Thanks America: an Immigrant's Journey


Book Description

From a poor childhood in a remote place, a 14-year-old boy comes to America. There, he finds opportunities he never had in his native country. With support from family and friends in California's Portuguese community he takes advantage of those opportunities. Using his steadfast determination, hard work, and perseverance in the new land, he grows up to became tall, rich, and well-travelled. He, like many other immigrants, epitomizes the American dream.




Journey to America


Book Description

Journey to America is a beautiful collection of biographies celebrating 20 of America’s most inspiring first- and second-generation immigrants.




Origins


Book Description




Journey of Hope


Book Description

A three-dimensional book featuring images and documents of Irish immigrants.




How May I Help You?


Book Description

In a work that is both moving and insightful, Deepak Singh chronicles his downward mobility as an immigrant to a small town in Virginia. Armed with an MBA from India, Singh could only get a minimum wage job in an electronics store in a strip mall. Every day at work he confronted unfamiliar American mores—from strange idioms to deeply entrenched racism to open expressions of sexuality. Story-by-story, Singh offers a portrait of America by an educated, if initially credulous, outsider. Through his unique lens, he learns about his colleagues and their struggles—Ron, a middle-aged African American man, simply trying to keep his job, house, and marriage intact despite health concerns; Jackie, a young African American woman trying to go to school after work; and Cindy, Deepak’s boss, whose matter-of-fact way of dealing with her employees helps Deepak to adapt to both his job and life in the U.S. Candid and evocative, How May I Help You? is a powerful reminder that service and other low-wage workers are complex and inspiring in their dogged efforts to remain afloat. Their rich stories serve as a chance to humanize debates about work, race, and immigration. How May I Help You? is an incisive take on the United States, familiar and strange, from the perspective of someone “fresh off the plane.”




How to American


Book Description

Standup comic, actor and fan favorite from HBO's Silicon Valley and the film Crazy Rich Asians shares his memoir of growing up as a Chinese immigrant in California and making it in Hollywood. "I turned down a job in finance to pursue a career in stand-up comedy. My dad thought I was crazy. But I figured it was better to disappoint my parents for a few years than to disappoint myself for the rest of my life. I had to disappoint them in order to pursue what I loved. That was the only way to have my Chinese turnip cake and eat an American apple pie too." Jimmy O. Yang is a standup comedian, film and TV actor and fan favorite as the character Jian Yang from the popular HBO series Silicon Valley. In How to American, he shares his story of growing up as a Chinese immigrant who pursued a Hollywood career against the wishes of his parents: Yang arrived in Los Angeles from Hong Kong at age 13, learned English by watching BET RapCity for three hours a day, and worked as a strip club DJ while pursuing his comedy career. He chronicles a near deportation episode during a college trip Tijuana to finally becoming a proud US citizen ten years later. Featuring those and many other hilarious stories, while sharing some hard-earned lessons, How to American mocks stereotypes while offering tongue in cheek advice on pursuing the American dreams of fame, fortune, and strippers.




Tell Me How It Ends


Book Description

"Part treatise, part memoir, part call to action, Tell Me How It Ends inspires not through a stiff stance of authority, but with the curiosity and humility Luiselli has long since established." —Annalia Luna, Brazos Bookstore "Valeria Luiselli's extended essay on her volunteer work translating for child immigrants confronts with compassion and honesty the problem of the North American refugee crisis. It's a rare thing: a book everyone should read." —Stephen Sparks, Point Reyes Books "Tell Me How It Ends evokes empathy as it educates. It is a vital contribution to the body of post-Trump work being published in early 2017." —Katharine Solheim, Unabridged Books "While this essay is brilliant for exactly what it depicts, it helps open larger questions, which we're ever more on the precipice of now, of where all of this will go, how all of this might end. Is this a story, or is this beyond a story? Valeria Luiselli is one of those brave and eloquent enough to help us see." —Rick Simonson, Elliott Bay Book Company "Appealing to the language of the United States' fraught immigration policy, Luiselli exposes the cracks in this foundation. Herself an immigrant, she highlights the human cost of its brokenness, as well as the hope that it (rather than walls) might be rebuilt." —Brad Johnson, Diesel Bookstore "The bureaucratic labyrinth of immigration, the dangers of searching for a better life, all of this and more is contained in this brief and profound work. Tell Me How It Ends is not just relevant, it's essential." —Mark Haber, Brazos Bookstore "Humane yet often horrifying, Tell Me How It Ends offers a compelling, intimate look at a continuing crisis—and its ongoing cost in an age of increasing urgency." —Jeremy Garber, Powell's Books




American Muslim


Book Description

Saima A Sitwat emigrated to the United States of America from Pakistan, in 2003. Her immigrant experience was defined, not only by learning the nuances of the American language and culture but also that of the American Muslims. A Muslim by birth, Saima would struggle to find her place within the American as well as the American Muslim community. Along the way, she would become a mother and a community leader. American Muslim: An Immigrant's Journey, is one woman's story of exploring new vistas, stretching her boundaries and reconciling with the evolving notions of home. But more poignantly, Saima's journey leads us to explore some fundamental questions of our present-day world: What does it mean to be a minority, Muslim immigrant woman in America?




Working Toward Whiteness


Book Description

How did immigrants to the United States come to see themselves as white? David R. Roediger has been in the vanguard of the study of race and labor in American history for decades. He first came to prominence as the author of The Wages of Whiteness, a classic study of racism in the development of a white working class in nineteenth-century America. In Working Toward Whiteness, Roediger continues that history into the twentieth century. He recounts how ethnic groups considered white today-including Jewish-, Italian-, and Polish-Americans-were once viewed as undesirables by the WASP establishment in the United States. They eventually became part of white America, through the nascent labor movement, New Deal reforms, and a rise in home-buying. Once assimilated as fully white, many of them adopted the racism of those whites who formerly looked down on them as inferior. From ethnic slurs to racially restrictive covenants-the real estate agreements that ensured all-white neighborhoods-Roediger explores the mechanisms by which immigrants came to enjoy the privileges of being white in America. A disturbing, necessary, masterful history, Working Toward Whiteness uses the past to illuminate the present. In an Introduction to the 2018 edition, Roediger considers the resonance of the book in the age of Trump, showing how Working Toward Whiteness remains as relevant as ever even though most migrants today are not from Europe.




Lift As I Climb


Book Description

Lift as I Climb: An Immigrant Girl's Journey Through Corporate America is an instructive biography about a woman who rose to the top through a winning combination of inclusion and purpose. As a new American, Jackie Glenn developed a powerful currency in a set of ten self-defined "gems"--foundations of character that she invested with impressive returns. Working her way from nanny to executive, she found that lifting others as she climbed the corporate ladder became a way of life. With each promotion and increase in global responsibility, she never forgot an earlier vow to hear those whose voices were not as strong as her own. Intentionally and continuously, she made time to understand who needed a lift and how to provide it.Jackie Glenn's own story is artfully combined with the perspectives of other prominent immigrants explaining how these gems brought them success. This is a book for citizens of all nations who want a deeper understanding of qualities that never go out of style: authenticity, self-awareness, boldness, responsibility, faith, empathy, flexibility, integrity, resilience, and trustworthiness. Applicable to all stages of personal and professional journeys, Lift as I Climb will give you an engaging compass to chart your future and take pride in your progress.