#and i could go into ford being written as an abuse victim and bill the abuser. but i wont. to spare myself. The victim blaming is CRAZYYY
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the-knife-consumer · 4 months ago
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Bill is the villain of the series. Not Mabel. Not ford. BILL. oh my god. If I see one more post pinning literally everything on Ford I'm going to lose my mind. And before it was Ford it was Mabel. Mabel was a little girl terrified of growing up who got tricked by BILL pretending to be someone else. She didn't make a deal with him she got tricked (and even if she did?? Literal twelve year old she's just a kid). Also yeah ford did a bunch of horrible shit because BILL fucked with his head. Bill MADE him trust no one and isolate himself. Mabel and ford are not the bad guys the BAD GUY IS THE BAD GUY. SCREAMS AND RUNS AROUND IN CIRCLES. COME ONNNNNMN
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divorcedfiddleford · 10 months ago
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You made a post saying “it has been zero days since our last alex hirsch hates ford so much bullshit” and i know it was mostly hyperbole, but you have some really good takes that I would love to be elaborated on in terms of how ford is written
it really wasn't hyperbolic. over the years he's just really shown a lot of hatred towards this one character.
content warning: discussion of abuse
i want to start with this clip from the commentary which i think of as a microcosm for how the writers and especially alex think about ford.
transcript:
rob renzetti: i mean he [mcgucket] should've basically knocked ford out, and... and destroyed the... you know, tied him up, and, destroyed... and... alex hirsch, speaking over him: yeah he should've beat ford with a wrench and taken this thing apart piece by piece! he's the one who understood how to built [sic] it, but...
... so that seems like a pretty violent course of action. shall we unpack that?
ford is a character who's pretty explicitly written as a victim of abuse, and who now has c-ptsd as a direct result of the abuse he experienced. alex hirsch believes that ford deserved everything bad that happened to him, that it's ford's own fault, and that he also deserved worse things to happen to him. this is why, given every narrative chance, alex hirsch has piled more suffering onto ford's plate. the biggest example of this i can think of is in the journal, when he wrote that fiddleford was actively erasing ford's memory (despite this being a massive timeline contradiction which i still refuse to accept). because god forbid ford even have one remotely healthy relationship with somebody. that would be too good for him. ford was manipulated and lied to by bill, but alex repeatedly compares him to icarus, a teenager whose demise was the result of his own ignorance. this comparison is still so fucking offensive to me. the sun did not lie to icarus, did not guarantee icarus all of the happiness and success and sense of belonging which he had been denied all his life, did not actively shut out the voices of those around him who would try to help him.
alex in general has a very strange relationship with abuse. he seems to get really upset when people read his characters as victims of abuse. the strongest instance of this is actually not with ford, it's with pacifica - especially in the nwmm episode commentary. the episode says "pacifica's parents have conditioned her to respond to a bell" and alex says people got "the wrong idea" about it. like. dude. what the fuck. you wrote abuse. even if you didn't mean to, that's what you wrote. you can't say people got "the wrong idea" just because you didn't think about the subtext of what you were writing. anyway, back to ford: i believe this extends to him as well. alex wanted to write a character who's a foil to stan and who was a selfish unlikable victim of his own arrogance. however that's not what he wrote. he somehow seemingly accidentally wrote a really compelling and relatable awesome autistic guy who had to fight for every good thing he he ever had in his life only for it to be taken from him every single time. but alex can't let go of seeing ford as just "the opposite of stan". when he talks about "how someone as smart as ford could fall for bill's tricks", he refuses to realize he wrote a situation in which a man was being psychologically manipulated and tortured.
it goes back further, too. people repeatedly theorized that filbrick was... not a very good father, to say the least. on top of the very explicit and canon fact that he threw one of his children out on the street (seriously, there is no defense for this), people pointed out that stan would flinch at filbrick, that ford seemed upset by things filbrick said but dared not talk back, that filbrick was mad at stan not for hurting his brother, but for "costing the family potential millions". but alex can't have people seeing ford as sympathetic. ford can't have it bad like stan did. ford had to have everything and he lost it all because he sucks so much. so he wrote the graphic novel story where ford is filbrick's favorite child and filbrick also is not even a bad parent you guys he's just stoic. ignore the whole thing in dreamscaperers where stan perpetuates the abuse that filbrick did to him. ignore the fact that ford was shouting at stan and then completely shut up as soon as filbrick entered the room and did not say another word for the rest of the night. ignore all that because i just made up this story where he cries at a present from stan. filbrick loved his boys for sure you guys!!!
i'm not even touching on how alex repeatedly villainizes traits commonly associated with mental illness and neurodivergence. ford's hypervigilance becomes arrogance. his passion for knowledge means he's a know-it-all. his difficulty socializing and making friends means he's a misanthrope. his lingering resentment for the way he was raised means he hates his brother and is the worst human being to ever have lived. i could go on, go even further into how the finale reaffirms this, but i feel weird talking about this too much.
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guardianoflightanddarkness · 4 months ago
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Ford from Gravity Falls is used as the show's and fandom's scapegoat and it's completely unfair
This isn't written as a Ford defense squad post, as much as I love Ford, I know he is no saint and that he is an incredibly flawed yet incredibly well fleshed character, easily the best character of the entire series alongside Dipper and Stan. However, I think both the show AND the fandom tends to use him as the scapegoat to blame him for every little thing that has happened in the show, and it comes to a point that, honestly, it's downright ridiculous, like:
Getting mad at Stan over the project: yes, we know Stan breaking it was an accident, but that's because we, the audience, WATCHED Stan's memories and point of view, Ford didn't, and he has no way of checking that one out. It doesn't help that Stan's actions place him in the worst light posible: what was he doing sneaking into the school at night, specially around his brother's project? That was no accident, neither it was keeping quiet about breaking the project until there was no turning back, he could have told Ford to check it over, even if he kept his mouth shut about him being involved. On the top of that, he made ZERO attempts to show even the slightest remorse or guilt over it, he shrugged it off as roughhousing and completely dismissed it, as if he hadn't costed his brother's entire efforts and a full scholarship in the best college of the country. And to top it all, he immediately grinned while offering Ford to come sailing with him, you know, the thing the two had just talked about right before Ford's project was broken. See? From Ford's point of view and Stan's behaviour and actions EVERYTHING pointed at him doing it on purpose. At that moment, Ford had every single right to be furious and hurt at Stan for his betrayal. People need to stop acting as if Stan did no wrong in here when he screwed up big time. Ford had every right to resent Stan in here, and him managing to go to another college did not make it better: Ford making the best out of a crappy situation didn't make amends, specially when Stan had not apologized or tried to fix the mess or make it up to him.
Stan getting kicked out: Obviously Stan did NOT deserve to get kicked out over what happened, but that's NOT Ford's fault, he didn't kick him out, their father, Filbrick, aka abusive AH of the year, did, and considering what we know he said about Stan when he was young "He is a loser, an utter embarrassment, I just want to get rid of him" and the fact that he had his bag ready beforehand, it was clear he just used Ford's broken project as an excuse to do this earlier. You can't seriously expect Ford, a child at that time, to be the adult in the picture, specially in the heat of the moment when he was still hurt and angry. Not to mention that, had he tried to defend him, the two of them would have gotten kicked out. It would have helped no one. Should Ford had at least made sure Stan was okay? Yes, but that goes BOTH ways, as Stan left and didn't try to keep contact. Don't blame Ford for an abusive parent's actions.
Summoning Bill: Ford had NO idea that Bill was a demon, and the warning on the cave could have easily been a prank, specially cause you have to be THAT dumb to leave the spell to summon a demon next to the warn "DO NOT SUMMON", that's like me leaving my bank account in the open and write "DO NOT STEAL MY MONEY USING MY PASSWORD 1234". On the top of that, Bill pretended to be his friend by gaslighting him and manipulating him, feeding his insecurities and taking advantage that Ford was still hurting over Stan's loss, and trying to show that he was worth something through his smarts and to prove he wasn't a freak. Blaming Ford for trusting and summoning him is basically victim blaming him when he wasn't aware of any of this. The only thing he can be blamed is for, well, allow anyone in his mind, that should have been a huge boundary that should have never been accepted, but considering how manipulative Bill is...
Mcgucket's madness: While we can't deny that Mcgucket was traumatized by everything he saw in Gravity Falls and the portal, we can't directly blame Ford for this, he is not to blame for Mcgucket mishandling his anxiety and coping in an unhealthy way. Yes, Mcgucket was affected by all of this, but he was the one who created the memory gun, and who used it despite Ford offering him help and telling him NOT to use it cause it clearly caused brain damage, and told him to destroy it. And what did Mcgucket do? He used the memory gun on Ford to keep him quiet, created a cult, and used it on himself until losing his sanity. I'm sorry, but as much as I love and feel bad for Mcgucket, his own insanity is his own fault, not Ford's.
Not destroying his research: Would you guys be okay with destroying all your life work? It's not as simple. And you need to remember he was sleep deprived for weeks because Bill would possess him at any chance to torture him if he fell asleep, at that point Ford was suffering practically psychosis. Obviously he could have just burned the pages regarding Bill exclusively, but again, he couldn't think clearly at that point.
His fight with Stan: Again, sleep deprived, it's a miracle he could even say a sentence properly in his state, and it takes two to start an argument. Stan had every right to feel hurt, but calling Ford selfish for following his own life after Stan took his chances previously with zero remorse over it was also an AH move, which made things escalate when Ford did the same by claiming this was "the only worth thing he would ever do in his life", and then Stan, out of spite, tried to burn his journals, and Ford retaliated by tackling him to stop him, both twins blaming each other over Stan's life when really that was Filbrick's fault. Ford marking Stan was an honest accident, and he tried to stop the fight there and help him and heal him, it was Stan who out of pain and rage, continued the fight until Ford got sucked into the portal. BOTH of them are to blame for that fiasco for not even trying to communicate properly and jumping to physical fight.
Not thanking Stan right away: Stan was responsible for Ford losing 30 years of his life in the other dimension, taking his home, his life work, and his identity and on the top of that, ignoring the warnings of NOT opening the portal cause it could destroy the world, therefore opening the portal, creating the rift, and running Ford's plan to destroy Bill. From his point of view, Ford has every right to be pissed and not feeling like thanking his brother for it in the heat of the moment, specially when Stan doesn't show a single shred of remorse and his first words are "how about a thank you for getting you out of a sci-fi dimension?"
Not staying away from the kids: Ford LITERALLY does that, it's Dipper who comes to him, and then Stan accepted it.
Endangering the kids: Ford literally tried to keep the kids safe and the only time he actively risked Dipper's life was when he thought the UFO was safe. Stan literally got the kids in jail within the first week at Gravity Falls and almost got them killed multiple times, like with the dinosaur and the bottomless pit. And if we talk about Ford giving Mabel a crossbow, don't forget Stan allowed Mabel to play with an ax, Ford and Stan were raised in the 60s, where that was more than normal, and Ford openly asks if it's okay to give children weapons cause he has been out of this dimension for decades, which is a fair point. Stan knows better in here, and he has done far worse.
