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SUMMARY:"Memory Piece" Author Talk with Lisa Ko
DESCRIPTION:Program Description:\nIn celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month\, PBS Books is thrilled to have a bestselling author\, Lisa Ko\, join us to discuss her highly anticipated book Memory Piece. Lisa takes us on a road trip through time with Giselle (artist)\, Jackie (internet tech expert) & Ellen (activist)\, three lifelong friends whose lives as children growing up in the 80s shaped their prospects as adults at the turn of the millennia. We discuss the stories\, people\, and cultural events spanning the past four decades that inspired this story\, and the outlook based on current events that shaped the book’s dystopian landscape four decades in the future. This visionary book will have you remembering and reflecting on the past\, give you a glimpse of life not driven by technology\, and leave you questioning what the future looks like. Join us to get special insights into this provocative book.  \nMemory Piece\n\n\nIn the early 1980s\, Giselle Chin\, Jackie Ong\, and Ellen Ng are three teenagers drawn together by their shared sense of alienation and desire for something different. “Allied in the weirdest parts of themselves\,” they envision each other as artistic collaborators and embark on a future defined by freedom and creativity.By the time they are adults\, their dreams are murkier. As a performance artist\, Giselle must navigate an elite social world she never conceived of. As a coder thrilled by the internet’s early egalitarian promise\, Jackie must contend with its more sinister shift toward monetization and surveillance. And as a community activist\, Ellen confronts the increasing gentrification and policing overwhelming her New York City neighborhood. Over time their friendship matures and changes\, their definitions of success become complicated\, and their sense of what matters evolves.Moving from the predigital 1980s to the art and tech subcultures of the 1990s to a strikingly imagined portrait of the 2040s\, Memory Piece is an innovative and audacious story of three lifelong friends as they strive to build satisfying lives in a world that turns out to be radically different from the one they were promised. \n\n\n\nLearn more about Memory Piece: \nLearn more about Artist On Kawara: \nDive into Lisa’s Time Capsule: \nLearn more about performance artist Tehching Hsieh: \nGuest Biography:\nLisa Ko\, Author\nLISA KO is the author of the nationally bestselling novel The Leavers\, which was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction and the PEN/Hemingway Award\, and winner of the 2016 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. Ko’s short fiction has appeared in The Best American Short Stories and her essays and nonfiction have been published in The New York Times and The Believer.
URL:https://www.pbsbooks.org/event/memory-piece-author-talk-lisa-ko/
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SUMMARY:Author Talk with Kelly Yang
DESCRIPTION:Program Description:\nJoin PBS Books National Director Heather-Marie Montilla for an update from bestselling author\, Kelly Yang. Since our last conversation with Kelly\, she has released seven new titles for her middle-grade readers to enjoy\, including two additions to her beloved series The Front Desk. We’ll discover more behind these novels and find out what’s next for Kelly Yang on this episode of PBS Books. \nFront Desk Series\nFront Desk\nFront Desk by Kelly Yang \nInside Out and Back Again meets Millicent Min\, Girl Genius in this timely\, hopeful middle-grade novel with a contemporary Chinese twist. \nMia Tang has a lot of secrets: \nNumber 1: She lives in a motel\, not a big house. Every day\, while her immigrant parents clean the rooms\, ten-year-old Mia manages the front desk of the Calivista Motel and tends to its guests. \nNumber 2: Her parents hide immigrants. And if the mean motel owner\, Mr. Yao\, finds out they’ve been letting them stay in the empty rooms for free\, the Tangs will be doomed. \nNumber 3: She wants to be a writer. But how can she when her mom thinks she should stick to math because English is not her first language? \nIt will take all of Mia’s courage\, kindness\, and hard work to get through this year. Will she be able to hold on to her job\, help the immigrants and guests\, escape Mr. Yao\, and go for her dreams? \nThree Keys\nThree Keys by Kelly Yang \nThe story of Mia and her family and friends at the Calivista Motel continues in this powerful\, hilarious\, and resonant sequel to the award-winning novel Front Desk. \nMia Tang thinks she’s going to have the best year ever. She and her parents are the proud owners of the Calivista