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A hitch in time : reflections ready for reconsideration / by Hitchens, Christopher,author.; Wolcott, James,1952-writer of introduction.;
"Christopher Hitchens was invariably a star writer everywhere he wrote, and the same was true of the London Review of Books, to which he contributed sixty pieces over two decades. Anthologised here for the first time, this selection of his finest LRB reviews, diaries and essays (along with a smattering of ferocious letters) finds Hitchens at his very best. Familiar betes noires-Kennedy, Nixon, Kissinger, Clinton-rub shoulders with lesser-known preoccupations: P.G. Wodehouse, Princess Margaret and, magisterially, Isaiah Berlin. Here is Hitchens on the (first) Gulf War and the 'Salman Rushdie Acid Test', on being spanked by Mrs Thatcher in the House of Lords and taking his son to the Oscars, on America's homegrown Nazis and 'Acts of Violence in Grosvenor Square' in 1968. Edited by the London Review of Books, with an introduction by James Wolcott, this collection recaptures, ten years after his death, 'a Hitch in time': barnstorming, cauterising, but ultimately uncontainable"--Publisher's description.
Subjects: Biographies.; Essays.; Personal narratives.; Hitchens, Christopher.; Hitchens, Christopher; Hitchens, Christopher; Books; Journalism.; Literature;

Death of an honest man [sound recording] / by Beaton, M. C.,author.; Malcolm, Graeme,narrator.; Hachette Audio (Firm),publisher.;
Read by Graeme Malcolm."Sergeant Hamish Macbeth--Scotland's most quick-witted but unambitious policeman--returns in M.C. Beaton's new mystery in her New York Times bestselling series. Nobody loves an honest man, or that was what police sergeant Hamish Macbeth tried to tell newcomer Paul English. Paul had moved to a house in Cnothan, a sour village on Hamish's beat. He attended church in Lochdubh. He told the minister, Mr. Wellington, that his sermons were boring. He told tweedy Mrs. Wellington that she was too fat and in these days of increasing obesity it was her duty to show a good example. Angela Brody was told her detective stories were pap for the masses and it was time she wrote literature instead. He accused Hamish of having dyed his fiery red hair. He told Jessie Currie--who repeated all the last words of her twin sister--that she needed psychiatric help. "I speak as I find," he bragged. Voices saying, "I could kill that man," could be heard from Lochdubh to Cnothan. And someone did. Now Hamish is faced with a bewildering array of suspects. And he's lost the services of his clumsy policeman, Charlie, who has resigned from the force after Chief Inspector Blair berated Charlie one too many times, and the policeman threw Blair into the loch. Can Hamish find the killer on his own?"--
Subjects: Detective and mystery fiction.; Audiobooks.; Macbeth, Hamish (Fictitious character); Murder; Police;

Tell me pleasant things about immortality : stories / by Wong, Lindsay,author.;
"From the bestselling, Canada Reads-shortlisted author of The Woo-Woo comes a wild, darkly hilarious, and poignant collection of immigrant horror stories. They'll haunt and consume you--in strange and unsettling ways. Living forever isn't everything it's cracked up to be. Hearts can still break, looks can still fade, and money still matters, even in eternity. The ghosts, zombies, and demons in this collection are all shockingly human, and they're ready to spill their guts. Vanity, love, and tragedy are all candidly explored as the unfulfilled desires of the dead are echoed in the lives of modern-day immigrants. Story-by-story, the line between ghost and human, life and death, becomes increasingly blurred. There's a courtesan from 17th century China who, try as she might, just can't manage to die. Grandmama Wu, who returns from the dead to protect her grandchildren from bullies. Not to mention an Internet-order bride who inadvertently brings the apocalypse to Nebraska City. From Shanghai to Vancouver, the women in this collection haunt and are haunted--by first loves, troublesome family members, and traumatic memories. Intertwining horror, the supernatural, and mythology, Tell Me Pleasant Things about Immortality riotously critiques contemporary life and fearlessly illuminates the ways in which the past can devour us. A collection about transformation and what makes us human, it solidifies Lindsay Wong as one of the most vital and electrifying voices in Canadian literature today."--
Subjects: Horror fiction.; Paranormal fiction.; Short stories.; Supernatural;

