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David Benjamin pays homage to the exuberance of countless untamed boys who grew up in Middle America at mid-century. Whether he’s stalking snakes in the bogs of Wisconsin, playing four-kid baseball with his bothersome little brother and two favorite cousins, leaping garbage cans for a beautiful little redheaded girl, or joining Chucky Dutcher for a movie marathon at the Erwin Theater, Benjamin is the kind of precocious ironist who would have found a sidekick in Huck Finn. His tales and insights lyrically capture a precious moment in bygone American life, as Benjamin recalls the myriad scrapes, reckless escapades and wanderlust that once made childhood an exhilarating — or terrifying — adventure. -
Navigating the stormy seas of the 1960s wasn't easy, especially if Vietnam was on your horizon. Ignoring his 2-S selective service deferment, Conor Patrick McKall volunteers for the draft, and Uncle Sam promptly deposits him in the Big Green Machine. Six months later McKall is walking point in jungles, rice paddies, and rubber plantations. In nine short months, he's made an infantry squad leader responsible for a dozen other grunts. In the "boonies," life is lived one day at a time. Joining McKall's squad is Jack "Red" Sheridan whose near-death encounter with a black panther presents challenges to his credibility from other members of Lima Platoon. When McKall stands with Sheridan, an unbreakable bond develops. They meet Red Cross Donut Dollies and together experience the infamous Black Virgin Mountain where the good guys control the top and the bad guys the rest. Escaping Vietnam for a handful of days on R&R in Sydney, Conor experiences Aussie hospitality and the attention of a green-eyed beauty who offers him a chance to escape the war. Loyal to his oath and to his men, Sergeant McKall barely has time to supplant the fading scent of Chanel before he and his squad must face their determined and deadly adversaries. The arbitrary gauntlet of Vietnam offers no guarantees. -
Sometimes corporate leaders forget that businesses are human systems. Revenue, innovation, and growth are all generated by human beings. Employees left Corporate America in droves during The Great Resignation of 2021 and 2022—an important wakeup call. But even when companies try to “fix” or improve their culture, a whopping 85% of these efforts fail. Why is this statistic so dismal? Because you can’t put a bandage on a broken culture. As human systems, companies must heal or align from the inside out—one human at a time and starting at the top. The CEO and leadership team must do foundational work to understand what’s driving and shaping behaviors. Only when a culture is intentionally designed can it inspire people to fully engage in strategies and tactics that move the human system forward. What author Margaret Graziano proposes in Ignite Culture is a fundamental shift in leadership’s approach to creating an intentional, healthy, high-performance organization. Offering a unique combination of experiential coaching, evidence-based leadership tools, and actionable strategies, Ignite Culture empowers business leaders with the wisdom and insights they need to reshape their company’s culture, increase employee engagement, and grow revenue in a supportive, high-performance environment. -
Inspired by the events of his 2022 award-winning book, Captured by COVID: Deceit, Conspiracy, and Death—A True Story. Michael E. Bowers’s Olivia is a story of adoration, hatred, desolation, exhilaration, and heartbreak. Caught between two forces far beyond her control, Olivia’s quiet life is shattered when she becomes collateral damage in a deadly clash between the DEA and a ruthless Mexican cartel. As her world unravels, those around her spiral into darkness—none more than Allen, whose descent into unthinkable acts reveals a side no one ever imagined he possessed. -
Can Ani and Taryn stop Treyder’s experiments? And will they find the Stones of Teramar? As Taryn struggles to understand who he is and who he is to become, he and Ani must lead the way in thwarting Treyder’s experiments before they result in unimaginable harm. As if that were not enough, Taryn must not only find the Stone destined for him, he is driven to find the other two Stones of Teramar and their Singers. The Song of Teaching cannot be sung until all three Teramaran Stones and their Singers have been located. And without that song, knowledge of the shared past, future, and place of origin of those on Lrakira and Teramar may be lost. It will take the combined efforts of Ani, Taryn, Renloret, Yenne, and many others to pull off. And there is no time to waste. -
The accidental result of a collaboration by Margaret A. Harrell and Jef Crab, Stop All the Clocks was conceived when Jef commented about Harrell’s An Underground PRINCIPIA: “My biggest concern is that I have no idea how many people will be able to grasp the depth of the principles you describe. It is amazing enough that you take a lifetime of experiences and connect them into a driving force that leads to the realization of one’s purpose. Even more amazing is that you include the most subtle levels of existence that play a role in these processes . . . Most breathtakingly, by reading An Underground PRINCIPIA, the reader can gain the insight that all of this is happening, not in one lifetime, whether human or universal, but in an eternal now. Amazing achievement.”—Jef Crab, An Underground PRINCIPIA review Why not make that depth accessible? Tell even more stories? Do it in conversations? Reveal tales that neither even knew about the other? Harrell pondered. Why not take the obstacle as a Giant Opportunity? And so this new book was born in conversations on Skype. Miraculously, they needed little editing and fitted neatly into Stop All the Clocks, which Harrell had started writing. Jef stepped in and the conversations that followed sparkled with probing wisdom, as the two simplified ideas, telling of experiences, helping bring about what Jef called a crashing down of the old paradigm. -
