Here is the goodreads synopsis of Troublemaker:
Troublemaker follows the events of the LA Riots through the eyes of 12-year-old Jordan as he navigates school and family. This book will highlight the unique Korean American perspective. 12-year-old Jordan feels like he can't live up to the example his older sister set, or his parent's expectations. When he returns home from school one day hoping to hide his suspension, Los Angeles has reached a turning point. In the wake of the acquittal of the police officers filmed beating Rodney King, as well as the shooting of a young black teen, Latasha Harlins by a Korean store owner, the country is at the precipice of confronting its racist past and present. As tensions escalate, Jordan's father leaves to check on the family store, spurring Jordan and his friends to embark on a dangerous journey to come to his aide, and come to terms with the racism within and affecting their community. Excerpt from Troublemaker, by John Cho CHAPTER ONE Apr 29, 1992 I never knew a pair of shoes could scare me so much, but when I see Umma and Appa's sneakers by the door when I walk in, I nearly jump right out of my skin. It's not that they're anything out of the ordinary. The shoes, I mean, with Appa's laces fraying at the ends and Umma's looking more gray than white like they did when she first bought them. What's weird is the fact that they're here at all. It's just a little after 4 PM on a Wednesday and Umma and Appa should both be at the store. Not at home. I thought I'd have more time before I'd have to face them today. Their voices are quiet, muffled, coming from the direction of the kitchen. I stand real still by the door, listening, but I can't hear what they're saying from here. I move carefully down the hall, gripping the straps of my backpack with both hands, praying in my head. Don't see me. Don't see me. Just as I'm about to pass the kitchen, Umma looks right up at me. "Oh Jordan, you're home?" she says in Korean. She says it all casual like she's here every day when I get home from school, like I'm not the one who should be saying, "Oh Umma, you're home?" "Yeah," I say back in English. A nervous feeling starts to spread through my stomach. My prayer changes. Don't ask me how school was. Don't make me lie to you. By some miracle, she doesn't. She just smiles and nods, turning back to Appa to carry on talking about whatever they were talking about, the air kind of tense and tight between them. Huh. That's weird. Umma always asks how school was. It's pretty much her favorite question. Not to mention, I still don't know what they're both doing home so early. I linger by the door, wondering whether I should ask or not. But the more questions I ask them, the more questions they might ask me. And I want to avoid that for as long as possible. Not that Appa would ask me anything though. This whole time, he hasn't even looked at me once. I don't know whether to be relieved or disappointed. It's been this way between us for weeks, ever since our Big Fight. Things haven't been the same since then. It's like time split into a Before and After. Before: when I was just Jordan and he was just Appa, and I didn't think twice about being in the same room together. After: when we're not just Jordan and Appa anymore. We're Jordan Who Doesn't Know What to Say Around Appa, and Appa Who Basically Completely Ignores Jordan. He's been so cold to me lately. Colder than a brain freeze. Maybe he's waiting for me to say sorry first, but there's no way I'm going to do that. Maybe this means we'll never talk again until the end of time. Maybe not even then. I stare at the back of his head for a second longer and then I walk away. Harabeoji's in the living room, watching TV and eating ojingeo off a plate. At least grandparents are dependable. Always where you think they'll be, sitting on the couch wearing a fishing vest with a hundred pockets even though you can't remember the last time you've ever actually seen them go fishing, a piece of dried squid between their teeth. At least, that's my grandpa. I don't really know about anyone else's grandparents. "Hi Harabeoji, I'm home," I say, dropping my backpack on the floor and sitting down next to it. He grunts, not looking up from the TV. He's watching some sitcom I don't recognize - his favorites are usually Full House and Home Improvement - the light reflecting off his huge rectangular glasses.Harabeoji's not much of a talker, except when it comes to yelling at fictional characters on the screen. I don't even know if he knows what's going on. It's been nine years since we immigrated to Los Angeles