Author: Solnit, Rebecca, author. Fernandez, Ana Teresa, 1980- photographer. Published: 2014 Call Number: 305.42 Format: Regular print Summary: In her comic, scathing essay "Men Explain Things to Me," Rebecca Solnit took on what often goes wrong in conversations between men and women. She wrote about men who wrongly assume they know things and wrongly assume women don't, about why this arises, and how this aspect of the gender wars works, airing some of her own hilariously awful encounters. She ends on a serious note-- because the ultimate problem is the silencing of women who have something to say, including those saying things like, "He's trying to kill me!" This updated edition of the book features that now-classic essay with others, including an examination of the great feminist writer Virginia Woolf 's embrace of mystery, of not knowing, of doubt and ambiguity, a highly original inquiry into marriage equality, and a terrifying survey of the scope of contemporary violence against women, Solnit's recent essay on the remarkable feminist conversation that arose in the wake of the 2014 Isla Vista killings.
Author: Simmons, Dan, 1948- author. Published: 2009 1989 Call Number: F SIMMONS Format: Books Summary: Three elderly friends with the power to feed off emotions generated during murders meet every year to discuss their game--an ongoing competition of mass murder and vampirism. Plunging into the darkest corners of 20th-century history, Simmons weaves fact with the fantastic to reveal a secret society of beings that may--or may not--exist behind the world's most horrible and violent events.
Author: Wouk, Herman, 1915-2019. Published: 1988 1959 Call Number: 296 Format: Books Summary: Offers an explanation of orthodox Judaism for the non-scholar, discussing the survival of the Jews, the faith, the sabbath, festivals, holy days, prayers and the synagogue, symbols, love and marriage, death, and other topics. A miracle of brevity, This Is My God guides readers through the world's oldest practicing religion with all the power, clarity, and wit of Wouk's celebrated novels.
Author: Bezos, Jeffrey, author. Isaacson, Walter, writer of introduction. Bezos, Jeffrey. It's all about the long term. Bezos, Jeffrey. Obsessions. Bezos, Jeffrey. Building for the long term. Published: 2021 Call Number: 658 BEZOS Format: Books Summary: A collection of writings by the founder and CEO of Amazon includes a selection of Bezos's unusual annual shareholder letters, speeches, and interviews that offer insight into his background, his professional approaches, and the evolutions of his ideas.
Author: Gryta, Thomas, author. Mann, Ted (Reporter), author. Published: 2020 Call Number: 338.7 Format: Books Summary: "How could General Electric--perhaps America's most iconic corporation--suffer such a swift and sudden fall from grace?"-- Since its founding in 1892, General Electric has been more than just a corporation: it was job security, a solidly safe investment, and an elite business education for top managers. GE electrified America, from lightbulbs to turbines, and became fully integrated into the American societal mindset as few companies ever had. And after two decades of leadership under legendary CEO Jack Welch, GE entered the twenty-first century as America's most valuable corporation. Gryta and Mann examine how Welch's handpicked successor, Jeff Immelt, tried to fix flaws in Welch's profit machine, while stumbling headlong into mistakes of his own. In doing so, they detail how one of America's all-time great companies has been reduced to a cautionary tale for our times. -- adapted from jacket
Author: Holland, James, 1970- author. Published: 2020 Call Number: 940.54 Format: Books Summary: "On July 10, 1943, the largest amphibious invasion ever mounted took place, larger even than the Normandy invasion eleven months later: 160,000 American, British, and Canadian troops came ashore or were parachuted onto Sicily, signaling the start of the campaign to defeat Nazi Germany on European soil. Operation HUSKY, as it was known, was enormously complex, involving dramatic battles on land, in the air, and at sea. Yet, despite its drama and its paramount importance to ultimate Allied victory, very little has been written about the 38-day battle for Sicily. Based on much new research, Sicily '43 offers vital new perspective on a major turning point in World War II. The characters involved-General George Patton and Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery among many-were as colorful as the battles across the scorching plains and above the peaks of Sicly were brutal. Among Holland's great skills is incorporating the experience of on-the-ground participants on all sides-from American colonel Jim Gavin, British major Hedley Verity, and Canadian lieutenant Farley Mowat to brigade commander Wilhelm Schmalz, Luftwaffe fighter pilot Johannes "Macky" Steinhoff, and Italian combatants, civilians, and mafiosi alike-giving readers an intimate sense of what occurred in July and August 1943. Emphasizing the significance of Allied air superiority, Holland overturns conventional narratives that have criticized the Sicily campaign for the slowness of the Allied advance and that so many German and Italian soldiers escaped to the mainland; rather, he shows that clearing the island in 38 days against geographical challenges and fierce resistance was an impressive achievement. A powerful and dramatic account by a master military historian, Sicily '43 fills a major gap in the narrative history of World War II"--
