The misunderstandings caused by language recur throughout the book: contemplating what "yes" means in different cultures; watching Nickelodeon's "Nick at Nite" with a husband who grew up in the Philippines and never saw The Patty Duke Show; misreading another poet's title "The Difference Between Pepsi and Coke" as "The Difference Between Pepsi and Pope" and concluding that "Pepsi is all for premarital sex. / The Pope won't stain your teeth." Misunderstandings also abound as characters mingle with others from different classes. In "Cockroaches," a father-in-law refers to budget-minded American college students backpacking in Europe as cockroaches, not realizing his daughter-in-law was once, not so long ago, such a student/roach herself.With welcome levity and refreshing irreverence, The Star-Spangled Banner addresses issues of ethnicity, class, and gender in America.

    Best of all, he's packed us in his suitcase. He represents an ever-changing population of those raised elsewhere who find themselves beckoned by the history, mystique, and magic-makers of New York City. These poems inhabit their own contradictions, and exquisitely navigate the many complicated sides of what it means to be alive. About The Author: Jon Sands has been a professional teaching and performing artist since 2007. He's a recipient of the 2009 NYC-LouderARTS fellowship grant, and has represented New York City multiple times at the National Poetry Slam. He is the Director of Poetry and Arts Education Programming at the Positive Health Project, as well as a Youth Mentor with Urban Word-NYC. His work has appeared in decomP magazine, The Millions, Suss, The Literary Bohemian, Danse Macabre, The November 3rd Club, and others. He lives in New York City, where he makes better tuna salad than anyone you know.

    Even more selfish and devious than before, Niquole will stop at nothing to get her kids back and make her husband suffer. Her street savvy personality mixed with her no-nonsense attitude has Niquole believing she has free reign to screw anyone who gets in her way. Soon, someone unexpected re-enters Niquole's life and seems to be one of the many obstacles slowing her down and threatening to ruin her plans. Will the grimy road that Niquole travels finally cut her off for good? Or will she thrive amongst those who pretend to love her?

    

    But then an unexpected pregnancy puts everything at risk, and Dorothy is left alone – with Robbie nowhere to be seen.Heartbroken, Dorothy picks up the pieces of her life as a working girl in Battersea helping to support her mother and father. But before long, things start to become difficult. Her father’s health is worsening, money is tight and worst of all, Robbie hasn’t come back for her.Can Dorothy find a way back to happiness in the face of real adversity? Will she have the courage to make it on her own – or is someone else waiting in the wings to save her?Gritty and moving, this is the perfect read for fans of Dilly Court and Maggie Hope.

    So Sassy is devastated when her father marries wealthy widow Elizabeth Bonner. Social climber Elizabeth despairs of a step-daughter who is more at ease with servants than those above stairs, and is jealous of Sassy's growing beauty which threatens to outshine her own daughter. Unwelcome and out of place in this unfamiliar world, Sassy often escapes to her old home on Tuttle Hill and the company of her childhood friends, brothers Thomas and Jack Mallabone. But the trio's bond is threatened by the consequences of her blind adoration for wayward Thomas, much to the dismay of Jack, who has long worshipped Sassy in secret...

    A beloved and gifted artist, Ashbery takes his place beside Whitman, Dickinson, Stevens, and Hart Crane in the canon of great American poets. With Quick Question, a new collection of poems published in time for his 85th birthday, John Ashbery proves that his creative power has only grown stronger with age.

    He’s so much like her that it’s spooky. They’re two free spirts who want to live life with no restraints, but old demons, and skewed judgements will eventually weigh them down, and no one knows, including them, if they’re strong enough to weather the storms.

    Riley has promised Everett that no matter what, she will be his forever. So after Everett's mother dies in a car accident, why does Everett shut Riley down? Because Everett believes that Riley is the reason why his mother is dead.