from Korea all together and I'm still not sure how much English he understands. He didn't want to come with us at first. To America, that is. He wanted to stay in Korea in the same house where he and my grandma had lived together for years, saying he wanted to die in the same room she did. But Appa said it would be the best thing for all of us, and that he wasn't going to leave his own father behind. He eventually convinced Harabeoji to pack up his life and get on the plane with us, though I remember Harabeoji being unhappy about it. At least he's found some joy in these American shows. I think he finds them funny. I glance towards the kitchen and then back at Harabeoji, lowering my voice. "Can I tell you something?" He grunts again without turning down the volume. Here's the thing about my grandpa. We're not close exactly, but he's the one person in this family that I feel like I can really talk to, even if he doesn't totally get what I'm saying since I speak to him in English. Maybe that's the reason why I feel okay. Or maybe it's because he's too busy judging made-up people on television to judge me, and I know that whatever I tell him, he won't tell anyone else. "I got suspended from school today." At this, his eyebrows lift. I can't be sure if it's from what I said or from something on TV, but I keep going. "I got sent to the principal's office again. For cheating on a Spanish quiz. Or I guess, getting caught cheating. Again. Mr. Martins was so mad." I make a face, hearing his voice in my head. He always talks real slow like he's speaking through a mouth full of chewing gum. "He kept saying how he's seen me in his office more than any other sixth grader in the school and how he can't even count how many times I've been caught cheating now. And then you know what he says? He says I should try to be more like Sarah. Says that when she was in middle school, she was a model student. How could the Park siblings be this different? She probably makes your parents so proud. And you? Well, they'll be so disappointed in you, won't they?" I scoff, but I can feel my shoulders slumping. Mr. Martins doesn't need to tell me what a disappointment I am to my parents. I already know that. Appa told me so himself. Harabeoji turns off the TV, startling me. He leans forward in his seat, his left hand on his knee. He's only got three fingers on that hand. He lost the pinky and ring finger during the Korean War. Umma says it's rude to stare, but it's hard not to when I'm sitting on the floor and basically eye level with it. I look at his face instead. He locks his eyes on mine, his mouth set in a grim line. Uh oh. Did I underestimate how safe my secrets are with him? My face flushes. Is he going to rat me out to Umma and Appa after all? He holds out his empty plate with his right hand. "Get me more ojingeo," he says in Korean. "I ate it all." Oh. Of course. "Yes, Harabeoji." I take the empty plate and head for the kitchen. But as I get closer, I can hear Umma and Appa talking, only it's not in those low voices I heard earlier. They're louder now, almost yelling. Are they fighting? I stay in the hallway, listening. My Korean's not so great anymore, but I can understand more than I can speak, and I pick up every word. "I think you're worrying too much about nothing," Appa says. "You can never be too careful," Umma says back. She sounds exasperated, angry. "People are mad about what happened with Rodney King. Tell me you're not even a little bit worried that something bad might come out of that today." "Of course they're mad. Who wouldn't be mad?" Now Appa's the one who sounds annoyed. "Doesn't mean that bad things are going to happen. There's no reason to think so. It will be fine." "You heard what they said on Radio Korea. They said there may be protests so we should pay attention, stay alert-" "And we did, didn't we? We closed the shop early and came home. That's enough. You're always thinking farther ahead than you need to." "How do you think I've carried us this far? I won't let this store fail like our last one. Someone has to think about this family!" It's like she's sucker punched him with her words. There's this long silence and I don't even realize it at first, but I'm holding my breath. I feel like if I let it out, the plate in my hands will crack, the air will explode, and Harabeoji will never get his squid because there's thunder and lightning standing between me and the kitchen. Umma is the thunder. Maybe she's the lightning too. "Fine," she finally says. "I'll go." "Go where?" "To board up the store." Before Appa can reply or I can even take a