Hitting the Books: Meet the man who helped Microsoft break into the entertainment business

Some of us are destined to lead successful lives thanks to the circumstances of our birth. Some of us, like attorney Bruce Jackson, are destined to lead such lives in spite them. Raised in New York's Amsterdam housing projects and subjected to the daily brutalities of growing up a black man in America, Jackson's story is ultimately one of tempered success. Sure he went on to study at Georgetown Law before representing some of the biggest names in hip hop — LL Cool J, Heavy D, the Lost Boyz and Mr. Cheeks, SWV, Busta Rhymes — and working 15 years as Microsoft's associate general counsel. But at the end of the day, he is still a black man living in America, with all the baggage that comes with it.In his autobiography, Never Far from Home (out now from Atria), Jackson recounts the challenges he has faced in life, of which there are no shortage: from being falsely accused of robbery at age 10 to witnessing the murder of his friend at 15 to spending a night in lockup as an adult for the crime of driving his own car; the shock of navigating Microsoft's lillywhite workforce following years spent in the entertainment industry, and the end of a loving marriage brought low by his demanding work. While Jackson's story is ultimately one of triumph, Never Far from Home reveals a hollowness, a betrayal, of the American Dream that people of Bill Gates' (and this writer's) complexion will likely never have to experience. In the excerpt below, Jackson recalls his decision to leave a... Continue reading at 'Engadget'

[ Engadget | 2023-02-19 15:30:33 UTC ]
News tagged with: #television shows #thousand miles #black culture #civil rights #bill clinton #digital media

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Hitting the Books: How Pokemon took over the world

The impact of Japanese RPGs on pop and gaming culture cannot be overstated. From Final Fantasy and Phantasy Star to Chrono Trigger, NieR, and Fire Emblem — JRPGs have spanned console generations, bridged the Japanese and North American markets, spawned entire universes of IP and delivered... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2022-11-06 15:30:37 UTC ]
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Hitting the Books: The early EVs that paved the way for GM's Ultium success

General Motors has been in business for more than a century, but in its 112 years, the company has never faced such challenges as it does in today's rapidly electrifying and automating industry. The assembly line jobs from Detroit's heyday have been replaced by legions of automated industrial... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2022-10-23 14:30:06 UTC ]
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Hitting the Books: The women who made ENIAC more than a weapon

After Mary Sears and her team had revolutionized the field of oceanography, but before Katherine G. Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson helped put John Glenn into orbit, a cadre of women programmers working for the US government faced an impossible task: train ENIAC, the world's first ... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2022-10-16 14:30:01 UTC ]
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Hitting the Books: What the wearables of tomorrow might look like

Apple's Watch Ultra, with its 2000-nit digital display and GPS capabilities, is a far cry from its Revolutionary War-era self-winding forebears. What sorts of wondrous body-mounted technologies might we see another hundred years hence? In his new book, The Skeptic's Guide to the Future, Dr.... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2022-10-01 14:30:47 UTC ]
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Financial Times Announces a Shortlist in the £30,000 Business Book of the Year Award

The United Kingdom-based business book competition is in its 18th year. Its shortlist deals with economics, business, and politics. The post Financial Times Announces a Shortlist in the £30,000 Business Book of the Year Award appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2022-09-26 10:02:34 UTC ]
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Ingram Panel Examines Health of the Book Business

Changing consumer buying patterns, labor shortages, and new ways to reach readers were among the topics discussed at a recent webinar where ABA CEO Allison Hill, Ingram's Phil Ollila, and Zando founder Molly Stern were the feature speakers. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-09-20 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Hitting the Books: What if 'Up' but pigeons?

We all have those thoughts, the ones that come to us in the small hours of the night. Who am I? Why are we here? What if my cellphone ran on vacuum tubes instead? Randall Munroe has the answer to, well, only one of those questions, but also the answers to a whole bunch of others collected... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2022-09-18 15:00:37 UTC ]
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Josh Hawley, the man who fled from danger of his own making, wrote a book called Manhood.

It was announced yesterday that Josh Hawley, the senator from Missouri who will always be remembered for fleeing the very crowd he’d recently egged on with a fist, has written a book called Manhood.* The book, to be published by Regnery, purports to call on “American men to stand up and embrace... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-09-09 14:22:03 UTC ]
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Area man named Bob Jablonski returns library book called Hitler 77 years overdue.

A New Jersey man named Bob Jablonski has finally returned Hitler to the local library. No, this is not The Onion. Bob Jablonski checked out the 1936 biography of Adolph Hitler in 1947, for a school book report, and presumably kept it all these years just to make sure the Allies had truly won... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-09-02 14:55:57 UTC ]
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A Former Nickelodeon Star’s Memoir Has Become the Summer’s Big Hit Book. It’s Very Clear Why.

I’m Glad My Mom Died details the abuse the iCarly actor suffered as a child star. Continue reading at Slate

[ Slate | 2022-08-18 20:31:47 UTC ]
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Three Raymond Briggs books that helped make the graphic novel respectable

Much of his work was imbued with a sense of the end, so it is fitting to look back at three of his best works to mark the illustrator’s passing Continue reading at The Conversation

[ The Conversation | 2022-08-11 15:31:10 UTC ]
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Reader does this question need a comma? A new book offers grammar help.

Roving grammarian Ellen Jovin helps settle questions about commas, split infinitives and more in “Rebel With a Clause” Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2022-07-26 12:00:53 UTC ]
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‘The Crane Wife’ essay hit a nerve. A new book reminds us why.

C. J. Hauser’s memoir-in-essays is a frank exploration of intimacy and romance that doesn’t always lead to a happily ever after. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2022-07-05 13:21:38 UTC ]
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Hitting the Books: Summer reading list

More than a million new titles are published annually in the US, far more than even the most bibliophilic secret agent could get through. Even with a weekly publishing schedule, we can only bring you 52 Hitting the Books each year. To help shine a spotlight on all the fantastic stories that... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2022-06-22 17:30:23 UTC ]
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New Kids’ Book Says It’s OK to Ask for Help—Even If You’re a Rabbi

Alice Blumenthal McGinty demonstrates how learning to ask for help can create a stronger community in her new children’s book, ‘A Synagogue Like Home’ (Candlewick, Aug.), which depicts a week in the life of a contemporary synagogue. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-06-22 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Meet Linda Sunshine, Groundbreaking Book Trade Comics Editor

Linda Sunshine established comics reprint imprints at both Harmony Books and Fireside in the 1970s that produced some of the earliest hardcover and trade paperback comics collections in the book trade. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-06-15 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Through a Recession and a Pandemic, the Book Business Is Thriving in Buenos Aires

The Argentine capital has always been bookish. When hard times shuttered the big chain shops, book purveyors found a way to keep residents in fresh reading material. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2022-05-26 09:00:14 UTC ]
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Bloom Books Is Helping Young Readers Grow

The new imprint from Ulysses Press aims to foster a love of reading in juvenile and young adult readers Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-05-16 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Book Biz Stocks Take a Hit

A tough year for the stock market got worse in April, leading the Publishers Weekly Stock Index, now down to only six companies, to drop 8.8%. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-05-06 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Hitting the Books: Dodge, Detroit and the Revolutionary Union Movement of 1968

After decades on the decline intro, America's labor movement is undergoing a massive renaissance with Starbucks, Amazon and Apple Store employees leading the way. Though the tech sector has only just begun basking in the newfound glow of collective bargaining rights, the automotive industry has... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2022-05-01 14:00:34 UTC ]
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