Author: Clark, Heather L., author. Published: 2020 Call Number: B PLATH Format: Books Summary: With a wealth of never-before-accessed materials--including unpublished letters and manuscripts; court, police, and psychiatric records; and new interviews--Heather Clark brings to life the brilliant daughter of Wellesley, Massachusetts who had poetic ambition from a very young age and was an accomplished, published writer of poems and stories even before she became a star English student at Smith College in the early 1950s. "An engrossing new biography of Sylvia Plath focuses on her remarkable literary and intellectual growth and achievement, restoring the vivid creative woman behind the longtime Plath myths perpetuated by a pathology-based approach to her life and art. With a wealth of never-before-accessed materials, Heather Clark here brings to life the brilliant daughter of Wellesley, MA who had poetic ambition from a very young age, and was an accomplished, published writer of poems and stories before she became the star English student at Smith College. Determined not to read Plath's work as if her every act, from childhood on, was a harbinger of her tragic fate, Clark presents new materials about Plath's scientist father, her juvenile writings, and her psychiatric treatment, and evokes a culture in transition in the mid-twentieth century, in the shadow of the atom bomb and the Holocaust, as she explores Sylvia's world: her early relationships and determination not to become a conventional woman and wife; her conflicted ties to her well-meaning, widowed mother; her troubles at the hands of an unenlightened mental health industry; her Cambridge years and thunderclap meeting with Ted Hughes, a marriage of true minds that would change the course of poetry in English; and much more. Clark's clear-eyed sympathy for Hughes, his lover Assia Wevill, and other demonized players in the arena of Plath's suicide promotes a deeper understanding of her final days, with their outpouring of first-rate poems. Along with illuminating readings of the poems themselves, Clark's meticulous, compassionate research brings us closer than ever to the spirited woman and visionary artist who blazed a trail that still lights the way for women poets the world over"--
Author: Berg, Elizabeth, author. Published: 2020 Call Number: B BERG Format: Books Summary: "For as long as Elizabeth can remember, she has watched her father trail after her mother, kissing her multiple times a day and holding her hand. She watched her mother smooth the lines in her father's face and pay attention to his every move, even when she was desperate for some time to herself. When her parents began to age, Elizabeth and her siblings are placed in the difficult position of taking over more and more supportive roles and tasks. They fix their parents' home, negotiate finances, eventually weather the back and forth of will they or won't they move into a nursing facility; finally they do. Berg gracefully takes readers through navigating the emotional and physical challenger of guiding parents through the final stages of life. In this touching and heart-warming memoir, Berg includes raw accounts of disagreements, encouraging stubborn parents, and dealing with her own heartache and loss. Berg confront both the realities of the situation and the brighter, happy, funny and endearing moments and memories"-- Berg's father was an Army veteran who was a tough man in every way but one: He showed a great deal of love and tenderness to his wife. Their marriage was a romance that lasted for nearly seventy years; Berg grew up watching her father kiss her mother upon leaving home, and kiss her again the instant he came back. When he developed Alzheimer's disease, Berg's parents were forced to leave the home they loved and move into a facility that could offer them help. She discusses how she and her siblings managed to parent the people who had for so long parented them. It was a hard transition, mitigated at least by flashes of humor and joy. -- adapted from jacket