Not telling Stan and Mabel about the rift: Obviously telling the rest of the family would have been the ideal thing to do, but people forget that Ford is dealing with trauma and trust issues that are still untreated after 30 years: he was betrayed by his brother, then by his best friend, and finally by his muse, and it costed him everything, it's understandable he isn't going to trust his brother right away - specially considering Stan isn't taking him seriously, considering he shrugged off any problems with the portal and left the mess in his hands, assuming he won't be careful with it like he wasn't with the portal - or his niece, who he just met and for the little he has seen from her, has broken uncountable crystal balls in less than an hour, or who he has read from journal 3, has a terrible tendency of stealing or taking important things from others without permission, like journal 3 during Sock Opera and almost handling it to Bill. Was it a bad move? Yes, but understandable nevertheless given what he had gone through by that point.
"Neglecting" Mabel: This one is just downright ridiculous, we are literally SHOWED how Ford's interactions with Mabel are nothing but filled with fondness and how he claims to love this girl for being weird, praising her for being a good person and all. It's Stan who literally asked him to stay away from BOTH kids, which Ford complied to until Dipper literally busted into his lab, and it's not like Mabel showed any interest in spending time with Ford either, she only shows interest when there unicorns involved. Could have Ford interacted more with both kids? Yes, if it wasn't because...he was just adapting back into his own dimension after being 30 years away, and dealing with the stress of containing the rift and preparing for Weirdmaggedon, ALL while the kids barely had a couple of weeks left before returning home.When was Ford supposed to get extra time to bond with Mabel? Specially when Mabel didn't show any interest in him to begin with?
"Separating" Dipper and Mabel: This one is easily one of the most unfair points I hear so often, because not only it places the blame solely on Ford for problems that were taking place long before he even stepped out of that portal, but because it takes away any accountability on the children regarding their relationship, and implying that Ford was wrong in the past before the project incident. I won't deny that Ford was projecting a bit with the "isn't it suffocating?" comment, but other than that, he was offering his nephew a chance to study what he loved, giving him what he didn't get to have at his age, he wasn't excluding Mabel, Mabel simply never showed interest in the supernatural, as we all saw, and he simply helped his nephew to increase his self-confidence, something that, seriously, Dipper needed, after all the crap he got put through. And let's not pretend that all the kids' problems started with Ford, their problems started WAY long before Ford was around the picture, as we saw how basically Dipper has zero self-confidence and, as much as the twins love each other, their relationship was completely unbalanced: Dipper is constantly giving up for Mabel to make her happy, sacrificing his needs and wants for her, and everything Mabel does in return is not only not appreciating anything he does for her, but to mock him, disrespect his boundaries, ditch him for better plans, force her will onto him, and basically throw him under the bus whenever another plan suits him better, and getting all the favouritism from Stan's treatment up to that point, who joined into Dipper's treatment, favoured Mabel and gave Dipper the worst chores. Ford's appearance only balanced the equation by giving Dipper someone that he could connect with the same way Mabel connects with Stan. And the show tries to play that as a bad thing, really?
The "grammar" comment: This one is baffling to me, because while it's true Ford's reaction weren't the most mature one out of the two, the fact that people ignore Stan's own immature actions on that scene and blame Ford exclusively only speaks volumes of how much the fandom uses him as the scapegoat: at this point, Ford has been TORTURED for DAYS to no end, by being electrocuted and turned into a gold statue, and the second he comes back to his senses, he is relieved to find his family, but also has a very limited time to stop Bill, so he hurries up to draw the circle. He literally pleads Stanley to hold his hand to fix this and Stan refuses, openly accusing him of creating the end of the world (while purposefully ignoring his own share of the blame, since he is the one who opened the portal in the first place and created the rift that started weirdmaggedon), Ford apologizes and pleads him to help him by just shaking his hand, and what does Stan do? Refuse to do it until he forces a thank you out of him, effectively keeping the world's safety, their children included, out of pure pettiness and pride, and even after he gets that thank you out of him, he continues to badmouth Ford. By that point, to say Ford was irritated with Stan is an understatement. Yet somehow he gets more crap for that grammar comment, than for Stan throwing punches at him for it, let alone his entire behaviour in that episode. Again, both of them were being stubborn immature idiots, so why people blame Ford exclusively?
Again, with this, I'm not saying Ford is innocent on everything, he isn't, he has done his plenty of share of mistakes, he spends DECADES blaming himself over those, with trust and self-confidence issues, and spent over half of his life ready to sacrifice himself and everything to fix it, but I honestly find absolutely unfair and an insult to his character how the fandom tends to portray him as this selfish arrogant old man that people love to blame for everything that went wrong, ignoring Bill and basically to favour other characters like Stan and Mabel. I can understand that Ford, coming out so late in the show and his life story only been expanded in Journal 3 didn't help, but the bashing he gets even ten years later is just appalling and proves that many people didn't understand him, just look at what the fandom think about him just watching the fanmade episode "Return to the Bunker", which basically spits all over his character. It's a shame that one of the most fleshed out characters of this amazing show gets the short end of the stick by his creator and by the fandom when he clearly doesn't deserve it.
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vexingvorta · 3 months ago
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Im not a fan of every argument made here on either side, so first I'll get a few things out of the way;
1, that abuse victims often go on to be abusers themselves if they don't put in the work necessary to heal from their own abuse, that's what people are talking about when they refer to the CYCLE of abuse. To deny that is... Also uncomfortable. Being a victim of abuse does not make you exempt from abusing other people. 2, I wish we'd stop equating toxic with abusive because there is a difference. 3, i don't think autistic coding is really a fair defense of said toxic traits I'm gonna be real. There's nothing wrong with headcanons and projection but just to focus on what actually happened in the series without using headcanon to excuse harmful behavior. I don't know what traits are being referred to as "autistic coded" here so honestly I'm not gonna touch that with a ten foot pole and just focus on what we see;
Its hard for people to accept, but abuse does not happen on accident. Abuse is an intentional choice one makes. And over all, no, Ford isn't abusive. He, throughout the series and due to a combination of his self-centeredness and being a victim of abuse (hell, his self-centeredness was weaponized against him as part of the abuse) was absolutely toxic for most of the time we've seen him.
The argument that he abused Fiddleford is so stupid I'm not even going to acknowledge it. The thing with Stan is, he frankly wasn't around him enough to actually abuse him. A one time event is not abuse. A single fight is not abuse. Abuse is long and drawn out and, as I said earlier, intentional. And, like what was already pointed out, Ford was in a bad state. He'd reached the point of Bill going fully mask off, so to speak, and the abuse now being at it's worst. He was fully isolated and sleep deprived and it made him crazy. Yes, his unwillingness to destroy the journals was deeply selfish and another mark of how self-centered he is. It's the definition of irrational. But, once again, he wasn't in a spot where he could think rationally. (Granted, even if he was, I still don't think he would've been willing to destroy the journals because his self importance and self centeredness is one of his biggest flaws and an important part of his character)
The closest Ford ever comes to being abusive is, yes, with dipper. He starts telling him a lot of the same things we know Bill told him at the start of their partnership; you're special, we need each other, these other people are only holding you back. Nobody understands you like I do. When Dipper expresses concern for Mabel, Ford is immediately dismissive. He looks at Dipper and all he sees is himself, and all he sees in Mabel is Stan. He is the one who pushed that dichotomy, because he really couldn't think outside of himself.
His greatest flaw is that he's self centered and self obsessed. But the thing is, is that he learns his lesson. It takes literal apocalypse to get there, but he does learn and he does reflect and he does apologize and try to do better. He course corrects. Gravity falls, ultimately, is about family bonds and breaking the cycle of abuse. Ford almost continued that cycle with Dipper, but he stopped before any permanent damage could be done, both to their relationship, and to Dipper and Mabels. He fixed his relationship with Stan.
He did in fact have abusive tendencies and toxic traits but ultimately he put in the work to fix them and be better. Ford is a well written and well balanced character. He displays how someone even with good intentions can unintentionally fall back into cruel and toxic habits, and can start repeating the abuse they were put through. He also shows that you can come back from that. That starting down that path doesn't mean you have to stay there. That it's possible to heal and get better.
None of what I'm saying is an indictment of Ford's character. The opposite: he is complex and well written and imperfect, and I love him and his character arc. He could've been so easily made into an irredeemable villain, a no good bastard who's just horrible and abusive. He had all those pieces laid out. But the choice and skill to actually have him go through the motions of falling into abusive tendencies and then getting better is amazing on Alex Hirsch's part, and a testament to his ability to write deep and complex characters.
(also this is just kind of my own aside but the use of "autistic-coded" as like an excuse for how a character acts is really annoying to me for a number of reasons? For one, just off the bat, it's an attempt to make your headcanon sound more canon than it is, but by nature of being a headcanon, it's not really a fair or valid argument here. Second, there are ways to make a legitimate argument and analysis of a characters actions in canon and debate criticisms of their actions without saying "they're autism coded so actually you must hate autistic people", like it's okay, you're allowed to make a legitimate argument. Also, "character did shitty thing because they're autistic" isn't the win you think it is, because let's be real, you're either implying that they have no autonomy over their actions because of their autism, or that you think autism makes people shitty or toxic, neither of which is the win you think it is. Ironically lack of media literacy applies in both cases here, just for different reasons. Okay side rant over, just wanted to throw that out there because holy hell it's something that is used so much in fandom and it gets grating after a while.)
The tldr here is that Ford isn't an abuser. He was abused, he had toxic and abusive traits, but he put in the work to heal and better himself. He's by no means perfect and that's okay, he's a good character, and he's actually trying to be better.
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Today in "I hate autistic-coded abuse victims", this shitty take.
Ford did not abuse Stan. He did not abuse Fiddleford. He did not try to drive a wedge in Dipper and Mabel's relationship (he was doing what he thought was best for Dipper and thought Mabel would be fine).
Just admit you hate autistic people and have no compassion for abuse victims. And admit you have no media literacy.
Also, calling a canonical abuse victim an abuser is...uncomfortable, to say the least. Especially with how you're just making him out to be abusive for...not handling personal interactions perfectly. You're demonizing autistic traits. And you need to research how abuse can effect people.
(Also, I know Ford's not perfect. But you don't seem to know that he's flawed but ultimately a good person. You just want a "perfect victim" when it comes to abuse victims, and it's obvious)
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isslibrary · 5 years ago
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New Library Material December 2019 - April 2020
Bibliography
Sorted by Call Number / Author.
