Rachael Goodman thought she had life pretty well figured out after she finished law school, took a job as a Navy lawyer and became a JAG lieutenant, junior grade. Now she's not so sure as she goes to her first duty station in the Philippines and learns the truth behind the recruiting pitch "It's not just a job, it's an adventure." While keeping the world safe for democracy, Rachel is finding out first hand that sailors and Marines have a well-deserved reputation. But while she's keeping the world safe, who's going to keep her safe? As one of the few single American women on a base with lots of sailors and Marines a very long way from home, she's getting lots of attention. And the new love of her life, a Navy SEAL named BB, is giving her a quick education in romance and military life. There's lots of adventure as Rachael navigates here way through courtrooms, barrooms and the world, finds out about the Navy, Navy SEALS, San Miguel beer, and gains perspective into affairs of the heart. Rachael has lots of growing up to do and lots of new experiences are in store. If only she can survive without becoming just another lawyer joke!

Matching a fine (and often funny) imagination to a sharp, plainspoken intelligence, the poems in How I Got Lost So Close to Home move through familiar landscapes: the busy intersections of streets and parks, the changing topographies of self and family, and the hard won territory of beauty in an imperfect world. With their remarkable clarity, Dryansky's poems make us feel as though we too are present in her landscapes, and not just looking at them. The gift of these poems is their exacting detail, their compassion without sentimentality, and their ability to draw us into what the poet ultimately calls "home," a fluid awareness of the self that must be returned to again and again.

Ever since they were Snotsippers, Jack and the girl have fought, until one day she steals his bike and as he and the Amigos try to recover it, Jack realizes that he is growing up and must eventually leave the "goodlands and badlands of Hokey Pokey."