Books with author Rodriguez

Pacha Riley's family is being threatened, and they must leave Perú and head to safety in America to live with their Uncle Jamie and Aunt Nina. For one who prefers anonymity, the thought of being the skinny weird kid with the funny name in a new country is not appealing. One night, there is another sudden attack, and twelve-year-old Pacha and nine- year-old little sister Lucy must escape through the window...without Mami and Papi. Pacha begins to realize that there is more going on than protests over the sacred sun disk his archaeologist parents discovered at Machu Picchu. By the time he and Lucy arrive in America, he has more doubts and questions than hope. But Pacha is aided in his quest by his Traveller—animal spirit guide—and his Uncle Jamie. Their father's younger brother, Uncle Jamie is nothing like his buttoned-up sibling; he's a jokester, an adventurer...and a sorcerer? Uncle Jamie takes Pacha into his confidence and reveals a secret: Travellers can take their humans to visit past lifetimes. He also shares his suspicions about Tomás de la Vela, a Peruvian art gallery owner, who may or not be connected to the attacks on the Rileys. While amazed to learn his uncle's secrets, Pacha does not share his own fears that Aunt Nina may also be involved. The stakes are raised when Lucy is kidnapped by de la Vela and Aunt Nina. Searching for clues sparks a fire in Pacha, and he is able to overcome his insecurities and find the fight inside himself. He Travels to his past lifetimes as an Incan emperor and untangles a centuries- old tale of revenge to save both the sacred disk and his little sister.

After hard luck and heartbreak, Sunny finally finds a place to call home—in the middle of an Afghanistan war zone. There, the thirty-eight-year-old serves up her American hospitality to the expats who patronize her coffee shop, including a British journalist, a “danger pay” consultant, and a wealthy and well-connected woman. True to her name, Sunny also bonds with people whose language and landscape are unfamiliar to most Westerners, but whose hearts and souls are very much like our own: the maternal Halajan, who vividly recalls the days before the Taliban and now must hide a modern romance from her ultratraditional son; and Yazmina, a young Afghan villager with a secret that could put everyone’s life in jeopardy. In this gorgeous first novel, New York Times bestselling author Deborah Rodriguez paints a stirring portrait of a faraway place where—even in the fog of political and social conflict—friendship, passion, and hope still exist. Originally published as A Cup of Friendship

Travel with Art Rodriguez as he dreams of his past. He experiences an unpleasant childhood full of difficult obstacles that could have profoundly impaired his chance for a normal life. Life appears hopeless during those young years as he struggles to discover who he really is and at the same time contends with his dictatorial father. Travel with him as he takes you through the California Youth Authority, the prison system for young offenders. In this story, which brings laughter and tears, both young and old can find comfort in knowing that when life appears bleak and there seems to be no hope, events in life can change. In 1975 Art Rodriguez started a successful business in San Jose, the city in which he was born. Grow with him in his life and experience with him the hardships and successes of a new business.

When high school senior Gaby faked a pregnancy as a project to challenge stereotypes, she also changed her life. Discover this compelling memoir from an inspirational teenage activist, now a Lifetime movie.It started as a school project, but it turned into so much more. Growing up, Gaby Rodriguez was often told she would end up a teen mom. After all, her mother and her older sisters had gotten pregnant as teenagers; from an outsider’s perspective, it was practically a family tradition. Gaby had ambitions that didn’t include teen motherhood. But she wondered: how would she be treated if she fulfilled others’ expectations? Would everyone ignore the years she put into being a good student and see her as just another pregnant teen statistic with no future? These questions sparked Gaby’s high school senior project: faking her own pregnancy to see how her family, friends, and community would react. What she learned changed her life forever…and made international headlines in the process. In The Pregnancy Project, Gaby details how she was able to fake her own pregnancy, hiding the truth from even her siblings and boyfriend’s parents, and reveals all that she learned from the experience. But more than that, Gaby’s story is about fighting stereotypes, and how one girl found the strength to come out from the shadow of low expectations to forge a bright future for herself.

