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Biography and Memoir February 2017
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My Life, My Love, My Legacy by Coretta Scott King Born in 1927 to daringly enterprising parents in the Deep South, Coretta Scott had always felt called to a special purpose. While enrolled as one of the first black scholarship students recruited to Antioch College, she became politically and socially active and committed to the peace movement. In love and devoted to shared Christian beliefs as well as shared racial and economic justice goals, she married Dr. King, and events promptly thrust her into a maelstrom of history throughout which she was a strategic partner, a standard bearer, and so much more. As a widow and single mother of four, she worked tirelessly to found and develop The King Center as a citadel for world peace, lobbied for fifteen years for the US national holiday in honor of her husband, championed for women's, workers’ and gay rights and was a powerful international voice for nonviolence, freedom and human dignity. Coretta’s is a love story, a family saga, and the memoir of an extraordinary black woman in twentieth-century America, a brave leader who, in the face of terrorism and violent hatred, stood committed, proud, forgiving, nonviolent, and hopeful every day of her life.
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Born a Crime : Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor NoahBorn a Crime is the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist. It is also the story of that young man’s relationship with his fearless, rebellious, and fervently religious mother—his teammate, a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life. Whether subsisting on caterpillars for dinner during hard times, being thrown from a moving car during an attempted kidnapping, or just trying to survive the life-and-death pitfalls of dating in high school, Trevor illuminates his curious world with an incisive wit and unflinching honesty. His stories weave together to form a moving and searingly funny portrait of a boy making his way through a damaged world in a dangerous time, armed only with a keen sense of humor and a mother’s unconventional, unconditional love.
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Spider from Mars : My Life with Bowie by Mick WoodmanseyIn this first memoir to follow Bowie’s passing, Spider from Mars reveals what it was like to be at the white-hot center of a star’s self-creation. With never-before-told stories and never-before-seen photographs, Woodmansey offers details of the album sessions for The Man Who Sold the World, Hunky Dory, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, and Aladdin Sane: the four albums that made Bowie a cult figure. And, as fame beckoned by eventually consumed Bowie, Woodmansey recalls the wild tours, eccentric characters, and rock ‘n’ roll excess that eventually drove the band apart. A vivid and unique evocation of a transformative musical era and the enigmatic, visionary musician at the center of it, with a foreword by legendary music producer Tony Visconti and an afterword from Def Leppard's Joe Elliot, Spider from Mars is for everyone who values David Bowie, by one of the people who knew him best.
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A Truck Full of Money by Tracy KidderTracy Kidder tells the story of Paul English, a kinetic and unconventional inventor and entrepreneur, who as a boy rebelled against authority. Growing up in working-class Boston, English discovers a medium for his talents the first time he sees a computer. As a young man, despite suffering from what would eventually be diagnosed as bipolar disorder, he begins his pilgrim’s journey through the ups and downs in the brave new world of computers. Relating to the Internet as if it’s an extension of his own mind, he discovers that he has a talent for conceiving innovative enterprises and building teams that can develop them, becoming “a Pied Piper” of geeks. His innovative management style, success, and innate sense of fair play inspire intense loyalty. Early on, one colleague observes: “Someday this boy’s going to get hit by a truck full of money, and I’m going to be standing beside him.” Yet when English does indeed make a fortune, when the travel website Kayak is sold for almost two billion dollars—the first thing he thinks about is how to give the money away: “What else would you do with it?” The second thing he thinks is, What’s next?
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The Pigeon Tunnel : Stories from My Life by John Le CarréFrom his years serving in British Intelligence during the Cold War, to a career as a writer that took him from war-torn Cambodia to Beirut on the cusp of the 1982 Israeli invasion to Russia before and after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, le Carré has always written from the heart of modern times. In this, his first memoir, le Carré is as funny as he is incisive, reading into the events he witnesses the same moral ambiguity with which he imbues his novels. Whether he's writing about the parrot at a Beirut hotel that could perfectly mimic machine gun fire or the opening bars of Beethoven’s Fifth; visiting Rwanda’s museums of the unburied dead in the aftermath of the genocide; meeting with two former heads of the KGB; watching Alec Guinness prepare for his role as George Smiley in the legendary BBC TV adaptations of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley’s People; or describing the female aid worker who inspired the main character in The Constant Gardener, le Carré endows each happening with vividness and humor, now making us laugh out loud, now inviting us to think anew about events and people we believed we understood.
