This is Jack Bells first published book of poetry. These are poems that were selected from the year 1986 to 2011. In this book you will read a wide variety of poems that have been compiled through time and also based on the authors life experiences.

Melanie, a perfectionist mom who views the approaching end of parenting as a type of death, can’t believe she has only one more year to live vicariously through her slacker senior son, Dane. Gorgeous mom Sarah has just begun to realize that her only daughter, Ashley, has been serving as a stand-in for her traveling husband, and the thought of her daughter leaving for college is cracking the carefully cultivated façade of her life. Will and his wife are fine—as long as he follows the instructions on the family calendar and is sure to keep secret his whole other life with Lauren, the woman he turns to for fun (and who also happens to have a daughter in the senior class). Told from the points of view of both the parents and the kids, The Goodbye Year explores high school peer pressure, what it’s like for young people to face the unknown of life after high school, and how a transition that should be the beginning of a couple’s second act together—empty nesting—might possibly be the end. "Often hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking, always engaging. I devoured it!" ~ Meg Mitchell, author of The Admissions

Enjoy this Single Dad’s Temporary Fling which turns into a steamy romance full of family drama. I dared her to spend a hot, no-strings night with me. Now I’m determined to keep her forever. I’m Trace Weston—recently reformed bad boy and full-time single father. My life is already complicated, but when my sister-in-law asks me to give her bestie, who just ended her long-term relationship with a cheating jerk, some hot, post-breakup pleasure, I’m game. I never expected to want Masey Garrett with a burning hunger, but she’s shy, sassy, driven, and incredibly kind. Suddenly I’m falling fast…but she’s only mine for a night. What’s a former player to do? Change the rules. Now she’s under my roof day and night. We’re playing house…but I want a real family. Though she loves my newborn son, the skittish beauty keeps her feelings about me a secret. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to win her over, but other than passion, how can I persuade Masey I’m the man for her? Sure, I could drop an L bomb…except that once imploded my heart. But when her past turns her world upside down, can I chance everything and dare Masey to stay with me forever? **More Than Dare You is part of the Reed Family Reckoning Contemporary Romance series, but every book can be read as a standalone. A HOT, romantic story with strong language, sexy times, no cliffhangers, and a guaranteed happily ever after!**

July 24, 1915. Chicagos deadliest day, far worse than the Great Fire. The SS Eastland - a poorly-designed, overcrowded lake steamer - capsized without warning in the heart of downtown Chicago, killing 844 people preparing for a company picnic. The victims - mostly young immigrants who toiled long hours in Western Electrics Hawthorne Works - and the disaster itself were largely forgotten to the mists of time. But on the 100th anniversary of the tragedy, a quake strikes below Chicago, a purple flash emanates from a mystery hole in the Chicago River and an inexplicable hazmat event strikes a Chinatown diner. Thus begins Chicagos shocking reintroduction to the horror of July 24, 1915, and a commemoration of the victims. The Eastland Water Spirits is a parable about memories and stories which refuse to disappear. It explores our ancestors impact on each of us, like it or not. It celebrates our connectedness over time and space, using water and spirits to tell the tale.

"Unflinchingly irreverent, laugh-out-loud funny, and heartbreakingly honest." —Elizabeth Acevedo, National Book Award winner and New York Times bestselling author of The Poet X In the vein of powerful reads like The Hate U Give and The Poet X, comes poet Morgan Parker's pitch-perfect novel about a black teenage girl searching for her identity when the world around her views her depression as a lack of faith and blackness as something to be politely ignored. Trapped in sunny, stifling, small-town suburbia, seventeen-year-old Morgan knows why she's in therapy. She can't count the number of times she's been the only non-white person at the sleepover, been teased for her "weird" outfits, and been told she's not "really" black. Also, she's spent most of her summer crying in bed. So there's that, too. Lately, it feels like the whole world is listening to the same terrible track on repeat--and it's telling them how to feel, who to vote for, what to believe. Morgan wonders, when can she turn this song off and begin living for herself? Loosely based on her own teenage life and diaries, this incredible debut by award-winning poet Morgan Parker will make readers stand up and cheer for a girl brave enough to live life on her own terms--and for themselves. "Morgan Parker put THIS song on--and I hope it never turns off." —Nic Stone, New York Times bestselling author of Dear Martin and Odd One Out “A triumphant first impression in the YA space.” —Entertainment Weekly “An incredibly heartfelt, deep story about a girl's coming of age.” —Refinery29

Ella Stevens is a woman on the eve of her wedding when a frantic phone call from an old college pal sets her on a course that takes her away from the altar and any semblance of life as she knows it. Unfortunately, rescuing her friend means losing herself when Ella stumbles through a time portal in the bazaar of Old Cairo that sends her back in time at the moment just before the greatest archaeological discovery of the age: the opening of the tomb of King Tutankhamun. Desperately trying to get back to her own time and her fiancé—a sexy US Marshal who, contrary to popular belief, doesn’t have all the patience in the world—Ella discovers that evil is not limited to any one timeline. With the shocking discovery of what will be the most precious treasure she will ever own, Ella risks her life to protect it while fighting to find her way back to her man.