Motel\, Mia gets to run the front desk with her best friend\, Lupe\, and she’s finally getting somewhere with her writing! But as it turns out\, sixth grade is no picnic… \n1. Mia’s new teacher doesn’t think her writing is all that great. And her entire class finds out she lives and works in a motel! \n2. The motel is struggling\, and Mia has to answer to the Calivista’s many\, many worried investors. \n3. A new immigration law is looming and if it passes\, it will threaten everything — and everyone — in Mia’s life. \nIt’s a roller coaster of challenges\, and Mia needs all of her determination to hang on tight. But if anyone can find the key to getting through turbulent times\, it’s Mia Tang! \nRoom to Dream\nRoom to Dream by Kelly Yang \nMia Tang is going for her dreams! \nAfter years of hard work\, Mia Tang finally gets to go on vacation with her family — to China! A total dream come true! Mia can’t wait to see all her cousins and grandparents again\, especially her cousin Shen. As she roams around Beijing\, witnessing some of the big changes China’s going through\, Mia thinks about the changes in her own life\, like . . . \n1. Lupe’s taking classes at the high school! And Mia’s own plans to be a big writer are . . . stuck. \n2. Something happened with Jason and Mia has no idea what to do about it. \n3. New buildings are popping up all around the motel\, and small businesses are disappearing. \nCan the Calivista survive? Buckle up! Mia is more determined than ever to get through the turbulence\, now that she finally has . . . room to dream! \nKey Player\nKey Player by Kelly Yang \nMia Tang is play to win! \nThe Women’s World Cup is coming to Southern California\, and everyone has soccer fever―especially Mia Tang! The U.S. team is playing China in the finals\, and Mia feels like her two identities are finally coming together. But when her P.E. teacher gives her a C\, Mia tries to pull up her grade by scoring interviews with the championship teams. It’s not so easy when . . . \n1. The two teams are hunkered down in secret hotels in Pasadena and not taking any media requests. \n2. Mr. Yao is back at the motel―as a co-owner! Jason is sure his dad deserves a second chance. Mia is not so sure. \n3. Mia’s parents are trying to buy a house of their very own\, which turns out to be a LOT harder than they thought! \nAs Mia aims for her goals\, she’ll have to face strikers from all corners\, as well as her own fears. But if anyone can find a way to win big\, it’s Mia Tang! \n  \nTop Story\nTop Story by Kelly Yang \nMia Tang is at the top of her game! \nShe’s spending winter break with Mom\, Lupe\, Jason\, and Hank in San Francisco’s Chinatown! Rich with history and hilarious aunties and uncles\, it’s the place to find a great story―one she hopes to publish while attending journalism camp at the Tribune. But this trip has as many bumps as the hills of San Francisco . . . \n1. Mia’s camp is full of older kids\, with famous relatives\, fancy laptops\, and major connections! Can she compete with just her pen and passion? \n2. Lupe’s thinking about skipping ahead to college! Will Mia ever get a chance to just chill with her best friend? \n3. Jason’s crushing hard on a new girl. For the first time ever\, Mia is speechless…and jealous. Can she find the courage to tell Jason―gulp―that she has a crush on him? \nEven for the best writers\, it’s not always easy to find the right words. But if anyone can tell a top story\, it’s Mia Tang! \nOther Great Reads by Kelly Yang\nParachutes\nParachutes by Kelly Yang \nThey’re called parachutes: teenagers dropped off to live in private homes and study in the United States while their wealthy parents remain in Asia. Claire Wang never thought she’d be one of them\, until her parents pluck her from her privileged life in Shanghai and enroll her at a high school in California. \nSuddenly she finds herself living in a stranger’s house\, with no one to tell her what to do for the first time in her life. She soon embraces her newfound freedom\, especially when the hottest and most eligible parachute\, Jay\, asks her out. \nDani De La Cruz\, Claire’s new host sister\, couldn’t be less thrilled that her mom rented out a room to Claire. An academic and debate team star\, Dani is determined to earn her way into Yale\, even if it means competing with privileged kids who are buying their way to the top. But Dani’s game plan veers unexpectedly off course when her debate coach starts working with her privately. \nAs they steer their own distinct paths\, Dani and Claire keep crashing into one another\, setting a course that will change their lives forever. \nNew From Here\nNew From Here by Kelly Yang \nWhen the coronavirus hits Hong Kong\, ten-year-old Knox Wei-Evans’s mom