In Mixed Company Jenny Shank reveals moments of grace and connection between people of her hometown, Denver, through stories that contrast the city during its oil-bust era of economic troubles and court-ordered crosstown busing for racial desegregation with the burgeoning and gentrifying city of recent years. In “Casa del Rey,” a cautious pregnant woman must contend with her out-of-control and intrusive neighbor. In “Hurts,” a girls’ basketball team at a majority Black Denver high school clashes with a white mountain team. In “La Sexycana,” a bottom-feeding journalist ventures to a dance club to confront the young Latina woman she mentored as a teenager who then cut off all contact with her. “Lightest Lights Against Darkest Darks” follows a white middle schooler bused to a majority Black school who falls under the spell of her magnetic and racially ambiguous art teacher. In “Signing for Linemen,” a graduate student in medieval literature takes a job as a summer tutor for a college football team and ends up learning more than she expected about athletes, American Sign Language, and herself. In “Local Honey,” middle-aged white parents bring their adopted Black teenage son to a Wu-Tang Clan concert in an attempt to bond with him. Characters find their initial perceptions and ideas overturned in these stories laced with humor, heart, and grit. Jenny Shank forges fiction out of the sparks that fly when diverse people encounter one another. Winner of The 2020 George Garrett Fiction Prize, selected by Joe Wilkins Fiction Winner of the 2022 Colorado Book Awards

The reds, the yellows, and the blues all think they're the best in this vibrant, thought-provoking picture book from Arree Chung, with a message of acceptance and unity. In the beginning, there were three colors . . . Reds, Yellows, and Blues. All special in their own ways, all living in harmony—until one day, a Red says "Reds are the best!" and starts a color kerfuffle. When the colors decide to separate, is there anything that can change their minds? A Yellow, a Blue, and a never-before-seen color might just save the day in this inspiring book about color, tolerance, and embracing differences.

"In Mixed Company combines theory, applications, and current research on small group communication in a conversational and engaging style. It is a comprehensive text and has been the market leading small group communication text for the last several editions. The 11th edition will continue to use abundant humor, engaging case studies, novel illustrations, dramatic and poignant examples, personal narratives and vivid stories, and colorful language to encourage students to keep reading. Maintaining the style, illustrations, and language while trimming the length will aid in the story that this is the most engaging and accessible small group communication text"--

Widely praised for its conversational tone and clear advice, Practically Speaking is the public speaking textbook your students will actually read. Filled with engaging stories and examples, sound scholarship and recent research, and useful tips and tricks, Practically Speaking shows students how to get started, practice thinking critically, and ultimately develop their own voice.

Mom and Dad say I'm a blend of dark and light: "We mixed you perfectly, and got you just right." Mike has awesome hair. He has LOTS of energy! His parents love him. And Mike is a PERFECT blend of the two of them. Still, Mike has to answer LOTS of questions about being mixed. And he does, with LOTS of energy and joy in this charming story about a day in the life of a mixed-race child.

Are you “leadership material?” More importantly, do others perceive you to be? Sylvia Ann Hewlett, a noted expert on workplace power and influence, shows you how to identify and embody the Executive Presence (EP) that you need to succeed. You can have the experience and qualifications of a leader, but without executive presence, you won't advance. EP is an amalgam of qualities that true leaders exude, a presence that telegraphs you're in charge or deserve to be. Articulating those qualities isn't easy, however. Based on a nationwide survey of college graduates working across a range of sectors and occupations, Sylvia Hewlett and the Center for Talent Innovation discovered that EP is a dynamic, cohesive mix of appearance, communication, and gravitas. While these elements are not equal, to have true EP, you must know how to use all of them to your advantage. Filled with eye-opening insights, analysis, and practical advice for both men and women, mixed with illustrative examples from executives learning to use the EP, Executive Presence will help you make the leap from working like an executive to feeling like an executive.

“One of our smartest, most inventive humor writers, Ortberg combines bathos and the devotional into a revelation.” —Jordy Rosenberg, The New York Times Book Review From the New York Times bestselling author of Texts From Jane Eyre and Merry Spinster, writer of Slate’s “Dear Prudence” column, and cofounder of The Toast comes a hilarious and stirring collection of essays and cultural observations spanning pop culture—from the endearingly popular to the staggeringly obscure. Daniel M. Lavery is known for blending genres, forms, and sources to develop fascinating new hybrids—from lyric rants to horror recipes to pornographic scripture. In his most personal work to date, he turns his attention to the essay, offering vigorous and laugh-out-loud funny accounts of both popular and highbrow culture while mixing in meditations on gender transition, family dynamics, and the many meanings of faith. From a thoughtful analysis of the beauty of William Shatner to a sinister reimagining of HGTV’s House Hunters, and featuring figures as varied as Anne of Green Gables, Columbo, Nora Ephron, Apollo, and the cast of Mean Girls, Something That May Shock and Discredit You is a hilarious and emotionally exhilarating compendium that combines personal history with cultural history to make you see yourself and those around you entirely anew. It further establishes Lavery as one of the most innovative and engaging voices of his generation—and it may just change the way you think about Lord Byron forever.