Author: Weissmann, Andrew, author. Published: 2020 Call Number: 342.7307 Format: Books Summary: In May 2017, Robert Mueller was tapped to lead an inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, coordination by foreign agents with Donald Trump's campaign, and obstruction of justice by the president. Mueller assembled a "dream team" of top prosecutors, and for the next twenty-two months, the investigation was a black box and the subject of endless anticipation and speculation--until April 2019, when the special counsel's report was released. In Where Law Ends, legendary prosecutor Andrew Weissmann--a key player in the Special Counsel's Office--finally pulls back the curtain to reveal exactly what went on inside the investigation, including the heated debates, painful deliberations, and mistakes of the team--not to mention the external efforts by the president and Attorney General William Barr to manipulate the investigation to their political ends. Weissmann puts the reader in the room as Mueller's team made their most consequential decisions, such as whether to subpoena the president, whether to conduct a full financial investigation of Trump, and whether to explicitly recommend obstruction charges against him. Weissmann also details for the first time the debilitating effects that President Trump himself had on the investigation, through his dangling of pardons and his constant threats to shut down the inquiry and fire Mueller, which left the team racing against the clock and essentially fighting with one hand tied behind their backs. In Where Law Ends, Weissmann conjures the camaraderie and esprit de corps of the investigative units led by the enigmatic Mueller, a distinguished public servant who is revealed here, in a way we have never seen him before, as a manager, a colleague, and a very human presence. Weissmann is as candid about the team's mistakes as he is about its successes, and is committed to accurately documenting the historic investigation for future generations to assess and learn from. Ultimately, Where Law Ends is a story about a team of public servants, dedicated to the rule of law, tasked with investigating a president who did everything he could to stand in their way. In May 2017, Robert Mueller was tapped to lead an inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, coordination by foreign agents with Donald Trump's campaign, and obstruction of justice by the president. For the next twenty-two months the investigation was a black box and the subject of endless anticipation and speculation--until April 2019, when the special counsel's report was released. Weissmann-- a key player in the Special Counsel's Office-- pulls back the curtain to reveal exactly what went on inside the investigation, including the heated debates, painful deliberations, and mistakes of the team-- not to mention the external efforts by the president and Attorney General William Barr to manipulate the investigation to their political ends. -- adapted from jacket
Author: Kinsella, Sophie, author. Published: 2020 Call Number: LP F KINSELLA Format: Large print Summary: "Call Ava romantic, but she thinks love should be found in the real world, not on apps that filter men by height, job, or astrological sign. She believes in feelings, not algorithms. So after a recent breakup and dating app debacle, she decides to put love on hold and escapes to a remote writers' retreat in coastal Italy. She's determined to finish writing the novel she's been fantasizing about, even though it means leaving her close-knit group of friends and her precious dog, Harold, behind. At the retreat, she's not allowed to use her real name or reveal any personal information. When the neighboring martial arts retreat is canceled and a few of its attendees join their small writing community, Ava, now going by "Aria," meets "Dutch," a man who seems too good to be true. The two embark on a baggage-free, whirlwind love affair, cliff-jumping into gem-colored Mediterranean waters and exploring the splendor of the Italian coast--stretches of beaches, architectural wonders, aromas of olive groves and lemon trees, signature orecchiette pasta, and rainbow-colored houses that line the shore. Things seem to be perfect for Aria and Dutch. But then their real identities--Ava and Matt--must return to London. As their fantasy starts to fade, they discover just how different their personal worlds are. From food choices to annoying habits to sauna etiquette . . . are they compatible in anything? And then there's the prickly situation with Matt's ex-girlfriend, who isn't too eager to let him go. As one mishap follows another, it seems while they love each other, they just can't love each other's lives. Can they reconcile their differences to find one life together?" --