makes the last-minute decision to move him and his siblings back to California\, where they think they will be safe. Suddenly\, Knox has two days to prepare for an international move—and for leaving his dad\, who has to stay for work. \nAt his new school in California\, Knox struggles with being the new kid. His classmates think that because he’s from Asia\, he must have brought over the virus. At home\, Mom just got fired and is panicking over the loss of health insurance\, and Dad doesn’t even know when he’ll see them again\, since the flights have been cancelled. And everyone struggles with Knox’s blurting-things-out problem. \nAs racism skyrockets during COVID-19\, Knox tries to stand up to hate\, while finding his place in his new country. Can you belong if you’re feared; can you protect if you’re new? And how do you keep a family together when you’re oceans apart? Sometimes when the world is spinning out of control\, the best way to get through it is to embrace our own lovable uniqueness. \nFinally Heard\nFinally Heard by Kelly Yang \nWhen ten-year-old Lina Gao sees her mom’s video on social media take off\, she’s captivated by the potential to be seen and heard! Maybe online she can finally find the confidence she craves. Whereas in real life she’s growing so fast\, she feels like microwave popcorn\, bursting out of her skin! \nWith the help of her two best friends\, Carla and Finn\, and her little sister\, Millie\, Lina sets off to go viral. Except there’s a lot more to social media than Lina ever imagined\, like: \n1. Seeing inside her classmates’ lives! Is she really the only person on the planet who doesn’t have a walk-in closet? \n2. Group chats! Disappearing videos! What is everyone talking about in the secret chats? And how can she join? \n3. A bazillion stories about what to eat\, wear\, and put on her face. Could they all be telling the truth? Everyone sounds so sure of what they’re saying! \nAs Lina descends deeper and deeper into social media\, it will take all her strength to break free from the likes and find the courage to be her authentic self in this fast-paced world. \nFinally Seen\nFinally Seen by Kelly Yang \nMy sister got to grow up with my parents. Me? I grew up with postcards from my parents. \nWhen ten-year-old Lina Gao steps off the plane in Los Angeles\, it’s her first time in America and the first time seeing her parents and her little sister in five years! She’s been waiting for this moment every day while she lived with her grandmother in Beijing\, getting teased by kids at school who called her “left behind girl.” Finally\, her parents are ready for her to join their fabulous life in America! Except\, it’s not exactly like in the postcards: \n1. School’s a lot harder than she thought. When she mispronounces some words in English on the first day\, she decides she simply won’t talk. Ever again. \n2. Her chatty little sister has no problem with English. And seems to do everything better than Lina\, including knowing exactly the way to her parents’ hearts. \n3. They live in an apartment\, not a house like in Mom’s letters\, and they owe a lot of back rent from the pandemic. And Mom’s plan to pay it back sounds more like a hobby than a moneymaker. \nAs she reckons with her hurt\, Lina tries to keep a lid on her feelings\, both at home and at school. When her teacher starts facing challenges for her latest book selection\, a book that deeply resonates with Lina\, it will take all of Lina’s courage and resilience to get over her fear and choose a future where she’s finally seen. \nPrivate Label\nPrivate Label by Kelly Yang \nSerene dreams of making couture dresses even more stunning than her mom’s\, but for now she’s an intern at her mom’s fashion label. When her mom receives a sudden diagnosis of pancreatic cancer\, all that changes. Serene has to take over her mother’s business overnight while trying to figure out what happened with her dad in Beijing. He left before she was born\, and Serene wants to find him\, even if it means going against her mom’s one request—never look back. \nLian Chen moved from China to Serene’s mostly white Southern California beach town a year ago. He doesn’t fit in at school\, where kids mispronounce his name. His parents don’t care about what he wants to do—comedy—and push him toward going to MIT engineering early. Lian thinks there’s nothing to stick around for until one day he starts a Chinese Club after school . . . and Serene walks in. \nWorlds apart in the high school hierarchy\, Serene and Lian soon find refuge in each other\, falling in love as they navigate life-changing storms. \nYes We Will: Asian Americans Who Shaped History\nYes We Will: Asian Americans Who Shaped History by Kelly Yang \nFrom creating