A university professor studying racism by conducting a secret social experiment on his own son. A single mother desperate to buy her first home even as the world hurtles toward catastrophe. Each fighting to survive in America.Tough-minded, vulnerable, and brave, Jocelyn Nicole Johnson’s precisely imagined debut explores burdened inheritances and extraordinary pursuits of belonging. Set in the near future, the eponymous novella, “My Monticello,” tells of a diverse group of Charlottesville neighbors fleeing violent white supremacists. Led by Da’Naisha, a young Black descendant of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, they seek refuge in Jefferson’s historic plantation home in a desperate attempt to outlive the long-foretold racial and environmental unravelling within the nation.In “Control Negro,” hailed by Roxane Gay as “one hell of story,” a university professor devotes himself to the study of racism and the development of ACMs (average American Caucasian males) by clinically observing his own son from birth in order to “painstakingly mark the route of this Black child too, one whom I could prove was so strikingly decent and true that America could not find fault in him unless we as a nation had projected it there.” Johnson’s characters all seek out home as a place and an internal state, whether in the form of a Nigerian widower who immigrates to a meager existence in the city of Alexandria, finding himself adrift; a young mixed-race woman who adopts a new tongue and name to escape the landscapes of rural Virginia and her family; or a single mother who seeks salvation through “Buying a House Ahead of the Apocalypse.”United by these characters’ relentless struggles against reality and fate, My Monticello is a formidable book that bears witness to this country’s legacies and announces the arrival of a wildly original new voice in American fiction.

    Focusing on the magical folktales of West Africa, Babalola also reimagines Greek myths, ancient legends from the Middle East, and stories from long-erased places.With an eye towards decolonizing tropes inherent in our favorite tales of love, Babalola has created captivating stories that traverse across perspectives, continents, and genres.

    POST is a story about a group of friends, two of whom experience a collision two years apart.

    It takes Odysseus ten years to reach Ithaca after the ten-year Trojan War. In his absence, it is assumed he has died, and his wife Penelope and son Telemachus must deal with a group of unruly suitors who compete for Penelope's hand in marriage. In this Book you will also find 7 Bonus works for your enjoymentThe complete interactive table of content includes:THE ODYSSEYBonus book: THE ILIAD OF HOMERMore free Bonuses PARADISE LOST-by John MiltonTHE GOLDEN ASS-by Lucius Apuleius "Africanus"PLAYS OF SOPHOCLES•OEDIPUS THE KING • OEDIPUS AT COLONUS • ANTIGONETHE AENEID-by VirgilAll in one book elegantly formatted for ease of use and enjoyment on your Kindle device. Enjoy!

    The Weary Blues announced the arrival of a rare voice in American poetry. A literary descendant of Walt Whitman ("I, too, sing America," Hughes wrote), he chanted the joys and sorrows of black America in unprecedented language. A gifted lyricist, he offered rhythms and cadences that epitomized the particularities of African American creativity, especially jazz and the blues. His second volume, steeped in the blues and controversial because of its frankness, confirmed Hughes as a poet of uncompromising integrity. Then in the 1930s came Dear Lovely Death (1931) and the radical A New Song (1938). Poems such as "Good Morning Revolution" and "Let America Be America Again" made his pen one of the most forceful in America during the Great Depression.

    He grows up in fields and woods, and he is happy, he thinks. When K is eleven, the city reclaims him. He returns to an unknown mother and a part-time father, trading the fields for flats and a community that is alien to him. Slowly, he finds friends. Eventually, he finds love. He learns how to navigate the city. But as he grows, he begins to realise that he needs more than the city can provide. He is a man made of pieces. Pieces that are slowly breaking apart.That Reminds Me is the story of one young man, from birth to adulthood, told in fragments of memory. It explores questions of identity, belonging, addiction, sexuality, violence, family and religion. It is a deeply moving and completely original work of literature from one of the brightest British writers of today.

    The nine stories in this collection feature four generations of characters grappling with who they want to be in the world, caught as they are between the church's double standards and their own needs and passions. With their secret longings, new love, and forbidden affairs, these church ladies are as seductive as they want to be, as vulnerable as they need to be, as unfaithful and unrepentant as they care to be, and as free as they deserve to be.

    If I sit still and don't do anything, the world goes on beating like a slack drum, without meaning. We must be moving, working, making dreams to run toward; the poverty of life without dreams is too horrible to imagine."-- Sylvia Plath, from "Notebooks, February 1956"Renowned for her poetry, Sylvia Plath was also a brilliant writer of prose. This collection of short stories, essays, and diary excerpts highlights her fierce concentration on craft, the vitality of her intelligence, and the yearnings of her imaginaton. Featuring an introduction by Plath's husband, the late British poet Ted Hughes, these writings also reflect themes and images she would fully realize in her poetry. "Jonny Panic and the Bible of Dreams" truly showcases the talent and genius of Sylvia Plath.

