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Biography and Memoir August 2017
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| Daring to Drive: A Saudi Woman's Awakening by Manal Al-SharifThough author Manal Al-Sharif grew up as a devoutly fundamentalist Muslim in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, she later received a technical education that led to a job as a computer security engineer. In Daring to Drive, she relates how she publicized a protest movement, the Women2Drive campaign, with a video recording of herself driving a car. This eye-opening memoir vividly portrays the customary restrictions on girls and women in her country as well as the difficulties of pushing for social change. |
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You Don't Have To Say You Love Meby Sherman AlexieSherman Alexie's bond with his mother Lillian was more complex than most. She plunged her family into chaos with a drinking habit, but shed her addiction when it was on the brink of costing her everything. She survived a violent past, but created an elaborate facade to hide the truth. She wanted a better life for her son, but it was only by leaving her behind that he could hope to achieve it. It's these contradictions that made Lillian Alexie a beautiful, mercurial, abusive, intelligent, complicated, and very human woman. When she passed away, the incongruities that defined his mother shook Sherman and his remembrance of her. Grappling with the haunting ghosts of the past in the wake of loss, he responded the only way he knew how: he wrote. The result is a stunning memoir filled with raw, angry, funny, profane, tender memories of a childhood few can imagine, much less survive. An unflinching and unforgettable remembrance, You Don't Have To Say You Love Me is a powerful, deeply felt account of a complicated relationship.
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Sleepless Nights and Kisses for Breakfast : Reflections On Fatherhood by Matteo BussolaMatteo Bussola is a designer and cartoonist who lives in Verona, Italy with his wife Paola; their three young daughters, Virginia, Ginevra, and Melania (ages eight, four, and two); and their two dogs. For two years, he's been writing posts on Facebook capturing the beauty of ordinary moments with his family. Sleepless Nights and Kisses for Breakfast is the memoir that grew out of these writings. Divided into winter, spring, summer, and fall, the book follows the different seasons of parenthood and life. At times moving, and at others humorous, these writings remind people to savor the present and appreciate the simple things in life.
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Churchill and Orwell: The Fight for Freedom by Thomas E. RicksEnglishmen Winston Churchill and George Orwell never met; their lives had some parallels, but many more differences. Churchill was an extroverted, aristocratic conservative, while Orwell was an introverted, left-leaning member of the middle class. But they both championed democracy against totalitarianism and emphasized the significance of language in politics, offering their distinctively English worldviews to counter the perils of fascism and communism. In this "bracing" (Publishers Weekly) depiction, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Thomas Ricks provides a biography of each man and assesses their combined impact on 20th-century history.
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What She Ate : Six Remarkable Women and the Food That Tells Their Stories by Laura ShapiroFood stories can be as intimate and revealing as stories of love, work, or coming-of-age. Each of the six women in this entertaining group portrait was famous in her time, and most are still famous in ours; but until now, nobody has told their lives from the point of view of the kitchen and the table. It’s a lively and unpredictable array of women: They include Dorothy Wordsworth, whose food story transforms our picture of the life she shared with her famous poet brother; Rosa Lewis, the Edwardian-era Cockney caterer who cooked her way up the social ladder; Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady and rigorous protector of the worst cook in White House history; Eva Braun, Hitler’s mistress, who challenges our warm associations of food, family, and table; Barbara Pym, whose witty books upend a host of stereotypes about postwar British cuisine; and Helen Gurley Brown, the editor of Cosmopolitan, whose commitment to “having it all” meant having almost nothing on the plate except a supersized portion of diet gelatin.
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Queen of Bebop : The Musical Lives of Sarah Vaughan by Elaine M. Hayes Drawing from a wealth of sources as well as on exclusive interviews with Vaughan’s friends and former colleagues, Queen of Bebop unravels the many myths and misunderstandings that have surrounded Vaughan while offering insights into this notoriously private woman, her creative process, and, ultimately, her genius. Hayes reveals how, in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Vaughan helped desegregate American airwaves, opening doors for future African-American artists seeking mainstream success, while also setting the stage for the civil rights activism of the 1960s and 1970s. She follows Vaughan from her hometown of Newark, New Jersey, and her first performances at the Apollo, to the Waldorf Astoria and on to the world stage, breathing life into a thrilling time in American music nearly lost to us today. Equal parts biography, criticism, and good old-fashioned American success story, Queen of Bebop is the definitive biography of a hugely influential artist.
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Among the Living and the Dead : A Tale of Exile and Homecoming On the War Roads of Europe by Inara Verzemnieks Raised by her grandparents in Washington State, Inara grew up among expatriates, scattering smuggled Latvian sand over the coffins of the dead, singing folk songs about a land she had never visited. When Inara discovers the scarf Livija wore when she left home, in a box of her grandmother’s belongings, this tangible remnant of the past points the way back to the remote village where her family broke apart. There it is said the suspend their exile once a year for a pilgrimage through forests and fields to the homes they left behind. Coming to know Ausma and the trauma of her exile to Siberia under Stalin, Inara pieces together Livija’s survival through years as a refugee. Weaving these two parts of the family story together in spellbinding, lyrical prose, she gives us a profound and cathartic account of loss, survival, resilience, and love.
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Monday, August 21 The All-American Solar Eclipse 10:00 a.m. The first 20 people in the library get a free pair of glasses to view the solar eclipse! Viewing in New Jersey begins at 1:22, with peak coverage at 2:44. We'll be live-streaming the event in the library! Tuesday, September 12 Alzheimer's Education 6:30 p.m. An educational workshop that will provide tips for making powerful connections. Enroll online or at the library. Wednesday, September 13 Online Travel Planning 1:00 p.m. Learn the best websites and apps to book filghts, hotels, and rental cars. Find the best restaurants, sights to visit, and tours. Find the lowest fares, real-time flight status, directions, language help and more! Wednesday, September 13 Tiny Desserts 6:30 p.m. Pam is back this time, fashioning small but delicious bite-sized desserts. Enroll online or at the library.
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Wednesdays, October 4, 11, & 25 The Protestant Reformation - Three-Part Series 6:30 p.m. At the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, Dr. Lou Mitchell will present a three-part series on the events leading to this 16th-century religious, political, intellectual, and cultural upheaval. Wednesday, October 11 Intro to Microsoft Publisher 1:00 p.m. Learn how to use the versatile program Microsoft Publisher to create quick publications, newsletters, flyers, and more. BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) Wednesday, October 18 Creating Your Family's Personal History 6:30 p.m. You've taken a stab at organizing your family history, but it's overwhelming. What to do? Katie Murphy of Univoice History offers tips and strategies for family history projects that you can actually complete. Enroll online or at the library. Thursday, October 19 History RepEATs Itself 12:00-2:00 p.m. Sample a variety of different foods from the Cranbury Women's Club and Historical Society's cookbooks.
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Cranbury Public Library
23 North Main Street ~
Cranbury, NJ 08512 ~ Phone: 609-655-0555 ~ Contact Us
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