155.9 T
Turkle, Sherry. Life on the screen : identity in the age of the Internet. New York, NY : Simon & Schuster, c. 1995. Introduction : identity in the age of the Internet -- pt. 1. The seductions of the interface -- A tale of two aesthetics -- The triumph of tinkering -- pt. 2. Of dreams and beasts -- Making a pass at a robot -- Taking things at interface value -- The quality of emergence -- Artificial life as the new frontier -- pt. 3. On the Internet -- Aspects of the self -- TinySex and gender trouble -- Virtuality and its discontents -- Identity crisis.
230 L
Lewis, C. S. (Clive Staples), 1898-1963, author. The C.S. Lewis signature classics. First Harpercollins Paperback Edition published 2001. Set contains 8 vols: 1)Mere Christianity; 2)The Screwtape Letters; 3)Miracles; 4)A Grief Observed; 5)The Great Divorce; 6)The Problem of Pain; 7)The Abolition of Man; 8)The Four Loves.
302 G
Gladwell, Malcolm, 1963- author. Talking to strangers : what we should know about the people we don't know. First edition. Introduction : "Step out of the car!" -- Part I. Spies and diplomats : two puzzles. Fidel Castro's revenge ; Getting to know der Führer -- Part II. Default to truth. The queen of Cuba ; The holy fool ; Case study : The boy in the shower -- Part III. Transparency. The Friends fallacy ; A (short) explanation of the Amanda Knox case ; Case study : The fraternity party -- Part IV. Lessons. KSM : what happens when the stranger is a terrorist? -- Part V. Coupling. Sylvia Plath ; Case study : The Kansas City experiments ; Sandra Bland. In this thoughtful treatise spurred by the 2015 death of African-American academic Sandra Bland in jail after a traffic stop, New Yorker writer Gladwell (The Tipping Point) aims to figure out the strategies people use to assess strangers-to "analyze, critique them, figure out where they came from, figure out how to fix them," in other words: to understand how to balance trust and safety. He uses a variety of examples from history and recent headlines to illustrate that people size up the motivations, emotions, and trustworthiness of those they don't know both wrongly and with misplaced confidence.
305.42 G
Gates, Melinda, 1964- author. The moment of lift : how empowering women changes the world. Introduction -- The lift of a great idea -- Empowering mothers: maternal and newborn health -- Every good thing: family planning -- Lifting their eyes: girls in schools -- The silent inequality: unpaid work -- When a girl has no voice: child marriage -- Seeing gender bias: women in agriculture -- Creating a new culture: women in the workplace -- Let your heart break: the lift of coming together -- Epilogue.
306.3 A
Anderson, S. E. (Sam E.). The Black holocaust for beginners. Reprint ed. Danbury, CT : For Beginners LLC, c1995.
306.36 H
Hurston, Zora Neale, author. Barracoon : the story of the last "black cargo" First edition. Foreword : Those who love us never leave us alone with our grief: reading Barracoon: the story of the last "black cargo" / by Alice Walker -- Introduction -- Barracoon : Preface -- Introduction -- The king arrives -- Barracoon -- Slavery -- Freedom -- Marriage -- Kossula learns about law -- Alone -- Appendix : Takkoi or Attako: children's game ; Stories Kossula told me ; The monkey and the camel ; Story of de Jonah ; Now disa Abraham fadda de faitful ; The lion woman -- Afterword and additional materials / edited by Deborah G. Plant -- Founders and original residents of Africatown -- Glossary. "In 1927, Zora Neale Hurston went to Plateau, Alabama, just outside Mobile, to interview eighty-six-year-old Cudjo Lewis. Of the millions of men, women, and children transported from Africa to America as slaves, Cudjo was then the only person alive to tell the story of this integral part of the nation's history. Hurston was there to record Cudjo's firsthand account of the raid that led to his capture and bondage fifty years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed in the United States. In 1931, Hurston returned to Plateau, the African-centric community three miles from Mobile founded by Cudjo and other former slaves from his ship. Spending more than three months there, she talked in depth with Cudjo about the details of his life. During those weeks, the young writer and the elderly formerly enslaved man ate peaches and watermelon that grew in the backyard and talked about Cudjo's past--memories from his childhood in Africa, the horrors of being captured and held in a barracoon for selection by American slavers, the harrowing experience of the Middle Passage packed with more than 100 other souls aboard the Clotilda, and the years he spent in slavery until the end of the Civil War. Based on those interviews, featuring Cudjo's unique vernacular, and written from Hurston's perspective with the compassion and singular style that have made her one of the preeminent American authors of the twentieth-century, Barracoon masterfully illustrates the tragedy of slavery and of one life forever defined by it. Offering insight into the pernicious legacy that continues to haunt us all, black and white, this poignant and powerful work is an invaluable contribution to our shared history and culture."--Publisher's website.
342.73 C
The Founding Fathers & Paul B. Skousen. The Constitution & The Declaration of Independence. Salt Lake City, UT : Izzardink, 2016; 2017.
342.73 P
The Know your Bill of Rights book. First edition. United States : Oculus Publishers, Inc, 2013.
364.1 H
Hate crimes. 1. Hate as part of society : -- Defining hate -- What we investigate -- FBI releases 2018 hate crime statistics -- Learn more about hate crimes -- The U.S. finally made lynching a Federal crime -- Hate-crime violence its 16-year high, FBI reports -- Mail bombs, hate crimes, and he meaning of terrorism -- 2. Causes and responses : -- Entering an era of rising hate crimes -- Trump and racism: what do the data say? -- American Islamophobia in the age of Trump: the global war on terror, continued? -- Steve Scalise: don't blame Trump for mass shootings -- Did counties hosting a Trump rally in 2016 see a 226% spike in hate crimes? -- "We need to evolve": police get help to improve hate crime tracking -- The FBI's new approach to combating domestic terrorism: straight talk -- Congressman Serrano and Senator Casey introduce the Stop Hate Act to address the rise in hate crimes through social media -- 3. Hate laws and the Constitution : -- The limits of Free Speech -- Is the cure of censorship better than the disease of hate speech? -- The limits of Free Speech for White Supremacists marching at the Unite the Right 2, explained -- Hate speech and hate crime -- the El Paso shooting revived the Free Speech debate. Europe has limits -- Portland considers Antimask Law aimed at Antifa violence -- Free Speech can be messy, but we need it -- Should we treat domestic terrorists the way we treat ISIS? -- 4. Prevention, outreach, and training : -- Schools as safe places for learning -- Hate crime in America policy summit -- Hate in schools: an in-depth look -- Political correctness and anti-Jewish bias mar first draft of California's Ethnic Studies curriculum -- Justice Department commemorates 10th anniversary of Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act -- 5. The role of the media and big tech : -- The connected society -- How Journalists cover mass shootings: research to consider -- In Congressional hearing on hate, the haters got their way -- A campus murder tests Facebook clicks as evidence of hate -- The media botched the Covington Catholic story -- Hate speech on social media: global comparisons -- How Big Tech can fight White Supremacist terrorism: it has the tools- it just needs to use them.
364.15 K
Kantor, Jodi, 1975- author. She said : breaking the sexual harassment story that helped ignite a movement. The first phone call -- Hollywood secrets -- How to silence a victim -- "Positive reputation management" -- A company's complicity -- "Who else is on the record?" -- "There will be a movement" -- The beachside dilemma -- "I can't guarantee I'll go to DC" -- Epilogue: The gathering. For many years, reporters had tried to get to the truth about Harvey Weinstein's treatment of women. Rumors of wrongdoing had long circulated. But in 2017, when Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey began their investigation into the prominent Hollywood producer for the New York Times, his name was still synonymous with power. During months of confidential interviews with top actresses, former Weinstein employees, and other sources, many disturbing and long-buried allegations were unearthed, and a web of onerous secret payouts and nondisclosure agreements was revealed. These shadowy settlements had long been used to hide sexual harassment and abuse, but with a breakthrough reporting technique Kantor and Twohey helped to expose it. But Weinstein had evaded scrutiny in the past, and he was not going down without a fight. He employed a team of high-profile lawyers, private investigators, and other allies to thwart the investigation. When Kantor and Twohey were finally able to convince some sources to go on the record, a dramatic final showdown between Weinstein and the New York Times was set in motion. Nothing could have prepared Kantor and Twohey for what followed the publication of their initial Weinstein story on October 5, 2017. Within days, a veritable Pandora's box of sexual harassment and abuse was opened. Women all over the world came forward with their own traumatic stories. Over the next twelve months, hundreds of men from every walk of life and industry were outed following allegations of wrongdoing. But did too much change -- or not enough? Those questions hung in the air months later as Brett Kavanaugh was nominated to the Supreme Court, and Christine Blasey Ford came forward to testify that he had assaulted her decades earlier. Kantor and Twohey, who had unique access to Ford and her team, bring to light the odyssey that led her to come forward, the overwhelming forces that came to bear on her, and what happened after she shared her allegation with the world.
512 A
Lead authors: John A. Carter, Ph.D., Gilbert J. Cuevas,Ph.D., Roger Day, Ph.D., NBCT, Carol Malloy, Ph.D.; Program Authors: Dr. Berchie Holliday, Ed.D., Ruth Casey, Dinah Zike, Jay McTighe; Lead Consultant: Viken Hovsepian. Algebra 2. Glencoe/McGraw-Hill Education, 2012. Columbus, OH : McGraw-Hill Companies, c. 2012.
612 B
Bryson, Bill, author. The body : a guide for occupants. First U.S. edition. How to build a human -- The outside: skin and hair -- Microbial you -- The brain -- The head -- Down the hatch: the mouth and throat -- The heart and blood -- The chemistry department -- In the dissecting room: the skeleton -- On the move: bipedalism and exercise -- Equilibrium -- The immune system -- Deep breath: the lungs and breathing -- Food, glorious food -- The guts -- Sleep -- Into the nether regions -- In the beginning: conception and birth -- Nerves and pain -- When things go wrong: diseases -- Then things go very wrong: cancer -- Medicine good and bad -- The end. "Bill Bryson, bestselling author of A Short History of Nearly Everything, takes us on a head-to-toe tour of the marvel that is the human body. As compulsively readable as it is comprehensive, this is Bryson at his very best, a must-read owner's manual for everybody. Bill Bryson once again proves himself to be an incomparable companion as he guides us through the human body--how it functions, its remarkable ability to heal itself, and (unfortunately) the ways it can fail. Full of extraordinary facts (your body made a million red blood cells since you started reading this) and irresistible Bryson-esque anecdotes, The Body will lead you to a deeper understanding of the miracle that is life in general and you in particular. As Bill Bryson writes, "We pass our existence within this wobble of flesh and yet take it almost entirely for granted." The Body will cure that indifference with generous doses of wondrous, compulsively readable facts and information"--. "From the bestselling author of A SHORT HISTORY OF NEARLY EVERYTHING, a head-to-toe tour of the marvel that is the human body"--.
