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-- One thousand years of joys and sorrows :2021., Adult, Bond Street Books Call No: Bio W4151 Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: In his widely anticipated memoir, Ai Weiwei--one of the world's most famous artists and activists--tells a century-long epic tale of China through the story of his own extraordinary life and the legacy of his father, Ai Qing, the nation's most celebrated poet. Hailed as "the most important artist working today" by the Financial Times and as "an eloquent and unsilenceable voice of freedom" by The New York Times, Ai Weiwei has written a sweeping memoir that presents a remarkable history of China over the last 100 years while illuminating his artistic process. Once an intimate of Mao Zedong, Ai Weiwei's father was branded a rightist during the Cultural Revolution, and he and his family were banished to a desolate place known as "Little Siberia," where Ai Qing was sentenced to hard labor cleaning public toilets. Ai Weiwei recounts his childhood in exile, and his difficult decision to leave his family to study art in America, where he befriended Allen Ginsberg and was inspired by Andy Warhol. With candor and wit, he details his return to China and his rise from artistic unknown to art world superstar and international human rights activist--and how his work has been shaped by living under a totalitarian regime. Ai Weiwei's sculptures and installations have been viewed by millions around the globe, and his architectural achievements include helping to design the iconic Bird's Nest Olympic Stadium in Beijing. His political activism has long made him a target of the Chinese authorities, which culminated in months of secret detention without charge in 2011. Here, for the first time, Ai Weiwei explores the origins of his exceptional creativity and passionate political beliefs through his own life story and that of his father, whose own creativity was stifled. At once ambitious and intimate, 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows offers a deep understanding of the myriad forces that have shaped modern China, and serves as a timely reminder of the urgent need to protect freedom of expression.
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c2009., Public Affairs Call No: BLK 960 D745a Edition: 1st ed. Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: In captivating prose, Dowden spins tales of cults and commerce in Senegal and traditional spirituality in Sierra Leone; analyzes the impact of oil and the Internet on Nigeria and aid on Sudan; and examines what has gone so badly wrong in Rwanda and the Congo.
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-- Kidnapping, crimes and trial of Patty Hearst2016., General, Doubleday Call No: 322.42092 T668a Edition: First edition. Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: "On February 4, 1974, Patty Hearst, a sophomore in college and heiress to the Hearst family fortune, was kidnapped by a ragtag group of self-styled revolutionaries calling itself the Symbionese Liberation Army. The already sensational story took the first of many incredible twists on April 3, when the group released a tape of Patty saying she had joined the SLA and had adopted the nom de guerre "Tania." The Hearst family tried to secure Patty's release by feeding all the people of Oakland and San Francisco for free. Bank security cameras captured "Tania" wielding a machine gun during a bank robbery. The story features a cast of characters including everyone from Bill Walton to the Black Panthers to Ronald Reagan to F. Lee Bailey; and the largest police shoot-out in American history. It was the first breaking news event to be broadcast live on television stations across the country. Patty's year on the lam, running from authorities; and her circuslike trial, filled with theatrical courtroom confrontations and a dramatic last-minute reversal, after which the term "Stockholm syndrome" entered the lexicon. The author thrillingly recounts the craziness of the times, the lunacy of the half-baked radicals of the SLA and the toxic mix of sex, politics, and violence that filled Patty Hearst's melodramatic trial. American Heiress examines the life of a young woman who suffered an unimaginable trauma and then made the stunning decision to join her captors' crusade. Or did she?"--Provided by publisher.
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2015., Talonbooks Call No: QWF Bio G132a Edition: Translated ed. Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: One of Canadaœs greatest literary figures reflects on life at the centre of Quebec literary arts. Re-examining the influences of her early life in a large, rural Catholic family, Madeleine Gagnon not only explores her rejection of unexamined values as part of her intellectual development but also her refusal to be categorized by her gender.Karl Marx replaced Paul Claudel in Gagnonœs intellectual pantheon. Psychoanalysis gave rise to the desire to write, and her first works poured out in a torrent. She describes the friendships that played such a large part in her life and the feminist battles of the time with all their hopes and disappointments. At the same time she casts a sharp eye on contemporary Quebec society, tracing the emergence of a distinct Canadian literature.This is an account of a life well lived, told with candour, wisdom, and an inextinguishable sense of wonder.
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c2014., Adult, St. Martin's Press Call No: Fic Arc Edition: 1st U.S. ed. Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Series Title: Clifton chronicles Volume: v. 4Summary Note: "Be Careful What You Wish For opens with Harry Clifton and his wife Emma rushing to learn the fate of their son Sebastian, who has been in a fatal car accident. But who died, Sebastian or his best friend? When Ross Buchanan is forced to resign as chairman of the Barrington Shipping Company, Emma Clifton wants to replace him. But Don Pedro Martinez intends to install his puppet, Alex Fisher, in order to destroy the Barrington family firm just as the company plans to build its new luxury liner. In London, Harry and Emma's daughter wins a scholarship to the Slade Academy of Art where she falls in love with Clive Bingham, who asks her to marry him. Both families are delighted until Jessica's future mother-in-law has a visit from a friend who drops her particular brand of poison into the wedding chalice. Then Cedric Hardcastle, a Yorkshireman who no one has come across before, takes his place on the board of Barringtons. This causes upheaval and will change the lives of every member of the Clifton and Barrington families. Hardcastle's first decision is who to support to become the chairman of the board: Emma Clifton or Alex Fisher? And with that the story takes yet another twist that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Be Careful What You Wish For showcases the master storyteller's talent as never before--when the Clifton and Barrington families march forward into the sixties in this epic tale of love, revenge, ambition and betrayal"--Publisher.