beautiful music like Yo-Yo Ma to flying to outer space like Franklin Chang-Díaz; from standing up to injustice like Fred Korematsu to becoming the first Asian American\, Black and female vice president of the United States like Kamala Harris\, this book illuminates the power of Asian Americans all over the country\, in all sorts of fields. \nEach spread is illustrated by a different renowned Asian American or Asian artist. Alongside the poetic main text\, Yes We Will includes one-line biographies of the person or historical moment featured on the page\, with extended biographies at the end. Readers of different ages and needs can use the book in different ways\, from classroom discussions to bedtime readalouds and more. \nYes We Will answers the question\, can we accomplish whatever we dream? With love\, courage\, determination\, and lots of imagination\, we can—and we will! \nGuest Biography:\nKelly Yang\, Author\nKELLY YANG is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of FINALLY SEEN\, NEW FROM HERE\, the FRONT DESK series (“One of the 30 Most Influential Children’s Books Of All Time” -BookRiot)\, including FRONT DESK\, THREE KEYS\, and ROOM TO DREAM\, KEY PLAYER\, and TOP STORY\, YES WE WILL\, and young adult novels PARACHUTES and PRIVATE LABEL. FRONT DESK is Kelly’s award-winning middle grade debut novel about a 10 year old Chinese American immigrant girl who manages the front desk of a motel while her parents clean the rooms. FRONT DESK was awarded the 2019 Asian Pacific American Award for Literature\, the Parents’ Choice Gold Medal\, was the 2019 Global Read Aloud\, and was named an Amazon Best Book of the Year\, a Washington Post Best Book of the Year\, a Kirkus Best Book of the Year\, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year\, a NPR Best Book of the Year\, and a Publisher’s Weekly Best Book of the Year. \nKelly immigrated to America when she was 6 years old and grew up in Southern California\, where she and her parents worked in three different motels. She overcame poverty to go to college at the age of 13 and law school at the age of 17. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley\, where she majored in Political Science\, and Harvard Law School. After law school\, she gave up law to pursue her passion of writing and teaching children writing. She is the founder of The Kelly Yang Project (kellyyang.edu.hk)\, a leading writing and debating program for kids in Asia. As a writing teacher for 13 years\, Kelly helped thousands of children find their voice and become better writers and more powerful speakers. Before turning to fiction\, she was also a columnist for the South China Morning Post for many years. Her writing has been published in The New York Times\, The Washington Post\, and The Atlantic. She is the Honorary Chair of the American Library Association for National Library Week. She has three children and lives in Los Angeles.
URL:https://www.pbsbooks.org/event/author-talk-kelly-yang-2/
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SUMMARY:What to Read this Summer with Booklist Reader
DESCRIPTION:Program Description:\nJoin PBS Books and the American Library Association’s Booklist Reader teams as we dive into all the must-read adult fiction books this summer. Whether you’re on the hunt for a quick weekend read\, looking for a new series\, or thinking about re-discovering a favorite author\, there will be no shortage of great picks in this can’t-miss episode. So\, grab a pen as we help you create your Summer Reading List!  \nWhat to Read this Summer (2024)James\nJames by Percival Everett \nWhen the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans\, separated from his wife and daughter forever\, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile\, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father\, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know\, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond. \nWhile many narrative set pieces of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remain in place (floods and storms\, stumbling across both unexpected death and unexpected treasure in the myriad stopping points along the river’s banks\, encountering the scam artists posing as the Duke and Dauphin…)\, Jim’s agency\, intelligence and compassion are shown in a radically new light. \nBrimming with the electrifying humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a “literary icon” (Oprah Daily)\, and one of the most decorated writers of our lifetime\, James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first century American literature. \nState of Paradise\nState of Paradise by Laura van den Berg \nA heart-racing fun house of uncanniness hidden in Florida’s underbelly\, from