The Open Road Blog

The photograph shows author Alice Walker being arrested and taken into custody during a protest in Concord, California in the 1980s, against weapons shipments being sent to Central and South America. Her shirt “Remember Port Chicago,” refers to an explosion during World War II that killed mostly black sailors, which occurred while the sailors were loading munitions.

Born the youngest of eight children, Alice Walker was raised by parents who believed in the power of education, despite being a family of black sharecroppers in the South. After graduating from Sarah Lawrence College in 1956, she moved back to the South, ...

Today’s featured excerpt for Banned Books Week is Sophie’s Choice by William Styron. William Styron is widely considered one of the preeminent American writers of his generation. First published in 1979, Sophie's Choice is the winner of the 1980 National Book Award. It was also made into an Academy Award–winning film of the same name. The book has been banned from many libraries throughout its publication history. As recently as 2002, the book was pulled from the shelves of the La Mirada High School Library in California by the Norwalk-La Mirada High School District because of a parent's complaint ...

Open Road Integrated Media announces the publication of The Change Maker, an ebook E-riginal by Al Checchi, a pioneer in business who ran against Gray Davis in the 1998 California gubernatorial primary. Checchi, known for his meteoric rise in finance and business, where his creativity, strategic thinking, and negotiating skills helped transform three major American institutions, catapults readers into the fast-paced world of an unconventional agent of change.

Peppered with excerpts from speeches and articles, The Change Maker offers a thoughtful perspective on institutional change in America since the 1960s, and scalding commentary on the current state of America’s ...

Good news if you’re based in California: there are lots of fantastic upcoming events and opportunities to meet Dr. Ying-Ying Chang, the author of the newly released memoir, The Woman Who Could Not Forget.

The Woman Who Could Not Forget is a moving and illuminating work about the life of world-famous author and historian, Iris Chang, as told by her mother. The Rape of Nanking, Iris Chang’s bestselling book, forever changed the way we view WWII in Asia. Now, Dr. Ying-Ying Chang provides an enlightened and nuanced look at her daughter, cementing Iris’ legacy as one of the ...