Upcoming Events
All branches will be closed for Labor Day.
Enjoy an early literacy program for infants focused on developmental skills consisting of stories, rhymes, bounces, and more. Then, stay and play while meeting new community members.
Come to the Clarke County Library Children's Room for stories and fun! Miss Bonnie will share a new adventure with early readers and their families each week. All are welcome!
Disclaimer(s)
Library Consent Statement for Photography and Video
Programs, events, and daily happenings sponsored by Handley Regional Library System may be photographed or recorded. Attendance at any sponsored program, event or general library use constitutes the consent of all attendees and the consent of the parents or legal guardians of any minor children in attendance, to the future broadcast, publication, and other use of photography or videos at the sole direction of Handley Regional Library System.
Trit Trot to Bowman is an early literacy program for infants, 0-18 months, and their families and caregivers. Introduce your babe to the joys of books, language, movement, and music!
Disclaimer(s)
Library Consent Statement for Photography and Video
Programs, events, and daily happenings sponsored by Handley Regional Library System may be photographed or recorded. Attendance at any sponsored program, event or general library use constitutes the consent of all attendees and the consent of the parents or legal guardians of any minor children in attendance, to the future broadcast, publication, and other use of photography or videos at the sole direction of Handley Regional Library System.
Photography Notification
While we do allow professional photography inside the property of Handley Regional Library System, we do ask that we are notified ahead of time of photoshoots at 540.662.9041 x 25. Photography activities may be limited to specific areas due to reserved use and cannot impede any patron activity using the library.
Hooks and needles and fiber, oh my!
Whatever you craft (knit, crochet, embroidery, latch hook...), we invite you to bring your work in progress of any kind and enjoy the company of other crafters!
Hooks and needles and fiber, oh my!
Whatever you craft (knit, crochet, embroidery, latch hook...), we invite you to bring your work in progress of any kind and enjoy the company of others!
No registration required.
BikeWalk Winchester Meeting
BikeWalk Winchester is an advocacy group promoting safe, enjoyable biking and walking for all.
What's New
![Poster for the Smokey Bear Reading Challenge. Reads "Celebrate Smokey Bear's 80th Birthday. Join Smokey in learning about wildfires and the environment. Read books, take action, and have fun. And remember: only you can prevent wildfires." Background is a cartoon forest.](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2024-08/smokey-bear-reading-challenge-socials3.png?itok=s8aKgnaa)
Smokey Bear Reading Challenge!
Get ready to learn all about the environment and how you can do your part with Smokey Bear’s Reading Challenge. Running from August 10th to November 30th, the challenge is available to all ages and accessible on your Beanstack account.
![Teen Programs at the Library](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2024-08/Teen%20Program%20Blog%20Post.png?itok=EpbIpu3O)
6 Teen Programs at the Library You Should Check Out
When you think of youth programming at the library, you probably think about storytimes and puppets and all sorts of things for younger kids. But did you know that the library offers programs for teens, as well? Read on to learn about a few of the activities you can get involved with!
Bowman Library
![Middle Grade Mysteries Book Covers](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2024-08/Middle%20Grade%20Mysteries%20pt.%202%20Booktalk%20Blog%20Graphic.png?itok=-uBj-MFU)
Middle Grade Book Spotlight--Mysteries!!!
Our middle grade book spotlight this week is taking a look at Mysteries!!! There are so many different types of mystery books available that there is literally something for everyone’s tastes! Some are straight mystery/detective stories while others are more suspenseful and thrilling; mysteries are usually cross genre as well meaning that not only is there a mystery element, but there may also be some fantasy, science fiction, or historical elements as well. We have a great selection this week from realistic to fantasy, murder mysteries and crime solving so you will either
What to Watch
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Raptors : a fistful of daggers
The planet's most successful large predators are a group of birds known as raptors. United by a hooked beak, a taste for flesh and a set of razor-sharp talons, these birds of prey have conquered the globe. Raptors dominate every habitat in which they live. Learn more about eagles, hawks, and falcons as well as the lesser-known hunters like the secretary bird, the caracara, kites and more.