a reality-warping storyteller. \nAlong with her husband\, a ghostwriter for a famous thriller author returns to her mother’s house in the Florida town where she grew up. As the summer heat sets in\, she wrestles with family secrets and memories of her own troubled youth. Her mercurial sister\, who lives next door\, spends a growing amount of time using MIND’S EYE\, a virtual reality device provided to citizens of the town by ELECTRA\, a tech company in South Florida\, during the doldrums of a recent pandemic. But it’s not just the ominous cats\, her mother’s burgeoning cult\, or the fact that her belly button has become an increasingly deep cavern―something is off in the town\, and it probably has to do with the posters of missing citizens spread throughout the streets. \nDuring a violent rainstorm\, the writer’s sister goes missing for several days. When she returns\, sprawled on their mother’s lawn and speaking of another dimension\, the writer is forced to investigate not only what happened to her sister and the other missing people but also the uncanny connections between ELECTRA\, the famous author\, and reality itself. \nA sticky\, rain-soaked reckoning with the elusive nature of storytelling\, Laura van den Berg’s Florida Diary is an interlocking and page-turning whirlwind. With inimitable control and thrilling style\, she reaches deep into the void and returns with a story far stranger than either reality or fiction. \nVilla E\nVilla E by Jane Alison \nFrom the author of Meander\, Spiral\, Explode\, an astounding novel inspired by the collision of Irish designer Eileen Gray and famed Swiss architect Le Corbusier. \nAlong the glittering coast of southern France\, a white villa sits atop an earthen terrace—a site of artistic genius\, now subject to bitter dispute. Eileen\, a new architect known for her elegant chair designs\, poured the concrete herself; she built it as a haven for her and her lover\, and called it E-1027. When the hulking Le G\, a founder of modernist architecture\, laid eyes on the house in 1929\, he could see his influence in the sleek lines—and he would not be outdone. Impassioned\, he took a paintbrush to the clean\, white walls. . . . \nThirty years later\, Eileen has not returned to Villa E and Le G has never left—his summers spent aging in a cabin just feet away. Mining the psyches of two brilliant\, complex artists and the extrordinary place that bound them\, Jane Alison boldly reimagines a now-legendary act of vandalism into a lushly poetic and mesmerizing novel of power\, predation\, and obsession. \nCatalina\nCatalina by Carla Cornejo Villavicencio \nWhen Catalina is admitted to Harvard\, it feels like the fulfillment of destiny: a miracle child escapes death in Latin America\, moves to Queens to be raised by her undocumented grandparents\, and becomes one of the chosen. But nothing is simple for Catalina\, least of all her own complicated\, contradictory\, ruthlessly probing mind. Now a senior\, she faces graduation to a world that has no place for the undocumented; her sense of doom intensifies her curiosities and desires. She infiltrates the school’s elite subcultures—internships and literary journals\, posh parties and secret societies—which she observes with the eye of an anthropologist and an interloper’s skepticism: she is both fascinated and repulsed. Craving a great romance\, Catalina finds herself drawn to a fellow student\, an actual budding anthropologist eager to teach her about the Latin American world she was born into but never knew\, even as her life back in Queens begins to unravel. And every day\, the clock ticks closer to the abyss of life after graduation. Can she save her family? Can she save herself? What does it mean to be saved? \nBrash and daring\, part campus novel\, part hagiography\, part pop song\, Catalina is unlike any coming-of-age novel you’ve ever read—and Catalina\, bright and tragic\, circled by a nimbus of chaotic energy\, driven by a wild heart\, is a character you will never forget. \nOne of Our Kind\nOne of Our Kind by Nicola Yoon \nThe Stepford Wives meets Get Out in Nicola Yoon’s first adult novel\, a terrifying and thought-provoking look at what it means to be truly free in America. \nWhen Jasmyn and King Williams move their family to the planned Black utopia of Liberty\, California\, they hope to find a community of like-minded people\, a place where their growing family can thrive. King settles in at once\, embracing the Liberty ethos\, including the luxe wellness center at the top of the hill\, which proves to be the heart of the community. But Jasmyn struggles to find her place. She expected to find liberals and social justice activists striving for racial equality\, but Liberty residents seem