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War Diaries 1939-1945 : Krigsdagbocker 1939-1945 by Astrid LindgrenBefore she became internationally known for her Pippi Longstocking books, Astrid Lindgren was an aspiring author living in Stockholm with her family at the outbreak of the Second World War. The diaries she kept throughout the hostilities offer a civilian's, a mother's, and an aspiring writer’s unique account of the devastating conflict. She emerges as a morally courageous critic of violence and war, as well as a deeply sensitive and astute observer of world affairs. We hear her thoughts about rationing, blackouts, the Soviet invasion of Finland, and the nature of evil, as well as of her personal heartbreaks, financial struggles, and trials as a mother and writer. Posthumously published in Sweden to great international acclaim, these diaries were called in the Swedish press an “unparalleled war narrative,” “unprecedented.” and a “shocking history lesson.” Illustrated with family photographs, newspaper clippings, and facsimile pages, Lindgren’s diaries provide an intensely personal and vivid account of Europe during the war.
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Sandra Day O'Connor : justice in the balance by Ann Carey McFeatters On July 1, 1981, President Ronald Reagan interviewed Sandra Day O'Connor as a candidate for the United States Supreme Court. A few days later, he called her. "Sandra, I'd like to announce your nomination to the Court tomorrow. Is that all right with you?" Scared and wondering if this was a mistake, the little-known judge from Arizona was on her way to becoming the first woman justice and one of the most powerful women in the nation. Ann Carey McFeatters sketches O'Connor's years at Stanford University and her inability to find a job--law firms had no interest in hiring a woman lawyer. McFeatters writes about how O'Connor juggled marriage, a career in law and politics, three sons, breast cancer, and the demands of fame. In this second volume in the Women's Biography Series, we learn how O'Connor became the Court's most important vote on such issues as abortion, affirmative action, the death penalty, the role of religion in society, and the election of a president, decisions that shaped a generation of Americans.
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All the Gallant Men : An American Sailor's Firsthand Account of Pearl Harbor by Donald StrattonA first memoir by a USS Arizona survivor describes his witness to the attacks that left him with burns over more than 65 percent of his body, his resolve to reenter service after a grueling recovery and his contributions to some of the Pacific's most violent battles. As the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack passes, Don, a great-grandfather of five and one of five living survivors of the Arizona, offers an unprecedentedly intimate reflection on the tragedy that drew America into the greatest armed conflict in history. All the Gallant Men is a book for the ages, one of the most remarkable—and remarkably inspiring—memoirs of any kind to appear in recent years.
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Thursday, February 16 Intro to Microsoft Excel 1:00 p.m. Learn how to create spreadsheets using Excel. This class will be a demonstration for beginner users of Excel and will cover basic operation. Saturday, February 18 The Importance of Jackie Robinson 1:00 p.m. The talk will examine how his career in Major League Baseball fit in the broader range of the Civil Rights Movement and the extent to which he became an influential force in it. With Cranbury resident Frank Marlowe. Saturday, March 4 The Home Buying Process 10:00 a.m. Be a prepared home seller or buyer. Learn what you need to know for a smooth transaction. Wednesday, February 22 Spring Sports Assessment 6:30 p.m. Gauri Sabnis of Synergex Physical Therapy will present information regarding toning-up for Spring sports. For student athletes' parents. Thursday, February 23 Organize Your Recipes Digitally 7:00 p.m. Do you have boxes full of recipe cards or folders full of torn-out pages from food magazines? Come learn how to digitize and organize those recipes so that they are available to you on any of your electronic devices.
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Saturday, March 2 Fact or Fiction: How to Spot Fake News 7:00 p.m. Learn tips to analyze news sources, tools for fact-checking, and ways to confirm news accuracy with a critical eye before sharing information. Saturday, March 25 NJ Makers Day 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Come participate in the 3rd annual NJ Makers Day! Come to imagine, create, tinker, and learn. This is an all-ages family event to complete several STEM challenges throughout the library, including our first ever Escape Room activity! Tuesday, March 28 Bites for Books 4:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m. Join library friends and neighbors for dinner at Teddy's Restaurant. Teddy's will donate 20% of your bill to the Cranbury Library Foundation. Friday, April 27 Foods and Flavors of Thailand 6:30 p.m. Join Jen Diamond for a tour and taste of Thailand! Saturday, April 29 Stamp Roadshow 10:30 a.m. The Hamilton Township Philatelic Society will be on hand to evaluate the worth of your stamp collection! They'll also give pointers to the novice collector.
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Cranbury Public Library
23 North Main Street ~
Cranbury, NJ 08512 ~ Phone: 609-655-0555 ~ Contact Us
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