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2020 National Book Award : Fiction
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Interior Chinatown : a novel
Summary:“From the infinitely inventive author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe comes a deeply personal novel about race, pop culture, assimilation, and escaping the roles we are forced to play.”
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Leave the world behind : a novel
Summary:“A magnetic novel about two families, strangers to each other, who are forced together on a long weekend gone terribly wrong.”
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A children’s bible : a novel
Summary:“An indelible and haunting new novel that explores the loss of childhood, intergenerational conflict, and humanity’s complacency in the face of its own demise. Lydia Millet’s multilayered new novel – her first since the National Book Award Longlist Sweet Lamb of Heaven — follows a group of children and their families on summer vacation at a lakeside mansion. The teenage narrator Eve and the other children are contemptuous of their parents, who spend the days and nights in drunken stupor. This tension heightens when a great storm arrives and throws the house and its residents into chaos.”
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The secret lives of church ladies
Summary:“The Secret Lives of Church Ladies explores the raw and tender places where black women and girls dare to follow their desires and pursue a momentary reprieve from being good. The nine stories in this collection feature four generations of characters grappling with who they want to be in the world, caught as they are between the church’s double standards and their own needs and passions.”
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Shuggie Bain : a novel
Summary:“Shuggie Bain is the unforgettable story of young Hugh “Shuggie” Bain, a sweet and lonely boy who spends his 1980s childhood in public housing in Glasgow, Scotland. Thatcher’s war on heavy industry has put husbands and sons out of work, and the city’s notorious drugs epidemic is waiting in the wings. Shuggie’s mother Agnes walks a wayward path: she is Shuggie’s guiding light but a burden for his artistic brother and practical sister. She dreams of a house with its own front door while she flicks through the pages of the Freemans catalogue, ordering a little happiness on credit, anything to brighten up her grey life.”
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The index of self-destructive acts
Summary:“The day Sam Waxworth arrives in New York to write for The Interviewer, a street-corner preacher declares that the world is coming to an end. A sports statistician, data journalist, and newly minted media celebrity who correctly forecasted every outcome of the 2008 election, Sam’s familiar with predicting the future. But when projection meets reality, things turn complicated.”
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The vanishing half
Summary:“The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it’s not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it’s everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Ten years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters’ storylines intersect? “
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If I had two wings : stories
Summary:“Ten heavenly stories that chronicle ineffable events in ordinary lives. When Randall Kenan’s first collection was published, The New York Times called it “nothing short of a wonder-book.” With comparable inventiveness but seasoned by maturity and shot through with humor, his second collection, If I Had Two Wings, riffs on the human relationship with the transcendent.”
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A burning
Summary:“After a fiery attack on a train leaves 104 people dead, the fates of three people become inextricably entangled. Jivan, a bright, striving woman from the slums looking for a way out of poverty, is wrongly accused of planning the attack because of a careless comment on Facebook. PT Sir, a slippery gym teacher from Jivan’s former high school, has hitched his aspirations to a rising right wing party, and his own ascent becomes increasingly linked to Jivan’s fall. Lovely, a spirited, impoverished, relentlessly optimistic hjira, who harbors dreams of becoming a Bollywood star, can provide the alibi that would set Jivan free–but her appearance in court will have unexpected consequences that will change the course of all of their lives.”
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The great offshore grounds : a novel
Summary:“On the day of their estranged father’s wedding, half-sisters Cheyenne and Livy set off to claim their inheritance. It’s been years since the two have seen each other. Cheyenne is newly back in Seattle, crashing with Livy after a failed marriage and a series of dead ends. Livy works refinishing boats, her resentment against her free-loading sister growing as she tamps down dreams of fishing off the coast of Alaska. But the promise of a shot at financial security brings the two together to claim what’s theirs. Except: instead of money, their father gives them information-a name-that both reveals a stunning secret and compels them to come to grips with it.”
