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Vanderbilt : the rise and fall of an American dynasty / by Cooper, Anderson,author.; Howe, Katherine,1977-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.Anderson Cooper chronicles the rise and fall of a legendary American dynasty--his mother's family--the Vanderbilts. When eleven-year-old Cornelius Vanderbilt began to work on his father's small boat ferrying supplies in New York Harbor at the beginning of the nineteenth century, no one could have imagined that one day he would, through ruthlessness, cunning, and a pathological desire for money, build two empires-one in shipping and another in railroads-that would make him the richest man in America. His staggering fortune was fought over by his heirs after his death in 1877, sowing familial discord that would never fully heal. Though his son Billy doubled the money left by "the Commodore," subsequent generations competed to find new and ever more extraordinary ways of spending it. By 2018, when the last Vanderbilt was forced out of The Breakers-the seventy-room summer estate in Newport, Rhode Island, that Cornelius's grandson and namesake had built-the family would have been unrecognizable to the tycoon who started it all. Now, the Commodore's great-great-great-grandson Anderson Cooper, joins with historian Katherine Howe to explore the story of his legendary family and their outsized influence. Cooper and Howe breathe life into the ancestors who built the family's empire, basked in the Commodore's wealth, hosted lavish galas, and became synonymous with unfettered American capitalism and high society. Moving from the hardscrabble wharves of old Manhattan to the lavish drawing rooms of Gilded Age Fifth Avenue, from the ornate summer palaces of Newport to the courts of Europe, and all the way to modern-day New York, Cooper and Howe wryly recount the triumphs and tragedies of an American dynasty unlike any other. Written with a unique insider's viewpoint, this is a rollicking, quintessentially American history as remarkable as the family it so vividly captures.
Subjects: Biographies.; Vanderbilt family.; Vanderbilt, Cornelius, 1794-1877.; Vanderbilt, Cornelius, 1794-1877; Vanderbilt, Gloria, 1924-2019; Businessmen; Millionaires; Railroads; Rich people; Socialites; Steamboats; Upper class families; Upper class; Wealth;

Ripeness : a novel / by Moss, Sarah,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."Edith, just out of school, has been sent from her quiet English life to rural Italy. It is the 1960s, and her mother has issued strict instructions: tend to her sister, ballet dancer Lydia, in the final weeks of her scandalous pregnancy; help at the birth; make a phone call that will summon the nuns who will spirit the child away to a new home. Decades later, happily divorced, recently moved, and full of new energy, Edith has made a life of contentment and comfort in Ireland. Then her best friend Maebh receives a shocking phone call from an American man. He claims to be a brother she never knew existed: a child her mother gave up and never spoke of again. As Edith helps her friend reckon with this new idea of family and how it might change her life, her thoughts turn back to Lydia and her own fractured history. What did they give up when they sent him away? What kind of life has he been given? And how did it change their own lives? In Ripeness, Sarah Moss has again tapped into the questions that haunt us individually and as communities. Ripeness is an extraordinary novel about familial love and the bonds we forge across time, migration and new beginnings, and what it is to have somewhere to belong"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Domestic fiction.; Novels.; Belonging (Social psychology); English; English; Families; Interpersonal relations; Life change events; Sisters;

Marmee : a novel / by Miller, Sarah,author.; Based on (work):Alcott, Louisa May,1832-1888.Little women.;
Includes bibliographical references.In 1861, war is raging in the South, but in Concord, Massachusetts, Margaret March has her own battles to fight. With her husband serving as an army chaplain, the comfort and security of Margaret's four daughters-- Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy--now rest on her shoulders alone. Money is tight and every month, her husband sends less and less of his salary with no explanation. Worst of all, Margaret harbors the secret that these financial hardships are largely her fault, thanks to a disastrous mistake made over a decade ago which wiped out her family's fortune and snatched away her daughters' chances for the education they deserve. Yet even with all that weighs upon her, Margaret longs to do more--for the war effort, for the poor, for the cause of abolition, and most of all, for her daughters. Living by her watchwords, "Hope and keep busy," she fills her days with humdrum charity work to keep her worries at bay. All of that is interrupted when Margaret receives a telegram from the War Department, summoning her to her husband's bedside in Washington, D.C. While she is away, her daughter Beth falls dangerously ill, forcing Margaret to confront the possibility that the price of her own generosity toward others may be her daughter's life. A stunning portrait of the paragon of virtue known as Marmee, a wife left behind, a mother pushed to the brink, a woman with secrets.
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Novels.; Alcott, Louisa May, 1832-1888.; Families; March family (Fictitious characters); Mothers and daughters; Secrecy; Women;

