The Gift Bearer

The Gift Bearer

Charles L. Fontenay

Science Fiction & Fantasy / Biographies & Memoirs

This could well have been Montcalm\'s greatest opportunity; a chance to bring mankind priceless gifts from worlds beyond. But Montcalm was a solid family man--and what about that nude statue in the park?This could well have been Montcalm\'s greatest opportunity; a chance to bring mankind priceless gifts from worlds beyond. But Montcalm was a solid family man--and what about that nude statue in the park?
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Infidel

Infidel

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Biographies & Memoirs / Religion & Spirituality / Women & Gender Studies

One of today’s most admired and controversial political figures, Ayaan Hirsi Ali burst into international headlines following the murder of Theo van Gogh by an Islamist who threatened that she would be next. She made headlines again when she was stripped of her citizenship and resigned from the Dutch Parliament. Infidel shows the coming of age of this distinguished political superstar and champion of free speech as well as the development of her beliefs, iron will, and extraordinary determination to fight injustice. Raised in a strict Muslim family, Hirsi Ali survived civil war, female mutilation, brutal beatings, adolescence as a devout believer during the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood, and life in four troubled, unstable countries ruled largely by despots. She escaped from a forced marriage and sought asylum in the Netherlands, where she earned a college degree in political science, tried to help her tragically depressed sister adjust to the West, and fought for the rights of Muslim women and the reform of Islam as a member of Parliament. Under constant threat, demonized by reactionary Islamists and politicians, disowned by her father, and expelled from family and clan, she refuses to be silenced. Ultimately a celebration of triumph over adversity, Hirsi Ali’s story tells how a bright little girl evolves out of dutiful obedience to become an outspoken, pioneering freedom fighter. As Western governments struggle to balance democratic ideals with religious pressures, no other book could be more timely or more significant.
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On a Tuesday

On a Tuesday

Whitney G.

Romance / Biographies & Memoirs / Literature & Fiction

*We met on a Tuesday. Became best friends, then lovers, on a Tuesday. And everything fell apart on a Tuesday... * Charlotte Taylor has three automatic strikes in my book: 1) She hates me. She also claims that I'm a "domineering jerk with a huge, overbearing ego." (I *do * have something huge. It's not my ego, though.) 2) She takes our mandatory tutoring sessions way too seriously. 3) She's sexy as hell...And a virgin. At least, those were her strikes before our study sessions started lasting longer than they were supposed to. Until one innocent kiss became a hundred dirty ones, and until she became the first woman I ever fell hard for. Our future together after graduation was supposed to be set: Professional football for me. Law school for her. But she left me at the end of the semester with no explanation, and then she completely disappeared from my life. Until tonight. *We met on a Tuesday. Became everything, then nothing, on a Tuesday. And now it's seven years later, on a Tuesday... * This is a full length second chance romance, inspired by Adele's "When We Were Young"
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Unmaking Grace

Unmaking Grace

Barbara Boswell

Biographies & Memoirs / Humor and Comedy / Animals

Family secrets run deep for Grace, a young girl growing up in Cape Town during the 1980s. Her family secrets spill over into adulthood, and threaten to ruin the respectable life she has built for herself. When an old childhood friend emerges after disappearing a decade earlier during a clash with apartheid riot police in the Cape Flats, where South Africa's coloured community makes its home, Grace's memories of her childhood come rushing back, and she is confronted, once again, with the loss that has shaped her. She has to face up to the truth or continue to live a lie—but the choice is not straightforward. Unmaking Grace is an intimate portrayal of violence, both personal and political, and its legacy on one person's life. It meditates on the long shadow cast by personal trauma, showing the inter-generational imprint of violence and loss on people's lives.
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  • 278
We Should Not Be Friends

We Should Not Be Friends

Will Schwalbe

Biographies & Memoirs / Literature & Fiction / Cooking, Food & Wine

A warm, funny, irresistible book that follows an improbable and life-changing college friendship over the course of forty years—from the best-selling author of The End of Your Life Book ClubA "searching, tender, insightful, and wise memoir...Reading this beautifully written and generous book, you will find yourself thinking of your own friendships” —Dani Shapiro, author of Signal Fires By the time Will Schwalbe was a junior at college, he had already met everyone he cared to know: the theater people, writers, visual artists and comp lit majors, and various other quirky characters including the handful of students who shared his own major, Latin and Greek. He also knew exactly who he wanted to avoid: the jocks. The jocks wore baseball caps and moved in packs, filling boisterous tables in the dining hall, and on the whole seemed to be another species entirely, one Will might encounter only at his own peril. All this changed...
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All Things Wise and Wonderful

All Things Wise and Wonderful

James Herriot

Biographies & Memoirs / Nonfiction / Short Stories

Veterinarian James Herriot recalls life in England during World War II, when the great forces of the modern world came even to his sleepy Yorkshire hamlet Only a couple of years after settling into his new home in northern England, James Herriot is called to war. In this series of poignant and humorous episodes, the great veterinarian shares his experiences training with the Royal Air Force, pining for a pregnant wife, and checking in on the people back home who made his practice so fascinating. As the young men of Yorkshire are sent into battle and farmers consider the broader world they’re a part of, Herriot reflects on the lives—human and animal alike—that make his home worth fighting for. 
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The She

The She

Carol Plum-Ucci

Fiction / Nonfiction / Biographies & Memoirs

On a rainy night eight years ago, Evan Barrett's parents were lost at sea. In horror, he listened to their frantic Mayday calls on the ship-to-shore radio, to his mother's cries for mercy--and to the deafening shrieks that answered her back. Now seventeen, Evan has gone in search of answers to his parents' strange disappearance. The only explanation that makes any sense to him is that they were swallowed up by The She, a legendary sea creature that devours ships. But when Evan's quest for the truth uncovers shocking allegations against his parents, he must deal with the possibility that everything he knows about his family is a lie. Includes a reader's guide.
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