The first nonfiction work by one of the most distinctive prose stylists of our era, Joan Didion's Slouching Towards Bethlehem remains, decades after its first publication, the essential portrait of America—particularly California—in the sixties.It focuses on such subjects as John Wayne and Howard Hughes, growing up a girl in California, ruminating on the nature of good and evil in a Death Valley motel room, and, especially, the essence of San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury, the heart of the counterculture.

     Bishop was unforgiving of fashion and limited ways of seeing and feeling, but cast an even more trenchant eye on her own work. One wishes this volume were thicker, though the perfections within mark the rightness of her approach. The poems are sublimely controlled, fraught with word play, fierce moral vision (see her caustic ballad on Ezra Pound, "Visits to St. Elizabeths"), and reticence. From the surreal sorrow of the early "Man-Moth" (leaping off from a typo she had come across for "mammoth"), about a lonely monster who rarely emerges from "the pale subways of cement he calls his home," to the beauty of her villanelle "One Art" (with its repeated "the art of losing isn't hard to master"), the poet wittily explores distance and desolation, separation and sorrow.

    Who is behind the green eyes, and will he protect her when she needs it most?Annabelle is engaged to her high school sweetheart, even after years of being treated badly. His cruel behavior escalates as the couple joins friends on a weekend camping trip. From the shadows, a pair of green eyes seems to be watching Annabelle and following her every move. Is her fragile psyche about to crack entirely under Jax’s possessive reign or is there something more to the eyes in the woods? When Jax finally goes too far, the entire group is in danger and Annabelle is swept into something provocative and dangerous. When everything becomes known, Annabelle is thrown out of her comfort zone and into a place where she has never felt safer. But will it last forever?***Paranormal Romances in This Collection:Lost in the WoodsUnexpected MateWater DragonScarlet Oak ShiftersWrong MateThe Lost ShifterAlpha’s GirlThe DreamRain and DrizzleThe RescueNew BeginningRoyal Dragons: Books 1 & 2Shifter PursuitEternal HeartEach story in this series features a bad boy shifter hero. Intended for 18+ readers due to adult content.

    Henry, throughout its history this annual collection has consistently offered a remarkable sampling of contemporary short stories. Each year, stories are chosen from large and small literary magazines, and a panel of distinguished writers is enlisted to make the final selection. The result is a superb collection of inventive, full-bodied stories representing the very best in American and Canadian fiction.

    Distinguished from the  detached formal essay by its friendly, conversational tone, its loose structure, and its drive toward candor and self-disclosure, the personal essay seizes on the minutiae of daily life-vanities, fashions, foibles, oddballs, seasonal rituals, love and  disappointment, the pleasures of solitude, reading, taking a walk -- to offer insight into the human condition and the great social and political issues of the day. The Art of the Personal Essay is the first anthology to celebrate this fertile genre. By presenting more than seventy-five personal essays, including influential forerunners from ancient Greece, Rome, and the Far East, masterpieces from the dawn of the personal essay in the sixteenth century, and a wealth of the finest personal essays from the last four centuries, editor Phillip Lopate, himself an acclaimed essayist, displays the tradition of the personal essay in all its historical grandeur, depth, and diversity.

    A KNIGHT vows to return her to her dying father.  Will the flames of her past consume them both?  A KNIGHT'S VICTORY An Irish LADY trapped in a vicious marriage.  An English KNIGHT willing to risk all to protect his childhood love.  A knight's victory could be the lady's undoing... A KNIGHT'S REWARD In hiding, a LADY TAILOR sews garments of costly silk to provide for her son. A KNIGHT seeks stolen cloth and finds instead his long-lost love. As he unravels her secrets will he lose all he holds dear or win the greatest honor of all? SUMMER'S STORM A bastard KNIGHT gives his heart to the one LADY who is his equal.  Can he protect her from the husband who wants her dead and win the happiness that is their true legacy?

    In presenting a more inclusive canon of American literature, The Heath Anthology continues to balance the traditional, leading names in American literature with lesser-known writers and to build upon the anthology's other strengths: its apparatus and its ancillaries. Available in five volumes for greater flexibility, the Fifth Edition offers thematic clusters to stimulate classroom discussions and to show the treatment of important topics across the genres. The indispensable web site includes revised timelines, a multimedia gallery to support thematic clusters, and a searchable Instructor's Guide.