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Bobcat Moretti
Looking for a new start from a life filled with loss and sorrow, obese MS patient Bobby Moretti transforms himself at the gym where his father once boxed. Join lead actor Tim Realbuto on this phenomenal journey wherein he lost 154 lbs to embody the role of "Bobcat" Moretti.
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A.I. revolution
Can we harness the power of artificial intelligence to solve the world's most challenging problems without creating an uncontrollable force that ultimately destroys us? ChatGPT and other new A.I. tools can now answer complex questions, write essays, and generate realistic-looking images in a matter of seconds. They can even pass a lawyer's bar exam.
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Cut, color, murder
When a beauty pageant creator is found dead, a savvy hairdresser works with a detective and risks everything to clear the names of those she loves.
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Younger : the complete series
Liza Miller is a 40-year-old mom passing herself off as a 20-something assistant. Though her ruse lands her a dream job in publishing, a hot young boyfriend, and a fun new millennial squad, cracks began to form in her plan as she realizes that her secret was hurting those closest to her.
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A wing and a prayer
We follow the untold true story of WWII aviators who carried out a covert operation delivering weapons to the Israeli Army during the Arab-Israeli War to help prevent a second Holocaust.
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A good person
Allison's life falls apart following her involvement in a fatal accident that took the life of Daniel's daughter. As grief-stricken Daniel navigates raising his teen aged granddaughter and Allison seeks redemption, the two discover that friendship, hope, and forgiveness flourish in unlikely places.
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Lawmen : Bass Reeves
It follows the journey of Reeves and his rise from enslavement to law enforcement as one of the first Black U.S. Deputy Marshals west of the Mississippi. Despite arresting over 3,000 outlaws during his career, the weight of the badge was heavy, and he wrestled with its moral and spiritual cost to his beloved family. This release features over two hours of special features, including an exclusive interview with Production Designer, Wynn Thomas (Malcolm X, Hidden Figures).
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Far haven
In 1887, Hunter Braddock moves back to Far Haven, Arizona, to start over with his two young children, but when his father-in-law is brutally attacked, he must take on the corrupt forces strangling the town in order to protect what he loves most.
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Lights out
A drifting ex-soldier turns underground fighter with the help of a just released ex-con, pitting them both against corrupt cops and hired killers gunning for them and all those they care about.
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Bones and all [blu-ray]
A story of first love between Maren, a young woman learning how to survive on the margins of society, and Lee, an intense and disenfranchised drifter. It's a liberating road odyssey of two young people coming into their own, searching for identity and chasing beauty in a perilous world that cannot abide who they are.
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American star
An assassin on final assignment arrives in Fuerteventura to kill a man he has never met. But the target is delayed. Instead of following protocol he stays, drawn to the island, the people, and a ghostly shipwreck. When the target returns, the world has shifted. Before everything was simple, now nothing is.
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Inside Man - Season One - BBC
Jefferson Grieff is on Death Row in an American prison for brutally murdering his wife. But it turns out that Grieff has a gift: he can solve crimes from inside his cell, and that is exactly why English journalist Beth Davenport needs his help. A woman who recently helped Beth has gone missing, with the only clue being a text with a blurry image of a man lunging towards the camera. Will Grieff crack the case in time? And is it possible to solve a crime before it has been committed?
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Finestkind
Set in New Bedford, Mass., America's biggest commercial fishing port, FINESTKIND tells the story of two brothers from opposite sides of the tracks, who are reunited as adults over one fateful summer. When desperate circumstances force them to strike a deal with a dangerous Boston crime syndicate, a young woman finds herself caught in the middle. Along the way, sacrifices must be made, and bonds between brothers, friends, and a father and his son are put to the test.