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Transgender Awareness Month
Apsara engine
Summary:"In trans illustrator Bishakh Som’s debut work of fiction, questions of gender, the body, and existential conformity are explored over the course of eight speculative and graphic short stories"
Fairest : a memoir
Summary:"A heartrending immigrant memoir and a uniquely intersectional coming-of-age story of a life lived in duality and the in-between, and how one navigates through race, gender, and the search for love"
Tomorrow will be different : love, loss, and the fight for trans equality
Summary:"A captivating memoir that will change the way we look at identity and equality in this country. Before she became the first transgender person to speak at a national political convention in 2016 at the age of twenty-six, Sarah McBride struggled with the decision to come out–not just to her family but to the students of American University, where she was serving as student body president. She’d known she was a girl from her earliest memories, but it wasn’t until the Facebook post announcing her truth went viral that she realized just how much impact her story could have on the country. Four years later, McBride was one of the nation’s most prominent transgender activists, walking the halls of the White House, advocating inclusive legislation, and addressing the country in the midst of a heated presidential election. She had also found her first love and future husband, Andy, a trans man and fellow activist, who complemented her in every way … until cancer tragically intervened. Informative, heartbreaking, and profoundly empowering, Tomorrow Will Be Different is McBride’s story of love and loss and a powerful entry point into the LGBTQ community’s battle for equal rights and what it means to be openly transgender. From issues like bathroom access to health care to gender in America, McBride weaves the important political and cultural milestones into a personal journey that will open hearts and change minds. As McBride urges: ‘We must never be a country that says there’s only one way to love, only one way to look, and only one way to live.’ The fight for equality and freedom has only just begun."–Dust jacket.
Beyond trans : does gender matter?
Summary:Goes beyond transgender to question the need for gender classification. Beyond Trans pushes the conversation on gender identity to its limits: questioning the need for gender categories in the first place. Whether on birth certificates or college admissions applications or on bathroom doors, why do we need to mark people and places with sex categories? Do they serve a real purpose or are these places and forms just mechanisms of exclusion? Heath Fogg Davis offers an impassioned call to rethink the usefulness of dividing the world into not just Male and Female categories but even additional categories of Transgender and gender fluid. Davis, himself a transgender man, explores the underlying gender-enforcing policies and customs in American life that have led to transgender bathroom bills, college admissions controversies, and more, arguing that it is necessary for our society to take real steps to challenge the assumption that gender matters. He examines four areas where we need to re-think our sex-classification systems: sex-marked identity documents such as birth certificates, driver’s licenses and passports; sex-segregated public restrooms; single-sex colleges; and sex-segregated sports. Speaking from his own experience and drawing upon major cases of sex discrimination in the news and in the courts, Davis presents a persuasive case for challenging how individuals are classified according to sex and offers concrete recommendations for alleviating sex identity discrimination and sex-based disadvantage.
The house of impossible beauties
Summary:"A gritty and gorgeous debut that follows a cast of gay and transgender club kids navigating the Harlem ball scene of the 80s and 90s, inspired by the real House of Xtravaganza made famous by the seminal documentary "Paris is Burning""
Gumballs
Summary:"Gumballs dispenses an array of bright, candy-colored short comics about Erin’s gender transition, anecdotal tales of growing up as a triplet, and fictional stories of a socially inept lovestruck teenager named Tobias. The wide-ranging series is filled with single-page gag cartoons, visual diaries of everyday life, funny faux personal ads, and real-life horror stories from customers at his day job. Gumballs offers a variety of flavors that will surely delight anyone with a taste for candid self-reflection and observations of humanity"–Page [2] of cover.