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c2002., Heinemann Call No: BLK 614.57 B628e Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Series Title: Social history of Africa
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2017., General, Chatto & Windus, an imprint of Vintage Call No: 945.09 M825b Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: Mussolini was not only ruthless, he was subtle and manipulative. Black-shirted thugs did his dirty work for him - arson, murder, destruction of homes and offices, bribes, intimidation and the forcible administration of castor oil. His opponents - including editors, publishers, union representatives, lawyers and judges - were beaten into submission. But the tide turned in 1924 when his assassins went too far, horror spread across Italy and twenty years of struggle began. Antifascist resistance was born and it would end only with Mussolini's death in 1945. Among those whose disgust hardened into bold and uncompromising resistance was a family from Florence - Amelia, Carlo and Nello Rosselli. A family driven by loyalty, duty and courage, yet susceptible to all the self-doubt and fear that humans are prey to. The lives of this remarkable family - their loves, their loyalties, their laughter and their ultimate sacrifice.
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2021., Soho Crime Call No: MYS Fic Mas Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Series Title: Perveen Mistry series Volume: 3Summary Note: November, 1921. Edward VIII, Prince of Wales and future ruler of India, is arriving in Bombay to begin a four-month tour. The Indian subcontinent is chafing under British rule, and Bombay solicitor Perveen Mistry isn't surprised when local unrest over the royal arrival spirals into riots. But she's horrified by the death of Freny Cuttingmaster, an eighteen-year-old female Parsi student, who falls from a second-floor gallery just as the prince's grand procession is passing by her college. Freny had come for a legal consultation just days before her death, and what she confided makes Perveen suspicious that her death was not an accident. Perveen, who strongly identified with Freny-another young Parsi woman fighting hard against the confines of society's rules and expectations-feels terribly guilty for failing to help her. Perveen steps forward to assist Freny's family in the fraught dealings of the coroner's inquest, and when Freny's death is ruled a murder, Perveen knows she can't rest until she sees justice done. But Bombay is erupting: as armed British secret service march the streets, rioters attack anyone with perceived British connections and desperate shopkeepers destroy their own wares so they will not be targets of racial violence. Can Perveen help a suffering family when her own is in danger?
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c2011., Oxford University Press Call No: 943.087 S542b Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: The building of the Berlin Wall in 1961 shocked the world. Ever since, the image of this impenetrable barrier has been a central symbol of the Cold War. Based on vast research in untapped archival, oral, and private sources, this book reveals the hidden origins of the Iron Curtain, presenting it in a startling new light. Historian Edith Sheffer's in-depth account focuses on the intersection between two sister cities, Sonneberg and Neustadt bei Coburg, Germany's largest divided population outside Berlin. Sheffer demonstrates that as Soviet and American forces occupied each city after the Second World War, townspeople who historically had much in common quickly formed opposing interests and identities. Sheffer describes how smuggling, kidnapping, rape, and killing in the early postwar years led citizens to demand greater border control on both sides--long before East Germany fortified its 1,393-kilometer border with West Germany. Indeed, Sheffer shows that the physical border was not simply imposed by Cold War superpowers, but was in some part an improvised outgrowth of an anxious postwar society.--From publisher description.
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-- Butler2014., Adult, Anchor Bay Entertainment Call No: BLK DVD Fic Butler Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: "Inspired by a true story, Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker stars as Cecil Gaines, the devoted husband, father and White House butler who served seven presidents during some of the most tumultuous and defining moments of the 20th century. Oprah Winfrey co-stars with a stellar supporting cast that includes John Cusack, Jane Fonda, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Terrence Howard, Lenny Kravitz, James Marsden, David Oyelowo, Alan Rickman, Liev Schreiber and Robin Williams in this powerful drama form the Oscar nominated director of Precious."--Container.
![The butler [DVD] (2013). Directed by Lee Daniels.](/Library/images/~imageCT76965.JPG "The butler [DVD] (2013). Directed by Lee Daniels.")
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2012, c2002., Adult, Penguin Books Call No: Bio W932c Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Series Title: Call the midwife Volume: bk. 1Summary Note: The Call the midwife trilogy is comprised of Call the midwife : a memoir of birth, joy, and hard times (this book), Shadows of the workhouse (c2005), and Farewell to the East End (c2009). Together, this series chronicles Jennifer Worth's career as a midwife from start to finish, from her arrival in the war-scarred Docklands as a wide-eyed trainee, to the demolition of the tenements and subsequent closure of Nonnatus House. It provides a fascinating snapshot of social history, documenting the East End in the days when there was a real sense of community, when times were tough but there was plenty of good humour and neighbourly support to help the inhabitants through the harsh economic climate.
