Girls Like Us

Girls Like Us

by Elizabeth Hazen
Publisher: Alan Squire Press
Release Date:  March 2020

 

Girls Like Us is packed with fierce, eloquent, and deeply intelligent poetry focused on female identity and the contradictory personas women are expected to embody. The women in these poems sometimes fear and sometimes knowingly provoke the male gaze. At times, they try to reconcile themselves to the violence that such attentions may bring; at others, they actively defy it. Hazen’s insights into the conflict between desire and wholeness, between self and self-destruction, are harrowing and wise. The predicaments confronted in Girls Like Us are age-old and universal—but in our current era, Hazen’s work has a particular weight, power, and value.

I love reading poetry, and mostly I instantly feel them connected to me. But with Girls Like Us, it started slow I was confused at the beginning. But as I kept reading, & the poem’s came across as a rebel, and what WE (girls) go through most of our life. Called by names, Eyes those see us, Feeling we go through, Fears our mind has and Thoughts that keep us awake at nights.

I liked how different were each poem’s crafted, with different ideas portraying issues Girls/Women have. The book cover is exactly what the book talks about.

I like poems those rhyme, and this one has only one such poem. But still I quiet liked this whole book, and I would recommend whoever reads it, please read it like a “Spoken Poetry” because that way you will connect more to the poems and words. I realized this a bit later in 3-4th poem and after that, each poem spoke to me.

I would recommend these to everyone, who likes reading meaningful poetry that don’t naturally rhyme.

Moving Day

My mind’s
an emptied drawer, its clutter filed away.

Photograph

He left no trace
but an edge of shadow, the picture’s only flaw.

Driving Home at Dawn

Even now,
my fingertips tingle,
your name like a host
on my tongue.

Electricity

I lie until his
breath deepens and the ticking
clock becomes a heartbeat.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐  .5

Elizabeth Hazen is a poet, essayist, and teacher. A Maryland native, she came of age in a suburb of Washington, D.C. in the pre-internet, grunge-tinted 1990s, when women were riding the third wave of feminism and fighting the accompanying backlash. She began writing poems when she was in middle school, after a kind-hearted librarian handed her Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s A Coney Island of the Mind. She has been reading and writing poems ever since.

Hazen’s work explores issues of addiction, mental health, and sexual trauma, as well as the restorative power of love and forgiveness. Her poems have appeared in Best American Poetry, American Literary Review, Shenandoah, Southwest Review, The Threepenny Review, The Normal School, and other journals. Alan Squire Publishing released her first book, Chaos Theories, in 2016. Girls Like Us is her second collection. She lives in Baltimore with her family.

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*I received an advance readers eBook copy of Girls Like Us, as part of Poetic Blog Tour in return of an honest review. 
The views are my own. All quotes in this review are taken from the Advanced Reader Copy and may change in 
final publication.*

Fierce Fairytales

Book : Fierce Fairytales
Author : Nikita Gill
Pages : 176
Type: Ebook

My Thoughts

The book is collection of poems which used fairytale characters and stories as background, which touches topic like abuse, heartbreak…. The book is only 176pages long, but it took me too long to complete it as I wasn’t feeling the vibe of book. The stories felt flat many-a-times, and there wasn’t much character development which is very necessary to get the feel of it.

The illustrations were lovely, which was break in between story or sometimes at the end of story. They showed the fairytale, in context of what author wrote.
I liked very few of them, which includes Red Ridding Hood, and Hatter.

I like modern poetry, and thought it would be more like what I have read on the author’s Instagram page. But alas, I couldn’t feel more than half of the book.