more focused on booking spa treatments and ignoring the world’s troubles. \nJasmyn’s only friends in the community are equally perplexed and frustrated by Liberty’s outlook\, a frustration that turns to dread when their loved ones start embracing the Liberty way of life. As Jasmyn learns more about Liberty and its founders\, she discovers a terrible secret that threatens to destroy her world in ways she never could have imagined. \nThis Strange Eventful History\nThis Strange Eventful History by Claire Messud \nAn immersive\, masterful story of a family born on the wrong side of history\, from one of our finest contemporary novelists. \nOver seven decades\, from 1940 to 2010\, the pieds-noirs Cassars live in an itinerant state―separated in the chaos of World War II\, running from a complicated colonial homeland\, and\, after Algerian independence\, without a homeland at all. This Strange Eventful History\, told with historical sweep\, is above all a family story: of patriarch Gaston and his wife Lucienne\, whose myth of perfect love sustains them and stifles their children; of François and Denise\, devoted siblings connected by their family’s strangeness; of François’s union with Barbara\, a woman so culturally different they can barely comprehend one another; of Chloe\, the result of that union\, who believes that telling these buried stories will bring them all peace. \nInspired in part by long-ago stories from her own family’s history\, Claire Messud animates her characters’ rich interior lives amid the social and political upheaval of the recent past. As profoundly intimate as it is expansive\, This Strange Eventful History is “a tour de force…one of those rare novels that a reader doesn’t merely read but lives through with the characters” (Yiyun Li). \nMrs. Quinn's Rise to Fame\nMrs. Quinn’s Rise to Fame by Olivia Ford \nNothing could be more out of character\, but after fifty-nine years of marriage\, as her husband Bernard’s health declines\, and her friends’ lives become focused on their grandchildren—which Jenny never had—Jenny decides she wants a little something for herself. So she secretly applies to be a contestant on the prime-time TV show Britain Bakes. \nWhisked into an unfamiliar world of cameras and timed challenges\, Jenny delights in a new-found independence. But that independence\, and the stress of the competition\, starts to unearth memories buried decades ago. Chocolate teacakes remind her of a furtive errand involving a wedding ring; sugared doughnuts call up a stranger’s kind act; a simple cottage loaf brings back the moment her life changed forever. \nWith her baking star rising\, Jenny struggles to keep a lid on that first secret—a long-concealed deceit that threatens to shatter the very foundations of her marriage. It’s the only time in six decades that she’s kept something from Bernard. By putting herself in the limelight\, has Jenny created a recipe for disaster? \nThe Hunter\nThe Hunter by Tana French \nIt’s a blazing summer when two men arrive in a small village in the West of Ireland. One of them is coming home. Both of them are coming to get rich. One of them is coming to die. \nCal Hooper took early retirement from Chicago PD and moved to rural Ireland looking for peace. He’s found it\, more or less: he’s built a relationship with a local woman\, Lena\, and he’s gradually turning Trey Reddy from a half-feral teenager into a good kid going good places. But then Trey’s long-absent father reappears\, bringing along an English millionaire and a scheme to find gold in the townland\, and suddenly everything the three of them have been building is under threat. Cal and Lena are both ready to do whatever it takes to protect Trey\, but Trey doesn’t want protecting. What she wants is revenge. \nFrom the writer who is “in a class by herself\,” (The New York Times)\, a nuanced\, atmospheric tale that explores what we’ll do for our loved ones\, what we’ll do for revenge\, and what we sacrifice when the two collide. \nskin & bones\nskin & bones by Renée Watson \nAt 40\, Lena Baker is at a steady and stable moment in life—between wine nights with her two best friends and her wedding just weeks away\, she’s happy in love and in friendship until a confession on her wedding day shifts her world. \nUnmoored and grieving a major loss\, Lena finds herself trying to teach her daughter self-love while struggling to do so herself. Lena questions everything she’s learned about dating\, friendship\, and motherhood\, and through it all\, she works tirelessly to bring the oft-forgotten Black history of Oregon to the masses\, sidestepping her well-meaning co-workers that don’t understand that their good intentions are often offensive and hurtful. \nThrough Watson’s