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-Our intrepid captain through thick and thin for more than 40 years, but whose counting?
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Here are five books I enjoyed last year...
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ACE: What Asexuality reveals about desire, society, and the meaning of sex.by Angela ChenThrough a blend of reporting, cultural criticism, and memoir, Ace addresses the misconceptions around the “A” of LGBTQIA and invites everyone to rethink pleasure and intimacy. Journalist Angela Chen creates her path to understanding her own asexuality with the perspectives of a diverse group of asexual people.
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They Called Us Enemyby George TakeiA graphic memoir written by author, actor, and activist George Takei and illustrated by Harmony Becker. The story chronicles Takei’s childhood experience in the Japanese internment camps in America during World War II. Takei frames the narrative with a modern-day talk he gives at the home of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who presided over the country during the internment period. During the talk, Takei tells his family’s story while examining the conflict between his faith in American democracy and the terrible decision to create the internment camps.
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By Bernard Ollivier Journalist Bernard Ollivier's stunning account of the second leg of his 7,200-mile walk from Istanbul, Turkey, to Xi’an, China, along the Silk Road--the longest and perhaps most mythical trade route of all time. Picking up where Out of Istanbul left off, Ollivier heads out of the Middle East and into Central Asia, grappling not only with his own will to continue but with new, unforeseen dangers.
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The National Roadby Tom ZoellnerFrom the embattled newsrooms of small town newspapers to the pornography film sets of the Los Angeles basin, from the check-out lanes of Dollar General to the holy sites of Mormonism, from the nation’s highest peaks to the razed remains of a cherished home, like a latter-day Woody Guthrie, Tom Zoellner takes to the highways and byways of a vast land in search of the soul of its people.
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The Fire and the DarknessOn February 13th, 1945 at 10:03 PM, British bombers began one of the most devastating attacks of WWII: the bombing of Dresden. The first contingent killed people and destroyed buildings, roads, and other structures. The second rained down fire, turning the streets into a blast furnace, the shelters into ovens, and whipping up a molten hurricane in which the citizens of Dresden were burned, baked, or suffocated to death.
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The GreatA satirical, comedic drama about the rise of Catherine the Great from outsider to the longest reigning female ruler in Russia's history. A fictionalized, fun and anachronistic story of an idealistic, romantic young girl, who arrives in Russia for an arranged marriage to the mercurial Emperor Peter. Hoping for love and sunshine, she finds instead a dangerous, depraved, backward world that she resolves to change. All she has to do is kill her husband, beat the church, baffle the military and get the court onside. A very modern story about the past which encompasses the many roles she played over her lifetime as lover, teacher, ruler, friend, and fighter. Incorporating historical facts occasionally, the series stars Elle Fanning as Catherine, Nicholas Hoult, Phoebe Fox, Adam Godley, Gwilym Lee, Charity Wakefield, Douglas Hodge, Sacha Dhawan, Sebastian de Souza, Bayo Gbadamosi and Belinda Bromilow.
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Just MercyA 2019 American biographical legal drama film co-written and directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, and starring Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx, Rob Morgan, Tim Blake Nelson, Rafe Spall, and Brie Larson. It tells the true story of Walter McMillian, who, with the help of young defense attorney Bryan Stevenson, appeals his murder conviction. The film is based on the memoir of the same name, written by Stevenson.
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Fleabag A British black comedy television series created and written by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, based on her one-woman show first performed in 2013. Waller-Bridge stars as the title character, a free-spirited and sexually active but angry and confused young woman in London. Sian Clifford and Olivia Colman also star, while Andrew Scott joined the cast in the second series. The protagonist frequently breaks the fourth wall to provide exposition, internal monologues, and a running commentary to the audience
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JEXIa 2019 romantic comedy film written and directed by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore. The film stars Adam DeVine, Alexandra Shipp, Michael Peña, Rose Byrne, Justin Hartley, Wanda Sykes, Ron Funches, and Charlyne Yi. The plot follows a self-aware smartphone with a female-voiced virtual assistant that becomes emotionally attached to its socially awkward owner.
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A 2020 American comedy-drama film directed by Judd Apatow, from a screenplay by Apatow, Pete Davidson, and Dave Sirus. It stars Davidson, Marisa Tomei, Bill Burr, Bel Powley, Maude Apatow, and Steve Buscemi, and follows a young man who must get his life together after his mother starts dating a new man who, like his deceased father, is a firefighter.
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A 2020 British drama film written and directed by Jessica Swale. It stars Gemma Arterton, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Lucas Bond, Dixie Egerickx, Siân Phillips, Penelope Wilton and Tom Courtenay. The film stars Arterton as a reclusive writer who is forced to bond with a young boy who has been entrusted to her care after the London Blitz.
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SpontaneousA 2020 American science fiction romantic black comedy film, written and directed by Brian Duffield, in his directorial debut.[2] It stars Katherine Langford, Charlie Plummer, Hayley Law, Piper Perabo, Rob Huebel and Yvonne Orji.
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Elting Memorial Library 93 Main St. New Paltz, New York 12561-1593 845.255.5030eltinglibrary.org |
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