Overall: 2.5/5☆

*-*-*-*-*-*-*Book Challenges*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Read this book, as part of
>> Pop Sugar Challenge Prompt 12 : A book inspired by myth/legend/folklore
>> #bnbreadathon May – June : Prompt 3

Sea Prayer

Book : Sea Prayer
Author : Khaled Hosseini
Pages : 48
Type: Ebook (Illustrated)

My Thoughts

I LOVE LOVE LOVE what author wrote, his writing is as lyrical as it can get.
Sea Prayer is the shortest book by author, with awww-stucking amazing illustrations, which gawked me from the e pages only. (Swipe left to see one of the illustrations 😻)
.
Story of how a father console’s his son Marwan that he will be okay, and everything will be okay once Marwan crosses the sea. The story is a prayer of a father to the sea, to carry his son to the other side, to the safe side.
.
After hearing too much about how short the book is and how overpriced it was, so I went for an e-read instead of physical one.
.
Though I miss seeing the physical copy of paintings, but I are more amazing then the version.
.
Even though I know the book is overpriced for what we get in respect of “no of pages”, the thought and Khaled’s words is what I gripped on.
The earning from the book is good for refugee organization ♥

Overall: 4/5

*-*-*-*-*-*-*Book Challenges*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Read this book, as part of
>> #bnbreadathon Feb-Mar : Prompt 3

Happy Fat : Taking up Space in a World That Wants to Shrink You

Book : Happy Fat
Author : Sofie Hagen
Pages : 336

Love Yourself, even if you are BIG FAT or VERY THIN.

My Thoughts

I am fat, and believe it or not I have been ALWAYS happy with my body. Even though I have heard too many of “You got to lose weight, check what you eat, it’s because you eat too much junk, being fat makes you prone to disease and early death”.
And I still haven’t done and nor will do anything for getting this weight, sheds, it can go like it came. I have been chubby since childhood and I am fine with it.

So I knew, I am gonna like this book so very much, which talks about How you can be Happy & Fat together.

Though the book has some very, very sad moments from Sofie’s life, and I can’t imagine myself in her shoes. Sofie has been brave enough to accept her body, and do so much publicly which she was afraid of. Hats off to her.  * I got teary on so many moment’s author shared of her life..*

I would love to recommend this book to people who are non-fat, because it will give them a perspective of how fat people go about through a day. And how you sometimes be just a jerk and say “mind your calories”. WE DON’T WANT YOU TO TELL US WHAT TO EAT !

There are so many lines that will surely struck the chord in your heart.
like

Part of me loathed the boys & girls who liked me, because surely they were either lying or horrible people themselves.

God, imagine if – and this goes for not just all people during your teenage years but essentially for all people in the world – imagine if people were just nice to each other.

Trying to shame people into being healthy is like trying to get someone to smell less of piss by pissing on them

Empathy should not be the hardest thing for people. But identifying which situations call for your empathy is different and a lot harder.

Another thing I liked about this part memoir by Sofie is how she brought other voices who are mostly ignored in form of Interviews. The perspective from LGBT+, & Color community is what makes this book a well researched and well thought book.

The author has checked on researches and came up with analyzed data on how BEING FAT doesn’t always mean we are more unhealthy than the thin ones.
A shared experience with doctors, how she and some other have faced the dilemma of not properly getting checked because the only visible reason was they “being fat”

Do we actually want for fat people to be healthy or do we want them to be ashamed?

Sofie also talks about the trolls, and I hate trolls, and meme makers (who laugh on risking others)
Sofie quoted “these trolls are sad people” , and I totally wish that to be true. Because you can’t make someone feel less and be happy about it. You have to have something less in your life to make others feel this way.

Final Note :

I liked it, though there are parts which can trigger people who are facing fat-phobia and for some it may feel repetitive. But believe me, it’s 24×7 what we generally go through so bear it and go through 320 pages.
You are not going to see the Comedian Sofie you know via social media, this is a Sofie that has gone thru this much to become “Comedian Sofie Hagen”.

Cover: 5/5
Title: 4/5
Blurb: 4/5
Theme: 5/5
Overall: 4.5/5

*-*-*-*-*-*-*Book Challenges*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Read this book, as part of
>> Pop Sugar Challenge Prompt 25 : A debut novel
>> Reading Women Challenge 2019 Prompt 21 : Book bought/borrowed in 2019
>> Write Tribe Reading Challenge Prompt 20 : A book which is a 2019 release
>> bnbreadathon May-June Prompt 1

The Art of Racing in the Rain

Book : The Art of Racing in the Rain
Author : Garth Stein
Pages : 338

 

A dog you will fall in love with, a dog more human than human now-a-days.