801.95092
Barish, Evelyn, 1935-. The double life of Paul de Man. First Edition.
812.54 K
Kushner, Tony. Angels in America : Part One and Two. 2007. London : Nick Hern Books, 2007. Reprinted 2015. pt. 1. Millennium approaches -- pt. 2. Perestroika.
812.54 W
Williams, Tennessee, 1911-1983. The glass menagerie. New Directions Book. New York, NY : New Directions Publishing, 1999. The embattled Wingfield family: Amanda, a faded southern belle, abandoned wife, dominating mother, who hopes to match her daughter with an eligible "gentleman caller;" Laura, a lame and painfully shy, she evades her mother's schemes and reality by retreating to a world of make-believe; Tom's sole support of the family, he eventually leaves home to become a writer but is forever haunted by the memory of Laura. The only single edition now available of this American classic about a mother obsessed with her disabled daughter.
812.6 B
Barron, Clare, author. Baby screams miracle. A freak storm knocks down all the trees in town and brings a prodigal daughter rushing home. But has she come for reconciliation? Or as an angel of vengeance? A comic new play about love, forgiveness and family struggling to operate in a relentlessly chaotic and violent world.
812.6 D
DeLappe, Sarah, author. The wolves : a play. 1st ed. "The Wolves follows nine teenage girls as they warm up for their indoor soccer games. From the safety of their suburban stretch circle, the team navigates big questions and wages tiny battles with all the vim and vigor of a pack of adolescent warriors. As the teammates warm up in sync, a symphony of overlapping dialogue spills out their concerns. By season's and play's end, amidst the wins and losses, rivalries and tragedies, they are tested and ready--they are The Wolves." -- Back cover.
822.914 B
Butterworth, Jez, author. The ferryman. Revised edition. Rural County Armagh, Ireland, 1981. The Carney farmhouse is a hive of activity with preparations for the annual harvest. A day of hard work on the land and a traditional night of feasting and celebrations lie ahead. But this year they will be interrupted by a visitor.
940.54 L
Larson, Erik, 1954- author. The splendid and the vile. First edition. Bleak Expectations -- The Rising Threat -- A Certain Eventuality -- Dread -- Blood and Dust -- The Americans -- Love Amid the Flames -- One Year to the Day -- Epilogue. "The #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Devil in the White City and Dead Wake delivers a fresh and compelling portrait of Winston Churchill and London during the Blitz On Winston Churchill's first day as prime minister, Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two weeks away. For the next twelve months, Hitler would wage a relentless bombing campaign, killing 45,000 Britons. It was up to Churchill to hold the country together and persuade President Franklin Roosevelt that Britain was a worthy ally-and willing to fight to the end. In The Splendid and the Vile, Erik Larson shows, in cinematic detail, how Churchill taught the British people "the art of being fearless." It is a story of political brinkmanship, but it's also an intimate domestic drama set against the backdrop of Churchill's prime-ministerial country home, Chequers; his wartime retreat, Ditchley, where he and his entourage go when the moon is brightest and the bombing threat is highest; and of course 10 Downing Street in London. Drawing on diaries, original archival documents, and once-secret intelligence reports-some released only recently-Larson provides a new lens on London's darkest year through the day-to-day experience of Churchill and his family: his wife, Clementine; their youngest daughter, Mary, who chafes against her parents' wartime protectiveness; their son, Randolph, and his beautiful, unhappy wife, Pamela; Pamela's illicit lover, a dashing American emissary; and the cadre of close advisers who comprised Churchill's "Secret Circle," including his lovestruck private secretary, John Colville; newspaper baron Lord Beaverbrook; and the Rasputin-like Frederick Lindemann. The Splendid and the Vile takes readers out of today's political dysfunction and back to a time of true leadership, when-in the face of unrelenting horror-Churchill's eloquence, courage, and perseverance bound a country, and a family, together."--.
940.54 P
Purnell, Sonia, author. A woman of no importance : the untold story of the American spy who helped win World War II. The dream -- Cometh the hour -- My tart friends -- Good-bye to Dindy -- Twelve minutes, twelve men -- Honeycomb of spies -- Cruel mountain -- Agent most wanted -- Scores to settle -- Madonna of the mountains -- From the skies above -- The CIA years. "The never-before-told story of one woman's heroism that changed the course of the Second World War In 1942, the Gestapo sent out an urgent command across France: "She is the most dangerous of all Allied spies. We must find and destroy her." This spy was Virginia Hall, a young American woman--rejected from the foreign service because of her gender and her prosthetic leg--who talked her way into the spy organization dubbed Churchill's "ministry of ungentlemanly warfare," and, before the United States had even entered the war, became the first woman to deploy to occupied France. Virginia Hall was one of the greatest spies in American history, yet her story remains untold. Just as she did in Clementine, Sonia Purnell uncovers the captivating story of a powerful, influential, yet shockingly overlooked heroine of the Second World War. At a time when sending female secret agents into enemy territory was still strictly forbidden, Virginia Hall came to be known as the "Madonna of the Resistance," coordinating a network of spies to blow up bridges, report on German troop movements, arrange equipment drops for Resistance agents, and recruit and train guerilla fighters. Even as her face covered WANTED posters throughout Europe, Virginia refused order after order to evacuate. She finally escaped with her life in a grueling hike over the Pyrenees into Spain, her cover blown, and her associates all imprisoned or executed. But, adamant that she had "more lives to save," she dove back in as soon as she could, organizing forces to sabotage enemy lines and back up Allied forces landing on Normandy beaches. Told with Purnell's signature insight and novelistic panache, A Woman of No Importance is the breathtaking story of how one woman's fierce persistence helped win the war"--.
943.086 B
Bergen, Doris L., author. War and genocide : a concise history of the Holocaust. Barnes & Noble, 2007. Preconditions : antisemitism, racism, and common prejudices in early-twentieth century Europe -- Leadership and will : Adolf Hitler, the National Socialist German Workers' Party, and Nazi ideology -- From revolution to routine : Nazi Germany, 1933-1938 -- Open aggression : in search of war, 1938-1939 -- Experiments in brutality, 1939-1940 : war against Poland and the so-called euthanasia program -- Expansion and systemization : exporting war and terror, 1940-1941 -- The peak years of killing: 1942 and 1943 -- Death throes and killing frenzies, 1944-1945.
946.9 H
Hatton, Barry, 1963- author. Queen of the sea : a history of Lisbon. "Lisbon was almost somewhere else. Portuguese officials considered moving the city after it was devastated by what is believed to be the strongest earthquake ever to strike modern Europe, in 1755, followed by a tidal wave as high as a double-decker bus and a six-day inferno that turned sand into glass. Lisbon's charm is legendary, but its rich, 2,000-year history is not widely known. This single-volume history provides an unrivaled and intimate portrait of the city and an entertaining account of its colourful past. It reveals that in Roman times the city was more important than initially thought, possessing a large theatre and hippodrome. The 1147 Siege of Lisbon was a dramatic medieval battle that was a key part of the Iberian reconquista. As Portugal built an empire spanning four continents, its capital became a wealthy international bazaar. The Portuguese king's cort©·ge was led by a rhinoceros which was followed by five elephants in gold brocade, an Arabian horse and a jaguar. The Portuguese were the world's biggest slavers, and by the mid-16th century around 10 percent of the Lisbon's population was black, imbuing the city with an African flavour it has retained. Invasion by Napoleon's armies, and the assassination of a king and the establishment of a republic, also left their marks. The city's two bridges over the River Tagus illustrate the legacy of a 20th-century dictator and Portugal's new era in Europe."--Publisher's description.
955.05 I
Iran. Detroit : Greenhaven Press, 2006. Presents all sides to several issues concerning Iran, including debates about global security, human rights, and nuclear weapons.
973.092
Chernow, Ron. Alexander Hamilton. Prologue: The Oldest Revolutionary War Widow -- The Castaways -- Hurricane -- The Collegian -- The Pen and the Sword -- The Little Lion -- A Frenzy of Valor -- The Lovesick Colonel -- Glory -- Raging Billows -- A Grave, Silent, Strange Sort of Animal -- Ghosts -- August and Respectable Assembly -- Publius -- Putting the Machine in Motion -- Villainous Business -- Dr. Pangloss -- The First Town in America -- Of Avarice and Enterprise -- City of the Future -- Corrupt Squadrons -- Exposure -- Stabbed in the Dark -- Citizen Genet -- A Disagreeable Trade -- Seas of Blood -- The Wicked Insurgents of the West -- Sugar Plums and Toys -- Spare Cassius -- The Man in the Glass Bubble -- Flying Too Near the Sun -- An Instrument of Hell -- Reign of Witches -- Works Godly and Ungodly -- In an Evil Hour -- Gusts of Passion -- In a Very Belligerent Humor -- Deadlock -- A World Full of Folly -- Pamphlet Wars -- The Price of Truth -- A Despicable Opinion -- Fatal Errand -- The Melting Scene -- Epilogue: Eliza. Ron Chernow tells the story of a man who overcame all odds to shape, inspire, and scandalize the newborn America. Few figures in American history have been more hotly debated or more grossly misunderstood than Alexander Hamilton. Chernow's biography argues that the political and economic greatness of today's America is the result of Hamilton's countless sacrifices to champion ideas that were often wildly disputed during his time. Chernow here recounts Hamilton's turbulent life: an illegitimate, largely self-taught orphan from the Caribbean, he came out of nowhere to take America by storm, rising to become George Washington's aide-de-camp in the Continental Army, coauthoring The Federalist Papers, founding the Bank of New York, leading the Federalist Party, and becoming the first Treasury Secretary of the United States. Historians have long told the story of America's birth as the triumph of Jefferson's democratic ideals over the aristocratic intentions of Hamilton. Chernow presents an entirely different man, whose legendary ambitions were motivated not merely by self-interest but by passionate patriotism and a stubborn will to build the foundations of American prosperity and power. His is a Hamilton far more human than we've encountered before -- from his shame about his birth to his fiery aspirations, from his intimate relationships with childhood friends to his titanic feuds with Jefferson, Madison, Adams, Monroe, and Burr, and from his highly public affair with Maria Reynolds to his loving marriage to his loyal wife Eliza. And never before has there been a more vivid account of Hamilton's famous and mysterious death in a duel with Aaron Burr in July of 1804.
973.921 W
Wicker, Tom. Dwight D. Eisenhower. First edition. New York : Times Books, 2002. An American hero at the close of World War II, General Dwight Eisenhower rode an enormous wave of popularity into the Oval Office seven years later. Though we may view the Eisenhower years through a hazy lens of 1950s nostalgia, historians consider his presidency one of the least successful. At home there was civil rights unrest, McCarthyism, and a deteriorating economy; internationally, the Cold War was deepening. But despite his tendency toward "brinksmanship," Ike would later be revered for "keeping the peace." Still, his actions and policies at the onset of his career, covered by Tom Wicker, would haunt Americans of future generations.