step, Umma storms out of the kitchen. She doesn't see me. She's too focused, pushing the little wisps of hair falling from her stubby ponytail out of her eyes and reaching for the coat closet. She grabs the handle of the sliding mirrored door and pulls hard. What happens next is everything shatters. At first, I think I've dropped Harabeoji's plate, but when I look down, it's still in my hands. It wasn't me that broke. It was Umma. The closet door's always been too flimsy, teetering on loose hinges, and Umma's pulled it open so hard it finally gave up standing. The whole mirrored door goes down and explodes into shards on the floor. She yells, jumps back, and then stands there, breathing heavy. "What was that?" Harabeoji shouts from the living room. "Everything's fine!" Umma shouts back, even though I think what she means is really the opposite. Appa comes out of the kitchen and looks at Umma, standing there with that broken mirror all around her. Then he notices me. Sometimes I forget how tall he is, but when he looks at me, he has to look way down the way I do when I look at ants on the sidewalk. He stares and I stare back, right at his bushy eyebrows and the permanent furrow in his brow like God stuck his thumb there for too long and left a dent. It's the first time we've really made eye contact since the Big Fight. I'm bracing myself all over. I think maybe he's going to say something. And he does. But not to me. He walks over to Umma and puts his hands on her shoulders. "I'll go board up the store," he says. "I'll call you when I'm there." Then he reaches into the doorless coat closet and grabs his jacket, takes his car keys off the hook on the wall, puts on his shoes with the fraying laces, and leaves. He doesn't look back once. Excerpted from Troublemaker, by John Cho. Copyright © 2022 by John Cho. Reprinted with permission of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. All rights reserved. Source material: Entertainment Weekly Here is the goodreads synopsis of Such A Quiet Place: We had no warning that she’d come back. Hollow’s Edge used to be a quiet place. A private and idyllic neighborhood where neighbors dropped in on neighbors, celebrated graduation and holiday parties together, and looked out for one another. But then came the murder of Brandon and Fiona Truett. A year and a half later, Hollow’s Edge is simmering. The residents are trapped, unable to sell their homes, confronted daily by the empty Truett house, and suffocated by their trial testimonies that implicated one of their own. Ruby Fletcher. And now, Ruby’s back. With her conviction overturned, Ruby waltzes right back to Hollow’s Edge, and into the home she once shared with Harper Nash. Harper, five years older, has always treated Ruby like a wayward younger sister. But now she’s terrified. What possible good could come of Ruby returning to the scene of the crime? And how can she possibly turn her away, when she knows Ruby has nowhere to go? Within days, suspicion spreads like a virus across Hollow’s Edge. It’s increasingly clear that not everyone told the truth about the night of the Truett’s murders. And when Harper begins receiving threatening notes, she realizes she has to uncover the truth before someone else becomes the killer’s next victim. Here is the goodreads synopsis of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: Quentin Tarantino’s long-awaited first work of literature – at once hilarious, delicious, and brutal – is the always surprising, sometimes shocking new novel based on his Academy Award-winning film RICK DALTON – Once he had his own TV series, but now Rick’s a washed-up villain-of-the week drowning his sorrows in whiskey sours. Will a phone call from Rome save his fate or seal it? CLIFF BOOTH – Rick’s stunt double, and the most infamous man on any movie set because he’s the only one there who might have gotten away with murder.... SHARON TATE – She left Texas to chase a movie-star dream, and found it. Sharon’s salad days are now spent on Cielo Drive, high in the Hollywood Hills. CHARLES MANSON – The ex-con’s got a bunch of zonked-out hippies thinking he’s their spiritual leader, but he’d trade it all to be a rock ‘n’ roll star. HOLLYWOOD 1969 – YOU SHOULDA BEEN THERE Actor Will Smith will be releasing his autobiography titled Will in November 9. The book, so far, is number one on the Amazon #1 on the actor and entertainer biographies listing. Will co-wrote the book with author Mark Manson while Brandan "BMike" Odums designed the book cover. Will stated that the book was a labor of love and that he has been working on it for over two years.