Staff Picks
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The night ends with fire
Infused with magic and romance, this sweeping fantasy adventure inspired by the legend of Mulan follows a young woman determined to choose her own destiny--even if that means going against everyone she loves. The Three Kingdoms are at war, but Meilin's father refuses to answer the imperial draft. Trapped by his opium addiction, he plans to sell Meilin for her dowry. But when Meilin discovers her husband-to-be is another violent, ill-tempered man, she realizes that nothing will change for her unless she takes matters into her own hands. The very next day, she disguises herself as a boy and enlists in her father's place. In the army, Meilin's relentless hard work brings her recognition, friendship--and a growing closeness with Sky, a prince turned training partner. But has she simply exchanged one prison for another? As her kingdom barrels toward destruction, Meilin begins to have visions of a sea dragon spirit that offers her true power and freedom, but with a deadly price. With the future of the Three Kingdoms hanging in the balance, Meilin will need to decide whom to trust--Sky, who inspires her loyalty and love; the sea dragon spirit, who has his own murky agenda; or an infuriating enemy prince who makes her question everything she once knew--about her kingdom and about her own heart.
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Five-star stranger : a novel
Would you hire someone to be the best man at your wedding? Your stand-in brother? Your husband? In Kat Tang's exciting and resonant debut, a "Rental Stranger"-a companion hired under various guises-walks the line between personal and professional in surprising new ways. Five-Star Stranger follows a man who is a top-rated performer on the "Rental Stranger" app, where users can hire a pretend fiancé, Referred to only as Stranger, the narrator navigates New York City under the guise of the characters he plays, always maintaining a professional distance from his clients. In an age where online ratings are all-powerful, Five-Star Stranger follows the adventures of a top-rated man on the "Rental Stranger" app-a place where users can hire a a pretend fiancé, a wingman, or an extra mourner for a funeral. Referred to only as Stranger, the narrator navigates New York City under the guise of characters he plays, always maintaining a professional distance from his clients. When a nosy patron threatens to upend his long-term role as father to a young girl, Stranger begins to reckon with his attachment to his pretend daughter, her mother, and his own fraught past. Now, he must confront the boundaries he has drawn and explore the legacy of abandonment that shaped his life. Five-Star Stranger is a strikingly vivid novel about the commodification of relationships in a gig economy, isolation in a hyperconnected world, and the risk of asking for what we want from those who cannot give. This is the story of a man who finds out who he is by being anyone but himself.
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Wordhunter : a novel
Utterly original and compulsively readable, a detective story about a woman who uses her uncanny ability to analyze words and speech patterns to help solve crimes. Maggie Moore--tattooed, pierced, and a bit of a mess--is a word genius, able to solve any linguistic puzzle. When she's talent-scouted from the top of her forensic linguistics class and asked to analyze harrowing notes left by a stalker-turned-rapist, she's all over it. And she succeeds. But when the daughter of a local mayor is abducted, Maggie is called upon once again, but this time she isn't sure if she's the right person for the job. Given what happened to her best friend, Maggie might be too close to this one. But the police in this rural south Central Florida town really need Maggie's special skill to crack the case. Along with her new best friend Silas Jackson, a detective, Maggie analyzes the texts, emails and verbal tics of various suspects and comes to a disturbing conclusion.
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The serpent in heaven
Felicia, Lizbeth's younger half-sister is attacked by her estranged aristocratic Mexican family of wizards who want to use her as a pawn, what no one expected, even Felicia, is that she may be the most powerful witch in a generation in this startling sequel to the USA TODAY bestseller, The Russian Cage.