    As the children of refugees carve out radical new paths for themselves in California, they shoulder the inherited weight of the Khmer Rouge genocide and grapple with the complexities of race, sexuality, friendship, and family.A high school badminton coach and failing grocery store owner tries to relive his glory days by beating a rising star teenage player. Two drunken brothers attend a wedding afterparty and hatch a plan to expose their shady uncle’s snubbing of the bride and groom. A queer love affair sparks between an older tech entrepreneur trying to launch a “safe space” app and a disillusioned young teacher obsessed with Moby-Dick. And in the sweeping final story, a nine-year-old child learns that his mother survived a racist school shooter.With nuanced emotional precision, gritty humor, and compassionate insight into the intimacy of queer and immigrant communities, the stories in Afterparties deliver an explosive introduction to the work of Anthony Veasna So.

    Paradise just exposed her whole heart to Chaos with that one move. Will Chaos guard her heart, or will Chaos return it back to the sender? Chaos doesn’t believe in love, or is that just cap? In the finale of Chaos and Paradise, more truths will be exposed and in most times “TRUTH” hurts. Will Chaos and Paradise be able to walk in their “TRUTHS” or will they continue to ignore what’s in front of them both? Find out now in the finale of Paradise and Chaos……

    That love that gives you butterflies. In Deja Simmons' case, her first love has turned into a nightmare. Have you ever loved someone wholeheartedly to the point that you were confused, blinded by love and painful abuse! Were the signs there? Did she ignore the signs? Deja thought when she laid eyes on Jace McCray he would be it for her. At eighteen, she met him and he was everything she imagined in a Prince Charming. For years, they were the perfect couple to those who knew them. Now at the age of 23, things had gotten worse, and Deja didn’t know what to do. They always say enough is enough. Can that be the case with Deja? Or will she die at the hands of the man she loves? Jace is your average dope boy trying to get the streets booming with the ring of his name. Being in the game he was destined to be the man. That was, until he had to sit down. With his world crumbling down, he uses and abuses any woman in his corner. Everything he’s going through, from losing friends to losing his credibility in the streets, has him going crazy. When you’re deep in a depression within yourself, your mind tells you to hurt the weakest around you. Will Jace continue to sink in his own depression? Or will he try to change his ways to be a better man to get back on top? No one said love was easy, but in matters of the heart we play the fool all too well. Before it's too late, can Jace be forgiven? Will Deja make it out of this dangerous love affair, after being soaked in her tears for many years. Follow Deja on this ride full of drama and emotions.

    

    The nights are dark, the days a stumbling venture from one horror to the next. In one place, William Hill stands in the center of a town where the scattered remains of the dead lie next to the road like litter tossed from passing cars, where the search for the living fails to turn up even one soul. Infected by a parasite destined to steal his mind, hunted by the Chosen, and dogged by a beautiful woman who claims to be an elf, he sometimes wonders if life can get any stranger. Then Daniel offers a glimpse of the coming world, a place where cavorting beasts feast upon the dead, where dragons haunt nearby forests, where the hordes crawl from the ground by the millions and sweep across the earth. The elf says she needs his blood to repair the rift between worlds, to finally put an end to the madness. He doesn't mind donating a little to the cause, but the more he hears, the more he doubts her intentions and the more the ceremony sounds like a full-scale sacrifice. In the end, William discovers that he can count on nothing, not even his sanity.

     He's My Thug, I'm His Peace by Theresa Reese follows the love story of two lovers from conflicting backgrounds. Young, smart, pretty, and never breaking any rules. Well, almost never. Lucy Hinton is the epitome of a good girl and in her eyes, the only type of man she needed was one from the cloth. Lou, as her family calls her, fell head over heels for Pastor Hassel. She quickly learned that everything that glitters ain't gold. Her life takes a turn for the worst when secrets began to fall straight from the pulpit. Handsome, smart, thuggish, and a street king, Asaad Daniels is only focused on getting and keeping money. The streets had taught him that women always ended up being a man's biggest downfall, so he never took any of them seriously. He had always been a hit it and quit it type dude; however, the first time he laid eyes on Lou, something inside of him shifted a little. He didn't know if she was another man's wife or not. But then again, he didn't care. Men lie. Men cheat. Women lie. Women cheat. Today's world was a fashion show. And nearly everyone wanted to be in a relationship with someone that had money or looked like they had it. Two independent souls from two different worlds cross paths and their lives change forever. Author Theresa Reese takes you on a roller coaster ride in the first installation of her riveting new series, He's My Thug, I'm His Peace, where secrets unravel, loyalty is tested, and some lives may be lost. Can Lou be the peace that this thug needs? Every relationship deserves a second chance if it's really true love. Or maybe…Not.