One of WWII’s most uniquely hidden figures, Hazel Ying Lee was the first Asian American woman to earn a pilot’s license, join the WASPs, and fly for the United States military amid widespread anti-Asian sentiment and policies.
Her singular story of patriotism, barrier breaking, and fearless sacrifice is told for the first time in full for readers of The Women with Silver Wings by Katherine Sharp Landdeck, A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell, The Last Boat Out of Shanghai by Helen Zia, Facing the Mountain by Daniel James Brown and all Asian American, women’s and WWII history books.
In 1932, Hazel Ying Lee, a nineteen-year-old American daughter of Chinese immigrants, sat in on a friend’s flight lesson. It changed her life. In less than a year, a girl with a wicked sense of humor, a newfound love of flying, and a tough can-do attitude earned her pilot’s license and headed for China to help against invading Japanese forces. In time, Hazel would become the first Asian American to fly with the Women Airforce Service Pilots. As thrilling as it may have been, it wasn’t easy.
In America, Hazel felt the oppression and discrimination of the Chinese Exclusion Act. In China’s field of male-dominated aviation she was dismissed for being a woman, and for being an American. But in service to her country, Hazel refused to be limited by gender, race, and impossible dreams. Frustrated but undeterred she forged ahead, married Clifford Louie, a devoted and unconventional husband who cheered his wife on, and gave her all for the cause achieving more in her short remarkable life than even she imagined possible.
American Flygirl is the untold account of a spirted fighter and an indomitable hidden figure in American history. She broke every common belief about women. She challenged every social restriction to endure and to succeed. And against seemingly insurmountable obstacles, Hazel Ying Lee reached for the skies and made her mark as a universal and unsung hero whose time has come.
Archives
THE BEAUTY OF FALLING
Claudia de Rham has been playing with gravity her entire life. As a diver, experimenting with her body’s buoyancy in the Indian Ocean. As a pilot, soaring over Canadian waterfalls on dark mornings before beginning her daily scientific research. As an astronaut candidate, dreaming of the experience of flying free from Earth’s pull. And as a physicist, discovering new sides to gravity’s irresistible personality by exploring the limits of Einstein’s general theory of relativity. In The Beauty of Falling, de Rham shares captivating stories about her quest to gain intimacy with gravity, to understand both its feeling and fundamental nature. Her life’s pursuit led her from a twist of fate that snatched away her dream of becoming an astronaut to an exhilarating breakthrough at the very frontiers of gravitational physics.
MOTIVATION MYTH BUSTERS
What does science tell us about motivation? This book challenges common myths about motivation and offers readers strategies for successfully motivating themselves and others. Readers will learn to identify and debunk ten persistent myths about motivation—for example, that visualizing success leads to success, that competition increases motivation for everyone, and that rewards are the best way to enhance motivation—and replace those myths with accurate knowledge that will help them take positive steps toward their goals.
FACING DOWN THE FURIES: SUICIDE, THE ANCIENT GREEKS, AND ME
An award-winning classicist turns to Greek tragedies for the wisdom to understand the damage caused by suicide and help those who are contemplating suicide themselves.
UNLEARNING SILENCE
A paradigm-shifting book looking at the pervasive influence of silence and how we can begin to dismantle it in order to find our voices at home and at work
NEGOTIATING WHILE BLACK
A real-world, one-of-a-kind resource for anyone who has ever been underestimated, overlooked, or misunderstood at the negotiating table—whether you’re haggling for a car, asking for a promotion, or advocating for your kids—to help you leverage your unique strengths and walk away with the best deal possible.
There’s no shortage of negotiation books that advise you to “get to yes,” urge you to “never split the difference,” and entreat you to “ask for more.” But none of them take into account the very real implicit bias in the room when a non-white, non-male negotiator sits at the table. Simply put: a one-size-fits-all negotiation style doesn’t work in a complex, multifaceted, multicultural world. The only constant in every negotiation is you. So you’d better learn to leverage who you are to your advantage.
Negotiating While Black is the book lawyer and mediator Damali Peterman wishes had existed as she was faced with the kind of situations that other negotiation scripts just don’t consider, like navigating workplaces where she was the only Black woman or advocating for her young son in his all-white classroom. Drawing on decades of training and experience as a negotiator in high-stakes situations, Peterman has developed successful strategies that will help you become the best communicator that you can be—like the Foundational Five skills all negotiators need, and the Negotiation Superpowers that will lift you to the next level. She also takes readers out of the boardroom and into real life, showing the application of negotiation and how everything is potentially up for discussion—from the trade-in value of your car to the permission for your kid to use the employee bathroom in the back of the store.
At every step, Peterman acknowledges that the unique way you show up in the world will impact your negotiations in all sorts of surprising ways—and that this can in fact be a good thing. Because when you show up prepared and proud of who you are, you’ll reap the rewards.
HERE AFTER
Here After is an intimate story of deep love followed by dizzying loss; a stunning, taut memoir from debut Canadian author Amy Lin that will resonate deeply with anyone who has had to move forward through unexpected loss.
THE BRAVE IN-BETWEEN
Amy Low resides in a room that is her last—her medical team is clear-eyed with her: there is no cure for Stage IV metastatic colon cancer, and the odds of long-term survival are scant. Through the swirl of prolonged trauma and unbearable grief, a vantage point emerged—a window that showed her the way to relish life and be kinder to herself and others while living through the inevitable loss and heartbreak that crosses everyone’s paths. Instead of viewing joy and sorrow as opposites, she saw how both exist in harmony, full of mystery and surprise. Instead of seeing days as succeeding or failing, and physical selves as healthy or unwell, she’s learned to carry both achievements and afflictions in stride. And instead of bitterness and betrayal, forgiveness—toward her body, toward others, toward herself—became her wisest light. The Brave In-Between is a sacred invitation to explore that space between triumph and tragedy, filled with lessons and advice for navigating all manners of uncertainty in the worst of times.
DOCILE: MEMOIRS OF A NOT-SO-PERFECT ASIAN GIRL
JOHN LEWIS: IN SEARCH OF THE BELOVED COMMUNITY
In this first book-length biography of John Lewis, Raymond Arsenault traces Lewis’s upbringing in rural Alabama, his early activism as a Freedom Rider and leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and his decades of service as the “conscience of Congress.” Arsenault provides an authoritative, synthetic biography, written with both the benefit of his personal relationship with Lewis as well as a career as an esteemed biographer and professor of Southern history.