Story

The story is about a dog named Enzo, and his feelings of being happy, sad, jealous, protective and every a human can feel.
Enzo was adopted by Denny from a barn when he was still a pup only. Denny, the race driver talked to Enzo all about race and race cars, and how to drive in the race. They used to watch race video’s together and everything until, Denny fell in love with Eve.

Will there be difference in relationship between Enzo and Denny ?
What’s special about Racing in the rain?

Writing

This is my first Book, that is from a dog POV, and I loved it mostly due to the audio book I choose in between ebook reading. The audio book was by Christopher Evan Welch, and I loved how the speaker had done voice modulation for Enzo, Denny, Eve or even little Zoe.

Let’s start with what I loved, I loved that Enzo could feel as many human emotions as possible. He wasn’t able to tell them, but in a way he did use his barks for that.
Enzo’s love for Denny was unconditional, and his jealously came in parts when Denny found Eve

“We were both satellites orbiting Denny’s sun, struggling for gravitational supremacy”

Dog’s are amazing creature, most loved one, and one who can really be a best friend. But Enzo’s obsession of “being incarnated as a man”, did set me off sometimes. At time I wanted to hug Enzo and tell him, HUMAN’s aren’t worth you Enzo. They are just not. Be a dog instead, please….

I somehow loved Denny, he is a perfect gentleman, love his dog, loves his wife, manages time between family and his job. The only thing that I didn’t like in the character was how one dimensional he was shown like Even in the desperate needs of breaking, he doesn’t break and be positive.

The story looked like a checklist of lots of cliche’s, a good dog, someone having fatal disease, controlling in laws and more cliches. And it looked so predictable at those times.

There were times, when I felt the “racing” was put just in to defend the title. But that one scene of “faster, faster” was incredibly well written. (you need to read the book to know what I mean)

Words that touched

People and their rituals. They cling to things so hard sometimes.

I admire the female sex. The life makers. It must be amazing to have a body that can carry an entire creature inside.

She was my rain. She was my unpredictable element. She was my fear.

I wanted to judge the world around me, not merely be a supportive friend

The human language, as precise as it is with its thousands of words, can still be so wonderfully vague

Final Note :

If you love dogs, and want to love them MORE. Read it, better if you listen it because narration by Christopher really helped me in finishing this book with a human touch.

Cover: 4/5(new motion picture cover)
Title: 2.5/5
Blurb: 3/5
Theme: 5/5
Story: 4.5/5
Characters: 5/5 (only for Enzo)
Overall: 4/5

*-*-*-*-*-*-*Book Challenges*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Read this book, as part of
>> Pop Sugar Challenge Prompt 1 : A book becoming a movie in 2019
>> Underrated Reads Book Club : BOTM Jul-Aug
>> Write Tribe Reading Challenge Prompt 12 : A book with an animal in the title/cover

The Broken Amoretti

Book : The Broken Amoretti
Author : Sudipto Das Aparajita Dutta
Pages : 296
Price : 380/-

In love nothing is right or wrong

Story

The novel is divided into two parts, WITH and WITHOUT. Both in reference to ? (you need to read it to know that 😉 )

WITH start’s with Parush, one of the protagnist (yes, ‘one of the’ because there are MANY) opens a diary. A Diary he hasn’t seen since long, a dairy that has a secret, world doesn’t know , a dairy that will unravel what LOVE is all about, a dairy that belongs to Parush’s ex love Bitasta’s mother, Panchali.

Saoli leaving her husband comes to India, to teach poetry at IIT KGP and is very much interested in subject related to Queer Theory. She meets Parushni who is also submitting her paper same day on Lesbianism.

How Saoli, get’s to know Parush and under what conditions?

Writing

This is my second read by author Sudipto Das, and I quite liked his The Aryabhatta Clan (the book had cryptic messages and a whole lot of thrill to decipher it).
The Blurb of The Broken Amoretti, gave me the same vibes, there will be a cryptic message and story will unravel it. However, I was disappointed in that a bit. I can’t review the story as whole, so I will divide it in two parts.

The Relevant :
I loved how the author started the setting up of characters, and their known/unknown love for a place called ‘prembajar’. There were references to great poets, and their poetries. The poetries were explained, giving the background of meter and everything. Which was new to me, and I liked it. This simply showed the research author did for getting these parts in the novel.