The co-founder and longtime president of Pixar updates and expands his 2014 New York Times bestseller on creative leadership, reflecting on the management principles that built Pixar’s singularly successful culture, and on all he learned during the past nine years that allowed Pixar to retain its creative culture while continuing to evolve. “Might be the most thoughtful management book ever.”—Fast Company For nearly thirty years, Pixar has dominated the world of animation, producing such beloved films as the Toy Story trilogy, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Up, and WALL-E, which have gone on to set box-office records and garner eighteen Academy Awards. The joyous storytelling, the inventive plots, the emotional authenticity: In some ways, Pixar movies are an object lesson in what creativity really is. Here, Catmull reveals the ideals and techniques that have made Pixar so widely admired—and so profitable. As a young man, Ed Catmull had a dream: to make the first computer-animated movie. He nurtured that dream as a Ph.D. student, and then forged a partnership with George Lucas that led, indirectly, to his founding Pixar with Steve Jobs and John Lasseter in 1986. Nine years later, Toy Story was released, changing animation forever. The essential ingredient in that movie’s success—and in the twenty-five movies that followed—was the unique environment that Catmull and his colleagues built at Pixar, based on philosophies that protect the creative process and defy convention, such as: • Give a good idea to a mediocre team and they will screw it up. But give a mediocre idea to a great team and they will either fix it or come up with something better. • It’s not the manager’s job to prevent risks. It’s the manager’s job to make it safe for others to take them. • The cost of preventing errors is often far greater than the cost of fixing them. • A company’s communication structure should not mirror its organizational structure. Everybody should be able to talk to anybody. Creativity, Inc. has been significantly expanded to illuminate the continuing development of the unique culture at Pixar. It features a new introduction, two entirely new chapters, four new chapter postscripts, and changes and updates throughout. Pursuing excellence isn’t a one-off assignment but an ongoing, day-in, day-out, full-time job. And Creativity, Inc. explores how it is done.

What does it take to say “F-it!” and really mean it? To walk away from the circumstances that have you stuck in neutral, or worse, headed in the wrong direction? To reroute your life along a smoother path toward success? To live an “F”-It-Less life? Have you ever just thrown your hands in the air and said “F”-It!? Been tempted to give in to someone or something you’ve been resisting? Or worse, found yourself backed into changes, circumstances, or even a life you didn’t ask for? If so, you are not alone. But thankfully, there is now a powerful way to never have to say “F-It!” again. It begins with reframing the ‘f’ word . . . and ultimately leads to reframing your life. It’s a method designed to help you choose the life you want to live, rather than blindly accepting the one you’ve got. Shaun Rawls, popular motivational speaker and founder of Atlanta’s #1 real estate firm, devised this method during one of the most trying, yet triumphant periods of his life. In “F”-It Less he offers a whole new lexicon of F-words more powerful than the one we all already know. By employing each thoughtfully and practically in your life you can begin to craft the existence you’ve always dreamed of. During his own transformation, words such as ‘fragmented’, ‘frustrated’, ‘fractured’, and ‘failed’ helped him identify where he was in the moment and to earnestly assess where he’d gone wrong in the past. In time he enjoyed days that were ‘fine’ or even ‘fantastic’. Prioritizing words such as ‘float,’ ‘family,’ ‘faith,’ ‘fun,’ and ‘freedom,’ reminded him of his destination, while words such as “find,” “forgive,” “forget,” “fix,” and “foxhole” helped him to get there faster. What he discovered is that these F-words can draw us back into alignment with our purpose and goals, enabling us to live a more intentional and rewarding life—the life of our dreams. In this infinitely empowering book, Rawls shares both his story and his method with you, boldly encouraging you to use these words to examine your own life too—to see if it is one you consciously crafted or one you simply allowed to unfold. To decide whether you’re living how you really want to live or if there is still much more work to be done. He challenges you to truly listen to your heart and gut, and to honestly acknowledge the areas of our life where you’ve compromised love and happiness for money, safety, security, or worse, fear. He coaxes you not to let our best life pass you by, but rather to proactively attain the life you really want. By sharing some of his greatest lessons, Rawls aims to help you avoid some of the same obstacles he’s encountered and to live what he refers to as an “F-it-less” life—the life we’re all entitled to discover, explore, and fulfill for ourselves. Saying, “F-It!” doesn’t always have to mean you are giving in or giving up. With the right tools, it can actually mean you are ready to pursue a better life— one of greater ease, meaning, and purpose. A truly F-It-Less life.