The Fourth of July often means hot dogs and hamburgers sizzling on an open fire, but Mayim Bialik is pleading with all those grill masters out there to not ignore their vegan guests.
"A lot of people want more plant-based food," the actress said recently. "It doesn't have to be just the food for people who eat weird."
The "Big Bang Theory" actress, who wrapped her last season as neuroscientist Amy Farrah Fowler earlier this year, said people who avoid animal products like her and her kids get excited when chefs include food they can eat.
"There are more of us out there and we do like to go to barbecues, too," she said. "There are so many more vegan options than when I became vegan."
The former star of "Blossom," a spokeswoman for Sabra hummus, pointed to a range of favorites, from Asian dishes to fruit and, of course, hummus, as simple go-tos for the summer party season. Rather than struggling to find good substitutes for animal products, all it takes is thinking of some dishes that already avoid animal products and that everyone will enjoy.
This summer, Bialik has a bit more free time on her hands and is using the extra time as an opportunity to spend more time with family.
"There is a sweetness to being home," she said. "My kids are confused and excited I am home more."
She's gone from filming in front of a live studio audience to giving neuroscience lectures to small groups in her kids' homeschool community.
Saying goodbye to the TV show that she starred on for nine seasons is bittersweet. "For those who were watching it, we hope it was satisfying," she said.
NEW YORK (AP) — Min Jin Lee's first novel since her million-selling “Pachinko” is a long book that grew out of a basic question: What do Koreans care most about?
“We’re obsessed with education, and it became my obsession over why Koreans care so much,” says Lee, whose “American Hagwon,” scheduled for Sept. 29, will likely be one of the year's most anticipated books. Hagwons are for-profit tutoring centers — sometimes likened to “cram schools” — where Koreans of all ages receive instruction for everything from English to guitar to cooking. Any language school or organization that gives private lesson music classes” can be considered a Hagwon, Lee says.
The author, 57, calls herself an “accidental historian,” a novelist who uses broad narratives to unearth the past, make sense of the present and explore race, gender and class among other issues. “American Hagwon” is the third of a planned quartet about Korea and the Korean diaspora that began with “Free Food for Millionaires” in 2007 and continued a decade later with “Pachinko,” a National Book Award finalist that was adapted by Apple TV+ into a series and has been translated into dozens of languages.
In 2024, The New York Times ranked “Pachinko” at No. 15 among the best novels of the 21st century.
Cardinal, a Hachette Book Group imprint, is calling her new release a deep look into “what happens when the rules shift, the world order becomes suddenly unrecognizable and benchmarks of success are no longer a guarantee.” In “American Hagwon,” Lee sets her story everywhere from Korea to Australia to Southern California as she tracks the journey of a middle-class Korean family upended by the Asian financial crisis and hoping to regain its bearings.
“Almost 10 years after Pachinko, Min Jin Lee continues to give shape to history’s seismic shifts in her fiction, refracting generational change through indelible, masterfully etched characters you can’t help rooting for,” Cardinal Publisher and Senior Vice President Reagan Arthur said in a statement.
A native of Seoul whose family emigrated to New York City when she was 7, Lee attended the elite Bronx High School of Science, studied history at Yale University and law at Georgetown University. She knows well the importance of preparation, and laughs as she remembers that her father has nicknamed her “the turtle,” because she is slow — but “very steady.” Her books take a long time, in part, because she puts so much work into them. Her stories are based not just on research and reflection, but on extended travel and interviews.
“I want to hold up a mirror to society, and, as the kids say, do a ’vibe check,” she says.
FILE - Min Jin Lee attends the GQ Global Creativity Awards in New York on April 6, 2023. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