I loved how the author tried to fictionalize WHO was Panchali or stories about characters from Greek Mythology Artemis, Callisto and some more..

The story’s main aim was writing about how love has no boundaries and no gender, in a way that it was convincing. This was mainly done giving background’s of mythologies and many poetries.
But when I think back after completing it, it was just brushed up on the story. Later the story becomes something else, which makes me sad.

I loved the cover, it does have a deep meaning once you complete reading it.
The Random :
There were so many characters, each girl falling in love with Parush at some point. Why THOUGH? This was too cliche for me, and I didn’t like it. The love scene’s were written very shabby.

The story unraveled very soon, and felt like being dragged over many pages. The novel started with a mystery poem, went to the Love story of Parush and Batista, and then went straight out of context to gaming and the politics and what not. I felt trapped, and it was hard to follow why this was happening. And strangest of all, why did all the characters just end up at one place 😐 (too cliche again)

Final Note :

If the novel had been divided into three part’s instead of capturing too many good idea’s into one. I would have loved it, but the main motive of the novel felt lost in the first half the book. And came back in the last few pages back.

You can surely enjoy the book, if you are okay with subplots, and some cliches.
Poetry lovers will enjoy the first half of the book, because it is really well written. Gaming and technology enthusiast will love the second half of the book, because the story separately is very well written.

Cover: 4/5
Title: 3/5
Blurb: 2/5
Theme: 3/5
Story: 2/5
Characters: 1.5/5
Overall: 2.5/5

*-*-*-*-*-*-*Book Challenges*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Read this book, as part of
>> #bnbreadathon – Jul-Aug

Every Ugly Word

Book : Every Ugly Word
Author : Aimee Salter
Pages : 322
ePrice : 291/- (and free on Kindle unlimited)

Trigger warning, the book deals with Bullying and some of the scenes can be very descriptive.

Story

The story revolves around Ashley, a seventeen year old girl who gets bullied every single day at school and even has issues with her Mom. But there is someone, she can talk to, someone who really understands what Ashley is going thru. This is none other than someone called an “older-me” to Ashley’s Me.

Ashley doesn’t have lots of friends, it’s just Matt at the moment and she wants it to be more than friendship with her. Mat has a soft spot for Ash, but ‘as a friend’.

The story starts in with Ashley talking to a parapsychologist in a special facility about the events in her life, that turned and twisted and brought her to this chair.

What do you think, would have brought her here?
Will Mat & Ashley ever be more than friends?

Writing

First book by the author, and WHAT a writing.
It was so much descriptive at certain points, even for me (that hasn’t seen much of violent bullying in real life).
Loved the concept of the book, as we always talk about “What would you suggest to your younger self”. The book actually conceptualized the thing and did it wonderfully.

Though there will be points, you will be frustrated by certain characters, like Ashley’s mom. Isn’t Mom there to protect their children? But in this case, Ash’s mother was one of the bullies herself. I somehow couldn’t wrap my head around this, as I have always felt mother’s are the givers and care takers. But this one really messed my mind.
Then there is Mat, also known as the ONLY friend Ashley had. and yet he couldn’t see her friend was troubled ? A real friend is to care for you when you are messy. not increase the mess more. Forcing Ashley to go to places, where she knew her bullies will be. Not cool bro!

And then there is the main character, Ashley. Even though I felt sympathy for her at points, but I also thought her stupid for doing certain things. Just because your “loved ones” want you to do things, and you know the repercussions will be hard. You still do it. WHY!? 😐
I hated her at some part, and then there were some parts I could have hugged her and said ‘it’s gonna be all okay. it’s gonna be all okay’.

All in all I kinda more than liked the book. Author Aimee said, she had written this on her experience of being bullied in her school. And I can’t even imagine if she went through this much or less or a lot more.

The ending may put you on an edge of believing it happened in reality, or what is all a Magical realms kind.
I thought and gave myself a magical realms feeling end. That keeps the book still alive in me.

<Also make sure you read the Author Interview Kajree did on her blog. Link below
In conversation with Aimee L. Salter – author of Every Ugly Word >

Words that touched

People you love should always be more important than people who judge you.