Confessions of the fox : a novel
Summary:"Set in the eighteenth century London underworld, this bawdy, genre-bending novel reimagines the life of thief and jailbreaker Jack Sheppard to tell a profound story about gender, love, and liberation. Recently jilted and increasingly unhinged, Dr. Voth throws himself into his work, obsessively researching the life of Jack Sheppard, a legendary eighteenth century thief. No one knows Jack’s true story–his confessions have never been found. That is, until Dr. Voth discovers a mysterious stack of papers titled Confessions of the Fox. Dated 1724, the manuscript tells the story of an orphan named P. Sold into servitude at twelve, P struggles for years with her desire to live as "Jack." When P falls dizzyingly in love with Bess, a sex worker looking for freedom of her own, P begins to imagine a different life. Bess brings P into the London underworld where scamps and rogues clash with London’s newly established police force, queer subcultures thrive, and ominous threats of an oncoming plague abound. At last, P becomes Jack Sheppard, one of the most notorious–and most wanted–thieves in history. An imaginative retelling of Brecht’s Threepenny Opera, Confessions of the Fox blends high-spirited adventure, subversive history, and provocative wit to animate forgotten histories and the extraordinary characters hidden within."/span
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Joe Biden, President-Elect
Joe Biden : the life, the run, and what matters now
Summary:A portrayal of Joe Biden’s long and eventful career in the Senate, his eight years as Obama’s vice president, his sojourn in the political wilderness after being passed over for Hillary Clinton in 2016, his decision to challenge Donald Trump for the presidency, and his choice of Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate.
The book of Joe : the life, wit, and (sometimes accidental) wisdom of Joe Biden
Summary:Structured around key moments in Biden’s life and career–and filled with Biden-isms like "That’s a bunch of malarkey" and "I may be Irish, but I’m not stupid"–this blend of biography, advice, and humor will reveal the experiences that forged Joe Biden, and the lessons we can use in our own lives. Along the way, readers will also encounter fun sidebars on his love of muscle cars, his most endearing gaffes, his bromance with President Obama, and much more. The aviators. The Amtrak. The ice cream cones. The memes. Few politicians are as iconic, or as beloved, as Joe Biden. Now, in The Book of Joe, Biden fans will finally have the definitive look at America’s favorite vice president–and what he can teach us.
Promise me Dad : a year of hope, hardship, and purpose
Summary:The former vice-president of the United States chronicles the difficult final year of his son’s battle with cancer, his efforts to balance his responsibilities to the country and his family, and the lessons he learned.
Where the light enters : building a family, discovering myself
Summary:An intimate look at the love that built the Biden family and the delicate balancing act of the woman at its center.
Joey : the story of Joe Biden
Summary:The wife of former Vice President and presidential candidate Joe Biden recounts his childhood in Scranton, Pennsylvania, his perseverance and leadership from his earliest years, his struggles to overcome stuttering, his relationships with his family, and his political career.
Joe Biden : a life of trial and redemption
Summary:In the first definitive biography of Vice President Joe Biden, journalist Jules Witcover examines the life of a man who, with his tenacity, outspokenness, and charming smile, has shaped Washington politics for the past forty years and who now serves as the 47th vice president of the United States. Raised in working-class towns, with lackluster grades in school and no particular goals, Biden shocked the nation in 1972 when he became one of the youngest elected senators in U.S. history. From that point forward, he carved a legacy for himself as one of the most respected legislators in the country. Yet for all of Biden’s achievements, his life has been filled with tragedy and countless challenges. Drawing on numerous exclusive interviews, Witcover has gone beyond conventional biography to track the forces that have shaped a man who, with his plainspoken style and inspiring life story, has resonated with millions of Americans.–From publisher description.
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Kamala Harris, Vice President-Elect
The truths we hold : an American journey
Summary:"By reckoning with the big challenges we face together, drawing on the hard-won wisdom and insight from her own career and the work of those who have most inspired her, Kamala Harris offers in The Truths We Hold a master class in problem solving, in crisis management, and leadership in challenging times. Through the arc of her own life, on into the great work of our day, she communicates a vision of shared struggle, shared purpose, and shared values. In a book rich in many home truths, not least is that a relatively small number of people work very hard to convince a great many of us that we have less in common than we actually do, but it falls to us to look past them and get on with the good work of living our common truth. When we do, our shared effort will continue to sustain us and this great nation, now and in the years to come."
Kamala and Maya’s big idea
Summary:"One day, Kamala and Maya had an idea. A big idea: they would turn their empty apartment courtyard into a playground! Based on a true story, this is the uplifting tale of how the author’s aunt and mother first learned to persevere in the face of disappointment and turned a dream into reality. This is a story of children’s abillity to make a difference and of a community coming together to transform their neighborhood."–Jacket.