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Bite by bite : nourishments & jamborees
In Bite by Bite, poet and essayist Aimee Nezhukumatathil explores the way food and drink evoke our associations and remembrances--a subtext or layering, a flavor tinged with joy, shame, exuberance, grief, desire, or nostalgia. Nezhukumatathil restores our astonishment and wonder about food through her encounters with a range of foods and food traditions. From shave ice to lumpia, mangoes to pecans, rambutan to vanilla, she investigates how food marks our experiences and identities and explores the boundaries between heritage and memory. Bite by Bite offers a rich and textured kaleidoscope of vignettes and visions into the world of food and nature, drawn together by intimate and humorous personal reflections, with Fumi Nakamura's gorgeous imagery and illustration
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Endangered eating : America's vanishing foods
"Apples, a common New England crop, have been called the United States' 'most endangered food.' The iconic Texas Longhorn cattle is categorized at "critical" risk for extinction. Unique date palms, found nowhere else on the planet, grow in California’s Coachella Valley-but the family farms that care take them are shutting down. Apples, cattle, dates-these are foods that carry significant cultural weight. But they’re disappearing. In Endangered Eating, culinary historian Sarah Lohman draws inspiration from the Ark of Taste, a list compiled by Slow Food International that catalogues important regional foods. Lohman travels the country learning about the distinct ingredients at risk of being lost. Readers follow Lohman to Hawaii, as she walks alongside farmers to learn the stories behind heirloom sugarcane. In the Navajo Nation, she assists in the traditional butchering of a Navajo Churro ram. Lohman heads to the Upper Midwest, to harvest wild rice; to the Pacific Northwest, to spend a day wild salmon reefnet fishing; to the Gulf Coast, to devour gumbo made thick and green with file powder; and to the Low country of South Carolina, to taste America’s oldest peanut-long thought to be extinct. Lohman learns from those who love these rare ingredients: shepherds, fishers, and farmers; scientists, historians, and activists. And she tries her hand at raising these crops and preparing these dishes. Each chapter includes two recipes, so readers can be a part of saving these ingredients by purchasing and preparing them. Animated by stories yet grounded in historical research, Endangered Eating gives readers the tools to support community food organizations and producers that work to preserve local culinary traditions and rare, cherished foods-before it’s too late."
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The thirty names of night
From the author of the acclaimed and award-winning debut The Map of Salt and Stars, a remarkably moving and lyrical novel following three generations of Syrian Americans who are linked by the truths they carry close to their hearts. Five years after a suspicious fire killed his mother, a closeted Syrian American trans boy sheds his birth name and searches for a new one. He has been unable to paint since his mother's ghost has begun to visit him each evening. The only time he feels truly free is when he slips out at night to paint murals on buildings in the once-thriving Manhattan neighborhood known as Little Syria. One night, he finds the tattered journal of a Syrian American artist named Laila Z. She famously and mysteriously disappeared more than sixty years before, but her journal contains proof that Laila Z's past is intimately tied to his mother's-and his grandmother's--in ways he never could have expected. Even more surprising, Laila Z's story reveals the histories of queer and transgender people within his community that he never knew. Following his mother's ghost, he uncovers the silences kept in the name of survival by his own community, his own family, and within himself, and discovers the family that was there all along. The Thirty Names of Night is an imaginative and intimate exploration of how we all search for and ultimately embrace who we are.
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Winter's orbit
A Tom Doherty Associates Book.
Summoned before the Emperor, Prince Kiem-a famously disappointing minor royal and the Emperor's least favorite grandchild-is commanded to renew the empire's bonds with its newest vassal planet. The prince must marry Count Jainan, the recent widower of another royal prince of the empire. But the Jainan suspects his late husband's death was no accident. And Prince Kiem discovers that Jainan is a suspect himself. But broken bonds between the empire and its vassal planets leaves the entire empire vulnerable, so together they must prove that their union is strong while uncovering a possible conspiracy. In the shadows of a secret past and an insecure future, Kiem an Jainan must come together to protect both of their worlds.
