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A fire so wild : a novel / by Ruiz-Grossman, Sarah,author.;
"With the emotional echoes of Little Fires Everywhere and the lush atmosphere of Disappearing Earth, a riveting debut novel in which a wildfire creeps toward Berkeley, California, igniting tensions as characters from all walks of life confront the injustices growing beneath the city's surface. As a wildfire threatens Berkeley, the city's inhabitants are forced to reckon with the cracks in the lives they've built. Abigail, a wealthy white woman, decides to throw a lavish birthday in a hillside mansion to raise money for the city's newest affordable housing project-and prove to her family that she's made something worthwhile of her life. Sunny, a construction worker who sleeps in a van along the bay's shore, is in the running for an apartment in the complex-but only if enough funds are raised at the party to subsidize low-income rentals. As the heat and smoke from the approaching blaze descend upon the town, tensions rise and residents-young and old, haves and have nots-confront the inequities laid bare, and the fragility of building a life in a world on fire. Alternating among a colorful cast of characters, A Fire So Wild is a timely, tautly paced novel that questions why when everything burns, not everyone is left with scars"--
Subjects: Political fiction.; Psychological fiction.; Novels.; Interpersonal relations; Low-income housing; Wildfires;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Sunbelt blues : the failure of American housing / by Ross, Andrew,1956-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Today, a minimum-wage earner can afford a one-bedroom apartment in only 28 out of 3,140 counties in America. The single worst place in the United States to look for affordable housing is Osceola County, Florida. Once the main approach to Disney World, where vacationers found lodging on their way to the Magic Kingdom, the fifteen-mile Route 192 corridor in Osceola has become a site of shocking contrasts. At one end, absentee investors snatch up foreclosed properties to turn into extravagant vacation homes for affluent visitors, destroying affordable housing in the process. At the other, underpaid theme park workers, displaced families, and disabled and elderly people subsisting on government checks are technically homeless, living crammed into dilapidated, roach-infested motels or even in tent camps in the woods. Through visceral, frontline reporting from the motels and encampments dotting central Florida, renowned sociologist Andrew Ross exposes the overlooked housing crisis sweeping America's suburbs and rural areas, where residents suffer ongoing trauma, poverty, and nihilism. As millions of renters face down evictions and foreclosures in the midst of the COVID-19 recession, Andrew Ross reveals how ineffective government planning, property market speculation, and poverty wages have combined to create this catastrophe. Immersive and compassionate, Sunbelt Blues finds in Osceola County a bellwether for the future of homelessness in America"--
Subjects: Housing policy; Housing; Low-income housing; Real estate investment; Working poor;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The sunset route : freight trains, forgiveness, and freedom on the rails in the American West / by Quinn, Carrot,author.;
"After an abusive, neglected childhood spent on welfare and in and out of homelessness in Alaska, raised by a mother who believed she was the reincarnation of the Virgin Mary, Carrot Quinn moved out on her own. She found a sense of belonging with a bunch of straight-edge anarchists who taught her how to traverse the country by freight trains, sleep in fields under the stars, and find her food by foraging in dumpsters. Her new life was one of thrilling adventure and freedom, but still, the ghosts of her lonely and traumatic childhood continued to haunt her. The Sunset Route is a powerful and brazingly honest adventure memoir set in the unseen corners of the United States--in the unforgiving Alaskan tundra, on trains rattling through forests and deserts, as well as in low-income apartments and crowded punk houses--following a remarkable protagonist who has witnessed more tragedy than she thought she could ever hold and who must learn to heal her own heart. Ultimately, it is a meditation on the natural world as a spiritual anchor, revealing all the ways that forgiveness can set us free"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Quinn, Carrot.; Alternative lifestyles; Street children;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Evergreen / by Hirahara, Naomi,1962-author.;
Includes bibliographical references."Los Angeles, 1946: It's been two years since Aki Ito and her family were released from Manzanar detention center and resettled in Chicago with other Japanese Americans. Now the Itos have finally been allowed to return home to California--but nothing is as they left it. The entire Japanese American community is starting from scratch, with thousands of people living in dismal refugee camps while they struggle to find new houses and jobs in over-crowded Los Angeles. Aki is working as a nurse's aide at the Japanese Hospital in Boyle Heights when an elderly Issei man is admitted with suspicious injuries. When she seeks out his son, she is shocked to recognize her husband's best friend, Babe Watanabe. Could Babe be guilty of elder abuse? Only a few days later, Little Tokyo is rocked by a murder at the low-income hotel where the Watanabes have been staying. When the cops start sniffing around Aki's home, she begins to worry that the violence tearing through her community might threaten her family. What secrets have the Watanabes been hiding, and can Aki protect her husband from getting tangled up in their mess?"--
Subjects: Detective and mystery fiction.; Historical fiction.; Novels.; Communities; Japanese Americans; Murder; Secrecy;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Free the land : how we can fight poverty and climate chaos / by Lim, Audrea,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."An eye-opening examination of how treating land as a source of profit has a massive impact on racial inequality and the housing, gentrification, and environmental crises. Climate change, gentrification, racial discrimination, and corporate greed are some of the most urgent problems facing our society. They are traditionally treated as unrelated issues, but they all share a common root: the ownership of land. Environmental journalist Audrea Lim began to notice these connections when she reported on the Native communities leading the fight against oil drilling on their lands in the Canadian tar sands near her hometown of Calgary, but before long, she saw the essential role of land commodification and private ownership everywhere she looked: in foreclosure-racked suburbs and gentrifying cities like New York City; among poor, small farmers struggling to keep their businesses afloat; and in low-income communities attempting to resist mines and industrial development on their lands, only to find that their voices counted less than those of shareholders living thousands of miles away. Free the Land is a captivating and beautifully rendered look at the ways that our relationship to the land is the core cause of the most pressing justice issues in North America. Lim expertly weaves together seemingly disparate themes into a unified theory of social justice, describes how the land ownership system developed over the centuries, and presents original reporting from a wide range of activists and policy makers to illustrate the profound impact it continues to have on our society today. Ultimately, this book offers a message of hope: by approaching these socioeconomic issues holistically, we can begin to imagine just alternatives to fossil-fueled capitalism, new ways to build community, and a more sustainable, equitable world"--
Subjects: Climatic changes.; Land use; Race discrimination.;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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