    Free, for the time being, from the power of the gods and the ceaseless weight of the rock, he struggles to navigate twenty-first-century America. In language by turns mordant and tender, often elegiac, Dunn illuminates the quotidian burdens of his all-too-human hero, as well as the abrasions of ambivalence and choice, finally concluding that "here / and there, though mostly here, even fate is reversible / with struggle or luck."In a second sequence of poems, nineteenth-century novelists become "local visitors" to the author's South Jersey towns. "Chekhov in Port Republic," "Jane Austen in Egg Harbor," "Dostoyevsky in Wildwood": these inventions and others give Dunn provocative new latitudes. As in his previous books, "he balances the casual and the vivid as he plumbs the ambiguity and mystery of human relations" (New York Times Book Review).

    They all vowed to never date a Mr. Wrong. And it is Winter’s bright idea to go find their Mr. Wrongs and date them by the time they all turn thirty. Simple. Right? It only takes two weeks after they all agree to the challenge for Winter to realize how very, very wrong she is for ever bringing up such a silly idea. It isn’t until Winter accidentally finds her Mr. Wrong teaching a summer class she signed up for at the local university that she begins to reconsider the challenge. Between imagining things she wants him to do to her on his desk to daydreaming about going back to college full-time, Winter is completely turned upside down. Once she learns more about her Mr. Wrong, she lets herself imagine him as Mr. Right...until he reveals a secret that could change everything about love as she knows it.

    Check Five Year Plan. Check Buy Home. Check Plan Wedding. Check Baby….??? In love with her fiancé and her life organized for Rachel Hendricks things were going as planned, but that all changes when life throws a curveball. Letting her guard down landed her here three years later ready to live her life with the one man who swept her off her feet until the unexpected happens shattering her picture perfect world into pieces. With a career he loves, being engaged to the love of his life, and some unexpected good news things couldn’t be better for Errick Martin. Errick realizes some things are too good to be true once the news is revealed of a baby…. Torn between staying or leaving Errick makes a rash decision changing everyone’s future. Will it make things better or worse? An accidental meeting with a mystery woman leaves a lasting impression on Saxon Carmichael. After running into the mystery woman, he finds himself with an attraction to her that he just can’t shake. Determined to find the relationship his heart desires, not perfect but containing a love so strong it is unbreakable, he goes after her. Fighting through the barriers around her heart, can Saxon prove that he will love her and someone else’s unborn child? What happens between two men and a woman when one never wanted to be a father, and the other one always has? Any man can father a child but when you love that child unconditionally… that’s A Daddy Thing

    Through ‘A Rustic Mind’ I aim to provide a thoughtful take on such actions and incidents. Poetic in its expression, these words will strike a chord which is not only deep but relatable on many levels.

     It turns out that her brand new husband, Garth Hunter, is a billionaire! Not only that, he now holds the mortgage on the ramshackle ranch she inherited along with her two younger sisters. How can she prove to Garth that she didn’t marry him for his money? How can she prove to him that she wants their marriage to work? Can he love her, and her curves, or does he want a divorce – one just as fast as their wedding ceremony? This is a sexy contemporary romance novella of approximately 29,000 words.

    Dangerous first love. This is where it all begins...The mansion on top of Benson Hill has stood empty for years. But one day it seems to be occupied, and its mysterious, handsome inhabitant Alexander Sterling becomes the source of much talk around town. Raven, a vampire-obsessed Goth-girl who has always considered herself an outsider in 'Dullsville', is determined to uncover the truth surrounding the secretive Alexander. As she gets to know him, and their spark intensifies, Raven finds herself in some unanticipated situations. Vampire Kisses: The Beginning captures the thrill of a most unusual romance.Also available by Ellen Schreiber:Vampire Kisses 2: Kissing CoffinsVampire Kisses 3: VampirevilleVampire Kisses 4: Dance with a VampireVampire Kisses 5: The Coffin ClubVampire Kisses 6: Royal BloodVampire Kisses 7: Love BitesOnce in a Full Moon