Someone You Should Meet. by Chasnoff, Debra,film director.; Chasnoff, Salome,film director.; New Day Films (Firm),dst; Kanopy (Firm),dst;
Originally produced by New Day Films in 2024.SOMEONE YOU SHOULD MEET focuses on an extended family gathering organized by two filmmakers who only recently discovered they were related through their great-grandparents. As they explore their shared history and evolving Jewish identity over five generations, old wounds surface, and a sense of belonging is found.Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Subjects: Documentary films.; Social sciences.; Philosophy and religion.; Americans.; Foreign study.; Judaism.; Sociology.; Documentary films.; Ethnicity.; Current affairs.; Jews.; Families.; Jews--History.;

All that she carried : the journey of Ashley's sack, a Black family keepsake / by Miles, Tiya,1970-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Sitting in the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture is a rough cotton bag, called "Ashley's Sack," embroidered with just a handful of words that evoke a sweeping family story of loss and of love passed down through generations. In 1850s South Carolina, just before nine-year-old Ashley was sold, her mother, Rose, gave her a sack filled with just a few things as a token of her love. Decades later, Ashley's granddaughter, Ruth, embroidered this history on the bag -- including Rose's message that "It be filled with my Love always." Historian Tiya Miles carefully follows faint archival traces back to Charleston to find Rose in the kitchen where she may have packed the sack for Ashley. From Rose's last resourceful gift to her daughter, Miles then follows the paths their lives and the lives of so many like them took to write a unique, innovative history of the lived experience of slavery in the United States. The contents of the sack -- a tattered dress, handfuls of pecans, a braid of hair, "my Love always" -- speak volumes and open up a window on Rose and Ashley's world. As she follows Ashley's journey, Miles metaphorically "unpacks" the sack, deepening its emotional resonance and revealing the meanings and significance of everything it contained. These include the story of enslaved labor's role in the cotton trade and apparel crafts and the rougher cotton "negro cloth" that was left for enslaved people to wear; the role of the pecan in nutrition, survival, and southern culture; the significance of hair to Black women and of locks of hair in the nineteenth century; and an exploration of Black mothers' love and the place of emotion in history"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Ashley (Enslaved person in South Carolina); Middleton, Ruth Jones, 1903-1942; African American women; African American women; Enslaved persons; Enslaved women; Enslaved women; Memory; Mothers and daughters.;

The postcard / by Berest, Anne,1979-author.; Kover, Tina A.,translator.; translation of:Berest, Anne,1979-Carte postale.English.;
At once a gripping investigation into family secrets, a poignant tale of mothers and daughters, and an enthralling portrait of 20th century Parisian intellectual and artistic life, 'The Postcard' tells the story of a family devastated by the Holocaust and yet somehow restored by love and the power of storytelling. Perfect for readers of Kate Atkinson's 'Life After Life' and Anthony Doerr's 'All the Light We Cannot See'.
Subjects: Biographical fiction.; Domestic fiction.; Historical fiction.; Berest, Anne, 1979-; Anonymous letters; Exiles; Jewish families; Jews; World War, 1939-1945;

Wolf Hollow : a novel / by Wolk, Lauren,1956-;
"Twelve-year-old Annabelle must learn to stand up for what's right in the face of a manipulative and violent new bully who targets people Annabelle cares about, including a homeless World War I veteran"--Provided by publisher.LSC
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Conduct of life; Bullying; Homeless persons; Veterans; Families;