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2014., General, Warner Home Video Call No: DVD Fic Call 3 Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Series Title: Call the midwife Volume: 3
![Call the midwife, season 3 [DVD] (2014). Directed by Philippa Lowthorpe. Season 3.](/Library/images/cover/noimage.png "Call the midwife, season 3 [DVD] (2014). Directed by Philippa Lowthorpe. Season 3.")
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-- Shadows of the workhouse[2013], c2005., Adult, Ecco/HarperCollins Call No: Bio W932c Edition: 1st U.S. ed. Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Series Title: Call the midwife Volume: bk. 2Summary Note: The Call the midwife trilogy is comprised of Call the midwife : a memoir of birth, joy, and hard times, (c2002), Shadows of the workhouse (this book, c2005), and Farewell to the East End (c2009). Together, this series chronicles Jennifer Worth's career as a midwife from start to finish, from her arrival in the war-scarred Docklands as a wide-eyed trainee, to the demolition of the tenements and subsequent closure of Nonnatus House. It provides a fascinating snapshot of social history, documenting the East End in the days when there was a real sense of community.
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-- Murder, mayhem, and the invention of the Great Gatsby2014., The Penguin Press Call No: 813.52 C563c Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: " Tracing the genesis of a masterpiece, a Fitzgerald scholar follows the novelist as he begins work on The Great Gatsby. The autumn of 1922 found F. Scott Fitzgerald at the height of his fame, days from turning twenty-six years old, and returning to New York for the publication of his fourth book, Tales of the Jazz Age. A spokesman for America's carefree younger generation, Fitzgerald found a home in the glamorous and reckless streets of New York. Here, in the final incredible months of 1922, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald drank and quarreled and partied amid financial scandals, literary milestones, car crashes, and celebrity disgraces. Yet the Fitzgeralds' triumphant return to New York coincided with another event: the discovery of a brutal double murder in nearby New Jersey, a crime made all the more horrible by the farce of a police investigation-which failed to accomplish anything beyond generating enormous publicity for the newfound celebrity participants. Proclaimed the "crime of the decade" even as its proceedings dragged on for years, the Mills-Hall murder has been wholly forgotten today. But the enormous impact of this bizarre crime can still be felt in The Great Gatsby, a novel Fitzgerald began planning that autumn of 1922 and whose plot he ultimately set within that fateful year. Careless People is a unique literary investigation: a gripping double narrative that combines a forensic search for clues to an unsolved crime and a quest for the roots of America's best loved novel. Overturning much of the received wisdom of the period, Careless People blends biography and history with lost newspaper accounts, letters, and newly discovered archival materials. With great wit and insight, acclaimed scholar of American literature Sarah Churchwell reconstructs the events of that pivotal autumn, revealing in the process new ways of thinking about Fitzgerald's masterpiece. Interweaving the biographical story of the Fitzgeralds with the unfolding investigation into the murder of Hall and Mills, Careless People is a thrilling combination of literary history and murder mystery, a mesmerizing journey into the dark heart of Jazz Age America"--Provided by publisher.
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-- Life, death, love, art, and scandal at Hollywood's Chateau Marmont.By Levy, Shawn.2019., Adult, Doubleday, a division of Penguin Random House LLC Call No: 647.94 L668c Edition: First edition. Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: An apartment house-turned-hotel, Chateau Marmont is perched above the Sunset Strip like a fairytale castle. The Chateau has welcomed the most iconic and iconoclastic personalities in film, music, and media. And much of what's happened inside the Chateau's walls has eluded the public eye-- until now. Levy recounts the wild revelries and scandalous liaisons, the creative breakthroughs and marital breakdowns, the births and deaths that the Chateau has been a party to. The result is a glittering tribute to Hollywood as seen from inside the walls of its most hallowed hotel.
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2017., General, St. Martin's Press Call No: 355 R221c Edition: First U.S. edition. Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: "Helen Rappaport's telling of the outbreak of the Russian Revolution through eye-witness accounts left by foreign nationals who saw the drama unfold. Between the first revolution in February 1917 and Lenin's Bolshevik coup in October, Petrograd (the former St. Petersburg) was in turmoil - felt nowhere more keenly than on the fashionable Nevsky Prospekt. There, the foreign visitors who filled hotels, clubs, bars and embassies were acutely aware of the chaos breaking out on their doorsteps and beneath their windows. Among this disparate group were journalists, diplomats, businessmen, bankers, governesses, volunteer nurses and expatriate socialites. Many kept diaries and wrote letters home: from an English nurse who had already survived the sinking of the Titanic; to the black valet of the US Ambassador, far from his native Deep South; to suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst, who had come to Petrograd to inspect the indomitable Women's Death Battalion led by Maria Bochkareva. Helen Rappaport is the author of The Romanov Sisters. She lives in West Dorset."--Provided by publisher.
