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The book of thorns / by Fox, Hester,author.;
"Penniless and stranded in France after a bid to escape her cruel uncle goes awry, Cornelia Shaw is far from the Parisian life of leisure she imagined. Desperate and lacking options, she allows herself to be recruited to Napoleon's Grande Armée. As a naturalist, her near-magical ability to heal any wound with herbal mixtures invites awe amongst the soldiers ... and suspicion. For behind Cornelia's vast knowledge of the natural world is a secret she keeps hidden-the flowers speak to her through a mysterious connection she has felt since childhood. One that her mother taught her to heed, before she disappeared. Then, as Napoleon's army descends on Waterloo, the flowers sing to her of a startling revelation: a girl who bears a striking resemblance to Cornelia. A girl she almost remembers-her sister, lost long ago, who seems to share the same gifts. Determined to reunite with Lijsbeth despite being on opposite sides of the war, Cornelia is drawn into a whirlwind of betrayal, secrets, and lies. Brought together by fate and magic at the peak of the war, the sisters try to uncover the key to the source of the power that connects them as accusations of witchcraft swirl and threaten to destroy the very lives they've fought for."--Dust jacket flap.
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Magic realist fiction.; Novels.; Plants; Secrecy; Sisters; Waterloo, Battle of, Waterloo, Belgium, 1815; Women healers; Women naturalists;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Woman, watching : Louise de Kiriline Lawrence and the songbirds of Pimisi Bay / by Simonds, Merilyn,1949-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."From award-winning author Merilyn Simonds, a remarkable biography of an extraordinary woman -- a Swedish aristocrat who survived the Russian Revolution to become an internationally renowned naturalist, one of the first to track the mid-century decline of songbirds. Referred to as a Canadian Rachel Carson, Louise de Kiriline Lawrence lived and worked in an isolated log cabin near North Bay. After her husband was murdered by Bolsheviks, she refused her Swedish privilege and joined the Canadian Red Cross, visiting her northern Ontario patients by dogsled. When Elzire Dionne gave birth to five babies, Louise became nurse to the Dionne Quintuplets. Repulsed by the media circus, she retreated to her wilderness cabin, where she devoted herself to studying the birds that nested in her forest. Author of six books and scores of magazine stories, de Kiriline Lawrence and her "loghouse nest" became a Mecca for international ornithologists. Lawrence was an old woman when Merilyn Simonds moved into the woods not far away. Their paths crossed, sparking Simonds's lifelong interest. A dedicated birder, Simonds brings her own songbird experiences from Canadian nesting grounds and Mexican wintering grounds to this deeply researched, engaging portrait of a uniquely fascinating woman."--
Subjects: Biographies.; Lawrence, Louise de Kiriline, 1894-1992.; Naturalists; Ornithologists; Songbirds; Women naturalists;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Miss Benson's beetle : a novel / by Joyce, Rachel,author.;
"It is 1950. London is still reeling from World War II, and Margery Benson--a sensible schoolmarm and lonely spinster--is just trying to get through life. But one day, she reaches her breaking point, abandoning her job and her tidy, circumscribed life, to set out on an expedition to the other side of the world in search of an insect that may or may not exist: the golden beetle of New Caledonia, Margery's childhood obsession ever since her father gave her a book on cryptozoology right before he killed himself. The assistant Margery hires to accompany her, Enid Pretty, in her pink hat and pompom sandals, is not the companion she had in mind. But together they will find themselves drawn into an adventure that exceeds all expectations: a cross-ocean voyage to a remote island covered with dense jungle--the last place two proper British ladies would expect to find themselves. They must risk everything and break all the rules, but at the top of a mountain deep in the South Pacific they will discover their best selves. This is a charming, uplifting story about the power of belief in all its forms; it is an intoxicating adventure that explores what it means to be a woman; and it is a tender exploration of the transformative power of friendship"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Female friendship; Cryptozoology; Women naturalists; Women explorers; Paid companions (Household employees); Beetles; British; Nineteen fifties;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 2
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Normal women : 900 years of making history / by Gregory, Philippa,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.Did you know that there are more penises than women in the Bayeux Tapestry? That the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 was started and propelled by women who were protesting a tax on women? Or that celebrated naturalist Charles Darwin believed not just that women were inferior to men, but that they'd evolve to become ever more inferior? These are just a few of the startling findings you will learn from reading Philippa Gregory's "Normal Women". In this ambitious and groundbreaking book, she tells the story of England over nine hundred years, for the very first time placing women-some 50 percent of the population-center stage. Using research skills honed in her work as one of our foremost historical novelists, Gregory trawled through court records, newspapers, and journals to find highwaywomen and beggars, murderers and brides, housewives and pirates, female husbands and hermits. The "normal women" you will meet in these pages went to war, ploughed fields, campaigned, wrote, and loved. They rode in jousts, flew Spitfires, issued their own currency, and built ships, corn mills, and houses. They committed crimes, worshipped many gods, cooked and nursed, invented things, and rioted. A lot. A landmark of scholarship and storytelling, "Normal Women" chronicles centuries of social and cultural change-from 1066 to modern times-powered by the determination, persistence, and effectiveness of women.
Subjects: Women;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The economy of sparrows / by Herriot, Trevor,author.;
This debut novel by Trevor Herriot, one of Canada's foremost writer-naturalists, is the richly observed story of Nell Rowan, who has inherited her family's prairie farmstead and returned there to live after many decades away. Nell is increasingly obsessed by a 19th-century bird collector while haunted by memories of her mother's disappearance. Herriot lives in Regina, SK.
Subjects: Psychological fiction.; Novels.; Bird watching; Country life; Environmental responsibility; Inheritance and succession; Nature; Teenage girls; Women;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Where the crawdads sing [sound recording] / by Owens, Delia,author.; Campbell, Cassandra,narrator.; Penguin Audio (Firm),publisher.; Books on Tape, Inc.,publisher.;
Read by Cassandra Campbell."For years, rumors of the "Marsh Girl" have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. She's barefoot and wild; unfit for polite society. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark. But Kya is not what they say. Abandoned at age ten, she has survived on her own in the marsh that she calls home. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life lessons from the land, learning from the false signals of fireflies the real way of this world. But while she could have lived in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. Drawn to two young men from town, who are each intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world -- until the unthinkable happens."--
Subjects: Audiobooks.; Bildungsromans.; Young women; Solitude; Murder;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Where the crawdads sing / by Owens, Delia,author.;
"Fans of Barbara Kingsolver will love this stunning debut novel from a New York Times bestselling nature writer, about an unforgettable young woman determined to make her way in the wilds of North Carolina, and the two men that will break her isolation open. For years, rumors of the "Marsh Girl" have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. She's barefoot and wild; unfit for polite society. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark. But Kya is not what they say. Abandoned at age ten, she has survived on her own in the marsh that she calls home. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life lessons from the land, learning from the false signals of fireflies the real way of this world. But while she could have lived in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. Drawn to two young men from town, who are each intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world -- until the unthinkable happens. In Where the crawdads Sing, Owens juxtaposes an exquisite ode to the natural world against a heartbreaking coming of age story and a surprising murder investigation. Thought-provoking, wise, and deeply moving, Owens's debut novel reminds us that we are forever shaped by the children we once were, and that we are all subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps"--
Subjects: Bildungsromans.; Young women; Solitude; Murder;
Available copies: 3 / Total copies: 5
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