Here is the statement that Will Smith posted on Instagram about his book topping the bestselling list: I see all y’all gettin’ your pre-orders in early for my book, THANK YOU!!,” Here is the Amazon synopsis of Will: One of the most dynamic and globally recognized entertainment forces of our time opens up fully about his life, in a brave and inspiring book that traces his learning curve to a place where outer success, inner happiness, and human connection are aligned. Along the way, Will tells the story in full of one of the most amazing rides through the worlds of music and film that anyone has ever had. Will Smith’s transformation from a fearful child in a tense West Philadelphia home to one of the biggest rap stars of his era and then one of the biggest movie stars in Hollywood history, with a string of box office successes that will likely never be broken, is an epic tale of inner transformation and outer triumph, and Will tells it astonishingly well. But it's only half the story. Will Smith thought, with good reason, that he had won at life: not only was his own success unparalleled, his whole family was at the pinnacle of the entertainment world. Only they didn't see it that way: they felt more like star performers in his circus, a seven-days-a-week job they hadn't signed up for. It turned out Will Smith's education wasn't nearly over. This memoir is the product of a profound journey of self-knowledge, a reckoning with all that your will can get you and all that it can leave behind. Written with the help of Mark Manson, author of the multi-million-copy bestseller The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, Will is the story of how one person mastered his own emotions, written in a way that can help everyone else do the same. Few of us will know the pressure of performing on the world's biggest stages for the highest of stakes, but we can all understand that the fuel that works for one stage of our journey might have to be changed if we want to make it all the way home. The combination of genuine wisdom of universal value and a life story that is preposterously entertaining, even astonishing, puts Will the book, like its author, in a category by itself. “It’s easy to maneuver the material world once you have conquered your own mind. I believe that. Once you've learned the terrain of your own mind, every experience, every emotion, every circumstance, whether positive or negative, simply propels you forward, to greater growth and greater experience. That is true will. To move forward in spite of anything. And to move forward in a way that brings others with you, rather than leave them behind.” —Will Smith Source material: Deadline.com Richard Wright, known as the first African-American bestselling author for writing Native Son, has an unpublished novel released in 2021. He wrote unpublished novel titled The Man Who Lived Underground 80 years ago. It was turned down by his publisher for some unknown reason. The novel was written in 1941 and some of story was published in magazines.
Here is the goodreads synopsis of The Man Who Lived Underground: A major literary event: an explosive, previously unpublished novel from the 1940s by the legendary author of Native Son and Black Boy.Fred Daniels, a black man, is picked up randomly by the police after a brutal murder in a Chicago neighborhood and taken to the local precinct where he is tortured until he confesses to a crime he didn't commit. After signing a confession, he escapes--or is permitted to escape--from the precinct and takes up residence in the sewers below the streets of Chicago. This is the simple, horrible premise of Richard Wright's scorching novel, The Man Who Lived Underground, a masterpiece written in the same period as his landmark books Native Son (1940) and Black Boy (1945) that he was unable to publish in his lifetime. Only small parts of it have appeared in print, and in a significantly redacted form it would eventually be included in the short story collection Eight Men (1961). Now, for the first time, this incendiary novel about race and violence in America, the work that meant more to Wright than any other ("I have never written anything in my life that stemmed more from sheer inspiration"), is published in full, in the form that he intended. Source material: thedailybeast.com On June 25, Actor Tom Hiddleston will be reading a children book at BBC pre-school channel CBeebie. He signed up to present a CBeebies Bedtime Story and the story he will be reading is Supertato. Supertato was written by Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet.
Similar Topic: Children's Book 'The Bench' by Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex Is Here!!! The story opens with : “Tonight’s bedtime story is all about a supervillain. This guy is really naughty, very cheeky… and bright green. But never fear, because where there’s trouble, a superhero is sure to follow.” Tom Hiddleston has join the list of actors such as Tom Hardy, Chris O'Dowd, Rege-Jean Page, and Tom Ellis that has participated in CBeebies Bedtime Story. Source material: Deadline.com The Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Mackle, has finally released her children's book titled The Bench. She dedicated her debut book to her husband and their son Archie. The book was illustrated by Christian Robinson. The idea for the story stated when Meghan wrote a poem for her husband on Father's Day. Within the children's book, Meghan wrote the following note:
"For the man and the boy who make my heart go pump-pump". Meghan narrated the audio book version. Here is the goodreads synopsis of The Bench: Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex's first children's book, The Bench, beautifully captures the special relationship between father and son, as seen through a mother's eyes. The book's storytelling and illustration give us snapshots of shared moments that evoke a deep sense of warmth, connection, and compassion. This is your bench Where you'll witness great joy. From here you will rest See the growth of our boy. In The Bench, Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex, touchingly captures the evolving and expanding relationship between father and son and reminds us of the many ways that love can take shape and be expressed in a modern family. Evoking a deep sense of warmth, connection, and compassion, The Duchess's debut children's book gives us a window into shared and enduring moments between a diverse group of fathers and sons-moments of peace and reflection, trust and belief, discovery and learning, and comfort and nurture. Working in watercolour for the first time, Caldecott-winning, bestselling illustrator Christian Robinson expands on his signature style to bring joy and softness to the pages, reflecting the beauty of a father's love through a mother's eyes. With a universal message, this thoughtful and heartwarming read-aloud is destined to be treasured by families for generations to come. Source material: Yahoo.com |
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