Kamala Harris : rooted in justice
Summary:"The first-ever picture book biography on Senator Kamala Harris."
Smart on crime : a career prosecutor’s plan to make us safer
Summary:Presents the author’s proposal for an overhaul of the American criminal justice system, discussing the necessary shifts to increase public safety, reduce costs, and strengthen community, while combatting crime intelligently.
Superheroes are everywhere
Summary:"Before Kamala Harris became a district attorney and a United States senator, she was a little girl who loved superheroes. And when she looked around, she was amazed to find them everywhere! In her family, among her friends, even down the street–there were superheroes wherever she looked. And those superheroes showed her that all you need to do to be a superhero is to be the best that you can be."–Publisher’s description.
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Jewish Book Month : Teens
In the neighborhood of true
Summary:In the very white, very Christian world of Atlanta society in 1958, New York transplant Ruth decides not to tell her new high school friends and boyfriend that she is Jewish, but when a violent act rocks the city, Ruth must figure out where her loyalties lie.
Recommended for you
Summary:Shoshanna Greenburg loves her job at the bookstore, Once Upon, until Jake Kaplan joins the staff, a handsome non-reader who challenges her for a bonus she needs.
Crying laughing
Summary:Winnie Friedman has been waiting for the world to catch on to what she already knows: she’s hilarious. It might be a long wait, though. After bombing a stand-up set at her own bat mitzvah, Winnie’s been keeping her jokes to herself. Well, herself and her dad, a former comedian and her inspiration. Then, on the second day of tenth grade, the funniest guy in school actually laughs at a comment she makes in the lunch line and asks her to join the improv troupe. Maybe he’s even flirting. Just when Winnie’s ready to say yes to comedy again, her father reveals he’s been diagnosed with ALS. That’s not funny. Her dad’s still making jokes, though, which seems like a good thing. And Winnie’s prepared to be his straight man if that’s what he wants. But is it what he needs? Caught up in a spiral of epically bad dates, bad news, and bad performances, Winnie’s struggling to see the humor in it all. But finding a way to laugh is exactly what will get her through.
It’s a whole spiel : love, latkes, and other Jewish stories
Summary:"From stories of confronting their relationships with Judaism to rom-coms with a side of bagels and lox, It’s a Whole Spiel features one story after another that says yes, we are Jewish, but we are also queer, and disabled, and creative, and political, and adventurous, and anything we want to be"
Summary:"From stories of confronting their relationships with Judaism to rom-coms with a side of bagels and lox, It’s a Whole Spiel features one story after another that says yes, we are Jewish, but we are also queer, and disabled, and creative, and political, and adventurous, and anything we want to be"
Today tonight tomorrow
Summary:"Throughout the years both Rowan and Neil have been at competition with one another on everything from who has the best ideas for school functions to which one will be their graduating class’s valedictorian. However, in the twenty-four hours left they have as high school students, the two learn they share something much deeper than a rivalry"
The Way Back
Summary:A historical fantasy that follows Eastern European teens Yehuda and Bluma on a journey through the Far Country, the Jewish land of the dead.
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Thanksgiving Picture Books
Thanks a million
Summary:What makes you thankful? A book? Weekends? Your family? How do you say thanks? With a flower? With a chocolate bar? With a surprise? In sixteen extraordinary poems that range in form from a haiku to a rebus to a riddle, Nikki Grimes reminds us how wonderful it is to feel thankful, and how powerful a simple "thank you" can be.
Thanksgiving is for giving thanks
Summary:A child lists all the things for which he is thankful, especially at Thanksgiving.
Duck for Turkey Day
Summary:When Tuyet finds out that her Vietnamese family is having duck rather than turkey for Thanksgiving dinner, she is upset until she finds out that other children in her class did not eat turkey either.