Lessons in magic and disaster / by Anders, Charlie Jane,author.;
"In the vein of Alice Hoffman and Charlie Jane Anders's own All the Birds in the Sky comes a novel full of love, disaster, and magic. A young witch teaches her mother how to do magic -- with very unexpected results -- in this relatable, resonant novel about family, identity, and the power of love. Jamie is basically your average New England academic in-training -- she has a strong queer relationship, an esoteric dissertation proposal, and inherited generational trauma. But she has one extraordinary secret: she's also a powerful witch. Serena, Jamie's mother, has been hiding from the world in an old one-room schoolhouse for several years, grieving the death of her wife and the simultaneous explosion in her professional life. All she has left are memories. Jamie's busy digging into a three-hundred-year-old magical book, but she still finds time to teach Serena to cast spells and help her come out of her shell. But Jamie doesn't know the whole story of what happened to her mom years ago, and those secrets are leading Serena down a destructive path. Now it's up to this grad student and literature nerd to understand the secrets behind this mysterious novel from 1749, unearth a long-buried scandal hinted therein, and learn the true nature of magic, before her mother ruins both of their lives"--
Subjects: Fantasy fiction.; Witch fiction.; Novels.; Witches; Mothers and daughters; Graduate students; Family secrets;

Wintering : the power of rest and retreat in difficult times / by May, Katherine,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."An intimate, revelatory book exploring the ways we can care for and repair ourselves when life knocks us down. Sometimes you slip through the cracks: unforeseen circumstances like an abrupt illness, the death of a loved one, a break up, or a job loss can derail a life. These periods of dislocation can be lonely and unexpected. For May, her husband fell ill, her son stopped attending school, and her own medical issues led her to leave a demanding job. Wintering explores how she not only endured this painful time, but embraced the singular opportunities it offered. A moving personal narrative shot through with lessons from literature, mythology, and the natural world, May's story offers instruction on the transformative power of rest and retreat. Illumination emerges from many sources: solstice celebrations and dormice hibernation, C.S. Lewis and Sylvia Plath, swimming in icy waters and sailing Arctic seas. Ultimately Wintering invites us to change how we relate to our own fallow times. May models an active acceptance of sadness and finds nourishment in deep retreat, joy in the hushed beauty of winter, and encouragement in understanding life as cyclical, not linear. A secular mystic, May forms a guiding philosophy for transforming the hardships that arise before the ushering in of a new season"--
Subjects: Nature, Healing power of.; Rest.; Self-acceptance.;

The fatal folio / by Penney, Elizabeth,author.;
"After moving to Cambridge, England, Molly Kimball has found a lot to love, including--of course--her family's ancestral bookshop, Thomas Marlowe--Manuscripts and Folios. And though she's not quite ready to use the "L" word when it comes to her boyfriend Kieran, she's definitely fallen for his intimidating family's library. His family is paying her handsomely for an updated catalog when Molly discovers the original manuscript of a Gothic novel, A Fatal Folio by the pseudonymous Selwyn Scott. Kieran's cousin Oliver, a professor specializing in Gothic literature, is eager to publish a paper on the mystery--especially because a troublesome student, Thad, is threatening to file a complaint against him and prevent his long-awaited promotion. On Guy Fawkes Night, Molly, Kieran, and her friends set out to enjoy the costumes, fireworks, and fun--at least until a stray firework starts a panic, and the group stumbles upon a prone body, their face covered by a mask. It's Thad, and he's been stabbed to death. It soon becomes clear Oliver isn't the only one with a motive, and Molly must once again put on a few masks of her own to sleuth out Thad's killer, prove Oliver's innocence, and discover what Selwyn's novel might have to do with this most atmospheric mystery ... "--
Subjects: Detective and mystery fiction.; Cozy mysteries.; Novels.; Bookstore owners; Manuscripts; Murder;