Author: Lehrer, Riva, 1958- author. Published: 2020 Call Number: B LEHRER Format: Books Summary: "What do we sacrifice in the pursuit of normalcy? And what becomes possible when we embrace monstrosity? In 1958, Riva is one of the first children born with spina bifida to survive. Her parents and doctors are determined to 'fix' her, sending the message over and over again that she is broken. That she will never have a job, a romantic relationship, or an independent life. Enduring countless medical interventions, Riva tries her best to be a good girl and a good patient in the quest to be cured. Everything changes when, as an adult, Riva is invited to join a group of artists, writers, and performers who are building Disability Culture. Their work is daring, edgy, funny, and dark; it rejects tropes that define disabled people as pathetic, frightening, or worthless. They insist that disability is an opportunity for creativity and resistance. Emboldened, Riva asks if she can paint their portraits--an intimate and collaborative process that will transform the way she sees herself, others, and the world. With each portrait, and each person's story, the myths she's been told her whole life--about her body, her sexuality, and the value of normalcy--begin to crumble. Written with the vivid, cinematic prose of a visual artist, and the love and playfulness that defines all of Riva's work, Golem Girl is an extraordinary story of survival and creativity. With the author's magnificent portraits featured throughout, this memoir invites us to stretch ourselves toward a world where bodies flow between all possible forms of what it is to be human"--
Author: Duncan, Elizabeth J., author. Published: 2020 Call Number: DUN Format: Books Summary: "The island of Anglesey off the coast of North Wales is the perfect place for an idyllic midsummer painting holiday. Penny Brannigan is enjoying the retreat enormously-- until she discovers the body of a New Zealand journalist on a secluded beach. The death is ruled accidental, but Penny discovers a link to a mysterious disappearance several years earlier." --Provided by publisher.
Author: Wood, Jake, 1983- author. Published: 2020 Call Number: B WOOD Format: Books Summary: "The powerful story of one Marine who found healing and renewed purpose after returning from combat, for himself and tens of thousands of fellow veterans. When Marine sniper Jake Wood came home in 2009 from grueling tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, his country asked yet more of him: to compartmentalize his traumatic memories, put his elite military training on a shelf, and adjust to living outside high-stakes situations. Jake feared he would join the huge population of veterans struggling to reintegrate. Since 2001, more service members have died by suicide than have been killed in Afghanistan. One activity helped Jake and his friend and fellow Marine Clay Hunt find a measure of hope: helping communities after disasters, where their training rendered them unusually effective in high-stakes situations. But as their new organization struggled to get off the ground and the VA tied up Clay's meds in red tape, Clay committed suicide. Reeling, Jake resolved to help as many disaster-affected communities and provide a mission to as many veterans as possible. Over the past 10 years, with no money or experience, he and his team have recruited over 100,000 volunteers to his organization Team Rubicon. It's established a reputation for delivering desperately needed aid faster and better than other organizations hindered by bureaucracy. Racing against the clock, veteran volunteers utilize their military training to untangle complex problems quickly and keep calm under pressure in catastrophic scenarios. What's more, Team Rubicon gives meaningful direction to men and women who need the disaster response work as much as the work needs them. Having a continued purpose--a mission that matters--can be the key to a veteran's successful transition from war to peace"--
Author: Kissileff, Beth, editor. Lidji, Eric, editor. Published: 2020 Call Number: 364.152 Format: Books Summary: "On October 27, 2018, three congregations were holding their morning Shabbat services at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill neighborhood when a lone gunman entered the building and opened fire. He killed eleven people and injured six more in the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in American history. The story made national headlines for weeks following the shooting, but Pittsburgh and the local Jewish community could not simply move on when the news cycle did. The essays in this anthology, written by local journalists, academics, rabbis, and other community members, reveal a city's attempts to cope, make sense of, and come to terms with an unfathomable horror. Here, members from the three impacted congregations are able to reflect on their experiences in a raw, profound way. Local reporters who wrote about the event professionally contribute stories that