poetic voice\, skin & bones is a stirring exploration of who society makes space for and is ultimately a story of heartbreak and healing. \nYou Are Here\nYou Are Here by David Nicholls \nMarnie is stuck. \nStuck working alone in her London flat\, stuck battling the long afternoons and a life that often feels like it’s passing her by. \nMichael is coming undone. \nReeling from his wife’s departure\, increasingly reclusive\, taking himself on long\, solitary walks across the moors and fells. \nWhen a persistent mutual friend and some very English weather conspire to bring them together\, Marnie and Michael suddenly find themselves alone on the most epic of walks and on the precipice of a new friendship. \nBut can they survive the journey? \nA new love story by beloved bestseller David Nicholls\, You Are Here is a novel of first encounters\, second chances and finding the way home. \nOne of Us Knows\nOne of Us Knows by Alyssa Cole \nYears after a breakdown and a diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder derailed her historical preservationist career\, Kenetria Nash and her alters have been given a second chance they can’t refuse: a position as resident caretaker of a historic home. Having been dormant for years\, Ken has no idea what led them to this isolated Hudson River island\, but she’s determined not to ruin their opportunity. \nThen a surprise visit from the home’s conservation trust just as a Nor’easter bears down on the island disrupts her newfound life\, leaving Ken trapped with a group of possibly dangerous strangers—including the man who brought her life tumbling down years earlier. When he turns up dead\, Ken is the prime suspect. \nCaught in a web of secrets and in a race against time\, Ken and her alters must band together to prove their innocence and discover the truth of Kavanaugh Island—and their own past—or they risk losing not only their future\, but their life. \nOcean's Godori\nOcean’s Godori by Elaine U. Cho \nOcean Yoon has never felt very Korean\, even if she is descended from a long line of haenyeo\, Jeju Island’s beloved female divers. She doesn’t like soju\, constantly misses cultural references\, and despite her love of the game\, people still say that she doesn’t play Hwatu like a Korean. Ocean’s also persona non grata at the Alliance\, Korea’s solar system–dominating space agency\, since a mission went awry and she earned a reputation for being a little too quick with her gun. \nWhen her best friend\, Teo\, second son of the Anand Tech empire\, is framed for murdering his family\, Ocean and her misfit crewmates are pushed to the forefront of a high-stakes ideological conflict. But dodging bullets and winning space chases may be the easiest part of what comes next. \nA thrilling adventure across the solar that delivers hyperkinetic action sequences and irresistible will-they-won’t-they romance alongside its nuanced exploration of colonialism and capitalism\, Ocean’s Godori ultimately asks: What do we owe our past? How do we navigate our present while honoring the complicated facets of our identity? What can our future hold?
URL:https://www.pbsbooks.org/event/what-to-read-this-summer-booklist-reader/
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20240529T200000
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CREATED:20240430T205125Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250731T200132Z
UID:9565-1717012800-1717016400@www.pbsbooks.org
SUMMARY:PBS Books Readers Club - Rachel Khong
DESCRIPTION:Readers Club HomeEpisodes \nEpisode Description:\nRead along with the PBS Books Readers Club this May for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. We’ll dive into Real Americans\, the highly anticipated novel by Rachel Khong\, author of Goodbye\, Vitamin. Rachel Khong joins the PBS Books Readers Club to discuss this sweeping family drama that tells the story of three generations of Chinese Americans\, raising questions about identity and what it means to be Real Americans. \nReal Americans begins on the precipice of Y2K in New York City\, when twenty-two-year-old Lily Chen\, an unpaid intern at a slick media company\, meets Matthew. Matthew is everything Lily is not: easygoing and effortlessly attractive\, a native East Coaster\, and\, most notably\, heir to a vast pharmaceutical empire. Lily couldn’t be more different: flat-broke\, raised in Tampa\, the only child of scientists who fled Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Despite all this\, Lily and Matthew fall in love. \nIn 2021\, fifteen-year-old Nick Chen has never felt like he belonged on the isolated Washington island where he lives with his single mother\, Lily. He can’t shake the sense she’s hiding something. When Nick sets out to find his