The book the new film A Million Miles Away is based on.

Born into a family of migrant workers, toiling in the fields by the age of six, Jose M. Hernàndez dreamed of traveling through the night skies on a rocket ship. Reaching for the Stars is the inspiring story of how he realized that dream, becoming the first Mexican-American astronaut.

Hernàndez didn’t speak English till he was 12, and his peers often joined gangs, or skipped school. And yet, by his twenties he was part of an elite team helping develop technology for the early detection of breast cancer. He was turned down by NASA eleven times on his long journey to donning that famous orange space suit.

Hernàndez message of hard work, education, perseverance, of “reaching for the stars,” makes this a classic American autobiography.

Sadly, many of our kids today are just not adequately prepared to make informed, confident decisions about what they want to do after high school. A thought-provoking examination of today’s education system and workforce preparedness, Crisis-Proofing Today’s Learners: Reimagining Career Education to Prepare Kids for Tomorrow’s World explores the career readiness pathways our youth take and how a different educational approach could prepare them for the detours life presents. It offers insights into the types of skills young people need to be successful in today’s workforce and prepare them for careers that we might not even have imagined in 2023.

We Were Eight Years in Power features Coates’s iconic essays first published in The Atlantic, including “Fear of a Black President,” “The Case for Reparations,” and “The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration,” along with eight fresh essays that revisit each year of the Obama administration through Coates’s own experiences, observations, and intellectual development, capped by a bracingly original assessment of the election that fully illuminated the tragedy of the Obama era. We Were Eight Years in Power is a vital account of modern America, from one of the definitive voices of this historic moment.

In Poverty for Profit, veteran journalist Anne Kim investigates the multiple industries that infiltrate almost every aspect of the lives of the poor—health care, housing, criminal justice, and nutrition. She explains how these businesses are aided by public policies such as the wholesale privatization of government services and the political influence these industries wield over lawmakers and regulators.

Supported by original investigative reporting on the lesser-known players profiting from the antipoverty industry, Poverty for Profit adds a crucial dimension to our understanding of how structural inequality and structural racism function today.

Named one of the Ten Best Books of the Year by The New York Times Book Review O: The Oprah Magazine The Washington Post People Entertainment Weekly Vogue Los Angeles Times San Francisco Chronicle Chicago Tribune New York Newsday Library Journal Publishers Weekly

Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race”, a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of Black women and men – bodies exploited through slavery and segregation and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a Black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden?

Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’ attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son – and listeners – the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder.

In kindergarten, James Rhee received a toy red helicopter in gratitude for a simple act of generosity—sharing his lunch. Decades later, the lesson from that small gift led him to develop a human-centered framework for business and personal achievement that helped him overcome seemingly insurmountable hurdles and find unprecedented success. While eloquently sharing a story of personal and professional success, red helicopter presents a comforting yet bold solution to the dissatisfaction and worry we all feel in a chaotic and sometimes terrifying world.

The insights and knowledge that Rhee imparts have been accumulated over decades of investing and leading at the highest levels of business.

In Transgender Inclusion: All The Things You Want To Ask Your Transgender Coworker But Shouldn’t, clinical psychologist and trans inclusion specialist Dr. A.C. Fowlkes delivers an essential and remarkably honest discussion of the realities of the workplace for transgender people. In the book, you’ll explore the experiences that trans people have in the workplace as they move through none, one, or more of the three recognized kinds of transition―medical, social, and legal. You’ll learn answers to your questions about your transgender colleagues, so you can be respectful of your coworker’s feelings and work together comfortably.

FINALIST FOR THE 2019 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD

Named a notable book of 2019 by the New York Times Book Review, Chicago Tribune, Time, and The Guardian

In eight highly praised treatises on beauty, media, money, and more, Tressie McMillan Cottom—award-winning professor and acclaimed author of Lower Ed—is unapologetically “thick”: deemed “thick where I should have been thin, more where I should have been less,” McMillan Cottom refuses to shy away from blending the personal with the political, from bringing her full self and voice to the fore of her analytical work. Thick “transforms narrative moments into analyses of whiteness, black misogyny, and status-signaling as means of survival for black women” (Los Angeles Review of Books) with “writing that is as deft as it is amusing” (Darnell L. Moore).