We are grateful : otsaliheliga
Summary:The word otsaliheliga (oh-jah-LEE-hay-lee-gah) is used by members of the Cherokee Nation to express gratitude. Beginning in the fall with the new year and ending in summer, follow a full Cherokee year of celebrations and experiences. Written by a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, this look at one group of Native Americans is appended with a glossary and the complete Cherokee syllabary, originally created by Sequoyah.
Pearl and Squirrel give thanks
Summary:Pearl the dog and her shy friend, Squirrel, find much to be thankful for while roaming their big city on Thanksgiving, but at day’s end, they have a reason for lasting gratitude.
Giving thanks : a Native American good morning message
Summary:"Giving Thanks is a special children’s version of the Thanksgiving Address, a message of gratitude that originated with the Native people of upstate New York and Canada and that is still spoken at ceremonial gatherings held by the Iroquois, or Six Nations."–Amazon.com.
Llama Llama gives thanks : an Anna Dewdney book
Summary:"It’s Thanksgiving time for Llama Llama and his family! That means yummy foods and autumn leaves and being thankful for everything from pumpkin pies to blue skies. Thanksgiving may only come once year, but in Llama’s family, giving thanks is always here!"–Amazon.com.
Thanks for Thanksgiving
Summary:At Thanksgiving time, children express their gratitude for the people and things in their lives.
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Commemorating Veterans Day
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The vanquished : why the First World War failed to end
Summary:Contains primary source material.,"An epic, groundbreaking account of the ethnic and state violence that followed the end of World War I– conflicts that would shape the course of the twentieth century. For the Western allies, November 11, 1918 has always been a solemn date– the end of fighting that had destroyed a generation, but also a vindication of a terrible sacrifice with the total collapse of the principal enemies: the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire. But for much of the rest of Europe this was a day with no meaning, as a continuing, nightmarish series of conflicts engulfed country after country. In The Vanquished, a highly original and gripping work of history, Robert Gerwarth asks us to think again about the true legacy of the First World War."–Provided by publisher.
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The First World War
Summary:The First World War created the modern world. A conflict of unprecedented ferocity, it abruptly ended the relative peace and prosperity of the Victorian era, unleashing such demons of the twentieth century as mechanized warfare and mass death. It also helped to usher in the ideas that have shaped our times–modernism in the arts, new approaches to psychology and medicine, radical thoughts about economics and society–and in so doing shattered the faith in rationalism and liberalism that had prevailed in Europe since the Enlightenment. With The First World War, John Keegan, one of our most eminent military historians, fulfills a lifelong ambition to write the definitive account of the Great War for our generation.
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With our backs to the wall : victory and defeat in 1918
Summary:Most histories of the Great War focus on the avoidability of its beginning. This book brings a laser-like focus to its ominous end–the Allies’ incomplete victory, and the tragic ramifications for world peace just two decades later.
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Hundred days : the campaign that ended World War I
Summary:“In the late summer of 1918, after four long years of senseless, stagnant fighting, the Western Front erupted. The bitter four-month struggle that ensued–known as the Hundred Days Campaign–saw some of the bloodiest and most ferocious combat of the Great War, as the Allies grimly worked to break the stalemate in the west and end the conflict that had decimated Europe. In Hundred Days, acclaimed military historian Nick Lloyd leads readers into the endgame of World War I, showing how the timely arrival of American men and materiel–as well as the bravery of French, British, and Commonwealth soldiers–helped to turn the tide on the Western Front.”
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The greatest day in history : how, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the First World War finally came to an end
Summary:Unlike 1945, the First World War did not end neatly with the unconditional surrender of the Germans. After a dramatic week of negotiations, military offensives and the beginning of a Communist revolution, the German Imperial regime collapsed. The Allies eventually granted an armistice to a new German government, and at eleventh hour on the 11th of November, the guns officially ceased fire, but only after 11,000 casualties had been sustained—almost as many as on D-Day. Nicholas Best tells the story in sweeping, cinematic style, revealing that events were far from pre-ordained. From the generals’ headquarters to the frontline trenches, from the factories to the farms, he reveals the twists and turns that led to the end of the Great War.