976.1 K
Kennedy, Peggy Wallace, author. The broken road. The bridge -- In the beginning -- Romance in the air -- Coming home -- The race -- Into the darkness -- The broken road -- You got what you wanted -- The victory is ours -- 1963 -- Picture perfect -- A storm's a-comin' -- Success is to succeed -- Dynasty -- For you -- Stand up -- Things just change -- Buckle my shoes -- The book of lamentations -- 'Til death do us part -- In tents -- Testify, brother Wallace! -- Stepping down -- Benched -- The end of an era -- Doors -- Letters from Baghdad -- Back to the bridge. "From the daughter of one of America's most virulent segregationists, a memoir that reckons with her father George Wallace's legacy of hate -- and illuminates her journey towards redemption. Peggy Wallace Kennedy has been widely hailed as the 'symbol of racial reconciliation' (Washington Post). In the summer of 1963, though, she was just a young girl watching her father stand in a schoolhouse door as he tried to block two African-American students from entering the University of Alabama. This man, former governor of Alabama and presidential candidate George Wallace, was notorious for his hateful rhetoric and his political stunts. But he was also a larger-than-life father to young Peggy, who was taught to smile, sit straight, and not speak up as her father took to the political stage. At the end of his life, Wallace came to renounce his views, although he could never attempt to fully repair the damage he caused. But Peggy, after her own political awakening, dedicated her life to spreading the new Wallace message -- one of peace, penance, and compassion. In this powerful new memoir, Peggy looks back on the politics of her youth and attempts to reconcile her adored father with the man who coined the phrase 'Segregation now. Segregation tomorrow. Segregation forever.' Timely and timeless, The Broken Road speaks to change, atonement, activism, and racial reconciliation"--.
977 McC
McCullough, David G., author. The pioneers : the heroic story of the settlers who brought the American ideal west. First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition. The Ohio country -- Forth to the wilderness -- Difficult times -- Havoc -- A new era commences -- The Burr conspiracy -- Adversities aplenty -- The cause of learning -- The travelers -- Journey's end. "Best-selling author David McCullough tells the story of the settlers who began America's migration west, overcoming almost-unimaginable hardships to build in the Ohio wilderness a town and a government that incorporated America's highest ideals"--.
92 O'Connor
Thomas, Evan, 1951- author. First : Sandra Day O'Connor. Prologue -- Lazy B -- Stanford -- The golden couple -- Majority leader -- Arizona judge -- The President calls -- Inside the Marble Palace -- Scrutiny -- FWOTSC -- Cancer -- A woman's role -- Civil religion -- Bush v. Gore -- Affirmative action -- End game -- Labor of love. "Based on exclusive interviews and access to the Supreme Court archives, this is the intimate, inspiring, and authoritative biography of America's first female Justice, Sandra Day O'Connor--by New York Times bestselling author Evan Thomas. She was born in 1930 in El Paso and grew up on a cattle ranch in Arizona. At a time when women were expected to be homemakers, she set her sights on Stanford University. When she graduated near the top of her class at law school in 1952, no firm would even interview her. But Sandra Day O'Connor's story is that of a woman who repeatedly shattered glass ceilings--doing so with a blend of grace, wisdom, humor, understatement, and cowgirl toughness. She became the first-ever female majority leader of a state senate. As a judge on the Arizona State Court of Appeals, she stood up to corrupt lawyers and humanized the law. When she arrived at the Supreme Court, appointed by Reagan in 1981, she began a quarter-century tenure on the court, hearing cases that ultimately shaped American law. Diagnosed with cancer at fifty-eight, and caring for a husband with Alzheimer's, O'Connor endured every difficulty with grit and poise. Women and men today will be inspired by how to be first in your own life, how to know when to fight and when to walk away, through O'Connor's example. This is a remarkably vivid and personal portrait of a woman who loved her family and believed in serving her country, who, when she became the most powerful woman in America, built a bridge forward for the women who followed her"--. At a time when women were expected to be homemakers, Sandra Day O'Connor set her sights on Stanford University. When she graduated near the top of her class at law school in 1952, no firm would even interview her. She became the first-ever female majority leader of a state senate, a judge on the Arizona State Court of Appeals, and arrived at the Supreme Court in 1981 to begin a quarter-century tenure on the court. Thomas provides a vivid and personal portrait of a woman who loved her family, believed in serving her country, and built a bridge forward for the women who followed her. -- adapted from jacket.
ACT Manual
Stern, David Alan. Acting with an accent : a step-by-step approach to learning dialects. Lyndonville, VT : Dialect Accent Specialists, c1979-1987. [v. 1.] Standard British -- [v. 2.] Cockney -- [v. 3.] New York City -- [v. 4.] American Southern -- [v. 5.] Irish -- [v. 6.] Scottish -- [v. 7.] Spanish -- [v. 8.] Italian -- [v. 9.] French -- [v. 10.] German -- [v. 11.] Russian -- [v. 12.] Yiddish -- [v. 13.] Texas -- [v. 14.] Boston -- [v. 15.] Down east New England -- 16. Upper class Massachusetts or "Kennedy-esque" -- [v. 17.] Chicago -- 18. Mid-west farm/ranch -- 19. Polish -- [v. 20.] Arabic -- [v. 21.] Farsi (Persian) -- [v. 22.] Norwegian & Swedish -- [v. 23.] West Indian & Black African -- [v. 24.] British north country -- [v. 25.] Australian. Step-by-step instruction and practice in learning to speak English in various domestic and foreign dialects.
DVD For
Forbidden Hollywood collection. Turner Classic Movies Archives. Burbank, CA : Turner Entertainment Company and Warner Brothers Entertainment Inc. Disc 1: Other Men's Women; The Purchase Price. Disc 2: Frisco Jenny; Midnight Mary. Disc 3: Heroes for Sale; Wild Boys of the Road. Disc 4: Wild Bil: Hollywood Maverick; The Men Who Made the Movies: William A. Wellman. Other men's women: Grant Withers, Regis Toomey, Mary Astor, J. Farrell MacDonald. The purchase price: Barbara Stanwyck, George Brent, Lyle Talbot. Frisco Jenny: Ruth Chatterton, Louis Calhern. Midnight Mary: Loretta Young, Ricardo Cortez, Franchot Tone, Andy Devine. Heroes for sale: Richard Barthelmess, Aline MacMahon, Loretta Young, Gordon Westcott. Wild boys of the road: Frankie Darro, Dorothy Coonan, Rochelle Hudson, Edwin Phillips. Wild Bill: Hollywood maverick - narrator, Alec Baldwin. Disc 1: Other men's women: Bill and Jack are railroad men. When Bill comes to stay with Jack and his wife, Bill and Lily fall in love. Jack confronts Bill about his suspicions and the two fight, leaving Jack seriously injured. The purchase price: Joan Gordon is a singer tiring of her relationship with Eddie. She flees to North Dakota to become a mail-order bride. Happiness is threatened by her stubborn husband, a lecherous neighbor and the appearance of Eddie. Disc 2: Frisco Jenny: Jenny was orphaned by the 1906 earthquake and fire and has gone on to become the madame of a prosperous bawdy house. After putting her son up for adoption, he becomes a district attorney dedicated to closing down such houses. She kills an underling who wants her son dead and is now facing execution. Midnight Mary: A mistaken arrest, a prison term, and lack of employment leads to a young woman's involvement with gangsters. In a brothel she meets a wealthy lawyer who falls in love with her. He helps her turn her life around, but her past catches up with her. Now she is on trial for murder. Disc 3: Heroes for sale: A man stands up during a WWI battle and becomes a hero, but he doesn't get the credit. He becomes injuried and soon gets hooked on morphine, causing him to fall apart when he returns home. He eventually marries, but soon the Depression hits. Wild boys of the road: Tom and Ed are high school students whose parents, thanks to the Depression, have lost their jobs. Wanting to help make money, they set off on the rails looking for work. They finally end up in New York and Ed thinks he might have foud a job. Disc 4: Wild Bill: Explores the life and directorial times of William A. Wellman. The men who made the movies: Wellman shares many stories and speaks bluntly of the producers with who he has worked and describes his remarkable star-making and star-spotting abilities. He was responsible for helping actors win Oscars and discovered such notable actors as James Cagney and Gary Cooper.
DVD Gra
The grapes of wrath. [DVD version includes: commentary by Joseph McBride and Susan Shillinglaw; prologue from British version; Biography. Darryl F. Zanuck : twentieth century filmmaker; 3 drought reports from 1934 Movietone news newsreels; outtakes; still gallery; featurette entitled Roosevelt lauds motion pictures at Academy fete; restoration comparison; English and Spanish tracks and subtitles]. Henry Fonda (Tom Joad); Jane Darwell (Ma Joad); John Carradine (Casy); Charley Grapewin (grandpa); Dorris Bowdon (Rosasharn); Russell Simpson (Pa Joad); O.Z. Whitehead (Al); John Qualen (Muley); Eddie Quillan (Connie); Zeffie Tilbury (grandma); Frank Sully (Noah); Frank Darien (Uncle John); Darryl Hickman (Winfield); Shirley Mills (Ruth Joad); Roger Imhof (Thomas); Grant Mitchell (caretaker); Charles D. Brown (Wilkie); John Arledge (Davis); Ward Bond (policeman); Harry Tyler (Bert); William Pawley (Bill); Charles Tannen (Joe); Selmar Jackson (inspection officer); Charles Middleton (leader); Eddie Waller (proprietor); Paul Guilfoyle (Floyd); David Hughes (Frank); Cliff Clark (city man); Joseph Sawyer (bookkeeper); Frank Faylen (Tim); Adrian Morris (agent); Hollis Jewell (Muley's son); Robert Homans (Spencer); Irving Bacon (Roy); Kitty McHugh (Mae); Arthur Aylesworth (father); Norman Willis, Lee Shumway, Frank O'Connor, Tom Tyler, Harry Cording, Ralph Dunn, Paul Sutton, Pat Flaherty, Dick Rich (deputies); Mae Marsh (Muley's wife); Herbert Heywood (gas station man); Harry Strang (Fred); Walter Miller (border guard); Gaylord Pendleton, Ben Hall, Robert Shaw (gas station attendants); George O'Hara (clerk); Thornton Edwards (motor cop); Russ Clark, James Flavin, Philip Morris, Max Wagner (guards); Trevor Bardette (Jule); Jack Pennick (committee man); Walter McGrail (leader of gang); William Haade (deputy driver); Ted Oliver (state policeman); Gloria Roy (waitress); George Breakstone, Wally Albright (boys); John Wallace (migrant); Erville Alderson, Louis Mason, Shirley Coates, Peggy Ryan, Georgia Simmons, Harry Holden, Hal Budlong, John Binns, Harry Wallace, L.F. O'Connor, Cliff Herbert, Joe Bordeaux, Tyler Gibson, Leon Brace, Harry Matthews, Frank Newberg, Jack Walters, Bill Wolfe, Delmar Costello, Bill Worth, Frank Atkinson, James Welch, Charles Thurston, Jules Michaelson, Waclaw Rekwart, Sidney Hayes, E.J. Kaspar, D.H. Turner, David Kirkland, C.B. Steele, Frank Watson, Al Stewart, Henry Barhe, Scotty Brown, Charles West, Dean hall, Walton Pindon, Charles W. Hertzinger, W.H. Davis, Scotty Mattraw, Chauncey Pyle, Walter Perry, Billy Elmer, Buster Brodie, Barney Gilmore, Cal Cohen, Nora Bush, Jane Crowley, Eleanor Vogel, Lillian Drew, Cecil Cook, Helen Dean, Pearl Varvell, hazel Lollier, Emily Gerdes, Rose Plummer, Mrs. Gladys Rehfeld, Edna Hall, Josephine Allen.