When a white water rafting adventure goes horribly wrong, four teens must brave the wilderness to survive in Stranded in the Wild. Sixteen-year-old Savi Evans came to an adventure camp in Idaho carrying the pain of a recent and tragic loss and a dark family secret. She hopes the wilderness setting, vigorous activities, and some new faces might help take her mind off things back home. At Camp Arrowhead, Savi makes fast friends with Jade Chang and Rico Cruz, but mean and sarcastic Conner Swift is also on their raft. What was supposed to be an exciting expedition turns into a nightmare when their raft slams into a boulder and the adult guide is ejected into the water and disappears downriver. Without their guide and desperately trying to steer an out-of-control raft, the terrified teens pass the "last chance" point of no return and enter the fiercest rapids on the river. After another collision, Jade gets pinned between a rock and the raft, and Rico is also jolted from the float and ends up in the water. Savi has no choice but to cut the raft loose. By the time the teens drag themselves out of the river, they're injured, exhausted, and twenty-five miles from camp. Soon stranded, the foursome is in a remote wilderness with meager provisions. The area is rife with wild animals, snakes, and a vicious flesh-eating predator known as Vexel. Nobody is sure what kind of animal Vexel is because no one who has encountered him has ever survived. Now the disoriented teens must find their way to Camp Arrowhead with the clock ticking and Vexel stalking them. Can they make it over a final hurdle before the dam opens, and crushes their only hope of reaching safety? Stranded in the Wild - A thrilling adventure you won't soon forget!

Have you ever wanted to visit a Spanish country and be able to speak Spanish? Traveling in Spanish countries can be hard. Believe me, I’m a frequent traveler, and I’ve been all around the world. I’ve been in Europe, Asia, and South America, and I have to say that of all the places that I’ve been, I’ve never found more caring and lovely people than in Spanish countries. Maybe it is their past, maybe is their language, but they are always available to give you a hand, talk to you, have fun, grab a drink, and generally have a good time.But the language barrier might be hard. You might find yourself trying to say something, and the interlocutor understanding another thing entirely. It might be quite frustrating, and then you end up using your fingers or pointing to what you want, and to be honest, it’s quite ridiculous and a bit childish. Sometimes, you might be lucky and find someone nearby who understands English, and that works for the moment, but what if there’s no one there? What if you want a burger without cheese? Or maybe you want a diet Coke, not regular, because you don’t consume sugar? Or, leaving aside the food matters (which are quite important!), let’s say that you want to book a hotel room, but you don’t want to spend too much, and obviously, you don’t want to pay for things that you don’t need. So there goes the Jacuzzi, or the HD television. And you have to make yourself clear, that you don’t want that, without using insults and pointing to the things that you don’t want. That’s why I’m writing this book, to help you on your travels, so if you want to take a trip to a Spanish Country, you won’t find it hard to express yourself. And I will not just explain you some phrases in Spanish to ease your life in your trip, I will also teach the differences between countries, and how to travel from one place to another. So, if you were planning a trip, or maybe you are already in one and found yourself in a problem, this is the book for you. I hope it helps you with anything that might arise on your trip. Get your copy now!

Do You Want To Learn Spanish in a Easy and Affordable Way? Welcome to this training for the Kindle edition of the book “Spanish for Beginners”. Spanish is the most widely spoken Romance language, with more than 400 million native speakers all over the world. It is the official language in 21 countries including Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Argentina, and Equatorial Guinea. It is the most popular second language in the United States and Europe. The large population of Spanish speakers around the world in four continents and beyond makes it a smart choice for a second language. The fast and steady growth of the Spanish speaking population has made Spanish a necessity in business. Learning Spanish will empower you to communicate in the most productive way with Spanish speaking co-workers, employees, or customers. Hispanic consumers are the most dynamic market segment in North America. Knowing Spanish is particularly advantageous if you’re in the healthcare or education sector. The globalization trend has made it possible to tap this vast and fast growing market segment. Health practitioners and professionals who want to provide the best services to their Spanish-speaking clients will want to speak and understand their language to ensure that there are no barriers to excellent service. If you’re looking for job opportunities worldwide, having Spanish in your résumé will certainly confer definite advantages over those who are monolingual. If you have plans of travelling to Spanish-speaking regions, the ability to understand and speak the language will make your trip a truly enriching experience. If this is your first time to learn a Romance language, you can use this knowledge to easily learn other related languages.The book “Spanish for Beginners” is designed to help you learn Spanish and bridge the communication gap in as fast as one week. It is written with the self-learner in mind and organised to help its readers understand and speak the language confidently within a short span of time. This learning material will prove that by identifying the most important features of a language and by applying proven techniques and strategies to language learning, anyone can master the basics of the language and use this knowledge base to start speaking confidently and properly in Spanish in as little as seven days.Learning a language permanently requires mastery of its fundamentals. This book highlights the important features of the Spanish language in the areas of grammar, pronunciation, syllabication, sentence formation, and communication. Here what you'll learn after downloading this Spanish For Beginners book: Introduction Chapter 1: Learning StrategiesChapter 2: The Fundamentals Of SpanishChapter 3: Numbers, Colors, Time, And DateChapter 4: Nouns And ArticlesChapter 5: PronounsChapter 6: VerbsChapter 7: AdjectivesChapter 8: Prepositions, Adverbs, And ConjunctionsChapter 9: Forming SentencesChapter 10: The Subjunctive & Imperative MoodChapter 11: Making ComparisonsChapter 12: Conversational Phrasesand much more! Get Your Copy Now!