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Sons of freedom : the forgotten American soldiers who defeated Germany in World War I
Summary:“The heroic American contribution to World War I is one of the great stories of the twentieth century, and yet is largely overlooked by history. In Sons of Freedom, historian Geoffrey Wawro presents the dramatic narrative of the courageous American troops who took up arms in a conflict 4,000 miles across the Atlantic, and in doing so ensured the Allies’ victory. Historians have long dismissed the American war effort as too little too late: a delayed U.S. Army – although rich in manpower and matériel – fought a dismal, halting battle that was certainly not decisive nor even really necessary. Historians generally assign credit for the Allied victory to improved British and French tactics, the British blockade, and German exhaustion. But drawing on extensive research in US, British, French, German, and Austrian archives, Wawro contends that the Allies simply would not have won the war without the help of the Americans.”
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Memoir Writing Month
The dragons, the giant, the women : a memoir
Summary:"When Wayétu Moore turns five years old, her father and grandmother throw her a big birthday party at their home in Monrovia, Liberia, but all she can think about is how much she misses her mother, who is working and studying in faraway New York. Before she gets the reunion her father promised her, war breaks out in Liberia. The family is forced to flee their home on foot, walking and hiding for three weeks until they arrive in the village of Lai. Finally, a rebel soldier smuggles them across the border to Sierra Leone, reuniting the family and setting them off on yet another journey, this time to the United States." –Publisher’s description.
Memorial Drive : a daughter’s memoir
Summary:"At age nineteen, Natasha Trethewey had her world turned upside down when her former stepfather shot and killed her mother. Grieving and still new to adulthood, she confronted the twin pulls of life and death in the aftermath of unimaginable trauma and now explores the way this experience lastingly shaped the artist she became. With penetrating insight and a searing voice that moves from the wrenching to the elegiac, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natasha Trethewey explores this profound experience of pain, loss, and grief as an entry point into understanding the tragic course of her mother’s life and the way her own life has been shaped by a legacy of fierce love and resilience. Moving through her mother’s history in the deeply segregated South and through her own girlhood as a "child of miscegenation" in Mississippi, Trethewey plumbs her sense of dislocation and displacement in the lead-up to the harrowing crime that took place on Memorial Drive in Atlanta in 1985."–Amazon.
Unbowed : a memoir
Summary:"Maathai, the winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize and a single mother of three, recounts her life as a political activist, feminist, and environmentalist in Kenya. Born in a rural village in 1940, she was already an iconoclast as a child, determined to get an education even though most girls were uneducated. We see her become the first woman both in East and Central Africa to earn a PhD and to head a university department in Kenya. We witness her numerous run-ins with the brutal Moi government; the establishment, in 1977, of the Green Belt Movement, which spread from Kenya across Africa and which helps restore indigenous forests while assisting rural women by paying them to plant trees in their villages; and how her courage and determination helped transform Kenya’s government into the democracy in which she now serves.–From publisher description."
This is what America looks like : my journey from refugee to Congresswoman
Summary:"An intimate and rousing memoir by progressive trailblazer Ilhan Omar-the first African refugee, the first Somali-American, and one of the first Muslim women, elected to Congress. Ilhan Omar was only eight years old when war broke out in Somalia. The youngest of seven children, her mother had died while Ilhan was still a little girl. She was being raised by her father and grandfather when armed gunmen attacked their compound and the family decided to flee Mogadishu. They ended up in a refugee camp in Kenya, where Ilhan says she came to understand the deep meaning of hunger and death. Four years later, after a painstaking vetting process, her family achieved refugee status and arrived in Arlington, Virginia. Aged twelve, penniless, speaking only Somali and having missed out on years of schooling, Ilhan rolled up her sleeves, determined to find her American dream."
Men we reaped : a memoir
Summary:In five years, Jesmyn Ward lost five young men in her life–to drugs, accidents, suicide, and the bad luck that can follow people who live in poverty, particularly black men. Dealing with these losses, one after another, made Jesmyn ask the question: Why? And as she began to write about the experience of living through all the dying, she realized the truth–and it took her breath away. Her brother and her friends all died because of who they were and where they were from, because they lived with a history of racism and economic struggle that fostered drug addiction and the dissolution of family and relationships. Jesmyn grew up in poverty in rural Mississippi. She writes powerfully about the pressures this brings, on the men who can do no right and the women who stand in for family in a society where the men are often absent. She bravely tells her story, revisiting the agonizing losses of her only brother and her friends.