The Rise and Fall of the World’s Most Powerful Restaurant Critic and His Battle with Severe, Debilitating Depression From the early 1980s to the mid-1990s, Bryan Miller was a household name among restaurant goers in the greater New York City area and beyond as the restaurant critic for the New York Times, as well as the author of numerous books, a public speaker, and a radio and television commentator. Over ten years as a columnist, he dined out more than five thou­sand times in the United States and abroad, from haute to humble. The Wine Spectator, in a front-page profile, declared Miller “the most powerful restaurant critic in America.” And for much of that time, he wanted to die. Dining in the Dark chronicles Miller’s battle with Bipolar II disorder, also known as depres­sion, which ruined his life, professionally and personally. Depression was directly responsible for his surrendering the New York Times restau­rant column and, shortly thereafter, leaving the paper altogether. Everything he had worked for so diligently, rising from cub reporter to big-city columnist in less than a decade, vanished. In the ensuing years, unable to work, he lost his home, his life savings, two wonderful wives, the chance to have a family, and numerous friends and colleagues. He became increasingly reclu­sive; like many victims of serious depression, he reached the point where he was afraid to answer the phone. Pile on a brain tumor, electroshock therapy, a near-fatal bout with Lyme disease, accidental drug overdoses (he was once carried out of the newsroom on a gurney), and you have a life in shambles. Dining in the Dark tells the story of Miller’s battle, but it also brings hope by sharing his jour­ney to coping with, and finally conquering, his depression. The coping mechanisms he employed in order to get through the day will be of benefit to those in need of a helping hand. Dining in the Dark is philosophical, inspirational, educational, and even humorous at times. And, of course, there are lots of inside-the-New York Times anecdotes, as well as lots of food, wine, travel, and celebrity.

From nationally bestselling, award-winning author Liam Callanan, the story of an opportunity to start over at midlife, a chance to save a struggling convent in the Eternal City, and the dramatic re-emergence of an old flame . . . Meet Claire: fifty-two, desperate to do something new and get a fresh start. Enter the chance to go to Rome: Home to a struggling convent facing a precipitous end, the city beckons Claire, who's long had a complicated relationship with religion, including a “missed connection” with convent life in her teens. Once in Rome, she finds a group of funny, fearless nuns in a gorgeous villa, beautiful runs throughout a color-saturated city, and a chance to reflect. It all leads her to an unexpected question—should she join the convent?—and an answer that startles her as much as it does those closest to her. It also startles Marcus, a once-buzzy actor, devastatingly handsome, who is eternally in love with Claire. Marcus has come and gone from Claire’s life since college but now reappears in Rome just as she’s about to decide what’s next. As Claire searches for her higher calling, she finds the key to her future may lay in her past—and involves an actual key. The nuns swear it unlocks nothing, but on a night when choices and voices swirl, Claire finds a long-hidden lock. A look at faith, in oneself as much as a higher power, and love, romantic and familial, lost and found, this is the thoroughly charming story of one woman who sets out to rewrite her past and future, only to be surprised by the plot twists life plants . . . when in Rome.

Enter the edgy, gritty and distorted world of KELLY at your own risk; this tale takes NO prisoners. A slant on reality, headlines, gossip and hearsay merge the genres and cross-examines what is socially acceptable. KELLY caricatures the depravities of modern living and finds, with science, a possible way out. With the darkness of ""Blade Runner,"" and the ugliness of ""A Clockwork Orange,"" KELLY will shake your consciousness to its core. Contains adult material of a violent and sexual nature. I bet you wish you could handle this book? Be careful what you wish for......

Rebecca Bennett, the estranged stepdaughter of a well-to-do Las Vegas businessman, is hounding the Las Vegas Police Department to reopen the investigation into her mother Rita's death -- alleging that, despite appearances to the contrary, Rebecca's greedy stepfather actually played a hand in Rita Bennett's untimely end. But no one is prepared for the news that CSIs Gil Grissom, Sara Sidle, and Nick Stokes report -- their investigation is inconclusive...because the disinterred deceased is not Rita Bennett. Meanwhile, at the Sunny Day Continuing Care Facility, Catherine Willows and Warrick Brown must investigate the sudden demise of Vivian Elliot -- a patient whose death may be the result of unnatural causes....