    Her life seems in order until she unexpectedly is denied entrance into the Universities of her choice. Heartbroken and angry, Faith finds herself on an airplane to Australia with her hopes and dreams in shambles. Upon arrival, Faith settles in and meets a strapping cowboy who she can hardly resist. Follow Faith’s journey as she attempts to embrace her new life in the outback. Will she rediscover love in the process?~ Love, Forgiveness & Horseshoes ~Faith has grand plans of a life on track however, as she prepares to start her PhD. Her life seems in order until she unexpectedly is denied entrance into the Universities of her choice. Heartbroken and angry, Faith finds herself on an airplane to Australia with her hopes and dreams in shambles. Upon arrival, Faith settles in and meets a strapping cowboy who she can hardly resist. Follow Faith’s journey as she attempts to embrace her new life in the outback. Will she rediscover love in the process?~ Finding Love Again ~Julia has the perfect life, family and house. Although she came from humble beginnings, she and her husband have created a great life for their children. Julia's world is rocked when serious allegations are leveled at her husband that breaks their previously unbreakable bond. With her perfect life in shambles, Julia reluctantly decides to take a trip to Europe with her friends to blow off some steam. Julia is reserved at first, but after arriving, she lets her guard down and opens up. She begins to have the time of her life when she meets a handsome man unexpectedly. The new acquaintance presence, threatens to further complicate her world. Follow Julia's journey as she searches to find herself, the truth and if true love is real.~ Falling For The Cowboy ~Farah grew up in a well off family, but wanted to blaze her own path in the world. She found her passion in the rodeo at a young age and has been participating ever since. While home from the rodeo circuit, Farah finds a strange new man at her family ranch. Curiosity quickly turns to anger as she finds out the real reason the handsome stranger is present. Fate seemed to have forced the two of them together and they embark on an unlikely journey together. Follow Farah's story as she tries to accept the new changes in her life and possibly find an unlikely love.~ The Cowboys Heart ~Heather is a recently divorced single mother trying to find her place in the world. Since the divorce, her son has acted out and she is at a loss at what to do. As Heather adjust to the new normal, an unexpected tragedy leaves her in control of a massive ranch. Initially hesitant about the move to the country, Heather decides to make the leap. She quickly gets in over her head at the ranch, until a strapping cowboy comes to the rescue. She tries to ignore her budding feelings for the handsome man, but decides to let go and live in the moment. Follow Heather's journey as she struggles to make life on the ranch work and also open her heart to loving fully again.*The books in this box set may be part of a 3 book continuing series.

    This anthology brings together into one volume the most influential and commonly taught works of existentialism. Contributors include Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Ralph Ellison, Martin Heidegger, Soren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo.

    But a boy from the wrong side of the tracks has little in common with the homecoming queen, so they never acted on their mutual feelings. After a stint in the Marines, Cade has returned to his hometown older and wiser, and now works for the sheriff’s department. When he responds to a break-in call at the Delos Home School Foundation, the last person he expects to see there is Kara. All of his feelings and protective instincts go into overdrive when he learns she has been attacked. Kara never expected to see Cade Patterson again, and especially not while she is nursing a broken nose after a break in at the school where she works. Kara has never forgotten the boy she grew up with, and she is impressed with the man he has become. When Kara’s house is ransacked, Cade takes her home with him until they find out who is responsible. As the danger around them escalates, Cade fears he may have waited too late to let Kara know she has always had his heart.

    One is the main course of dinner, another the porn star contracted to copulate in space for a reality TV show. They become futuristic ant farms, get knocked up by the star high school quarterback and have secret abortions, use parakeets to reverse amputations, make love to garden gnomes, go into air conditioning ducts to confront their mother’s ghost, and do so in settings that range from Hell to the local white-supremacist bowling alley.

    Unconventional in both style and content, it shattered the myths of small town American life. A collection of epitaphs of residents of a small town, a full understanding of Spoon River requires the reader to piece together narratives from fragments contained in individual poems."

    Scott Fitzgerald's "Bernice Bobs Her Hair," plus stories by Mark Twain, Sarah Orne Jewett, Charles Chesnutt, Kate Chopin, Stephen Crane, Willa Cather, Ambrose Bierce, Theodore Dreiser, and others. Perfect for classroom use, this outstanding collection of tales will also prove popular with fiction readers everywhere.--back cover

    Originally printed in publications as diverse as The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and The Atlantic Monthly, these superb stories share Vonnegut’s audacious sense of humor and extraordinary range of creative vision.Alternative cover edition here

    The afterword explains where the ideas for the stories came from.