Hodgepodge A Random Collection of Poems and Songs Like Nothin' You've Ever Read

 

Hodgepodge

A Random Collection of Poems and

Songs Like Nothin' You've Ever Read

By Jerry D. Jackson

What if a book refused to stay in one lane—and instead invited you to wander?

Hodgepodge: A Random Collection of Poems and Songs Like Nothin’ You’ve Ever Read isn’t built like a tidy poetry anthology; it feels more like opening a well-worn notebook found on a kitchen table, its pages filled over years of living. The world inside is stitched together from memory, humor, heartbreak, faith, satire, and sudden bursts of song. One page leans into playful rhythm and country wit; the next pivots toward raw reflection or spiritual reckoning. There’s no single road here—only a series of side paths, each carrying its own mood.

The atmosphere shifts constantly, and that’s the point. Some pieces carry the cadence of front-porch storytelling, where laughter drifts as easily as summer air. Others move inward, grappling with mortality, regret, grace, or the quiet persistence of belief. The tension isn’t plot-driven—it’s emotional. What happens when a mind refuses to filter itself? When sentimentality and sarcasm share the same page? When a song lyric becomes a confession?

There’s a distinctly Americana pulse running through the collection—echoes of old hymnals, country ballads, and small-town conversations—yet it also carries the unpredictability of spoken word. The poems don’t posture. They meander, they jab, they wink. At times they feel like campfire tunes; at others, like late-night thoughts scribbled in the margins of memory.

What makes this collection stand out is its embrace of imperfection. The title signals it plainly: this is a hodgepodge. But beneath the randomness lies a quiet question—can a life ever be summarized in one tone, one genre, one voice? The book suggests otherwise. It honors the messiness of being human: contradictory, nostalgic, faithful, funny, wounded, hopeful.

In a literary landscape that often demands cohesion and branding, this collection leans into variety as its truth. It doesn’t ask to be categorized; it asks to be experienced—piece by piece, mood by mood.

Sometimes the most honest portrait of a life isn’t a straight line, but a scatter of songs that somehow still belong together.

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Stuck In The Middle

As a child, you do not understand the word stuck, but as you grow, you understand the depth of this word. Stuck means being unable to move or progress due to being fixed in place. It might be because you glued something, taped it up, or cemented it in place. Or it could be that you're unable to remove yourself from a situation, thinking it would cause more trouble than it's worth. Something like a loveless relationship. But in the second instance, I would argue that you're only as stuck as you want to be, and almost anything can be unstuck if you're willing to accept the consequences. But in the case of the title of this book, it's at truly sticky situation. Don't stay stuck because society or parental guilt says that's the way it should be. Be strong enough to get yourself unstuck and know that in all things you are the most important one and you are always enough!

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Conversations with Paul

What happens when a woman who trusts science, logic and reason meets a man whose life was defined by faith? Find out when you read Conversations With Paul. Professor Elizabeth Carpenter is confident, disciplined and firmly grounded in what she can measure and explain. God, in her view, is a question that science should be able to answer, but then she meets Paul—not a metaphor, not a dream, but the Apostle Paul, sent across time for a promise she never expected. Conversations With Paul is a powerful, personal encounter between a modern skeptic and one of history’s most persuasive voices of faith. It’s not a sermon, it’s a dialogue; honest, challenging and quietly transformative. As Beth walks her own modern Damascus Road, she begins to see that faith doesn’t silence reason—it deepens it—and that the answers she finds might be much more than she ever asked for.

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on Amazon / Kindle 

Scions of Legacy - The Powers That Be (Book 1)

 

 

Scions of Legacy -

The Powers That Be (Book 1)

Scions of Legacy: The Powers That Be is the first book in a new series that continues the world established in the Rude Boy USA trilogy. This time, the focus shifts to Sophie and Sandra LeBlanc, the daughters of John LeBlanc, the patriarch whose rise defined the earlier saga. They were raised inside influence, discipline, and expectation. Now they must learn what it means to carry that legacy in a world that watches closely and forgets nothing of their parent's pasts. The novel centers on the sisters as they navigate proximity to power while a scandal threatens to fracture the family’s hard-earned reputation. The name LeBlanc once commanded respect. Now it draws scrutiny. As rumors spread and alliances shift, Sophie and Sandra are forced to confront not only public fallout but the private truths behind the life they inherited. All of the lore, history, and emotional groundwork that shape this story are rooted in the Rude Boy USA trilogy. The rise of Chimera, the transition into legitimacy, and the cost of building influence form the foundation of everything that unfolds here. The Powers That Be is about loyalty, inheritance, image, and what happens when the next generation must stand firm as the ground beneath them begins to shake.

