of the justice system upon the drug maker. In [Pain Hustlers], author and National Magazine Award-finalist Evan Hughes lays bare the pharma playbook. He shows how drug makers like Insys, fueled by greed and a hunger for market share, turn deception into profit. The book represents a stunning vindication, but also a cautionary tale. As Hughes shows, Insys didn't do anything its competitors weren't also doing. It was simply worse at covering its tracks."--
Subjects: Insys Therapeutics, Inc.; Advertising; Opioid abuse; Pharmaceutical industry; Pharmaceutical industry; Opioids;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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In the blood : how two outsiders solved a centuries-old medical mystery and took on the US Army / by Barber, Charles,1962-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."The incredible true story of how an absent-minded inventor and a down-on-his-luck salesman joined forces to create a once in a generation lifesaving product--and were persecuted for it by the U.S. Army. At the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu, dramatized by the popular film Black Hawk Down, the majority of soldiers who died bled to death before they could even reach an operating table. This tragedy reinforced the need for a revolutionary treatment that could transform trauma medicine. So, when Frank Hursey and Bart Gullong--who had no medical or military experience--discovered that a cheap, crushed rock called zeolite had blood clotting properties, they brought it to the military's attention. The Marines and the Navy adopted the resulting product, QuikClot, immediately. The Army, however, resisted. It had two products of its own being developed to prevent excessive bleeds, one of which had already cost eighty million dollars. The other, "Factor Seven," had a more dangerous complication: its side effects could be deadly. Unwilling to let its efforts end in failure--and led by the highly influential surgeon Major John Holcomb--the Army set out to smear the reputations of the inventors whose product, they claimed, had its own risk. Over the course of six years, Hursey and Gullong engaged in an epic struggle with Holcomb for recognition--until a whistle blower inside the Army exposed Holcomb's financial ties to the pharmaceutical company that produced Factor Seven, a discovery that led to a massive lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice. By withholding QuikClot--which would later become the medical miracle of the Iraq War--and using Factor Seven with its known, life threatening risks, Holcomb imperiled countless American lives. Using deep reportage and riveting prose, In the Blood recounts this little known David and Goliath story of corruption, greed, and power within the military--and the devastating, fatal consequences of unchecked institutional arrogance"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Gullong, Bart.; Hursey, Frank.; Hemorrhage; Medicine, Military; Surgical dressings; Wound treatment equipment industry;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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