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  Learning America - One Woman's...

  Luma Mufleh

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  “[From] an influential educational leader and activist…an impassioned, penetrating critique and inspiring model for progress.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review 
  It was a wrong turn that changed everything. When Luma Mufleh—a Muslim, gay, refugee woman from hyper-conservative Jordan—stumbled upon a pick-up game of soccer in Clarkston, Georgia, something compelled her to join.  The players, 11- and 12-year-olds from Liberia, Afghanistan, and Sudan, soon welcomed her as coach of their ragtag but fiercely competitive group. Drawn into their lives, Mufleh learned that few of her players, all local public school students, could read a single word. She asks, “Where was the America that took me in? That protected me? How can I get these kids to that America?” 
  Learning America traces the story of how Mufleh grew a group of kids into a soccer team and then into a nationally acclaimed network of schools for refugee children. The journey is inspiring and hard-won: Fugees schools accept only those most in need; no student passes a grade without earning it; the failure of any student is the responsibility of all. Soccer as a part of every school day is a powerful catalyst to heal trauma, create belonging, and accelerate learning. Finally, this gifted storyteller delivers provocative, indelible portraits of student after student making leaps in learning that aren’t supposed to be possible for children born into trauma--stories that shine powerful light on the path to educational justice for all of America’s most left-behind. 
  Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

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  Escaping Madness - Eyewitness...

  Klaus G. Förg

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  This fascinating collection of personal narratives challenges the view that all Germans knew of the crimes perpetrated by the Third Reich and were complicit. The five accounts recall the lives of individuals born in the 1920s who resisted joining the SS, were horrified by atrocities, or otherwise remained true to their principals. Spanning their early life during the rise of the Nazi Party, through their adolescence in the war, to the early post-war years, they offer a compelling perspective on the diverse experiences and beliefs of Germans of the wartime generation.From Wehrmacht infantrymen to a Luftwaffe officer and a young woman on the home front, the accounts range from the relative comfort of German-occupied territories to the harrowing front lines against the Soviets. Standout stories include Heinz Polke's haunting description of the Warsaw Ghetto Rising, and three accounts of the often-overlooked aspect of being a prisoner of war in the USSR, providing valuable insights into the post-war German experience.Skillfully compiled by journalist Klaus Förg and with additional commentary by historian Roger Moorhouse, this is a powerful and worthy addition to World War II literature.

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  Mountain Madness - Found and...

  Clinton Crockett Peters

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  With Mountain Madness, Clinton Crockett Peters chronicles his travels and personal transformation from a West Texas evangelical to mountain guide-addict to humbled humanist after a near-fatal injury in Japan's Chichibu Mountains. From 2007 to 2010, Peters lived in Kosuge Village (population nine hundred), nestled in central Japan's peaks, where he was the only foreigner in the rugged town. Using these three years as a frame, this essay collection profiles who he was before Japan, why he became obsessed with mountains, and his fallout from mountain obsession, including an essay on Craig Arnold, the poet who disappeared on a Japanese volcano. Ultimately, the collection asks, how can landscape create and end identities?

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  The Big Silence - A Daughter's...

  Karen Dawn

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  Quiet your mind, and the silence will help you hear your inner voice—the one that says, “Stay strong enough to forgive, to heal, and to have hope.” 
  In her stirring, vulnerable new memoir, Karena Dawn reveals what it was like to grow up with a mother suffering from severe mental health issues, and how, during her teenage years, she desperately tried to escape her own inner demons. Addicted to pain-numbing drugs and crippled by severe depression, Karena learned how to use grief as a teacher, releasing herself from guilt and shame and finding the inner strength to go from abandonment to forgiveness, from hopelessness to healing.  
  Karena’s bold and brave memoir shows us how staying silent about mental illness only reinforces the stigma. At the heart of her story is the eternal struggle we all share—how to move past the pain and suffering of our personal battles to experience life’s joys. Through the healing power of nature, meditation, and fitness, Karena was able to forge a path to self-discovery and find peace.  
  Ultimately, The Big Silence reveals how a journey of self-love can lead to a renewed sense of identity and a life filled with hope and optimism. 
  PLEASE NOTE: The audiobook edition is read by Karena Dawn and features additional anecdotes and conversations that are exclusive to The Big Silence audiobook: 
  - Karena sits down with therapist Vasavi Kumar for “Therapy Sessions” after each part in the book, where she answers questions and decompresses about topics in the book.  
  - Includes original poetry read by Rachel Sahaidachny.

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  Pablo Escobar - The Life of a...

  Kelly Mass

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  One of the big lords of the drug cartels in Colombia is Pablo Escobar, a criminal who became a leader and expanded his influence on organized crime throughout the North and South American continents. With billions in his bank account, in cash, and in other assents, it’s not easy to ignore his name and the power he gained. 
  In 1976, Escobar established the Medellín Cartel, which dispersed powder cocaine, and developed the first smuggling paths into the United States. In the 1982 Colombian parliamentary election, Escobar was chosen as an alternate member of the Chamber of Representatives as part of the Liberal Alternative movement. 
  What determined his road to success, his personal problems, and eventually, to his death? Learn more about this influential figure in recent modern-day history.

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  It's Not Nothing

  Courtney Denelle

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  Down-and-out and deteriorating, Rosemary Candwell drifts from anonymous beds and bars in Providence to a homeless shelter hidden among the hedge-rowed avenues of Newport and through the revolving door of service jobs and quick-fix psychiatric care, always grasping for hope, for a solution. She’s desperate to readjust back into a family and a world that has deemed her a crazy bitch living a choice they believe she could simply un-choose at any time. She endures flashbacks, panic attacks, migraines, and nightmares. She can’t sleep, or she sleeps for days; she lashes out at anyone and everyone, especially herself. She abuses over-the-counter cold medicine and guzzles down anything caffeinated just to feel less alone. What if her family is right? What if she is truly broken beyond repair? Drawn from the author’s experience of homelessness and trauma recovery, It’s Not Nothing is a collage of small moments, biting jokes, intrusive memories, and quiet epiphanies meant to reveal a greater truth: resilience never looks the way we expect it to.

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