Girl in Translation

Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok is the fictional story of Kimberly Chang and her mother who emigrate from Hong Kong to Brooklyn squalor. She begins a secret double life: exceptional schoolgirl during the day, Chinatown sweatshop worker in the evenings. Disguising the more difficult truths of her life, Kimberly learns to constantly translate not just her language but also herself back and forth between the worlds she straddles.

New York Times bestseller
American Library Association Alex Award
Chosen by the School Library Journal as one of their Best Adult Books 4 Teens
Discover Great New Writers pick for Barnes and Noble

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Author's website

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The John Carlos Story

The John Carlos Story: The Sports Moment That Changed the World by John Carlos and Dave Zirin is the memoir of the African American former track and field athlete, professional football player, and founding member of the Olympic Project for Human Rights. He won the bronze medal in the 200 meters race at the 1968 Olympics, where his Black Power salute on the podium with Tommie Smith caused much political controversy. John Carlos attended SJSU.

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SJSU Tommie Smith John Carlos Project


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The Golden Road

The Golden Road: Notes on My Gentrification by Caille Millner is a memoir of the author's childhood in a Latino neighborhood in San Jose, California, and coming of age in a more affluent yet quietly hostile Silicon Valley suburb to a succession of imagined promised lands-Harvard, London, post-apartheid South Africa, New York City.

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Author website

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She’s Not There

She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders by Jennifer Finney Boylan is an autobiography detailing the author's lifelong struggle with her burgeoning femaleness and the path she followed to become a female, both physically and mentally.

A 2003 Lambda Literary Award Winner

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Scoreboard, Baby

Scoreboard, Baby: A Story of College Football, Crime, and Complicity by Ken Armstrong and Nick Perry is a tale of the University of Washington’s 2000 football squad, which included at least 24 players arrested or charged with crimes during their years at the university, crimes for which they did little or no time. Complicit were university officials, team coaches, local police and prosecutors, members of the media, even victims, all in the name of sustaining a winning program.

Winner of the 2011 Edgar Award, Best Crime Fact category
2009 Michael Kelly Award (Atlantic Monthly)

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Author website

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The Reluctant Fundamentalist

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid is a 9/11 novel, written from the perspective of Changez, a young Pakistani whose sympathies, despite his fervid immigrant embrace of America, lie with the attackers. The book unfolds as a monologue that Changez delivers to a mysterious American operative over dinner at a Lahore, Pakistan, cafe.

A 2008 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award Winner
A 2008 Ambassador Book Award Winner
A 2008 South Bank Show Award Winner
A 2008 Asian American Literary Award Winner

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Interview with the author
Author website

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Zeitoun

Zeitoun by Dave Eggers is the true story of one family, caught between America’s two biggest policy disasters: the war on terror and the response to Hurricane Katrina.

A New York Times Notable Book
An O, The Oprah Magazine Terrific Read of the Year
A Huffington Post Best Book of the Year
A New Yorker Favorite Book of the Year
A Chicago Tribune Favorite Nonfiction Book of the Year
A Kansas City Star Best Book of the Year
A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year
An Entertainment Weekly Best Book of the Decade
A 2010 American Book Award Winner
A 2010 Northern California Book Award Winner
The 2010 Los Angeles Times Book Prize Current Interest Award Winner
The 2010 Nonfiction Winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize

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Zeitoun Foundation

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