“By turns reflective and dramatic, poignant and hilarious, Sticking It Out offers an irresistible portrait of the artist as a young percussionist” (San Francisco Chronicle). When Patti Niemi was ten years old, all the children in her school music class lined up to choose their instruments. Boy after boy chose drums, and girl after girl chose flute—that is, until it was Patti’s turn. From that point onward, Patti devoted her life to mastering the percussive arts. Cymbals, snare drum, marimba, timpani, chimes: she practiced them all, and in 1983, she entered Juilliard, the most prestigious music conservatory in in the world. Set against the backdrop of a rapidly changing New York City in the 1980s, Sticking It Out recounts Patti’s years mastering her craft and struggling to make it in a cutthroat race to a coveted job in an orchestra. Along the way, she has to compete with friends, face her own crippling anxiety, and confront the delicate, and sometimes perilous, balance of power between teachers and their students. Bringing us inside a world that most of us never get to see, Patti’s vivid memoir is “an eye-opening tale of demanding teachers, grueling practice schedules, severe performance anxiety and bias against ‘girl drummers’—a funny, poignant first-person account of the fierce commitment it takes to succeed in classical music” (San Jose Mercury News). “One of the funniest-ever classical-music books . . . and certainly among the best written.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer “A shattered-mirror insight into the bizarre world of hitting things with sticks.” —Neil Peart, bestselling author, lyricist, and drummer for Rush

Shortlisted for Oscar's Book Prize 2021 Shortlisted for Children's Illustrated Book of the Year at The British Book Awards 2021 'A wonderful, warm bear-hug of a story with sumptuous illustrations. A modern classic.' - Jim Field, illustrator of Oi Frog Wherever you're going, I'm going too. Whatever you're doing, I'm sticking with you. It's wonderful to have good friends to see you through the good times and the bad. But sometimes, friends can also be a bit . . . well . . . overbearing. This completely irresistible rhyming text by Smriti Halls is perfectly complemented by artwork from fantastic new picture book illustrator, Steve Small.

I need a favor, and there’s only one guy I’d dare ask. Conner Birch. Boston Buck’s right winger. Not only is he my best friend, he’s my brother-in-law…and the man I’ve always loved. The problem is, he never loved me back. What I want might make things more awkward, and I can’t risk our friendship, but…after losing my husband—Conner’s brother—this is my only chance at the life I’ve dreamed of. Everything about our arrangement is risky, and when things heat up, it becomes harder and harder to hide what I feel. Soon enough, playing house becomes all too real, I begin to think we might have a chance at a future. Until I find out the man I’m in love with might not be the man I thought he was…

Tibet is a land lost in the glare of politics and romanticism, and Ma Jian set out to discover its truths. Stick Out Your Tongue is a revelation: a startlingly vivid portrait of Tibet, both enchanting and horrifying, beautiful and violent, seductive and perverse. In this profound work of fiction, a Chinese writer whose marriage has fallen apart travels to Tibet. As he wanders through the countryside, he witnesses the sky burial of a Tibetan woman who died during childbirth, shares a tent with a nomad who is walking to a sacred mountain to seek forgiveness for sleeping with his daughter, meets a silversmith who has hung the wind-dried corpse of his lover on the wall of his cave, and hears the story of a young female incarnate lama who died during a Buddhist initiation rite. In the thin air of the high plateau, the divide between dream and reality becomes confused. When this book was published in Chinese in 1997, the government accused Ma Jian of "harming the fraternal solidarity of the national minorities," and a blanket ban was placed on his future work. With its publication in English, including a new afterword by the author that sets the book in its personal and political context, readers get a rare glimpse of Tibet through Chinese eyes—and a window on the imagination of one of China's foremost writers.

Accessible to both parents and teens, "Sticking Up for What Is Right" answers common questions that teens ask about moral issues. It presents biblical truths in a simple, honest, and sometimes humorous way.

This is the first time in American history that we have had four different generations working side-by-side in the workplace: the Traditionalists (born before 1945), the Baby Boomers (born 1945-1964), Gen X (born 1965-1980), and the Millennials (born 1981-2001). Haydn Shaw, popular business speaker and generational expert, has identified 12 places where the 4 generations typically come apart in the workplace (and in life as well). These sticking points revolve around differing attitudes toward managing one’s own time, texting, social media, organizational structure, and of course, clothing preferences. If we don’t learn to work together and stick together around these 12 sticking points, then we’ll be wasting a lot of time fighting each other instead of enjoying a friendly and productive team. Sticking Points is a must-read book that will help you understand the generational differences you encounter while teaching how we can learn to speak one another’s language and get better results together.

Businesses can plateau, stall, OR stagnatewithout the owners or key executives even realizing it. A business might be achieving incremental year-on-year growth and yet still be in a situation of stagnation or stall. Why? Because entrepreneurs and ...