A true-life, sometimes gritty yet ultimately triumphant story, Until the Brighter Tomorrow is told straight from Valerie Rainford's heart. The daughter of southern sharecroppers, she takes the reader through her challenging young life in the projects, where her mother's steadfast work ethic and undying support motivates Valerie to choose a different path than that of her high school friends. After the devastating deaths of both her brother and mother, Valerie--determined to beat the odds--embraces her generational current of strength and goes on to graduate from Fordham University, accomplish impressive career firsts, and rise to her present position as a successful corporate executive. With the pulse of a finely written novel, this inspiring memoir radiates with the author's belief that anything is possible if one has enough faith, tenacity, and belief in self.

A Better Today Brings a Brighter Tomorrow is an Educational Guide for Parents of Color. It inludes information about youth programs for minority students mostly in New York but also across the United States. The Programs range from after school tutoring, pre-college preparation, mentoring, talent, summer opportunities, camps, internships and career training. It's a great resource for anyone, even non-New Yorkers, because it breaks down the different types of programs that exist for young people in practically every state. Please visit the official website: A Better Today Brings a Brighter Tomorrow - Black Youth Programs and Minority Student Educational Resources

A Better Tomorrow has always been hailed as a milestone in Hong Kong cinema. This book describes the different responses to the movie in Hong Kong and later in its reception worldwide, which paved the way for the promotion of John Woo and Chow Yun-fat to their current prominence in Hollywood. Fang examines the different notions of the genre of action cinema in Asian and Western film industries. She tracks the connections between ying shung pian, or "hero" movie, the term by which Woo's film became famous in Hong Kong, and the spectacle of violence emphasized in the term "heroic bloodshed," the category in which the film was known in the West. Finally, she concludes with a discussion of the status of the film and its huge success in the current globalized industry.