When a serial killer targets the North Beach neighborhood in San Francisco, the entire community must band together to help the homicide inspectors catch a killer or risk the tragedy that he will kill again. Lucia is a good girl; she's an eighth grader at the local parish school who gets great grades, helps her parents around the house, and loves her siblings. As she waits after school, a stranger - hands laden - asks for help getting into his van. Before she knows it, Lucia's shoved into the van, knocked unconscious, and she's never going home again. After her mother reports her missing, Lucia's firefighter father, as well as other community members, manage to elevate her missing person's report all the way to the Homicide Bureau. So begins a thrilling, edge-of-your-seat narrative of a community connected through more than just the streets they live on to catch a killer and bring a grieving family peace. Two homicide teams, made up of Inspectors O'Neill and Donnelly and Inspectors Gibson and Sullivan, work against the clock and side-by-side with other agencies to bring the criminal down. Chock-full of twists, turns, romance, murder, and community, hiding in plain sight is a can't miss mystery read for crime novel enthusiasts, San Francisco natives, and readers who love a good thriller. Readers will feel immersed in the investigation as they struggle to solve the web of covered tracks alongside investigators. Feel the heart-pounding race against the clock as sands drain from the hourglass and the suspect gets farther away. -
Amy O'Hanlon's excellent Sister Butterfly illustrations show Carla approaching a favorite corner of her garden where she feels safe and happy. Her vigilant brother knows that Carla can create beautiful fantasies as she twirls around and round to music only she can hear, engaged in quiet conversation with the small creatures such as butterflies and her favorite flowers. Mike Mirabella's children's book entitled Sister Butterfly, is a beautifully illustrated children's book based on a song from his 1998 CD entitled, Special People. Mike wrote Sister Butterfly song years ago for his daughter, Carla, when she was three years old. The theme of Sister Butterfly centers on Mike's abiding love for his daughter with Down syndrome and for self-discovery and the transformation of the hearts that surround her. Mike wrote in the song; "My sister is a butterfly who never learned to fly, ...”. Carla still wasn't walking or talking and Mike thought at the time, she would have little chance of accomplishing much of anything in her life. "How wrong I was; her life was a parade of accomplishments!” - Papa Mike. -
Does your child ever sit by themselves—alone and seemingly friendless? In I Used to Be Shy, meet Carla, our self-appointed social committee of one, who makes everyone at summer camp feel welcome. Carla spots a shy new boy who hides from others in his cabin, closing his curtain. Carla follows her heart and gathers a small group of fellow campers to coax him out to play games. With Carla’s encouragement, our new camper builds up his self-confidence, loses his fear, and learns to enjoy his new friends. The bonus song "Little Brown Pony" includes the lyrics and music notations as does "I Used to Be Shy." -
Happy St Patrick's Day! Enjoy price reduction until 3/31/26
A young Irish sailor cast adrift in the sea. A mermaid princess and Irish luck save him from drowning. This adventurous tale owes its inspiration to stories Mike Mirabella heard as a little boy. His sizeable Italian clan swapped such stories during family dinners at the kitchen table.
"My grandpa and uncles would tell tales of fishing the waters off the coast of California and up through the inland passages of Alaska. I recall Grandpa Angelo telling of the scary times, when he was a cabin boy of 12 and was captured by pirates while working on the tall ships”.
And then there was the never-ending argument between my grandpa and Uncle Cam: “What was that strange creature they caught off the coast of Alaska; a mermaid or a merman?" I was (and still am) that wee lad in our story, sitting wide-eyed, half-believing, yet never tiring of hearing those wonder-filled stories told by those salty, old jacks."
Using the rhyming style of a pirate in an Irish pub, our sailor spins his yarn about seeing the slap of a mermaid's tail during a mighty storm. "On the Luck of an Irish Sailor" is a beautiful tale of adventure on the high seas. In a story that's been passed down for generations, author Mike Mirabella takes us on a magical experience deep beneath the ocean.
Could it have happened? Did it happen? Folklore - that's the feeling sparked by the illustrations by illustrator Amy O'Hanlon. She uses hues of blues, grays, and browns to depict the fierce storm accurately. On other pages, O'Hanlon uses beige and brown tones to create the illusion of an older picture book-like classic story that's been around for years. Enjoy the bonus song sheets and sing along with this ‘mostly’ true story of adventure and redemption, in "On the Luck of an Irish Sailor."
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Have you been a seventh grader, taught or parented one? Then you’re guaranteed to laugh as the new female vice principal faces hormonally charged middle schoolers, demanding parents, an obnoxious boss, and clueless teachers. Ride the roller coaster of the new job and cheer for Cynthia Walker as she dives into the hilarity and angst of working with tweens. Watch her deal with bomb threats, fire, and pythons on the loose. Bullied kids and abusive parents. Dysfunctional homes, charges of racial bias, and a touchy-feely principal who demands her attention but provides no guidance. And she would like to date the handsome and talented history teacher, if only she weren’t his supervisor. Schooled will take you back to your own school days. This page-turner will open your eyes to the challenges of public education, the job satisfaction to be found by educators who care, and the type of leader you want to guide your children. -
Prepare for an adventure beyond your imagination. Martial artist and fencer Lucian Stiles, longs for an exciting life and finds himself teleported from our reality to a realm that holds the Duras Kingdom. Caught in the middle of a war between a king and a powerful baron, Lucian finds excitement, love and danger in a world of sword fighting and sorcery. Joining the Duras Knights, he and his true love, Princess Raven, embark on an incredible journey full of terrifying creatures and deadly assassins. - Featuring original score by SOVAS-award winning composer, Daryl Bolicek at Wild Horse Recording To best experience the Cinematic Music & Full Sound Design, please listen with earbuds or headphones! Currently available exclusively on AMPlify Audiobooks!