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A walk in the park : the true story of a spectacular misadventure in the Grand Canyon
From the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of the epic adventure tale The Emerald Mile, comes the most dramatic and deeply moving account ever of walking the Grand Canyon, a highly dangerous, life-changing 750-mile trek. The Grand Canyon is an American treasure, visited by more than 6 million people a year, many of whom are rendered speechless by its vast beauty, mystery, and complexity. Now, in A Walk in the Park, author Kevin Fedarko chronicles his year-long effort to find a 750-mile path along the length of the Grand Canyon, through a vertical wilderness suspended between the caprock along the rims of the abyss and the Colorado River, which flows along its bottom. Consisting of countless cliffs and steep drops, plus immense stretches with almost no access to water, and the fact that not a single trail links its eastern doorway to its western terminus, this jewel of national parks is so challenging that when Fedarko departed fewer people had completed the journey in one single hike than had walked on the moon. The intensity of the effort required him to break his trip into several legs, each of which held staggering dangers and unexpected discoveries. Accompanying Fedarko through this sublime yet perilous terrain is the award-winning photographer Peter McBride, who captures the stunning landscape in breathtaking photos. Together, they encounter long-lost Native American ruins, the remains of Old West prospectors' camps, present day tribal activists, and signs that commercial tourism is impinging on the park's remote wildness. An epic adventure, action-packed survival tale, and a deep spiritual journey, A Walk in the Park gives us an unprecedented glimpse of the crown jewel of America's National Parks: an iconic landscape framed by ancient rock whose contours are recognized by all, but whose secrets and treasures are known to almost no one, and whose topography encompasses some of the harshest, least explored, most awe-inspiring terrain in the world.
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When the sea came alive : an oral history of D-Day
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Only Plane in the Sky and Pulitzer Prize finalist for Watergate comes the most up-to-date and complete account of D-Day--the largest seaborne invasion in history and the moment that secured the Allied victory in World War II. D-Day is one of history's greatest and most unbelievable military and human triumphs. Though the full campaign lasted just over a month, the surprise landing of over 150,000 Allied troops on the morning of June 6, 1944, is understood to be the moment that turned the tide for the Allied forces and ultimately led to the defeat of the Axis powers in World War II. Now, a new book from bestselling author and historian Garrett M. Graff explores the full impact of this world-changing event--from the secret creation of landing plans by top government and military officials and organization of troops, to the moment the boat doors opened to reveal the beach where men fought for their lives and the future of the free world. Fascinating, action-packed, and filled with impressive detail, When the Sea Came Alive captures a human drama like no other, and offers a fitting tribute to the men and women of the Greatest Generation.
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When we were silent : a novel
Louise Manson is the newest student at Highfield Manor, Dublin's most exclusive private school. It seems nearly perfect: the high arched window alcoves and tall granite pillars, the overspill of lilac at the front gate and the immaculate playing fields, the giggling students, the dusty, oak-lined library, and the dark, festering secret she has come to expose. At first, Lou's working-class status makes her the consummate outsider, though all that changes when she is befriended by the beautiful and wealthy Shauna Power. But Lou finds out that even Shauna is caught up in Highfield's web, and her time there ends with a lifeless body sprawled at her feet. Thirty years later, Lou has rebuilt her life after the harrowing events of the so-called "Highfield Affair," when she gets a shocking phone call. Ronan Power, Shauna's brother, is a high-profile lawyer bringing a lawsuit against the school. And he needs Lou to testify. Now with a daughter and career to protect, the last thing Lou wants is for Highfield Manor to be back in her life. But to finally free herself and others, she has to confront her past, go to battle once more, and discover, for once and for all, what really happened at Highfield.
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The sun sets in Singapore : a novel
In Singapore, three very different women--Dara, a workaholic lawyer from the UK; Amaka, a sharp-tongued banker from Nigeria; and Lillian, a pianist turned "trailing spouse" from the United States--find their lives inexplicably intertwined upon the arrival of a handsome and mysterious man from Geneva who brings their worlds crashing down.
