"A collection of five genre-defying stories that offer a look at our innermost selves and characters who try to make sense of the world and their place in it."--

"We all want our colleagues to feel safe, heard, and free to be their authentic selves at work. But being an inclusive colleague doesn't happen overnight-it's an evolving process that involves growing, learning, and intentional effort. This book will teach you how to address and understand your biases, how to get better at noticing and responding to microaggressions, and why being an inclusive colleague will spark more-productive and -rewarding relationships...

"Home is never a single place, entirely and unequivocally. It is contingent. The abstract "nowhere," then, is the true home. M.G. Vassanji has been exploring the immigrant experience for over three decades, drawing deeply on his own transnational upbringing and intimate understanding of the unique challenges and perspectives born from leaving one's home to resettle in a new land. The question of identity, of how to configure and see oneself within...

When Gerda the blue whale was very small, her mother would sing a beautiful song telling her that if she were ever lost she should look to the stars and they would guide her. When it's time for the little whale to leave home, her adventures take her from the warm waters of the equator to the freezing poles. Along the way she meets clever killer whales, playful penguins, a friendly polar bear and the ancient narwhal. Then one day, the little whale...

"Otto is an ornament. He's glittery, he's colorful, he's full of Christmas pizzazz! Otto wants to be at the top of the tree, not in the middle with all of the regular ornaments! Doesn't he deserve to shine at the top? Will Otto be able to find the tree he dreams of and learn about kindness and chosen family along the way? Full of Troy Cummings's clever puns, wordplay, and humor, wrapped up with a heartfelt message."--

Jhumpa Lahiri brings to her terrifically poignant first novel the remarkable powers of emotion. The Namesake enriches and expands on her signature themes: the immigrant experience, the clash of cultures, the conflicts of assimilation, and the tangled ties between generations. The Namesake journeys with the Ganguli family from their tradition-bound life in India through their fraught transformation into Americans. Ashoke Ganguli arrives in Massachusetts...

The Dutch East India Company was the hot stock to watch in the early days of the Amsterdam stock exchange. But the price action became hard to unravel once speculation and treacherous deceit came into play. Market manipulation, it seems, was a factor even at the dawn of modern exchange trading. Joseph de la Vega's 1688 Confusion de Confusiones offered a firsthand account of seventeenth-century market complexities that rings remarkably true even today....

"Maddy Adriana knows that magic is real. All her life, her heart has pulled her toward things too perfect to be ordinary, things no one else can see. And then there's the bracelet she's worn since she was a baby; a bracelet that grows as she grows and doesn't come off. Knowing that magic exists has made it a little easier to be a foster kid bounced between homes. Then, one day, Maddy feels a ... tug. It leads her to Il Circo delle Strade, the magical...

Moon is convinced that they do not belong to this world: that most of the time they are invisible (unless they stay still too long), that they belong to the stars, and wants to go back to them--they live entirely in their imagination with an imaginary spirit guide who can appear in any shape and refuses to speak to anyone, lest their words tie them to a world they rejects.

After learning that her father is the Crown Prince of Japan, Izumi travels to Tokyo, where she discovers that Japanese imperial life--complete with designer clothes, court intrigue, paparazzi scandals, and a forbidden romance with her handsome but stoic bodyguard--is a tough fit for the outspoken and irreverant eighteen-year-old from northern California.