Author: Allende, Isabel author. Published: 2015 Call Number: F ALLENDE SPANISH Format: Books Summary: "A los veintidós años, sospechando que tenían el tiempo contado, Ichimei y Alma se atragantaron de amor para consumirlo entero, pero mientras más intentaban agotarlo, más imprudente era el deseo, y quien diga que todo fuego se apaga solo tarde o temprano, se equivoca: hay pasiones que son incendios hasta que las ahoga el destino de un zarpazo y aun así quedan brasas calientes listas para arder apenas se les da oxígeno."--P. [4] of cover.
Author: Hannaham, James, author. Published: 2015 Call Number: F HANNAHAM Format: Books Summary: "Held captive by her employers-and by her own demons-on a mysterious farm, a widow struggles to reunite with her young son in this uniquely American story of freedom, perseverance, and survival"-- "Darlene, once an exemplary wife and a loving mother to her young son, Eddie, finds herself devastated by the unforeseen death of her husband. Unable to cope with her grief, she turns to drugs, and quickly forms an addiction. One day she disappears without a trace. Unbeknownst to eleven-year-old Eddie, now left behind in a panic-stricken search for her, Darlene has been lured away with false promises of a good job and a rosy life. A shady company named Delicious Foods shuttles her to a remote farm, where she is held captive, performing hard labor in the fields to pay off the supposed debt for her food, lodging, and the constant stream of drugs the farm provides to her and the other unfortunates imprisoned there. In Delicious Foods, James Hannaham tells the gripping story of three unforgettable characters: a mother, her son, and the drug that threatens to destroy them. Through Darlene's haunted struggle to reunite with Eddie, through the efforts of both to triumph over those who would enslave them, and through the irreverent and mischievous voice of the drug that narrates Darlene's travails, Hannaham's daring and shape-shifting prose infuses this harrowing experience with grace and humor. The desperate circumstances that test the unshakeable bond between this mother and son unfold into myth, and Hannaham's treatment of their ordeal spills over with compassion. Along the way we experience a tale at once contemporary and historical that wrestles with timeless questions of love and freedom, forgiveness and redemption, tenacity and the will to survive"--
Author: Betts, Reginald Dwayne, 1980- author. Published: 2015 Call Number: 811.6 Format: Books Summary: This book "is a challenge, confronting realities that frame an America often made invisible. Within these poems, we see the city as distant lover, we hear the sound that comes from all / the hurt & want that leads a man to turn his back to the world. We see that and we see each reason why we return to what pains us"--
Author: Allen, Jeffery Renard, 1962- author. Johnson, Charles, 1948- writer of introduction. Published: 2015 2000 Call Number: F ALLEN Format: Books Summary: Rails Under My Back is an epic that tracks the interwoven lives of two brothers, Lucius and John Jones, who are married to two sisters, Gracie and Sheila McShan. For them, their parents, and their children, life is always full of departures; someone is always fleeing town and leaving the remaining family to suffer the often dramatic, sometimes tragic consequences. The multiple effects of the comings and goings are devastating: These are the almost mythic expression of the African American experience in the half century that followed the Second World War. The story ranges, as the characters do, from the city, which is somewhat like both New York and Chicago, to Memphis, to the West, and to many "inner" and "outer" locales. Rails Under My Back is a multifaceted, brilliantly colored, intensely musical novel that pulses with urgency and originality.--Back cover.
Author: Myers, Walter Dean, 1937-2014, author. Published: 2015 Call Number: MYERS Format: Books Summary: In Five Points, New York, in the 1840s, African American teenager William Henry "Juba" Lane works hard to achieve his dream of becoming a professional dancer but his real break comes when he is invited to perform in England. Based on the life of Master Juba; includes historical note.
Author: Burke, Marcus, author. Published: 2014 Call Number: F BURKE Format: Books Summary: Andre Battel, a native of Milton, south of Boston, gradually grows away from his Jamaican family, discovers genuine prowess on the basketball court, and eventually falls into dealing drugs for the local street gang. But when Andre and his crew fall behind on their payments, dire and violent consequences await.
Author: Burcaw, Shane. Published: 2014 Call Number: YB BURCAW Format: Books Summary: "With acerbic wit and a hilarious voice, Shane Burcaw describes the challenges he faces as a twenty-one-year-old with spinal muscular atrophy. From awkward handshakes to having a girlfriend and everything in between, Shane handles his situation with humor and a "you-only-live-once" perspective on life. While he does talk about everyday issues that are relatable to teens, he also offers an eye-opening perspective on what it is like to have a life threatening disease"--
Author: Childs, Laura, author. Published: 2014 2013 Call Number: PB CHILDS Format: Books Summary: Tea shop owner and bridesmaid Theodosia Browning investigates when the groom is literally late on the couples' big day.