DVD It
It happened one night. Full screen. [Culver City, Calif.] : Columbia Pictures ;, c2008. Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Walter Connolly, Roscoe Karns, Jameson Thomas, Alan Hale, Arhtur Hoyt. When her father threatens to annul her marriage to a fortune-hunting playboy, spoiled heiress Ellie Andrews hops a cross-country bus to New York, where she plans to live happily ever after with her handsome new hubby. Romantic complications soon arise, however, when she's befriended by fellow passenger Peter Warne, a brash and breezy reporter who offers his help in exchange for her exclusive story.
DVD Mar
The Marx brothers collection. Warner Brothers Home Video. Set includes: 1) A Night at the Opera; 2) A Day at the Races; 3) A night in Casablanca; 4) Room Service; 5) At the Circus; 6) Go West; 7) The Big Store.
DVD Sca
Scarface. Paul Muni, Ann Dvorak, Karen Morley, Osgood Pergkins, C. Henry Gordon, George Raft, Vince Barnett, Boris Karloff, Purnell Pratt. "An exciting story of organized crime's brutal control over Chicago during the prohibition era. This compelling tale of ambition, betrayal and revenge is a groundbreaking masterpiece that influenced all gangster films to follow."--Container.
DVD Swi
Swing time. DVD special edition. Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Victor Moore, Helen Broderick, Eric Blore, Betty Furness, Georges Metaxa. "In this irresistible musical, the legendary dancing duo Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers are at the pinnacle of their art as a feckless gambler and the shrewd dancing instructor in whom he more than meets his match. Director George Stevens laces their romance with humor and clears the floor for the movie's showstopping dance scenes, in which Astaire and Rogers take seemingly effortless flight in a virtuosic fusion of ballroom and tap styles. Buoyed by beloved songs by Dorothy Fields and Jerome Kern--including the Oscar-winning classic 'The Way You Look Tonight'--Swing Time is an exuberant celebration of its stars' chemistry, grace, and sheer joy in the act of performance"--Container.
DVD Wil
Wild boys of the road. Warner Bros., Home Video, 1950s. In the depths of the Depression, two teenage boys strike out on their own in order to help their struggling parents and find life on the road tougher than expected.
EQUIP
Digital Voice Recorder : Multi-function stereo recorder. Olympus Model WS-852. Tokyo: : Olympus Corporation; Olympus America, Inc., PA, 2015.
F Cum
Cummins, Jeanine, author. American dirt. First U.S. edition. "También de este lado hay sueños. Lydia Quixano Perez lives in the Mexican city of Acapulco. She runs a bookstore. She has a son, Luca, the love of her life, and a wonderful husband who is a journalist. And while there are cracks beginning to show in Acapulco because of the drug cartels, her life is, by and large, fairly comfortable. Even though she knows they'll never sell, Lydia stocks some of her all-time favorite books in her store. And then one day a man enters the shop to browse and comes up to the register with four books he would like to buy-two of them her favorites. Javier is erudite. He is charming. And, unbeknownst to Lydia, he is the jefe of the newest drug cartel that has gruesomely taken over the city. When Lydia's husband's tell-all profile of Javier is published, none of their lives will ever be the same. Forced to flee, Lydia and eight-year-old Luca soon find themselves miles and worlds away from their comfortable middle-class existence. Instantly transformed into migrants, Lydia and Luca ride la bestia-trains that make their way north toward the United States, which is the only place Javier's reach doesn't extend. As they join the countless people trying to reach el norte, Lydia soon sees that everyone is running from something. But what exactly are they running to? American Dirt will leave readers utterly changed when they finish reading it. A page-turner filled with poignancy, drama, and humanity on every page, it is a literary achievement."--.
F Fre
Freudenberger, Nell. The dissident. 1st ed. New York : ECCO, c2006.
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Freudenberger, Nell, author. Lost and wanted. First Edition. "Told from the perspective of a female physicist in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a story that explores the nature of friendship, romantic love, and motherhood"--.
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Gladstone, Max, author. Full fathom five. First Trade paperback edition. "On the island of Kavekana, Kai builds gods to order, then hands them to others to maintain. Her creations aren't conscious and lack their own wills and voices, but they accept sacrifices, and protect their worshippers from other gods--perfect vehicles for Craftsmen and Craftswomen operating in the divinely controlled Old World. When Kai sees one of her creations dying and tries to save her, she's grievously injured--then sidelined from the business entirely, her near-suicidal rescue attempt offered up as proof of her instability. But when Kai gets tired of hearing her boss, her coworkers, and her ex-boyfriend call her crazy, and starts digging into the reasons her creations die, she uncovers a conspiracy of silence and fear--which will crush her, if Kai can't stop it first"--.
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Gladstone, Max, author. Last first snow. First Trade paperback edition. "Forty years after the God Wars, Dresediel Lex bears the scars of liberation--especially in the Skittersill, a poor district still bound by the fallen gods' decaying edicts. As long as the gods' wards last, they strangle development; when they fail, demons will be loosed upon the city. The King in Red hires Elayne Kevarian of the Craft firm Kelethres, Albrecht, and Ao to fix the wards, but the Skittersill's people have their own ideas. A protest rises against Elayne's work, led by Temoc, a warrior-priest turned community organizer who wants to build a peaceful future for his city, his wife, and his young son. As Elayne drags Temoc and the King in Red to the bargaining table, old wounds reopen, old gods stir in their graves, civil blood breaks to new mutiny, and profiteers circle in the desert sky. Elayne and Temoc must fight conspiracy, dark magic, and their own demons to save the peace--or failing that, to save as many people as they can"--.
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Gladstone, Max, author. Three parts dead. First Trade Paperback Edition. "A god has died, and it's up to Tara, first-year associate in the international necromantic firm of Kelethres, Albrecht, and Ao, to bring Him back to life before His city falls apart. Her client is Kos, recently deceased fire god of the city of Alt Coulumb. Without Him, the metropolis' steam generators will shut down, its trains will cease running, and its four million citizens will riot. Tara's job: resurrect Kos before chaos sets in. Her only help: Abelard, a chain-smoking priest of the dead god, who's having an understandable crisis of faith. When the dou discovers that Kos was murdered, they have to make a case in Alt Coulumb's courts--and their quest for the truth endangers their partnership, their lives, and Alt Coulumb's slim hope of survival."--from publisher's description.
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Gladstone, Max, author. Two serpents rise. First Trade paperback edition. "Shadow demons plague the city reservoir, and Red King Consolidated has sent in Caleb Altemoc--casual gambler and professional risk manager--to cleanse the water for the sixteen million people of Dresediel Lex. At the scene of the crime, Caleb finds an alluring and clever cliff runner, crazy Mal, who easily outpaces him. But Caleb has more than the demon infestation, Mal, or job security to worry about when he discovers that his father--the last priest of the old gods and leader of the True Quechal terrorists--has broken into his home and is wanted in connection to the attacks on the water supply. From the beginning, Caleb and Mal are bound by lust, Craft, and chance, as both play a dangerous game where gods and people are pawns. They sleep on water, they dance in fire ... and all the while the Twin Serpents slumbering beneath the earth are stirring, and they are hungry."--.
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Ruin of angels. First edition, 2017. New York, NY : Tor, c.2017. "The God Wars destroyed the city of Alikand. Now, a century and a half and a great many construction contracts later, Agdel Lex rises in its place. Dead deities litter the surrounding desert, streets shift when people aren't looking, a squidlike tower dominates the skyline, and the foreign Iskari Rectification Authority keeps strict order in this once-independent city--while treasure seekers, criminals, combat librarians, nightmare artists, angels, demons, dispossessed knights, grad students, and other fools gather in its ever-changing alleys, hungry for the next big score. Priestess/investment banker Kai Pohala (last seen in Full Fathom Five) hits town to corner Agdel Lex's burgeoning nightmare startup scene, and to visit her estranged sister Lei. But Kai finds Lei desperate at the center of a shadowy, and rapidly unravelling, business deal. When Lei ends up on the run, wanted for a crime she most definitely committed, Kai races to track her sister down before the Authority finds her first. But Lei has her own plans, involving her ex-girlfriend, a daring heist into the god-haunted desert, and, perhaps, freedom for an occupied city. Because Alikand might not be completely dead--and some people want to finish the job."--Amazon.com.
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Grisham, John, author. The guardians. First edition. In a small Florida town, a young lawyer, Keith Russo, is shot to death as he works late. A young black man, a former client, named Quincy Miller is charged and convicted. For 22 years, Miller maintains his innocence from inside prison. Finally, Guardian Ministries takes on Miller's case, but Cullen Post, the Episcopal minister in charge, gets more than he bargained for. Powerful people murdered Russo-- they do not want Miller exonerated, and will kill again without a second thought. -- adapted from info provided and jacket info.
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Hilderbrand, Elin, author. Summer of '69. First edition. Welcome to the most tumultuous summer of the twentieth century. It's 1969, and for the Levin family, the times they are a-changing. Every year the children have looked forward to spending the summer at their grandmother's historic home in downtown Nantucket. But like so much else in America, nothing is the same: Blair, the oldest sister, is marooned in Boston, pregnant with twins and unable to travel. Middle sister Kirby, caught up in the thrilling vortex of civil rights protests and, determined to be independent, takes a summer job on Martha's Vineyard. Only-son Tiger is an infantry soldier, recently deployed to Vietnam. Thirteen-year-old Jessie suddenly feels like an only child, marooned in the house with her out-of-touch grandmother and her worried mother, each of them hiding a troubling secret. As the summer heats up, Ted Kennedy sinks a car in Chappaquiddick, man flies to the moon, and Jessie and her family experience their own dramatic upheavals along with the rest of the country.
