"Whoever said that You cant go back never contemplated the results of war. Its still an intrinsic part of my mental fabric. Often my nightmares carry me back to a place that I detest, a place called Vietnam. It fractures my ego by wafting me along the gentle breeze that turns fantasy into horror. It slams me back into the jungles of my mind and once Im there I cant seem to extricate myself from the bloody legacy of that brutal war. This book is a story that follows my struggles through the mine-infested, ragged edge of fear. The book carries the reader into the places in my mind that mere words can never explain This book is an anthology of the rude and brutal images as seen through the eyes of a naive, innocent 20 year old, one who hadnt even tasted life yet. The book takes a look at what war was like as it evolves from beauty into horror, into the blood-stained shadows of the vicious and mind altering images that once housed an indomitable spirit, fracturing my soul with war torn images of Vietnam. I sit here, glaring through the windows of sadness at a war I fought so many years ago, and it left me with way too much mental baggage"

Includes an excerpt from the next Cass Raines Mystery Borrowed Time (pages 421-436).

New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Maberry returns to the world of Rot & Ruin with this first novel in a series that’s more thrilling and filled with exceptionally terrifying adventures. Ever since her mother’s death, Gabriella “Gutsy” Gomez has spent her days flying under the radar. But when her mother’s undead body is returned to her doorstep from the grave and Gutsy witnesses a pack of ravagers digging up Los Muertos—her mother’s name for the undead—she realizes that life finds you no matter how hard you try to hide from it. Meanwhile, Benny Imura and his gang set out on a journey to finish what Captain Joe Ledger started: they’re going to find a cure. After what they went through in the Rot & Ruin, they think they’ve seen it all, but as they venture into new and unexplored territory, they soon learn that the zombies they fought before were nothing compared to what they’ll face in the wild beyond the peace and safety of their fortified town.

Jake Smith, a book smart loner hiding in a dead-end welding job, is thrown for a loop when his fifteen-year-old brother Ben shows up on his doorstep after outing their father for molestation. During Dad's trial it comes to light that not only was Jake also abused, but he turned a blind eye for years as it happened to his brother. But with Dad in jail and Mom insistent that Ben is lying, Ben is forced to rely on Jake even if he can't forgive him, and Jake is forced to step up and care for his brother despite struggling with his own trauma and brutal flashbacks. Broken Parts is the first full novel in a series exploring how these brothers evolve socially and emotionally in the aftermath of their father's abuse and in the face of life's never-ending ordeals. Jake and Ben fight like siblings despite their growing dependence on each other in this dark, emotional tale full of grit, humor, and the spark of survival.

"Broken Pieces" is a collection of my poems which I had penned down, around two decades back, which sadly, though was sitting on the my bookshelf catching dust. After years of hesitation, I have finally decided to share them with you. These poems were written at a time in my life when I was pushed to the edge. That’s when I found these words. They have served me well; in healing my emotional wounds, which I say we all have our share, while travelling through our life’s paths. None of us are immune to it, but then at the end we need to remind ourselves that "a luminous ray of hope awaits at the other end."

According to traditional narratives of assimilation, in the bargain made for an American identity, Jews freely surrendered Yiddish language and culture. Or did they? Recovering "Yiddishland" seeks to “return” readers to a threshold where Americanization also meant ambivalence and resistance. It reconstructs “Yiddishland” as a cultural space produced by Yiddish immigrant writers from the 1890s through the 1930s, largely within the sphere of New York. Rejecting conventional literary history, the book spotlights “threshold texts” in the unjustly forgotten literary project of these writers—texts that reveal unexpected and illuminating critiques of Americanization. Merle Lyn Bachman takes a fresh look at Abraham Cahan’s Yekl and Anzia Yezierska’s Hungry Hearts, tracing in them a re-inscription of the Yiddish world that various characters seem to be committed to leaving behind. She also translates for the first time Yiddish poems featuring African-Americans that reflect the writers’ confrontation with their passage, as Jews, into “white” identities. Finally, Bachman discusses the modernist poet Mikhl Likht, whose simultaneous embrace of American literature and resistance to assimilating into English marked him as the supreme “threshold” poet. Conscious of the risks of any postmodern—“post-assimilation”—attempt to recover the past, Bachman invents the figure of “the Yiddish student,” whose comments can reflect—and keep in check—the nostalgia and naivete of the returnee to Yiddish.

Life is a beautifully broken piece of art. Fractured pieces coming together to form our selves, our hearts, our souls, our world. A beautiful, fractured mosaic. One we build and shape day by day. In her poetry collection Amanda Leigh explores what she sees and has seen in humanity and in her life and self. Showing pieces of herself while at the same time taking on current and controversial issues. She bares pieces of her soul in every poem. Reveals pieces of herself and comments on current issues in her new collection, Beautiful Broken.