Village weavers : a novel / by Chancy, Myriam J. A.,1970-author.;
"From award-winning author Myriam J. A. Chancy comes an extraordinary and enduring story of two families forever joined by country-and by long-held secrets-and two girls with a bond that refuses to be broken. In 1940s' Port-au-Prince, Gertie and Sisi become fast childhood friends, despite being on opposite ends of the social and economic ladder. As young girls, they build their unlikely friendship-until a deathbed revelation ripples through their families and tears them apart. After Francois Duvalier's rule turns deadly in the 1950s, Sisi moves to Paris, while Gertie marries into a wealthy Dominican family. Across decades and continents, through personal successes and failures, they are parted and reunited, slowly learning the truth of their singular relationship. Finally, six decades later, with both women in the United States, a sudden phone call brings them back together once more to reckon with and forgive the past. Told with power and frankness, Village Weavers confronts the silences around class, race, and nationality; charts the moments when lives are irrevocably forced apart; and envisions two girls-connected their entire lives-who try to break inherited cycles of mistrust and find ways back into each other's hearts."--
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Novels.; Family secrets; Female friendship; Haitians; Social classes;

Daughters of the occupation : a novel / by Sanders, Shelly,1964-author.;
"Based on a true story, this is a powerful novel about a Jewish family who were victims of Nazi genocide in Latvia, one of the Baltic states. It is based on the little known, horrific Rumbula Massacre when 30,000 Jews were slaughtered in two days in 1941. In 1941, Miriam, the matriarch of the family, is the sole survivor of this horrendous massacre. She has had to make a 'Sophie's Choice' - and abandon her children to the care of a Gentile friend who hides them. She and her parents are rounded up and made to live in the Jewish Ghetto in Riga, the capital of Latvia. Miriam, along with thousands of other Jews, is forced marched to the execution pits. Incredibly, she manages to escape the carnage when night falls. Through a series of dramatic events, she finds sanctuary in the countryside - and manages to hide for three years to survive the war. Consumed by guilt, she is reunited finally with her daughter - but has lost her son. Thirty-five years later, living in Chicago with her family, Miriam's grand-daughter Sarah tries desperately to ferret out Miriam's family secret to find out what happened. Miriam does not want to revisit the past. But Sarah persists and eventually finds out enough to impel her to travel to Riga, then under Soviet control and at the height of the Cold War, to try to find her uncle, Miriam's lost son. But her search for the truth may threaten her freedom, when she comes face to face with the KGB. Told in alternating chapters between 1941 and 1976, this gripping novel delves into the trauma that survivors of genocide face down through the generations"--
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Historical fiction.; Novels.; Jewish families; Rumbula Massacre, Rumbula, Latvia, 1941; World War, 1939-1945;

Marmee [text (large print)] : a novel / by Miller, Sarah,author.; Based on (work):Alcott, Louisa May,1832-1888.Little women.;
Includes bibliographical references.In 1861, war is raging in the South, but in Concord, Massachusetts, Margaret March has her own battles to fight. With her husband serving as an army chaplain, the comfort and security of Margaret's four daughters-- Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy--now rest on her shoulders alone. Money is tight and every month, her husband sends less and less of his salary with no explanation. Worst of all, Margaret harbors the secret that these financial hardships are largely her fault, thanks to a disastrous mistake made over a decade ago which wiped out her family's fortune and snatched away her daughters' chances for the education they deserve. Yet even with all that weighs upon her, Margaret longs to do more--for the war effort, for the poor, for the cause of abolition, and most of all, for her daughters. Living by her watchwords, "Hope and keep busy," she fills her days with humdrum charity work to keep her worries at bay. All of that is interrupted when Margaret receives a telegram from the War Department, summoning her to her husband's bedside in Washington, D.C. While she is away, her daughter Beth falls dangerously ill, forcing Margaret to confront the possibility that the price of her own generosity toward others may be her daughter's life. A stunning portrait of the paragon of virtue known as Marmee, a wife left behind, a mother pushed to the brink, a woman with secrets.
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Large type books.; Novels.; Alcott, Louisa May, 1832-1888.; Families; March family (Fictitious characters); Mothers and daughters; Secrecy; Women;

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