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A tempest of tea
On the streets of White Roaring, Arthie Casimir is a criminal mastermind and collector of secrets. Her prestigious tearoom transforms into an illegal bloodhouse by night, catering to the vampires feared by society. But when her establishment is threatened, Arthie is forced to strike an unlikely deal with an alluring adversary to save it-she can’t do the job alone. Calling on some of the city’s most skilled outcasts, Arthie hatches a plan to infiltrate the sinister, glittering vampire society known as the Athereum. But not everyone in her ragtag crew is on her side, and as the truth behind the heist unfolds, Arthie finds herself in the midst of a conspiracy that will threaten the world as she knows it.
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So not meant to be
"Are you two friends?" Ha! Friends with JP Cane? That's laughable. Besides the fact that he firmly believes men and women can't be friends and work together, it's safe to say Kelsey Gardner doesn't want her boss's friendship, anyway. He's annoyingly loud, obnoxiously handsome, and has made an art out of pushing Kelsey's buttons all day, every day. No, thank you. So you can imagine how horrified Kelsey is when she not only has to fly out to San Francisco with JP for work, but stay in the same penthouse during the trip. They'll be sharing the same air, twenty-four-seven, as full-fledged working roommates. And being that close is a nightmare -- the man doesn't seem to know how to wear a shirt, thrives off protein bars, and is constantly flirting up a storm. Tack on his polished good looks up close, and Kelsey's suddenly staring down the barrel of a seductive temptation that makes it hard to sleep. But she can control herself. She's been doing it since she first met the guy, after all. Because if there's one thing she knows for certain, it's that she and JP Cane are so not meant to be.
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Making it in America : the almost impossible quest to manufacture in the U.S.A. (and how it got that way)
A moving and eye-opening look at the story of manufacturing in America, whether it can ever successfully return to our shores, and why doing so is vital to our well-being as a nation, told through the experience of one young couple in Maine as they attempt to rebuild a lost industry, ethically. Ben and Whitney Waxman are two tireless idealists trying to do the impossible: make an American-made, union-made, all American-sourced sweatshirt. Ben spent a decade in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Wisconsin fighting for working men and women at a time when national support for unions had sunk to an all-time low. Paralyzed by depression and a drug addiction, Ben lands back in his hometown of Portland, Maine, forced to rebuild his life from scratch. There, he meets Whitney, a bartender wrestling with her own troubled past. In each other, they see a better future, a version of the American dream they can build together. The Waxmans' quest will take us across the nation and across time, from the cotton fields of Mississippi to New York City's hollowed-out garment district to a family-owned zipper company in Los Angeles to the enormous knit-and-dye factories in North Carolina. Tracing the life of a hoodie from the cotton fields to the sewing machine to the convention floor. It will also take us through the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic and what this means for the future of American manufacturing. Offering a fascinating take on global politics, trade, economics, ethics, and industrial history told through textiles, and woven through the Waxmans' story, this is the essential history of textiles and its critical role in shaping capitalism. It was the demand for cheap cloth that sparked the industrial revolution, and it was the brutality of the textile industry that first drove workers to organize. Each touchpoint of this deeply personal account of how politics and economics shape all of us casts a rare, compassionate look at what came before, where we are now, and where we're going-through the people, places, and ecologies that produce the fabric of our lives.
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House rules : how to decorate for every home, style, and budget
"New York Times bestselling author provides the simple rules to decorate by in this charming, definitive guidebook for hesitant decorators to move from "stuck" to "done."
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Broadcast blues
Wendy Kyle took secrets to her grave--now, Clare Carlson is digging them up New York City has no shortage of crime, making for a busy schedule for TV newswoman Clare Carlson. But not all crimes are created equal, and when an explosive planted in a car detonates and kills a woman, Clare knows it'll be a huge story for her. But it's not only about the story--Clare also wants justice for the victim, Wendy Kyle. Wendy had sparked controversy as an NYPD officer, ultimately getting kicked off the force after making sexual harassment allegations and getting into a physical altercation with her boss. Then, she started a private investigations business, catering to women who suspected their husbands of cheating. Undoubtedly, Wendy had angered many people with her work, so the list of her suspected murderers is seemingly endless. Despite the daunting investigation, Clare dives in headfirst. As she digs deeper, she attracts the attention of many rich and powerful people who will stop at nothing to keep her from breaking the truth about the death of Wendy Kyle--and exposing their personal secrets that Wendy took to her grave.