biological father\, the journey threatens to raise more questions than it provides answers. \nAbout the Book:\nGet the E-BookDONATE NOW and download your e-book copy. \nReal Americans begins on the precipice of Y2K in New York City\, when twenty-two-year-old Lily Chen\, an unpaid intern at a slick media company\, meets Matthew. Matthew is everything Lily is not: easygoing and effortlessly attractive\, a native East Coaster\, and\, most notably\, heir to a vast pharmaceutical empire. Lily couldn’t be more different: flat-broke\, raised in Tampa\, the only child of scientists who fled Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Despite all this\, Lily and Matthew fall in love. \nIn 2021\, fifteen-year-old Nick Chen has never felt like he belonged on the isolated Washington island where he lives with his single mother\, Lily. He can’t shake the sense she’s hiding something. When Nick sets out to find his biological father\, the journey threatens to raise more questions than it provides answers. \nIn immersive\, moving prose\, Rachel Khong weaves a profound tale of class and striving\, race and visibility\, and family and inheritance—a story of trust\, forgiveness\, and finally coming home. \nExuberant and explosive\, Real Americans is a social novel par excellence that asks: Are we destined\, or made? And if we are made\, who gets to do the making? Can our genetic past be overcome? \nGuest Biography:\nRachel Khong\nRACHEL KHONG is the author of Goodbye\, Vitamin\, winner of the California Book Award for First Fiction\, and named a Best Book of the Year by NPR; O\, The Oprah Magazine; Vogue; and Esquire. Her work has appeared in The New York Times Book Review\, The Cut\, The Guardian\, The Paris Review\, and Tin House. In 2018\, she founded The Ruby\, a work and event space for women and nonbinary writers and artists in San Francisco’s Mission District. She lives in California. \nReaders Club Hosts:\nHeather Marie Montilla\nHeather-Marie Montilla\, a dynamic integrative leader\, is an educator and nonprofit manager. She has worked in the nonprofit sector and libraries for over two decades\, making a positive impact in arts\, cultural\, educational\, and community-building arenas. \nHaving joined the PBS Books team as their Library Bureau Chief in Fall 2018\, Montilla is now the National Director of PBS Books and has interviewed more than 150 writers. In addition\, she is a faculty member at Michigan State University and Eastern Michigan University for their Arts and Cultural/Entertainment Management Programs. Having been an Executive Director for 8 years\, Heather has a wide range of experience in management\, finance\, strategic planning\, marketing\, and fundraising. Heather holds a MPA From Columbia University\, a MLIS from Wayne State University\, and a bachelor’s from Duke University. She lives in Chicagoland\, and is married with four children\, a dog\, and a bird. \nPrincess Weekes\nPrincess Weekes is an award winning writer and video essayist who works at breaking down the intersections between race\, gender\, and pop culture. Formally an Assistant Editor at The Mary Sue\, co-host of Netflix’s The Geeked Podcast\, and co-host and co-writer on the PBS Digital Series It’s Lit. On weekends she works as a bookseller at a local bookstore. When not reading or writing she can be found playing TTRPGs of cuddling with her cat\, Lola. \nLauren Smith\nExecutive Producer and host of national PBS programming at Detroit Public TV\, Lauren develops content for PBS and other distributors of public media for broadcast\, streaming\, and other digital channels and has executive-produced and/or produced over 60 national broadcast and programs. Her passion is to develop inspiring\, entertaining\, and educational content alongside the best national and international talent\, and to engage important content with communities across the country. Lauren loves to read and has worked to develop and produce PBS Books content for nearly ten years! \nFred Nahhat \nFred Nahhat is an Emmy Award-winning producer\, host\, and presenter for Detroit’s PBS station\, where he serves as Sr. VP of Production. A 30-year broadcast veteran\, Fred has hosted and produced numerous programs for Public TV – including music specials from Il Volo\, Celtic Gold and the New Divas – as well as other series and specials “New Year’s Eve with the DSO”\, “The Detroit Dream Cruise\,” “The PBS Books Readers Club” and “Get Up\, Get Out\,” among others. \nHe is a graduate of Wayne State University and a member of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Michigan Chapter\, USA Hockey\, and Leadership Detroit.
URL:https://www.pbsbooks.org/event/readers-club-105/
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