This year, Mikie and I have been doing the 52 Book Challenge - one book a week for a year! We've been posting about the books we're reading together at
our joint blog, but I've also been reading some things on my own, and really wanted to share.
Most recently, I've been stuck in the American poetry genre. Modern American poetry.
I've never really read much poetry - I kind of hated being forced to read it for classes. The poetry we read was usually older, and I kind of hated being forced to read anything. (What little I've read in the years since high school, though, I tend to enjoy).
Modern American poetry, though, speaks. It has a voice and communicates with me directly.
The first I read was Amanda Lovelace's controversial
the princess saves herself in this one. I read it on Kindle (it's hard to get English books in Taiwan), and my first thought upon finishing it was that I
needed the physical copy of this book. The collection is separated into four parts: the princess, the damsel, the queen, and you. The first three serve to piece together the life of the author herself, while the final part is a note to
you, the reader.
It's an emotional read, and as the summary on goodreads says, it "explores life & all of its love, loss, grief, healing, empowerment, & inspirations".
A lot of reviews I've seen debate whether this can be called real poetry, or 'tumblr' poetry - scattering words across lines and insisting the whole is a poem. I can completely understand this criticism. There were lines that I found myself wondering what the point of the spacing was. Maybe when I go back to reread it, I'll spend more time focusing on that, and see what I come up with. Really, though, I think the spacing and formatting of each poem is to create a deeper depth in each word, to make you really think about what you're reading. If you're reading it as simply words across a page, or just looking for a story, you've missed the point. It's powerful stuff, and the emotions and words recalled are beautiful.
Even if you don't want to call it poetry, which is fine, you're more than welcome to call it what you chose, the thoughts and emotions poured out across the pages are beautiful.
The next book of poetry I read was
Counting Descent by Clint Smith. Once I started reading this book, I couldn't stop. It's raw and real, a coming of age story spread across 56 beautiful poems. They're haunting, and when you get to the end you feel like you need to take a deep breath and start again. I'm still digesting this book, so it's hard to put it into words, but it's the kind of poetry that we
should teach in classrooms, the kind that is relatable and real. I have yet to find anyone who didn't absolutely adore this book, and I would put this one close to the top of my "books to recommend" list.
Smith's use of humour interspersed among hard racial truths gives the book a hard, unsympathetic edge. It makes you laugh, breaks your heart, and also gives you the kind of experience that fills you up, feeds you, and satisfies.
Right now, I'm reading two books of poetry: Solo by Kwame Alexander, and milk and honey by Rupi Kaur.
Solo is a YA novel (another genre I
adore), and is written in poetic verse. It's another coming of age story, about a 17 year old boy, Blade, growing up in Hollywood, in the lap of luxury, who still isn't happy. His family is damaged and strange, and he resents his father for the life he leads, but doesn't see that he is just as self-entitled and self-absorbed as the man he resents. A family secret is revealed, and Blade embarks on a journey to discover who he is.
Blade and his family are all musicians, and the novel is essentially a soundtrack to his experiences. It's written in lyrics and text messages, and though he lives a life so incredibly priveleged and above average (even his sister calls him out on his 'first world problems'), he is still a relatable and understandable character. I'm almost finished the book, so I don't know how it will end yet, but so far, this book has been an intriguing and enjoyable read.
milk and honey is a book about survival - it discusses trauma and rape and mental illness and disability, and does a beautiful job. I wanted to love this book, but I have to admit it's not my favourite. There are poems and lines in it that I
do adore, but as a whole, it's not as striking as I found
Counting Descent, and I find that many of the poems I just move on through quickly, without too much focus on them. That isn't to say that
milk and honey isn't a beautiful collection - because it IS. It's moving and well thought out, and intersperses images with the text that are just as stunning - and I mean that in the sense that they make you stop, for a moment, to really think about the emotions.
Again, I haven't finished this one yet - though I'll probably have it done later today - so I can't comment on the collection as a whole, but these are my initial impressions.
~Cat
The second amigurumi was by DIY Fluffies, and was called Billie the Pig. Billie was a beach-bum, who enjoys swimming and relaxing by the water (sounds perfect to me!). I made a purple piggie, and he got to hang out with Bentley.
This month, we're doing a pattern called Babies in Pajamas, by airali design. I haven't quite finished mine yet, but she's almost done!
