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The world : a family history / by Sebag Montefiore, Simon,1965-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."From the acclaimed author of The Romanovs--a magisterial history of humanity viewed through the lens of its most powerful dynasties In this sprawling and eye-opening book, best-selling historian Simon Sebag Montefiore chronicles the world's great dynasties across human history through engrossing tales of palace intrigue, glorious battle, and the real lives of people who held unfathomable power. He trains his eye on founders of humble origin, like Sargon, the Mesopotamian cupbearer sent to help defeat a rival who returned with an army to dethrone his own king, and Liu Bang, a peasant who became a rebel leader and founded the Han dynasty. Montefiore illuminates the achievements of fearsome emperors, including Yax Ehb Xook, whose Mayan city-state Tikal boasts some of the most monumental ancient architecture that exists today; Jayavarman II, who proclaimed himself "universal king" and whose Khmer empire in South Asia heralded a thousand years of Indic ascendancy; and Ewuare, the African emperor who built a capital city that rivaled any in Europe. He writes, too, about remarkable women rulers, like Hatshepsut, the first female pharaoh, and Maria Theresa, the only woman to rule the Habsburg empire. These families represent the breadth of human endeavor, with bloody civil wars, treacherous conspiracies, and shocking megalomania alongside flourishing culture, moving romances, and enlightened benevolence. A dazzling epic history as spellbinding as fiction, The World is testament to Montefiore's acclaimed career as our poet laureate of power"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Kings and rulers; Royal houses; Upper class; World history;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The indomitable Florence Finch : the untold story of a war widow turned resistance fighter and savior of American POWs / by Mrazek, Robert J.,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."When Florence Finch died at the age of 101, few of her Ithaca, NY neighbors knew that this unassuming Filipina native was a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, whose courage and sacrifice were unsurpassed in the Pacific War against Japan. Long accustomed to keeping her secrets close in service of the Allies, she waited fifty years to reveal the story of those dramatic and harrowing days to her own children.Florence was an unlikely warrior. She relied on her own intelligence and fortitude to survive on her own from the age of seven, facing bigotry as a mixed-race mestiza with the dual heritage of her American serviceman father and Filipina mother. As the war drew ever closer to the Philippines, Florence fell in love with a dashing American naval intelligence agent, Charles "Bing" Smith. In the wake of Bing's sudden death in battle, Florence transformed from a mild-mannered young wife into a fervent resistance fighter. She conceived a bold plan to divert tons of precious fuel from the Japanese army, which was then sold on the black market to provide desperately needed medicine and food for hundreds of American POWs. In constant peril of arrest and execution, Florence fought to save others, even as the Japanese police closed in. With a wealth of original sources including taped interviews, personal journals, and unpublished memoirs, The Indomitable Florence Finch unfolds against the Bataan Death March, the fall of Corregidor, and the daily struggle to survive a brutal occupying force. Award-winning military historian and former Congressman Robert J. Mrazek brings to light this long-hidden American patriot. The Indomitable Florence Finch is the story of the transcendent bravery of a woman who belongs in America's pantheon of war heroes."--
Subjects: Biographies.; Finch, Florence Ebersole Smith, 1915-2017.; United States. Army. Forces, Far East; United States. Coast Guard. Women's Reserve; Prisoners of war; Prisoners of war; War widows; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The sinners all bow : two authors, one murder, and the real Hester Prynne / by Dawson, Kate Winkler,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."On a cold winter day in 1832, Sarah Cornell was found hanging in a barn, four months pregnant, after a disgraceful liaison with a charismatic Methodist minister, Reverend Ephraim Avery. Some (Avery's lawyers) claimed her death was suicide ... but others weren't so sure. Determined to uncover the real story, intrepid Victorian writer Catharine Williams threw herself into the investigation and wrote what many claim is the first American true-crime narrative, Fall River. The case and Williams' book became a sensation-one that divided the country and inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. But the reverend was not convicted, and questions linger to this day about what really led to Sarah Cornell's death. Until now. In The Sinners All Bow, acclaimed true-crime historian Kate Winkler Dawson travels back in time to 19th century small town America, emboldened to finish the work Williams started nearly two centuries before. Using modern investigative advancements-such as "forensic knot analysis" to determine cause of death, the prosecutor's notes from 1833, and criminal profiling which was invented 55 years later with Jack the Ripper-Dawson fills in the gaps of Williams' research to find the truth. Along the way she also examines how society decides who is the "right kind" of crime victim and how America's long history of religious evangelism may have clouded the facts both in the 1830s and today. Ultimately, The Sinners All Bow brings justice to an unsettling mystery that speaks to our past as well as our present, anchored by three women who subverted the script they were given"--
Subjects: True crime stories.; Avery, Ephraim K., 1799-1869.; Cornell, Sarah Maria, 1802-1832.; Williams, C. R. (Catherine Read), 1790-1872.; Criminal investigation.; Forensic sciences.; Murder; Murder;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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Checkpoint Charlie : the Cold War, the Berlin Wall, and the most dangerous place on earth / by MacGregor, Iain,author.;
