A Lousy Start

Prior to the stock market crash in 1929, Holland was a prosperous country where its people enjoyed secure futures-or so they thought. After the world's economic collapse, millions were forced into a poverty-stricken existence where every day was a struggle to survive. A Lousy Start shares one family's vivid impressions of living in Holland during the Great Depression and the lasting impact those experiences had on their lives. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Arie Demerwe worked hard and was paid very little, but still managed to put food on his table. Sent to fight in the war of 1918, Arie finally returned to his hometown where he began working again-only to see everything change again after the end of World War I. As the people of Holland enjoyed wealth they assumed would last forever, dark changes loomed ahead. When the sun rose on October 23, 1929, no one had a clue that tragedy would strike by day's end. For the next ten years, a hostile world would transform even the most religious people into thieves and liars. As one family fought to stay alive in a bleak existence, each of them learned valuable life lessons they would carry with them forever.

The Baudelaire children, Violet, Klaus and baby Sunny, are exceedingly unlucky. Their parents have been killed, and they are forced to go and stay with their Uncle Olaf. It soon turns out that Olaf has evil plans for the children.

Using interwoven narratives — present-day United States, Trinidad, and the political tumult of Jamaica in the 1980s — Carol Mitchell's debut gives voice to the immigrant woman whose veneer of middle-class stability masks the violent trauma of a prior life. "An engaging and life-affirming read.” — Booklist "What start bad a mornin', cyan end good a evenin'." — Jamaican proverb Amaya Lin has few memories of the years before she turned eighteen. Now in her forties, she has compensated by carefully cultivating a satisfying life as a wife, mother, and business professional. Her husband’s law practice is on the brink of major success; her neurodiverse son has grown into an independent adult; and she has come to terms with her aunt’s dementia. This sense of order is disrupted, however, when she encounters a stranger who claims to have an impossible connection, launching Amaya on a tumultuous journey into the past. Using three interwoven narratives spanning the United States, Trinidad, and Jamaica, Carol Mitchell's debut gives voice to an immigrant woman forced to confront her repressed memories of violent trauma. Only then can she discover what she is capable of when it comes to self-preservation and the protection of her family. "This is a stellar debut.” — Cleyvis Natera, author of Neruda on the Park "Luminous prose." —Elizabeth Nunez, author of Prospero’s Daughter

If you want your startup to succeed, you need to understand why startups fail. “Whether you’re a first-time founder or looking to bring innovation into a corporate environment, Why Startups Fail is essential reading.”—Eric Ries, founder and CEO, LTSE, and New York Times bestselling author of The Lean Startup and The Startup Way Why do startups fail? That question caught Harvard Business School professor Tom Eisenmann by surprise when he realized he couldn’t answer it. So he launched a multiyear research project to find out. In Why Startups Fail, Eisenmann reveals his findings: six distinct patterns that account for the vast majority of startup failures. • Bad Bedfellows. Startup success is thought to rest largely on the founder’s talents and instincts. But the wrong team, investors, or partners can sink a venture just as quickly. • False Starts. In following the oft-cited advice to “fail fast” and to “launch before you’re ready,” founders risk wasting time and capital on the wrong solutions. • False Promises. Success with early adopters can be misleading and give founders unwarranted confidence to expand. • Speed Traps. Despite the pressure to “get big fast,” hypergrowth can spell disaster for even the most promising ventures. • Help Wanted. Rapidly scaling startups need lots of capital and talent, but they can make mistakes that leave them suddenly in short supply of both. • Cascading Miracles. Silicon Valley exhorts entrepreneurs to dream big. But the bigger the vision, the more things that can go wrong. Drawing on fascinating stories of ventures that failed to fulfill their early promise—from a home-furnishings retailer to a concierge dog-walking service, from a dating app to the inventor of a sophisticated social robot, from a fashion brand to a startup deploying a vast network of charging stations for electric vehicles—Eisenmann offers frameworks for detecting when a venture is vulnerable to these patterns, along with a wealth of strategies and tactics for avoiding them. A must-read for founders at any stage of their entrepreneurial journey, Why Startups Fail is not merely a guide to preventing failure but also a roadmap charting the path to startup success.

Tom Whiteman and Randy Peterson introduce eight principles to help individuals and couples start over again when relationships have been weakened, damaged, or destroyed for whatever reasons.

Grover feels neglected at Big Bird's birthday party when Big Bird gets everything his way.

Flamboyant. Pioneering. Opinionated. These words and dozens more have been used over the years to describe Chet Coppock, a true Chicago sports legend. Now, after decades of talking sports in every corner of the city with everyone from Hall of Famers to average fans, Coppock has written the ultimate guide to the most famous-and infamous-people, places, and moments in Chicago sports history. Fat Guys Shouldn't be Dancin' at Halftime is a one-of-a-kind guide through the wild and wacky world of Chicago sports. Fans will get a behind-the-scenes look at some of the city's biggest stars from a man who's seen them all come and go—they'll also be directed to some off-the-beaten-path attractions that every true sports fan should visit.