Orlando, My Political Biography. by B., Paul,film director.; The Criterion Collection (Firm),dst; Kanopy (Firm),dst;
Originally produced by The Criterion Collection in 2023.“Come, come! I’m sick to death of this particular self. I want another.” Taking Virginia Woolf’s novel Orlando: A Biography as his starting point, academic virtuoso turned filmmaker Paul B. Preciado fashioned the documentary ORLANDO, MY POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY—a personal essay, historical analysis, and social manifesto. For almost a century, Woolf’s eponymous hero(ine) has inspired readers with their gender fluidity as well as their physical and spiritual metamorphoses across a three-hundred-year span. In making his film, Preciado invited a diverse group of more than twenty trans and nonbinary people to play the role of Orlando and to participate in this shared biography. Together, they perform interpretations of the novel, weaving into Woolf’s narrative their own stories of transition and identity formation. Not content to simply update a groundbreaking work, Preciado interrogates the relevance of Orlando in the ongoing struggle to secure dignity for trans people worldwide.Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Subjects: Documentary films.; Literature.; Arts.; Social sciences.; Gender identity.; Homosexuality.; Documentary films.; LGBTQ.; Artists.;

James [text (large print)] : a novel / by Everett, Percival,author.; based on (work):Twain, Mark,1835-1910.Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.;
"From Percival Everett-a recipient of the NBCC Lifetime Achievement Award and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Booker Prize, and numerous PEN awards-comes James, a retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both harrowing and ferociously funny, told from the enslaved Jim's point of view. When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond. While many narrative set pieces of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remain in place (floods and storms, stumbling across both unexpected death and unexpected treasure in the myriad stopping points along the river's banks, encountering the scam artists posing as the Duke and Dauphin ... ), Jim's agency, intelligence and compassion are shown in a radically new light. Brimming with the electrifying humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a "cult literary icon" (Oprah Daily), and one of the most decorated writers of our lifetime, James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first century American literature"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Large print books.; Satirical literature.; Novels.; Finn, Huckleberry (Fictitious character); Fugitive slaves; Male friendship; Race relations; Runaway children;

The local : a legal thriller / by Hartstone, Joey,author.;
"A freewheeling, small-town attorney takes on a national murder trial when an out-of-town client is accused of killing a federal judge in Texas. In the town of Marshall sits the Federal courthouse of the Eastern District of Texas, a place revered by patent lawyers for its speedy jury trials and massive punitive payouts. Marshall is flooded with patent lawyers, all of whom find work being the local voice for the big-city legal teams that need to sway a small-town jury. One of the best is James Euchre. Euchre's new client is Amir Zawar, a firebrand CEO forced to defend his life's work against a software patent infringement. Late one night, after a heated confrontation in a preliminary hearing, Judge Gardner is found murdered in the courthouse parking lot. All signs point to Zawar-he has motive, he has opportunity, and he has no alibi. Moreover, he is an outsider, a wealthy Pakistani-American businessman, the son of immigrants, who stands accused of killing a beloved hometown hero. Zawar claims his innocence, and demands that Euchre defend him. It's the last thing Euchre wants-Judge Gardner was his good friend and mentor-but the only way he can get definitive answers is to take the case. With the help of a former prosecutor and a local PI, Euchre must navigate the byzantine world of criminal defense law in a town where everyone knows everyone, and bad blood has a long history. The deeper he digs, the more he fears that he'll either send an innocent man to death row or set a murderer free. The Local is a small-town legal thriller as big in scope as Texas. It crackles with courtroom tension and high stakes gambits on every page to the final, shocking verdict. Joey Hartstone is a film and television writer. He has written two feature films, LBJ (2016) and Shock and Awe (2017), which were both directed by Rob Reiner. He wrote on the first two seasons of the legal drama The Good Fight. He is currently a writer on the Showtime series Your Honor. Joey lives in Los Angeles with his family"--
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Legal fiction (Literature); Novels.; Judges; Lawyers; Murder; Trials (Murder);

James : a novel / by Everett, Percival,author.; based on (work):Twain, Mark,1835-1910.Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.;
"From Percival Everett-a recipient of the NBCC Lifetime Achievement Award and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Booker Prize, and numerous PEN awards-comes James, a retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both harrowing and ferociously funny, told from the enslaved Jim's point of view. When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond. While many narrative set pieces of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remain in place (floods and storms, stumbling across both unexpected death and unexpected treasure in the myriad stopping points along the river's banks, encountering the scam artists posing as the Duke and Dauphin ... ), Jim's agency, intelligence and compassion are shown in a radically new light. Brimming with the electrifying humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a "cult literary icon" (Oprah Daily), and one of the most decorated writers of our lifetime, James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first century American literature"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Satirical literature.; Novels.; Finn, Huckleberry (Fictitious character); Fugitive slaves; Male friendship; Race relations; Runaway children;