Team Awkward

In this hilarious second novel in The It Girl trilogy, painfully shy Anna’s awkward adventures continue as she decides to find the “thing” she’ll be famous for. There are good ways of starting school after Spring Break. But hiding in the bathroom after the video of you falling butt-first into a potted plant has gone viral is not one of them. If she’s going to be famous, Anna is determined to find a worthy “thing” to be famous for. Everyone else seems to have one—especially the new girl at school who’s distracting her crush, Connor, with a shared love of art. Luckily sports day is looming and Anna is limbering up! What could go wrong? Do you really have to ask that?

Originally published: London: Egmont, 2015.

Suspended from her job as a promising police officer for firing "one bullet too many", Anne Capestan is expecting the worst when she is summoned to H.Q. to learn her fate. Instead, she is surprised to be told that she is to head up a new police squad, working on solving old cold cases. Though relieved to still have a job, Capestan is not overjoyed by the prospect of her new role. Even less so when she meets her new team: a crowd of misfits, troublemakers and problem cases, none of whom are fit for purpose and yet none of whom can be fired. But from this inauspicious start, investigating the cold cases throws up a number a number of strange mysteries for Capestan and her team: was the old lady murdered seven years ago really just the victim of a botched robbery? Who was behind the dead sailor discovered in the Seine with three gunshot wounds? And why does there seem to be a curious link with a ferry that was shipwrecked off the Florida coast many years previously? Translated from the French by Sam Gordon

Dive into the uproarious world of office life with K.D. Gudwerck's "WERK" – a sharp, satirical survival guide for young professionals. In this laugh-out-loud journey, Gudwerck demystifies the chaos of the corporate jungle, offering witty insights and comical strategies to navigate its absurdities. From conquering Monday Madness to decoding the caffeine-fueled rituals of Coffee, Caffeine, and Colleagues, Gudwerck transforms mundane office activities into hilarious escapades. Email Escapades takes center stage, turning the inbox battle into a comedic quest from Inbox Zero to Infinity, while Office Jargon 101 hilariously deciphers the cryptic buzzwords of corporate speak. Bosses, Bloopers, and Blunders expose the quirky dynamics of workplace hierarchy, while Fashion Roulette navigates the perplexing world of office dress codes with a comedic twist. Procrastination Station provides playful tips for avoiding derailment, and Surviving Office Parties and Team-Building Torchers turns social events into laugh-out-loud adventures. Desk Yoga and Stress Ball Strategies become essential survival tools, offering quirky approaches to maintain sanity. The Great Escape explores daydreaming techniques during boring meetings, turning dull gatherings into moments of creativity and mental exploration. Gudwerck wraps up the journey by highlighting Humor as a Career Skill, revealing how laughter can be a secret weapon in the professional arena. With wit and practical advice, "WERK" is the ultimate guide for young professionals to not just survive but thrive in the wild and wonderful world of the office jungle. Get ready for a hilarious ride through the absurdities of corporate life, where a well-timed chuckle might just be the key to success!

Away from the game and the players for which it was crafted, the baseball bat is a sleek but humble creation. Yet in the hands of batters both young and old who have been stepping to the plate on diamonds around the world for more than a century, the bat is a powerful tool, capable of yielding lasting memories or making legends of a lifetime. And no bat has had more impact on baseball and the players of the game than Louisville Slugger, the tool of the trade used by millions-from the major leagues to college and youth leagues. In accordance with Louisville Slugger's 125th anniversary, the complete history of the bat, its impact on the game, and the ongoing story of Hillerich and Bradsby's family business is told in these pages. Blending firsthand stories from former and current major leaguers with details from more than 100 years of craftsmanship and contribution, this comprehensive history of baseball's bat and its impact on America's game is a must-have and must-read for anyone who has ever stood at the plate waiting on a pitch-or watched as a fan-hoping for a miracle.

Proven techniques and principles for modernizing legacy systems into new architectures that deliver serious competitive advantage. For a business to thrive, it needs a modern software architecture that is aligned with its corporate architecture. This book presents concrete practices that sync software, product, strategy, team dynamics, and work practices. You’ll evolve your technical and social architecture together, reducing needless dependencies and achieving faster flow of innovation across your organization. In Architecture Modernization: Socio-technical alignment of software, strategy, and structure you’ll learn how to: Identify strategic ambitions and challenges using listening and mapping tours Visualize your business landscape and crucial capabilities with Wardley Mapping Create a product taxonomy as a framework for your architecture Run big picture EventStorming workshops to map business domains Apply Team Topologies patterns to identify and refine value streams Design loosely coupled, domain-aligned software architectures Build internal developer platforms for rapid, reliable evolution Implement data mesh principles and tools to revolutionize data engineering Deliver compelling modernization roadmaps focused on continuous value Architecture Modernization: Socio-technical alignment of software, strategy, and structure shows you how to turn the practice of architecting systems into a transformative process for your entire company. Chapter-by-chapter, you’ll identify the reasons and benefits of modernization, design an architecture that works for your business, and then implement your new approach in a progressive and sustainable manner. Every technique is illustrated with insightful industry examples and an interactive Miro board that lets you dig deeper. Forewords by Matthew Skelton and Xin Yao. About the technology The decisions you make about your software are inherently connected to the decisions you make about your business. Why not turn the mundane task of modernizing legacy systems into a transformative process for your entire company? This book shows you how! It reveals a socio-technical approach to align your software and products with organizational dynamics and ways of working. About the book Architecture Modernization: Socio-technical alignment of software, strategy, and structure presents a clear path for upgrading your entire organization when you re-imagine your software. In it, you’ll learn to combine practices like Domain-Driven Design, Event Storming, and Wardley Mapping to discover user needs, design optimal architecture, and avoid falling back into old habits. Provocative examples from Danske, Salesforce, the UK Government, and others show the real-world result of each approach, identifying techniques you can apply effectively in your own business. About the reader For CTOs, tech leads, and principal engineers who decide on architecture and organization design. About the author Nick Tune helps organizations modernize their architectures through empowered product teams and continuous delivery. Jean-Georges Perrin builds innovative and modern data platforms. The technical editor on this book was Kamil Nicieja.

Cardinal rule #1 for surviving school: Don't get noticed by the mean kids. Cardinal rule #2 for surviving school: Seek out groups with similar interests and join them. On her first day at her new school, Penelope--Peppi--Torres reminds herself of these basics. But when she trips into a quiet boy in the hall, Jaime Thompson, she's already broken the first rule, and the mean kids start calling her the "nerder girlfriend." How does she handle this crisis? By shoving poor Jaime and running away! Falling back on rule two and surrounding herself with new friends in the art club, Peppi still can't help feeling ashamed about the way she treated Jaime. Things are already awkward enough between the two, but to make matters worse, he's a member of her own club's archrivals--the science club! And when the two clubs go to war, Peppi realizes that sometimes you have to break the rules to survive middle school!