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Jenoff, Pam, author. The lost girls of Paris. Library Exclusive Edition. "From the author of the runaway bestseller The Orphan's Tale comes a remarkable story of friendship and courage centered around three women and a ring of female secret agents during World War II.1946, Manhattan. One morning while passing through Grand Central Terminal on her way to work, Grace Healey finds an abandoned suitcase tucked beneath a bench. Unable to resist her own curiosity, Grace opens the suitcase, where she discovers a dozen photographs--each of a different woman. In a moment of impulse, Grace takes the photographs and quickly leaves the station. Grace soon learns that the suitcase belonged to a woman named Eleanor Trigg, leader of a network of female secret agents who were deployed out of London during the war. Twelve of these women were sent to Occupied Europe as couriers and radio operators to aid the resistance, but they never returned home, their fates a mystery. Setting out to learn the truth behind the women in the photographs, Grace finds herself drawn to a young mother turned agent named Marie, whose daring mission overseas reveals a remarkable story of friendship, valor and betrayal. Vividly rendered and inspired by true events, New York Times bestselling author Pam Jenoff shines a light on the incredible heroics of the brave women of the war and weaves a mesmerizing tale of courage, sisterhood and the great strength of women to survive in the hardest of circumstances"--Publisher's description.
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Jenoff, Pam, author. The orphan's tale. Sixteen-year-old Noa, forced to give up her baby fathered by a Nazi soldier, snatches a child from a boxcar containing Jewish infants bound for a concentration camp and takes refuge with a traveling circus, where Astrid, a Jewish aerialist, becomes her mentor.
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Sharon Maas. The Girl from the Sugar Plantation. 23 Sussex Road, Ickenham, UB10 8PN, United Kingdom : Bookouture.
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Sharon Maas. The Violin Maker's Daughter. Carmelite House, 50 Victoria Embankment London EC4Y 0DZ : Bookouture, 2019.
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Sharon Maas. The Lost Daughter of India. 23 Sussex Road, Ickenham, UB10 8PN United Kingdom : Bookouture.
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Makkai, Rebecca, author. The great believers. "A dazzling new novel of friendship and redemption in the face of tragedy and loss set in 1980s Chicago and contemporary Paris, by the acclaimed and award-winning author Rebecca Makkai. In 1985, Yale Tishman, the development director for an art gallery in Chicago, is about to pull off an amazing coup, bringing in an extraordinary collection of 1920s paintings as a gift to the gallery. Yet as his career begins to flourish, the carnage of the AIDS epidemic grows around him. One by one, his friends are dying and after his friend Nico's funeral, the virus circles closer and closer to Yale himself. Soon the only person he has left is Fiona, Nico's little sister. Thirty years later, Fiona is in Paris tracking down her estranged daughter who disappeared into a cult. While staying with an old friend, a famous photographer who documented the Chicago crisis, she finds herself finally grappling with the devastating ways AIDS affected her life and her relationship with her daughter. The two intertwining stories take us through the heartbreak of the eighties and the chaos of the modern world, as both Yale and Fiona struggle to find goodness in the midst of disaster"--.
F McC
A Peirogon : a novel. First Edition. New York, NY : Random House, 2020.
F Mic
Michaelides, Alex, 1977- author. The silent patient. First International Edition. Alicia Berenson's life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London's most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word. Alicia's refusal to talk or give any kind of explanation turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the spotlight of the tabloids at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London. Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His search for the truth leads him down a terrifying path and threatens to consume him.
F Ng
Ng, Celeste, author. Little fires everywhere.
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Older, Daniel José, author. The Book of Lost Saints. First edition. "The spirit of Marisol, who vanished during the Cuban Revolution, visits her nephew, Ramon, in modern-day New Jersey, and her presence prompts him to investigate the story of his ancestor, unaware of the forces driving him on his search"--.
F Rem
Remarque, Erich Maria, 1898-1970. The road back. Random House Trade Paperback Edition, 2013. New York, NY : Random House Publishing, 2013.
F Ser
Rebecca Serle. The Dinner List. First U.S. Edition, September 2018. New York, NY : Flatiron Books, 2018.
F Ser
Serle, Rebecca, author. In five years : a novel. First Atria Books hardcover edition. "A striking, powerful, and moving love story following an ambitious lawyer who experiences an astonishing vision that could change her life forever"--. "When Type-A Manhattan lawyer Dannie Cohan is asked this question at the most important interview of her career, she has a meticulously crafted answer at the ready. Later, after nailing her interview and accepting her boyfriend's marriage proposal, Dannie goes to sleep knowing she is right on track to achieve her five-year plan. But when she wakes up, she's suddenly in a different apartment, with a different ring on her finger, and beside a very different man. The television news is on in the background, and she can just make out the scrolling date. It's the same night -December 15 -but 2025, five years in the future. After a very intense, shocking hour, Dannie wakes again, at the brink of midnight, back in 2020. She can't shake what has happened. It certainly felt much more than merely a dream, but she isn't the kind of person who believes in visions. That nonsense is only charming coming from free-spirited types, like her lifelong best friend, Bella. Determined to ignore the odd experience, she files it away in the back of her mind. That is, until four-and-a-half years later, when by chance Dannie meets the very same man from her long-ago vision."--Publisher website.
F Van
Vanderah, Glendy, author. Where the forest meets the stars. First edition. A mysterious child teaches two strangers how to love and trust again. After the loss of her mother and her own battle with breast cancer, Joanna Teale returns to her graduate research on nesting birds in rural Illinois, determined to prove that her recent hardships have not broken her. When a mysterious child who shows up at her cabin, barefoot and covered in bruises, Joanna enlists the help of her reclusive neighbor, Gabriel Nash, to solve the mystery of the charming child. But the more time they spend together, the more questions they have. How does a young girl not only read but understand Shakespeare? Why do good things keep happening in her presence? And why aren't Jo and Gabe checking the missing children's website anymore? Though the three have formed an incredible bond, they know difficult choices must be made.
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Vuong, Ocean, 1988- author. On earth we're briefly gorgeous : a novel. "Brilliant, heartbreaking, tender, and highly original - poet Ocean Vuong's debut novel is a sweeping and shattering portrait of a family, and a testament to the redemptive power of storytelling. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family's history that began before he was born--a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam--and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation. At once a witness to the fraught yet undeniable love between a single mother and her son, it is also a brutally honest exploration of race, class, and masculinity"--.
F Whi
Whitehead, Colson, 1969- author. The nickel boys : a novel. First edition.
[Fic]
Gladstone, Max, author. Four roads cross. First edition. "The great city of Alt Coulumb is in crisis. The moon goddess Seril, long thought dead, is back--and the people of Alt Coulumb aren't happy. Protests rock the city, and Kos Everburning's creditors attempt a hostile takeover of the fire god's church. Tara Abernathy, the god's in-house Craftswoman, must defend the church against the world's fiercest necromantic firm--and against her old classmate, a rising star in the Craftwork world. As if that weren't enough, Cat and Raz, supporting characters from Three Parts Dead , are back too, fighting monster pirates; skeleton kings drink frozen cocktails, defying several principles of anatomy; jails, hospitals, and temples are broken into and out of; choirs of flame sing over Alt Coulumb; demons pose significant problems; a farmers' market proves more important to world affairs than seems likely; doctors of theology strike back; Monk-Technician Abelard performs several miracles; The Rats! play Walsh's Place; and dragons give almost-helpful counsel."--Syndetics.
R 943.086
The Holocaust chronicle. Lincolnwood, Ill. : Publications International, Ltd, 2009; 2017. The Holocaust Chronicle, written and fact-checked by top scholars, recounts the long, complex, anguishing story of the most terrible crime of the 20th century. A massive, oversized hardcover of more than 750 pages, this book features more than 2000 photographs, many of which are in full color and most are published in book form for the first time. The 3000-item timeline of Holocaust-related events is unprecedented in its scope and ambition and detailed caption-text is rich with facts and human interest.
SC Rus
Russell, Karen, 1981- author. Orange world : and other stories. First edition. The prospectors -- The bad graft -- Bog girl: a romance -- Madame Bovary's greyhound -- The tornado auction -- Black Corfu -- The Gondoliers -- Orange world. "From the Pulitzer finalist and universally beloved author of the New York Times best sellers Swamplandia! and Vampires in the Lemon Grove, a stunning new collection of short fiction that showcases her extraordinary gifts of language and imagination"--.
SC Rus
Russell, Karen, 1981-. Vampires in the lemon grove : stories. 1st ed. New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2013.
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Smith, Zadie, author. Grand union : stories. The dialectic -- Sentimental education -- The lazy river -- Words and music -- Just right -- Parents' morning epiphany -- Downtown -- Miss Adele amidst the corsets -- Mood -- Escape from New York -- Big week -- Meet the President! -- Two men arrive in a village -- Kelso deconstructed -- Blocked -- The canker -- For the King -- Now more than ever -- Grand union. "A dazzling collection of short fiction, more than half of which have never been published before, from the multi-award-winning author of White Teeth and Swing Time Zadie Smith has established herself as one of the most iconic, critically-respected, and popular writers of her generation. In her first short story collection, she combines her power of observation and inimitable voice to mine the fraught and complex experience of life in the modern world. With ten extraordinary new stories complemented by a selection of her most lauded pieces for The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and Granta, GRAND UNION explores a wide range of subjects, from first loves to cultural despair, as well as the desire to be the subject of your own experience. In captivating prose, she contends with race, class, relationships, and gender roles in a world that feels increasingly divided. Nothing is off limits, and everything--when captured by Smith's brilliant gaze--feels fresh and relevant. Perfectly paced, and utterly original, GRAND UNION highlights the wonders Zadie Smith can do"--. In her first short story collection, Smith combines her power of observation and inimitable voice to mine the fraught and complex experience of life in the modern world. She explores a wide range of subjects, from first loves to cultural despair, as well as the desire to be the subject of your own experience. In the stories Smith contends with race, class, relationships, and gender roles in a world that feels increasingly divided. -- adapted from jacket.
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New top story from Time: Survivors Used #MeToo to Speak Up. A Year Later, They’re Still Fighting for Meaningful Change
The morning after Chloe Dykstra posted an essay online, she woke up and checked Twitter, as she does every day. “I opened trending and saw my face,” she says. “It was the most terrifying thing I have ever experienced. I was just like, ‘No, no, no.'”
Dykstra had written about what she described as an emotionally and sexually abusive relationship with an unnamed ex-boyfriend. With a little investigative work, the Internet quickly identified her ex as Chris Hardwick, host of the Talking Dead show and founder of Nerdist. (Hardwick denied the allegations.) At first her account was flooded with encouraging messages. “Then the tide kind of shifted,” she says. “I was attacked relentlessly. There was an organized group of people online whose sole purpose was to try to disprove me. I was terrified people were going to figure out where I lived.”
In the glorious first moments of a revolution, shots ring out, tyrants fall, and visionaries rally the exploited. Last year, that rallying cry was #MeToo, and as the hashtag went viral, with survivors sharing their stories of sexual assault and harassment, hundreds of alleged abusers lost their positions of power.