Hunger : a memoir of (my) body
Summary:"Gay has written … about food and bodies, using her own emotional and psychological struggles as a means of exploring our shared anxieties over pleasure, consumption, appearance, and health. As a woman who describes her own body as ‘wildly undisciplined,’ Roxane understands the tension between desire and denial, between self-comfort and self-care."
Once I was you : a memoir of love and hate in a torn America
Summary:"Emmy Award-winning NPR journalist Maria Hinojosa shares her personal story interwoven with American immigration policy’s coming-of-age journey at a time when our country’s branding went from "The Land of the Free" to "the land of invasion.""
The beauty in breaking : a memoir
Summary:"A series of connected personal stories drawn from the author’s life and work as an ER doctor that explores how we are all broken–physically, emotionally, and psychically–and what we can do to heal ourselves as we try to heal others."
More myself : a journey
Summary:"An intimate, revealing look at one artist’s journey from self-censorship to full expression As one of the most celebrated musicians of our time, Alicia Keys has enraptured the nation with her heartfelt lyrics, extraordinary vocal range, and soul-stirring piano compositions. Yet away from the spotlight, Alicia has grappled with
Thrills and Chills for Teens
Scream Site
Summary:Future investigative reporter Sabrina, fourteen, researches a popular website where people post horror videos, hoping to prove they are not as real as they seem until her sister, a big fan of the site, disappears.
This story is a lie
Summary:Seventeen-year-old mathematical genius Peter Blankman battles his lifelong panic attacks as he tries to find his missing twin sister, Bel, and those who nearly assassinated his mother, a famous scientist.
The sacrifice box
Summary:Sep, Arkle, Mack, Lamb and Hadley: five friends thrown together one hot, sultry summer. When they discover an ancient stone box hidden in the forest, they decide to each make a sacrifice: something special to them, committed to the box for ever. And they make a pact: never return to the box at night; never visit it alone; and never take back their offerings. Four years later, the gang have drifted apart. Then a series of strange and terrifying events take place, and Sep and his friends understand that one of them has broken the pact. As their sacrifices haunt them with increased violence and hunger, they realize that they are not the first children to have found the box in their town’s history. And ultimately, the box may want the greatest sacrifice of all: one of them.
Hidden pieces
Summary:After saving a man’s life, Embry Woods, seventeen, is considered a hero but someone begins blackmailing her for causing his near-death, forcing her to make choices that endanger her loved ones.
Girl at the grave
Summary:As a child, Valentine saw her mother murder the wealthiest man in their Connecticut town and then hang at the gallows. Neglected by her father, she’s learned to fend for herself, living in a crumbling estate that feels haunted by the past. Now a top student at Drake Academy, she’s determined to prove herself and overcome her mother’s crime. But like all small towns, Feavers Crossing has a stiflingly long memory, and when a new string of murders occurs, all signs point to the daughter of a killer as the most likely suspect. Outcast and isolated, Valentine finds an unlikely ally in Rowan Blackshaw, the son of the man her mother murdered all those years ago. Vowing to finally clear her family name, Valentine hunts for the real killer. Her search leads her to dangerously powerful families, the graveyard nestled behind her home, and even her own psyche – where must finally face the dark secrets hidden there.
Sadie
Summary:Told from the alternating perspectives of nineteen-year-old Sadie who runs away from her isolated small Colorado town to find her younger sister’s killer, and a true crime podcast exploring Sadie’s disappearance.