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Scions of Legacy on Amazon 

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Scions of Legacy on Kobo/Rakuten

Life, Love, and the In-Between: A Geriatrician's Journey Through Aging and the Meaning of Life

 

Life, Love, and the In-Between:

A Geriatrician's Journey Through Aging and the Meaning of Life

Life, Love, and the In Between I have walked with people as they age, change, and live their lives, and I have been with them at the bedside when they are dying. What they taught me changed how I understand love, loss, and what it means to live well. As a geriatrician, Dr. Golnosh Sharafsaleh has spent years accompanying people across the full arc of life. She has witnessed how meaning evolves as certainty fades, how identity shifts with time, and how connection often deepens when life becomes more complex, not less. When her own life was altered in ways she could not have prepared for, the lessons she had absorbed over years of caring for others became deeply personal. The distance between doctor and human being disappeared, and the wisdom she had once observed was now lived. This book is not a chronicle of decline or a collection of medical stories. It is a reflection on how people continue to grow through aging, illness, love, and loss. It explores how relevance is redefined over time, how purpose changes shape, and how presence becomes more powerful than control. Life, Love, and the In Between is written for anyone who senses that the most important lessons in life are learned not in moments of certainty, but in the in-between moments where we are forced to slow down, listen more closely, and pay attention to what truly matters.

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on Amazon / Kindle 

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on Barnes & Noble

TOO AUTHENTIC: 25 Years of Not Fitting In

 

TOO AUTHENTIC: 25 Years of Not Fitting In

This memoir follows 25 years of dancing in spaces that wanted me smaller—and my refusal to shrink.

What's inside:

Chapter 1: Go-Go Dancing - Stories from village discos and city clubs where creativity was treated like rebellion. From the DJ who couldn't handle a woman who initiated, to the boss who wanted decoration instead of artistry, to discovering that "too sexual" really meant "too free."

Chapter 2: Belly Dance - Stories from the world of traditional belly dance, where innovation was viewed as vandalism. Teachers who needed obedience, schools that rejected fusion, and the realization that authentic expression threatens those who police tradition.

Chapter 3: Walked Away - Five turning points, including Slovenia's Got Talent (where the national TV audience humiliated me for having body hair), confronting a teacher who wanted devotion over sovereignty, and the moment I stopped trying to fit into spaces not designed for authentic people.

Plus: An epilogue about what I was doing till now, and the declaration I wrote in 2011 that predicted everything: "I Don't Wanna Fit In."

Each story is told with honesty, just what actually happened when I kept choosing authenticity over acceptance.

This book is for anyone who's been repeatedly rejected and has started to doubt themselves. Because after the third rejection, that voice in your head starts to whisper: "Maybe they're right. Maybe you are too much, not good enough. Maybe you should tone it down. Why can’t you just be normal? Your body should be hidden. Your sexuality is inappropriate." But you know what? Fuck that! Move on with me!

This is what sovereignty looks like in practice: seeing clearly, choosing yourself, and leaving spaces that demand you shrink.

Not perfect. Not healed. Just unapologetically authentic.

Click here to get

TOO AUTHENTIC: 25 Years of Not Fitting In

on Amazon / Kindle / Kindle Unlimited

 

72 Unique Logic Puzzles (Albcell.d Book 17)

 

72 Unique Logic Puzzles (Albcell.d Book 17)

by Gazmend Ceno

Experience the unique magic of Albcell – challenging, stimulating and fun! These 72 beautiful, hand-crafted puzzles will take you on a journey of discovery through history, nature, architecture and more! Starting at easy, they get progressively harder, so you can develop and improve your solving skills with no nasty surprises!

Why not give it a try?

Click here to get

72 Unique Logic Puzzles (Albcell.d Book 17)

on Barnes & Nobles

Also Visit the Website -  https://albcell.com

Check out Instagram as well - 

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