What some dismissed as a moment a year ago evolved into a sustaining movement. In September, CBS head Les Moonves stepped down after six women accused him of harassment–allegations he denies. And Christine Blasey Ford has brought into question the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, who she says assaulted her at a high school party in the 1980s, an allegation he denies.
For decades, the public ignored or ridiculed claims of harassment or assault. Now the news of the day suggests women are more likely to be heard. But away from the headlines, it’s not so simple. In a national poll of 1,000 women conducted by TIME with SSRS, 60% of the women surveyed felt the environment for women in their workplace had not changed since #MeToo, and 51% say they are no more likely to report sexual harassment now than before the hashtag went viral.
As the dust settles and the public’s attention drifts, survivors and activists attempt the complicated work of creating lasting change–collecting signatures for new legislation, pushing to eradicate boys’ clubs by urging the hiring and promotion of women, and assuring that the movement continues, especially in average workplaces. And that’s all while dealing with what comes after publicly declaring #MeToo.
“After months of reading horrible things about myself, I got to such a low point that I considered ending it,” Dykstra says. “I didn’t really have guidance because you can’t really Google, ‘How to handle being an accuser?'”
  When Trish Nelson took the stage in front of hundreds of chefs and restaurateurs at a conference in Copenhagen last month to talk about how they could improve kitchen culture, she froze. “I was terrified that I’d be booed off the stage,” she says. “Finally I put down the script and just told them, ‘I’m one of the women who came forward about Mario Batali and Ken Friedman.'” She’d already faced criticism for speaking out, and as she surveyed the crowd, she recognized friends and fans of celebrity chef Batali and prominent restaurateur Friedman, whom Nelson and nine other women had accused of grabbing them and making sexual comments in Friedman’s New York restaurant the Spotted Pig. (Friedman has disputed aspects of the accounts but apologized for his “abrasive” behavior. Batali has said he doesn’t recall specific events but apologized for general behavior and is currently under investigation in New York and Boston following allegations of other assaults.)
Yet Nelson was pleasantly surprised when, afterward, dozens of chefs approached her to talk about how they planned to hire more female sous chefs or make their kitchens friendlier to female servers. Since coming forward in December, she has become an advocate for the fair treatment of women in restaurants, where some 80% of waiters and waitresses report experiencing sexual harassment at the hands of guests and chefs, according to a 2014 national survey.
While the cultures of individual restaurants are determined by the attitude and whims of their owners and chefs, workers have been taking matters into their own hands. On Sept. 18, McDonald’s employees walked out in what organizers called the first nationwide strike to protest workplace sexual harassment. They say the fast-food chain failed to make changes after employees filed 10 complaints of sexual harassment with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in May. (McDonald’s said in a statement that it is currently “engaging third-party experts” to “evolve our policies, procedures and training.”)
In other areas of the service industry, survivors are making some progress. Housekeepers are routinely vulnerable to attack by guests; a 2016 survey of Seattle hotel workers found 53% of housekeepers had experienced harassment or assault at work. In July, Chicago activists helped pass the so-called Hands Off Pants On ordinance, which mandates that hotels equip employees with portable emergency-contact devices, and labor advocates are working to push similar laws in states like California. This month, five major hotel chains–Hilton, Hyatt, InterContinental, Marriott and Wyndham–pledged to equip housekeepers with panic buttons.
But other hotels remain resistant to change. Over a year after Dana Lewis alleged that two fellow employees at New York City’s Plaza Hotel harassed her–one following her into a supply closet and forcibly kissing her on three different occasions–only one had been fired. (The Plaza says the other was suspended for two weeks after an arbitration hearing.) She joined a class-action lawsuit against the hotel two months before #MeToo went viral and has taken medical leave from work on the orders of her psychiatrist to cope with the emotional strain of having to work with her alleged attacker. “I do feel like the push was extremely strong last year,” Lewis says. “But it’s dying down just from my own experiences with the Plaza. Nothing has changed there. It’s still toxic.” She cannot afford to leave the job; she’s a single mom, with a daughter to support.
In California, hotel worker Juana Melara–who spoke out last year about being flashed and propositioned by guests on multiple occasions while she cleaned hotel rooms–left her job to put in long hours walking door-to-door collecting signatures for a bill like Hands Off Pants On in her area of Long Beach.
“The hotels had a chance last year four weeks before #MeToo became viral to support similar protections. They didn’t,” Melara says. “Now we’ve collected 46,000 signatures to try to pass the Working Woman’s bill. We wouldn’t have had to do that if they had just supported the law last year. But they can’t see past their noses.”
David Muller“I didn’t really have guidance because you can’t really Google, ‘How to handle being an accuser?'” says Chloe Dykstra
Advocacy can take a toll. “I don’t know whether to call myself a victim or survivor,” says Jessica Howard, who struggled with depression as she relived the abuse she suffered from former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar, now serving up to 360 years in prison. “I had a dark 2017,” she says. “It was a life-or-death situation for me in January.”
Howard was among the first three women who came forward about Nassar and one of the 156 women who testified at his sentencing hearing. In the winter, the world watched as they took the stand, one by one, to share their experiences in a testimony that took days, and accumulated the same overwhelming effect that #MeToo had the day that ordinary women flooded social media with their experiences. But for Howard, the fact that so many women had to take the stand in order for any action to be taken remains disconcerting. “I’m still struggling with the fact that it almost takes hordes of people to make it out of the ‘he said, she said’ realm,” she says, “for a woman or girl or child to even be taken seriously.”
After the testimony, the president of Michigan State University resigned, the athletic director retired, and Nassar’s boss was charged with crimes related to sexual misconduct. The university will pay out $500 million to the girls and women Nassar abused. The entire board of USA Gymnastics and the CEO of the United States Olympic Committee resigned as well, but Howard and other survivors are pushing for a complete overhaul of the sport. “They said it was just a Nassar problem,” she says. “Those organizations institutionally groomed us and handed us on a platter for a sexual abuser. Had they revealed what they knew years earlier, dozens of girls would never have been molested.”
While Howard continues to work as an activist, some women want to exercise their right to be heard, then simply move on with their lives. Lindsay Meyer’s proudest moment in the past year came when she was featured in a story on a local San Francisco blog, not because of her role in the #MeToo movement but because her startup, Batch, was celebrating its one-year anniversary.
Meyer, who spoke up last June about the harassment she says she endured from venture capitalist Justin Caldbeck, who invested in her previous company, doesn’t want to be defined by her role in the movement. (Caldbeck apologized to the women he “made uncomfortable” and resigned from his VC firm.) Change is slow in that world too: a recent poll by LeanIn.org found that men are more hesitant to interact with female subordinates in the wake of #MeToo. “I think aside from a few nasty VCs who were ousted, the same decisionmakers are still enthroned,” Meyer says. “You’ve got more of a PR campaign about why female investors have better returns, but to me it’s a lot of messaging.”
Such halfhearted attempts at change can be discouraging to advocates, as they watch powerful men resume their lives mere months after losing jobs over allegations of misconduct. Ryan Seacrest returned to E! after the network quickly cleared him of accusations of harassment that the host denies. Louis CK, who admitted to exposing himself to female comedians, quietly performed a stand-up set at a comedy club. And Chris Hardwick returned to host his show on AMC after a roughly two-month suspension after Dykstra’s accusations.
“When I found out he had gotten his jobs back, I was actually relieved because I knew [the online harassment] wasn’t going to stop until he was reinstated,” Dykstra says. Still, the vitriol has yet to abate.
  Save for the uproar that follows a new accusation, public enthusiasm for the cause also appears to be fading even in the entertainment industry. In January 2018, the women who helped launch Time’s Up wore black to the Golden Globes to protest sexism and invited anti-harassment activists as their guests. This year’s Emmy Awards passed without any explicit mention of #MeToo.
Time’s Up has, however, set up a $21 million legal-defense fund for women who suffer from harassment and assault at work in any industry. They’re also pushing for entertainment-industry unions to create new codes of conduct that hold employers, rather than individuals, responsible for harassment in an industry where women account for 2% of cinematographers, 8% of directors and 10% of writers.
“We have been working on this issue for 25 years,” says Mily Treviño-Sauceda, co-founder of Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, or National Farmworkers Women’s Alliance, and herself a survivor of harassment. “There were women who came to us before this year and told us what happened but didn’t want to publicly say anything because they felt shame. But when women in our community started seeing women in L.A. and women from different industries stopping the silence, they wanted to give a voice to the issue.” The organization wrote a public letter of support after the Harvey Weinstein story broke, and marched alongside actors. But still, she says, it’s hard to bridge the cultural divide between the farmworkers and Hollywood.
There are other challenges. In August came the revelation that Asia Argento, an Italian actor and one of Weinstein’s original accusers, paid $380,000 late last year to actor Jimmy Bennett, who had accused her of assault. The news came after Argento delivered a rousing speech at the Cannes Film Festival in support of #MeToo and change in the industry. Argento has since now accused Bennett of assault.
And last week, Soon-Yi Previn, Woody Allen’s wife and the adopted daughter of Allen’s former partner Mia Farrow, denied in an interview the claims that Farrow has made over the years that Allen sexually abused both Previn and Farrow’s daughter Dylan. The case predates #MeToo by decades, but with its conflicting accounts, show-business setting and elements of activism (Farrow was an early, prominent crusader against abuse), Previn’s comments added new complexity to a decades-old debate.
Ultimately and unfairly, the burden falls upon survivors–any survivor, really–to explain away these complications: after news of the Argento allegations broke, many turned to early Weinstein accuser and fellow crusader Rose McGowan for an explanation, even though McGowan wasn’t in the room when the alleged assault took place and had no means of clarifying the messy narrative. Meanwhile, thorny questions about Woody Allen’s legacy have been thrust on the women and children in his life rather than on Allen himself.
Even as hundreds of wrongdoers are fired from their jobs, investigated by police and, in the rarest of cases, actually sentenced for committing the crime of assault or rape, the women who lead #MeToo will never be able to declare victory. “I still have to think about the worst moment in my life when I go to sleep every night,” says Lewis, the Plaza Hotel worker.
There will be no one moment that solves all the problems of sexism and the abuses that accompany it in any industry. For activists, including survivors, the past year has sometimes felt just, and often discouraging. But if revolutions come all at once, societies change slowly. That’s a cause both of frustration and ultimately–actuarially, even–of real hope.
“Even if I’m not seeing change among those in power, I see changes in my generation, especially among men in my generation,” says Meyer. “I have to hope that when those men and women rise to positions of power, that’s when things will finally, really, be different.”
This appears in the October 01, 2018 issue of TIME. via https://cutslicedanddiced.wordpress.com/2018/01/24/how-to-prevent-food-from-going-to-waste
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