Shadow state
Summary:"What Brynn Caldwell can’t remember might get her killed. Brynn is a promising science student recovering from a major setback: Last year, a bad relationship sent her spiraling into depression. But as she puts the pieces of her life back together, a few don’t fit. Soon Brynn starts having flashbacks–hazy memories of being abducted and possibly brainwashed. It’s all connected to a wonder drug to treat PTSD that might actually be the ultimate weapon: a tool to control people’s memories. And Brynn can’t trust the people who know the truth–her best friend turned enemy, her genius scientist mother with a secret, and Brynn herself, whose memories might all be lies. Now, to stop a possible terrorist attack, Brynn has to uncover what she’s been forced to forget–and learn what side she’s really on. Elyse Brayden’s Shadow State is a pulse-pounding thriller that tackles homeland security, government conspiracy, and obsessive love, with a final-page plot twist you’ll never forget"–Jacket flap.
The fourth closet
Summary:"What really happened to Charlie? It’s the question that John can’t seem to shake, along with the nightmares of Charlie’s seeming death and miraculous reappearance. John just wants to forget the whole terrifying saga of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, but the past isn’t so easily buried.Meanwhile, there’s a new animatronic pizzeria opening in Hurricane, along with a new rash of kidnappings that feel all too familiar. Bound together by their childhood loss, John reluctantly teams up with Jessica, Marla, and Carlton to solve the case and find the missing children. Along the way, they’ll unravel the twisted mystery of what really happened to Charlie, and the haunting legacy of her father’s creations."–Page 4 of cover.
Like never and always
Summary:A car accident changes four lives forever. In the hospital, Liv is confused at being called Morgan, but when she looks in the mirror she sees Morgan’s face.
Contagion
Summary:After receiving a distress call from a drill team on a distant planet, a skeleton crew is sent into deep space to perform a standard search-and-rescue mission. When they arrive, they find the planet littered with the remains of the project–including its members’ dead bodies. As they try to piece together what could have possibly decimated an entire project, they discover that some things are best left buried–and some monsters are only too ready to awaken.
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Halloween Picture Books
The Hallo-wiener
Summary:All the other dogs make fun of Oscar the dachshund until one Halloween when, dressed as a hot dog, Oscar bravely rescues the others.
Click, clack, boo! : a tricky treat
Summary:Farmer Brown does not like Halloween, but the animals hold a Halloween party in his barn.
Minerva Louise on Halloween
Summary:On her first Halloween, Minerva Louise the hen puzzles over costumes but enjoys her first taste of candy corn.
Little Blue Truck’s Halloween : a lift-the-flap book
Summary:Little Blue Truck and his friend Toad pick up their animal friends for a Halloween costume party and attempt to guess the identities of the dressed-up passengers, in a story complemented by interactive lift-flaps.
Pick a pumpkin
Summary:"One of the most loved Halloween traditions is visiting a pumpkin patch and picking out the perfect pumpkin! Once you bring your pumpkin home, invite your friends and family to form a carving crew and help you turn that perfect pumpkin into–a grinning, glowing jack-o’-lantern! With vibrant, joyful art and a rhythmic, read-aloud text filled with the spirit of community and the thrills of the season, here is a celebration of every fun-filled step in creating the perfect jack-o’-lantern on Halloween night!"–Book jacket.
It’s raining bats & frogs
Summary:"What’s a witch to do when a rainstorm threatens the Halloween Parade? Make it fun, that’s what!"–Back cover
Five little monkeys trick-or-treat
Summary:When babysitter Lulu takes the five little monkeys trick-or-treating, they decide to change costumes with their friends and try to fool Lulu and their mother.
Los gatos black on Halloween
Summary:Easy to read, rhyming text about Halloween night incorporates Spanish words, from las brujas riding their broomsticks to los monstruos whose monstrous ball is interrupted by a true horror.
Stumpkin
Summary:Stumpkin is the most handsome pumpkin on the block. He’s as orange as a traffic cone! Twice as round as a basketball! He has no bad side! He’s perfect choice for a Halloween jack-o-lantern. There’s just one problem–Stumpkin has a stump, not a stem. And no one seems to want a stemless jack-o-lantern for their window. As Halloween night approaches, more and more of his fellow pumpkins leave, but poor Stumpkin remains. Will anyone give Stumpkin his chance to shine?
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