Author: Mandela, Nelson, 1918-2013 Published: 2013 1994 Call Number: B MANDELA Format: Books Summary: Nelson Mandela is one of the great moral and political leaders of our time: an international hero whose lifelong dedication to the fight against racial oppression in South Africa won him the Nobel Peace Prize and the presidency of his country. Since his triumphant release in 1990 from more than a quarter-century of imprisonment, Mandela has been at the center of the most compelling and inspiring political drama in the world. As president of the African National Congress and head of South Africa's anti-apartheid movement, he was instrumental in moving the nation toward multiracial government and majority rule. He is revered everywhere as a vital force in the fight for human rights and racial equality. The foster son of a Thembu chief, Mandela was raised in the traditional, tribal culture of his ancestors, but at an early age learned the modern, inescapable reality of what came to be called apartheid, one of the most powerful and effective systems of oppression ever conceived. In classically elegant and engrossing prose, he tells of his early years as an impoverished student and law clerk in Johannesburg, of his slow political awakening, and of his pivotal role in the rebirth of a stagnant ANC and the formation of its Youth League in the 1950s. He describes the struggle to reconcile his political activity with his devotion to his family, the anguished breakup of his first marriage, and the painful separations from his children. He brings vividly to life the escalating political warfare in the fifties between the ANC and the government, culminating in his dramatic escapades as an underground leader and the notorious Rivonia Trial of 1964, at which he was sentenced to life imprisonment. Herecounts the surprisingly eventful twenty-seven years in prison and the complex, delicate negotiations that led both to his freedom and to the beginning of the end of apartheid. Finally he provides the ultimate inside account of the unforgettable events since his release that produced at last a free, multiracial democracy in South Africa. To millions of people around the world, Nelson Mandela stands, as no other living figure does, for the triumph of dignity and hope over despair and hatred, of self-discipline and love over persecution and evil.
Author: Ciotta, Beth, author. Published: 2013 Call Number: PB CIOTTA Format: Books Summary: Secret heiress Reagan Devereaux meets her match in pub owner Luke Monroe, but the two must settle their differences before they can learn to love.
Author: Williams, Juan, author. Published: 2013 Call Number: 323.1196 Format: Books Summary: This oral history of the first ten years of the Civil Rights movement is a tribute to the men and women, both black and white, who took part in the fight for justice and kept their eyes on the prize of freedom.
Author: Myers, Walter Dean, 1937-2014, author. Published: 2013 Call Number: FIC MYE Format: Books Summary: "Two best friends, a writer and a runner, deal with bullies, family issues, social pressures, and their quest for success coming out of Harlem"--
Author: Jackson, Mitchell S. Published: 2013 Call Number: F JACKSON Format: Books Summary: Mitchell S. Jackson grew up black in a neglected neighborhood in America's whitest city, Portland, Oregon. In the '90s, those streets and beyond had fallen under the shadow of crack cocaine and its familiar mayhem. In his commanding autobiographical novel, Mitchell writes what it was to come of age in that time and place, with a break-out voice that's nothing less than extraordinary."The Residue Years" switches between the perspectives of a young man, Champ, and his mother, Grace. Grace is just out of a drug treatment program, trying to stay clean and get her kids back. Champ is trying to do right by his mom and younger brothers, and dreams of reclaiming the only home he and his family have ever shared. But selling crack is the only sure way he knows to achieve his dream. In this world of few options and little opportunity, where love is your strength and your weakness, this family fights for family and against what tears one apart.
Author: Richards, Emilie, 1948- Published: 2012 Call Number: PB RICHARDS Format: Books Summary: "With nothing but brains, ambition and sheer nerve, Charlotte Hale built a career as a tough, do-anything-to-succeed real-estate developer. She's at the top of that mountain...but her life is empty. Her friends are as grasping and insincere as she has become. Far worse, she's alienated her family so completely that she's totally lost touch with her only daughter. One terrifying day, facing her own mortality, she realizes that her ambition has almost destroyed her chance at happiness. So Charlotte vows to make amends, not simply with her considerable wealth, but by offering a hand instead of a handout. Putting in hours and energy instead of putting in an appearance. Opening her home and heart instead of her wallet. With each wrenching, exhilarating decision, Charlotte finds that climbing a new mountain-one built on friendship, love and forgiveness-will teach her what it truly means to build a legacy."--P. [4] of cover.
Author: McCall, Guadalupe Garcia. Published: 2012 Call Number: Y MCCALL Format: Books Summary: In an adventure reminiscent of Homer's Odyssey, fifteen-year-old Odilia and her four younger sisters embark on a journey to return a dead man to his family in Mexico, aided by La Llorona, but impeded by a witch, a warlock, chupacabras, and more.
Author: Martin, Kat. Published: 2011 Call Number: PB MARTIN Format: Books Summary: Redheads like Maggie O'Connell are nothing but trouble. But Trace Rawlins, a former army ranger turned private investigator, takes the case anyway. After all, he knows a thing or two about women.
Author: Taboo, 1975- author. Dennis, Steve, author. Published: 2011 Call Number: B TABOO Format: Books Summary: Taboo, Grammy Award-winning founding member of the Black Eyed Peas, shares the inspiring story of his rise from the mean streets of East L.A. to the heights of international fame.--From publisher description.
Author: Vonnegut, Kurt author. Published: 2009 1969 Call Number: CL VONNEGUT Format: Books Summary: Billy Pilgrim returns home from the Second World War only to be kidnapped by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore, who teach him that time is an eternal present.