This “transgressive, provocative, and brilliant” (Roxane Gay) collection cements McMillan Cottom’s position as a public thinker capable of shedding new light on what the “personal essay” can do. She turns her chosen form into a showcase for her critical dexterity, investigating everything from Saturday Night Live, LinkedIn, and BBQ Becky to sexual violence, infant mortality, and Trump rallies.

In Lower Ed Tressie McMillan Cottom—a bold and rising public scholar, herself once a recruiter at two for-profit colleges—expertly parses the fraught dynamics of this big-money industry to show precisely how it is part and parcel of the growing inequality plaguing the country today. McMillan Cottom discloses the shrewd recruitment and marketing strategies that these schools deploy and explains how, despite the well-documented predatory practices of some and the campus closings of others, ending for-profit colleges won’t end the vulnerabilities that made them the fastest growing sector of higher education at the turn of the twenty-first century. And she doesn’t stop there. With sharp insight and deliberate acumen, McMillan Cottom delivers a comprehensive view of postsecondary for-profit education by illuminating the experiences of the everyday people behind the shareholder earnings, congressional battles, and student debt disasters.

Poet, writer, and hip-hop educator Tony Keith Jr. makes his debut with a powerful YA memoir in verse, tracing his journey from being a closeted gay Black teen battling poverty, racism, and homophobia to becoming an openly gay first-generation college student who finds freedom in poetry. Perfect for fans of Elizabeth Acevedo, George M. Johnson, and Jacqueline Woodson.

Tony dreams about life after high school, where his poetic voice can find freedom on the stage and page. But how do you find your poetic voice when you are hiding the most important parts of yourself? And how do you escape the Boogeyman when it’s lurking inside you?

As chief people officer at a progressive brewery, she looked beyond the CV to recruit the “whole person”; valuing traits such as loyalty, problem solving and life experience – all essential in today’s workplace.

In Do Recruit, Khalilah shares her tools and strategies for the first time. You will learn how to:

• Rethink your “go to” hiring platforms
• Discover the real person at interview
• Invest time and resource in onboarding
• Let people go with kindness

With practical advice, real-world scenarios and “back-pocket scripts”, Do Recruit brings a refreshing and inclusive approach to the world of recruitment. It puts the “human” back into Human Resources.

For a century, America’s early childhood policy has been premised on a myth. This falsehood―which dictates that child care and education are somehow separate and distinct―not only suboptimizes the most important window into all human development, but costs American taxpayers an untold fortune. It’s time to think differently. Written in plain yet provocative language by one of the field’s most respected bipartisan policy experts, The Daycare Myth makes the case for why the early years matter; why America’s longstanding early childhood policy approach sacrifices the needs of young children in favor of promoting adult employment; and why fixing the problem makes good sense, regardless of your place on the political spectrum. With straightforward guidance for policymakers, practitioners, and parents, this incredibly timely book is a wake-up call for a nation that aspires to nothing less than the wholesale transformation of America’s early childhood landscape.

“The Five Stages of Incarceration” is the personal story of Lester Young’s journey to redemption. This “self-help” booklet is the perfect blueprint for those that are currently incarcerated. During the first 3 years of his incarceration, he recognized the need to change. In order for this change to come about, Lester had to address past triggers and emotions he experienced before and during his time of incarceration. By acknowledging 5 key stages, and sharing different exercises that put him on the right path, Lester was able to overcome obstacles that were preventing his growth. This edition also includes book and class reviews from current and formerly incarcerated individuals that share how Lester’s personal narratives of each phase helped in their struggles to redemption.

“The Five Stages of Growth” is the personal testament of Lester Young’s resilience while standing in the face of different adversities he faced daily during his incarceration. From childhood insecurities, the death of his mother, and being sentenced to life in prison, “The Five Stages of Growth”, uncovers how Lester’s vision of his purpose was revealed to him through his pain and how the importance of healing is essential in order to move forward. Many people believe their past defines them. For Lester, his past old provided the blueprint to amplify his future.