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Fighting the night : Iwo Jima, World War II, and a flyer's life
From the acclaimed and bestselling author of Hemingway's Boat, the profoundly moving story of his father's wartime service as a night fighter pilot, and the prices paid by him, and other soldiers, for their acts of selfless, patriotic sacrifice.
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The line of splendor : a novel of Nathanael Greene and the American Revolution
When the first shots of the American Revolutionary War were fired in Massachusetts on April 19, 1775, thirty-two-year-old Nathanael Greene, a self-educated Quaker with no military experience, dismayed his family and marched toward Boston as general of the Rhode Island provincial army. General George Washington recognized his unwavering belief in American independence and the qualities that catapulted him to a major general in the Continental Army. From the hard lessons learned on the battlefields of New York, to his appointment as Quartermaster General during the harsh winter at Valley Forge, his role in convicting the British spy who colluded to obtain the plans to West Point, to the godsend who took command of the ragged remnants of the Southern Continental Army, Nathanael Greene's complex perseverance and brilliant strategies broke military doctrines. This is the story of the man who rose to become a national hero by resuscitating and then propelling the American states to victory in their war for independence and the personal cost of that war.
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So let them burn
After her sister Elara forms an unbreakable bond with an enemy dragon, seventeen-year-old Faron, who once wielded the magic of the gods to save her island from those same dragon-riding colonizers, must find a way to save her sister and the fate of their world in the face of impossible odds.
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The end of everything : how wars descend into annihilation
A New York Times-bestselling historian charts how and why societies from ancient Greece to the modern era chose to utterly destroy their foes, and warns that similar wars of obliteration are possible in our time. War can settle disputes, topple tyrants, and bend the trajectory of civilization--sometimes to the breaking point. From Troy to Hiroshima, moments when war has ended in utter annihilation have reverberated through the centuries, signaling the end of political systems, cultures, and epochs. Though much has changed over the millennia, human nature remains the same. Modern societies are not immune from the horror of a war of extinction. In The End of Everything, military historian Victor Davis Hanson narrates a series of sieges and sackings that span the age of antiquity to the conquest of the New World to show how societies descend into barbarism and obliteration. In the stories of Thebes, Carthage, Constantinople, and Tenochtitlan, he depicts war's drama, violence, and folly. Highlighting the naivete that plagued the vanquished and the wrath that justified mass slaughter, Hanson delivers a sobering call to contemporary readers to heed the lessons of obliteration lest we blunder into catastrophe once again.
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The romantic home : celebrating past & present design
Today's romantic interiors come in many different forms, but all share a passion for beauty. Romantic rooms are filled with treasures that honour the past and defined by graceful furnishings, subtle hues, and evocative items. It's a style that easily mixes with other design eras from traditional rustic and French country to modern luxe. In The Romantic Home, Fifi O'Neill presents twelve well-loved homes to set the heart a-flutter. In the first chapter, "Reclaimed Romance", she visits an artist's cottage and a restored 1902 loft in Minnesota. "Modern Crush" features a designer's apartment in Los Angeles and a sensitively updated Rhode Island home. In "Love Stories", Fifi reveals a writer's hideaway in Florida and a classically elegant abode on the West Coast. And in the final chapter, "Classic Vibes," she travels from a vintage-inspired ranch-style home in California to an authentic farmhouse in the South of France. Past meets present in each of these idyllic homes, which combine calm and collected interiors with abundant personal charm.