Luis Rodriguez, author of the award-winning and bestselling classic memoir Always Running, chronicles his harrowing journey from a drugged-out gang member to one of the most revered figures in Chicano literature.Hundreds of thousands of readers came to know Luis J. Rodriguez through his fearless classic, Always Running, which chronicled his early life as a young Chicano gang member surviving the dangerous streets of East Los Angeles. The long-awaited follow-up, It Calls You Back is the equally harrowing story of Rodriguez starting over, at age eighteen, after leaving gang life—the only life he really knew.The book opens with Rodriguez’s final stint in jail as a teenager and follows his struggle to kick heroin, renounce his former life, and search for meaningful work. He describes with heartbreaking honesty his challenges as a father, and his difficulty leaving his rages and addictions completely behind. Even as he breaks with “la vida loca” and begins to discover success as a writer and an activist, Rodriguez finds that his past—the crimes, the drugs, the things he’d seen and done—has a way of calling him back. When his oldest son is sent to prison for attempted murder, Rodriguez is forced to confront his shortcomings as a father, and to acknowledge how and why his own history is repeating itself, right before his eyes.Deeply insightful and beautifully written, It Calls You Back is an odyssey through love, addiction, revolutions, and healing.

Have you ever wanted to learn Spanish and have fun at the same time? Most of the time, teaching books are boring. They always have the same kind of format: Two (sometimes more) people talking about where the library is, or where to find Juan.That’s boring, and to be honest, it’s not a great way to learn the language (not to mention that they don’t always talk about things that you might encounter in your daily life, for example, a judgmental ghost, being the last man on Earth, or maybe find that the love of your life has been stolen). But in this book, I will give you 20 short stories that will range from science fiction to romance, everything in between and sometimes even more. These stories will give you an entire picture of the Spanish language, and how to appreciate the subtlety of the language.The Spanish language is rich, full of small differences between the different countries. Things that might be one way in Argentina might be different in Spain or Mexico. But don’t worry, with this book, you will have a firm grasp on the language, and you will be able to understand and have a conversation with any Spanish speaker.After each story, there will be a questionnaire section where you will answer questions about the stories in Spanish. I really suggest to grab a blank page, and write down the answers, or the small assignments that you will be given (don’t worry, they won’t be long!). Remember to write them in Spanish, so you can practice and use the language. Also, in this section, you will find grammar and fun facts not just from the stories themselves, but from the inspirations behind them, and facts about living in a Spanish country. I hope you like them.All these stories are written from my heart, and I deeply hope that you will find them funny, mysterious, romantic, or at least entertaining. That’s my goal as a writer, and I hope you enjoy your time reading (and learning!) Get your copy now!

Hearts and Hands focuses on healing through community building. Empowered by thirty years of experience with gangs in Los Angeles and Chicago, Rodríguez offers a unique book of change. He makes concrete suggestions, shows how we can create nonviolent opportunities for youth today, and redirects kids into productive and satisfying lives. And he warns that we sacrifice community values for material gain when we incarcerate or marginalize people already on the edge of society. His drive to dissolve gang influence on kids is as personal as it is societal; his son, to whom he dedicates Hearts and Hands, served more than a decade in prison for gang-related activity. With anecdotes, interviews, and time-tested guidelines, Hearts and Hands makes a powerful argument for building and supporting community life.