they were unable to articulate until now. Activists consider their work at a calm distance from the chaotic intensity of their daily efforts. Academics mesh their professional expertise with their personal experiences of this shattering event in their hometown. Rabbis share their process of crafting comforting messages for their constituents when they themselves felt hopeless. By bringing local voices together into a chorus, they are raised over the din of national and international chroniclers who offer important contributions but do not and cannot feel the intensity of this tragedy in the same way as locals. The essays in this anthology tell a collective story of city shaken to its very core, but determined that love will ultimately win. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of this book will go to Jewish Family and Community Service of Pittsburgh." --
Author: Tablet Magazine (Firm), editor. Published: 2020 Call Number: 296.4 Format: Books Summary: "Every year, Jews, and the folks who love them, gather around the Seder table with family and friends to read from the Haggadah, the story of Jewish ancestors who were enslaved in Egypt and their journey to freedom. It's a time not only to remember the past but also to make the Seder experience relevant, relatable, and personal, incorporating new and up-to-date interpretations and interests. It doesn't matter if you've read the entire Talmud ten times in Aramaic or if your religious education consists of a few episodes of Seinfeld-The Passover Haggadah is for everyone. It's about making the Seder experience one's own. Ask the Four Questions in Hebrew or English. Learn about the Ten Plagues and "The Modern Ten Plagues" as told by Jonathan Adler and Simon Doonan. Other contributions include "My Big Gay Seder Wedding" by Wayne Hoffman, Tablet's executive editor, and "The Blessings of an Interfaith Passover" by Molly Yeh, award-winning food blogger. Sing "Dayenu" together and take turns answering the question "What do you have in your life that, if you had nothing else, would be enough?" Encouraging messages can be found throughout the book, including a very important one that follows the second cup of wine, which is "Take a big, happy sip. Food is nearly at hand." Original illustrations round out this beautiful package. From start to finish, the Seder is a joyful gathering that will only be enhanced by this special keepsake"--Provided by publisher.
Author: Amis, Martin, author. Published: 2020 Call Number: F AMIS Format: Books Summary: "From one of the most highly acclaimed writers at work today: his most intimate and epic work yet--an autobiographical novel of sex and love, family and friendship. Inside Story had its birth in the death of Martin Amis's closest friend, the incomparable Christopher Hitchens, and it is within that profound and sprawling friendship that the novel unfurls. From their early days as young magazine staffers in London, reviewing romantic entanglements and the latest literary gossip (not to mention ideas, books, and where to lunch), Hitchens was Martin's wingman and adviser, especially in the matter of the alluringly amoral Phoebe Phelps--an obsession Martin must somehow put behind him if he is ever to find love, marriage, a plausible run at happiness. Other significant figures competing as Martin's main influencers are his father, Kingsley, his hero Saul Bellow, the weirdly self-finessing poet Philip Larkin, and significant literary women from Iris Murdoch to Elizabeth Jane Howard. Moving among these greats to set his own path, Martin's quest is a tender, witty exploration of the hardest questions: how to live, how to grieve, and how to die. Along the way, he surveys the horrors of the twentieth century, and the still-unfolding impact of the 9/11 attacks on the twenty-first--and considers what all of this has taught him about how to be a writer. The result is a love letter to life--and to the people in his life--that achieves a new level of confidentiality with his readers, giving us the previously unseen portrait of his extraordinary world"--
Author: Kotb, Hoda, 1964- author. Lorenzini, Jane, author. Published: 2020 Call Number: 170.44 Format: Books Summary: "In this all-new collection of beloved quotes, This Just Speaks to Me, #1 New York Times bestselling author Hoda Kotb offers inspiration, wisdom, and hope 365 days a year"-- Kotb shares quotes and stories, one for each day of the year. In writing about the people and moments that have enriched her life, she discusses everything from motherhood and friendship to love and loss. Her book also celebrates the countless acts of kindness that unfolded during these uniquely challenging times. -- adapted from jacket
Author: Philyaw, Deesha, author. Published: 2020 Call Number: F PHILYAW Format: Books 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"--