Includes bibliographical references (pages 323-326) and index."Checkpoint Charlie is the story of the men and women - from both sides of the Cold War's political divide - who lived, served on, or escaped through the Berlin Wall during its life span (13th August 1961 - 9th November 1989). This physical monstrosity created by the East German communist state was to divide one of the most beautiful and by 1961, ruined cities of the world; dividing families, friends and lovers. Its creation, and its sudden collapse twenty-seven years later, were the key moments of the Cold War. Checkpoint Charlie was the one place in a paranoid continent where East faced West across one hundred yards of No Man's Land. Where soldiers served, spies watched through trained binoculars, escapees fled, politicians made speeches, people died and, mothers wept. The Wall was seen by many as permanent as the Himalayas. Across the Wall's almost three decades of existence, over two hundred people died trying to escape through it to the West, and these are just the recorded deaths. Many more who attempted and failed to break to freedom, would later die of their wounds in an East German hospital or prison. Historian Iain MacGregor travels to America, Britain, Germany and France to talk to the many people the Berlin Wall affected and who found themselves at the gates of Checkpoint Charlie - either on the Allied, or Soviet side. He interviews soldiers, politicians, journalists, spies, policemen, refugees and escapees to build a picture of what life was like in the city that was universally seen as the "hot spot" of the Cold War for four decades"--
Subjects: Berlin Wall, Berlin, Germany, 1961-1989; Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin, Germany, 1961-1989; Cold War;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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A Most Puzzling Murder A quirky, humorous locked room murder mystery with riddles and puzzles for the reader to solve [electronic resource] : by Marais, Bianca.aut; CloudLibrary;
How do you solve a murder that hasn't happened yet? Destiny Whip is a former child prodigy, world-renowned enigmatologist and very, very alone. A life filled with loss has made her a recluse, an existence she’s content to endure until a letter arrives inviting her to interview for the position of Scruffmore family historian. Not only does an internet search for the name yield almost nothing, it’s a role she never applied to in the first place! She decodes the invitation's hidden message with ease, and its promise to reveal her family secrets proves too powerful a draw for the orphaned Destiny, who soon finds herself on Eerie Island. It’s a place whose inhabitants are almost as inhospitable as the tempestuous weather. The Scruffmores themselves turn out to be not much better, a snarled mess of secrets and motives connected by their mistrust for one another. Their newly arrived guest proves to be just as much an enigma to them as they are to her. While Destiny slowly works to unravel the mysteries hidden throughout the ominous castle, she struggles to interpret disturbing nightly visions of what is to come. In the midst of cryptic ciphers, hidden passages, and the family’s magical line of succession, Destiny is certain of two things: one of the Scruffmores is going to die and she’s running out of time to stop it. Interspersed with riddles and puzzles that both Destiny and the reader must solve, A Most Puzzling Murder is a one-of-a-kind mystery that will leave you guessing and gasping until the very last page!  General adult.
Subjects: Electronic books.; Magical Realism; Amateur Sleuth; Contemporary Women;
© 2025., MIRA Books,
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Chastise : the Dambusters story 1943 / by Hastings, Max,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.A brand new history of the Dambusters raid from best-selling and critically acclaimed military historian, Max Hastings. Operation Chastise, the destruction of the Mohne and Eder dams in northwest Germany by the RAF's 617 Squadron on the night of 16/17 May 1943, was an epic that has passed into Britain's national legend. Max Hastings grew up embracing the story, the classic 1955 movie and the memory of Guy Gibson, the 24-year-old wing-commander who led the raid. In the 21st Century, however, he urges that we should see the dambusters in much more complex shades. The aircrew's heroism was entirely real, as was the brilliance of Barnes Wallis, inventor of the ‘bouncing bombs'. But commanders who promised their young fliers that success could shorten the war fantasised as ruthlessly as they did about the entire bomber offensive. Some 1,400 civilians perished in the biblical floods that swept through the Mohne valley, more than half of them Russian and Polish women, slave labourers. Hastings vividly describes the evolution of Wallis' bomb, and of the squadron which broke the dams. But he also portrays in harrowing detail those swept away by the torrents. He argues that what modern Germans call the Mohnekatastrophe imposed on the Nazi war machine temporary disruption, rather than a crippling blow. Ironically, Air Marshal Sir Arthur ‘Bomber' Harris gained much of the public credit, though he bitterly opposed Chastise as a distraction from his city-burning blitz. Harris also made perhaps the operation's biggest mistake-- failure to launch a conventional attack on the huge post-raid repair operation which could have transformed the impact of the dam breaches on Ruhr industry. Here once again is a dramatic retake on familiar history by a master of the art. Hastings sets the Dams Raid in the big picture of the bomber offensive and of the Second World War, with moving portraits of the young airmen, so many of whom died; of Barnes Wallis; the monstrous Harris; the tragic Guy Gibson, together with superb narrative of the action of one of the most extraordinary episodes in British history.
Subjects: Great Britain. Royal Air Force. Squadron, 617; Dams; Operation Chastise, 1943.; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Roma [videorecording] / by Aparicio, Yalitza,actor.; Autrey, Diego Cortina,actor.; Cuarón, Alfonso,film director,screenwriter.; Peralta, Carlos,actor.; Tavira, Marina de,actor.; Criterion Collection (Firm),publisher.; Esperanto Films (Firm),film producer.; Netflix (Firm),film producer,film distributor.; Participant Media,film producer.;
Yalitza Aparicio, Marina De Tavira, Diego Cortina Autrey, Carlos Peralta.With his eighth and most personal film, Alfonso Cuaron recreated the early 1970s Mexico City of his childhood, narrating a tumultuous period in the life of a middle-class family through the experiences of Cleo, the indigenous domestic worker who keeps the household running. Charged with the care of four small children abandoned by their father, Cleo tends to the family even as her own life is shaken by personal and political upheavals.Canadian Home Video Rating: 14A.MPAA Rating: R; for graphic nudity, some disturbing images, and language.DVD ; widescreen presentation ; Dolby Digital 5.1.
Subjects: Motion pictures, Mexican.; Foreign films.; Fiction films.; Feature films.; Video recordings for the hearing impaired.; Indigenous women; Women household employees;
For private home use only.
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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