I believe that human beings have a tendency to live up to expectations: what we expect of ourselves, what we believe others expect of us….
..
You make choices based on how you perceive others expect you to behave.You perhaps subconsciously- draw their attention to your flaws.

My gaps only became inevitable when I stopped believing they could be filled.

Final Note :

If you can want to break your heart, and stable it in the end. This one is for you. The book can be triggering for people who went through such experiences. So beware.

Cover: 5/5
Title: 4/5
Blurb: 4/5
Theme: 5/5
Story: 4.5/5
Characters: 3.5/5
Overall: 4.3/5

*-*-*-*-*-*-*Book Challenges*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Read this book, as part of
>> #popSugarChallenge Prompt 4 : A book you think should be turned into a movie
>> Underrated Reads Book Club : 2019 May Read
>> #readingwomenchallenge Prompt 2 : Woman w/a mental illness

 

The Soft Target

*image will be posted later*

Book : The Soft Target
Author : Kalyan Nanda
Pages : 202
Price : 249/-
Publication : Notion Press

Journey of Mohan, from boyhood to manhood.

Story

The story revolves around a boy named Mohan, he has a unique mental illness whose cure isn’t known to his parents yet. No one understands him, his teachers and fellow students come as bullies to him. Yet Mohan smiles to each one, says something and go away.
And after years of wait, they are ready to take Mohan to a specialist in Chennai, which will change him for sure.
But what will change to know that, you need to read the book.

It’s Mahashivratri, and Mohan’s mother had a dream about Shivji, to let her know to come to him and pray for Mohan’s success for his engineering exams.
Will the fate of Mahashivratri reap a good result for the family ?

Moving from his hometown to join an engineering college will change his life for forever.
Make sure you read Mohan’s life as a roller coaster thriller and heartfelt story is unrolled in front of you.

Writing

A debut book by author Kalyan Nanda, and what an effort. The book plot, and Mohan’s unique disability surely raise our interest more to the book.
The writing was easy to understand and there are many references used to connect with reader’s by talking about Dhoni finishing shot and Sachin’s slong shot (mostly in the first half of the book)
There were details even for the “things” in story to make them real life. for example, the explanation of the cooker in the first 10 around pages, that was made sure that it looked like a perfect cooker in respective of middle class families.then up again in the next 10 pages, about how a middle class man “gets ready”. Which I felt was a little too much may be, sometime in life most of us has come in from a Middle class family, and reading such things made me think it is used as a mockery instead of showing how one Middle class family lives.

This will be my first book,where author himself has a talk in his own book. He talks to readers about a certain situation(Dear Readers…).
I almost had feeling like “Main Samay hun”(remember ? A man aura used to come in Mahabharat’s TV)

The friendship between Mohan, Nikhil, Brij & later Revathy was amazing to read about.
The main characters were BIG time “flawed”, and I loved them because they felt real.
Mohan – A boy with unique mental illness, and exceptional IQ who solved “the” maze
Nikhil – Wealthy boy having everything yet nothing because he stammers
Brij – The comedy kid of the book, a fan of Salman khan(from Tere Naam)
Samidha – <won’t tell you what her relation is> But she is one of my favorite characters, because she said my most favorite line of the book “I want to be your Café Madras”

I love when Books, talks about other books and authors, and I haven’t read ‘PG Wodehouse’ yet, but this book surely has increased my interest in him.

I wish the cover was something else, as it doesn’t justify the content and deepness of the plot of book.

Also if you read it, would love to know your theory of who the actual Soft target is 😉 as the book end with that question too!

Final Note:

If you want to read a book that is different from cliché stories, grab this one up.

Cover: 1/5(really wish it was something much more)
Title: 4/5
Blurb: 3.5/5 (as it reveals too much)
Theme: 5/5
Story: 4/5
Characters: 5/5
Overall: 3.7/5

*This book review is a part of The ReadersComsos Book Review Program and Blog Tours*

Jallianwala Bagh: Literary Responses in Prose & Poetry

Book : Jallianwala Bagh: Literary Responses in Prose & Poetry
Author : Rakhshanda Jalil
Pages : 227 pages
Edition : Hardcover
Price : 386/-

Even though History wasn’t anywhere near my favorite subjects in School, one event that had always haunted me since childhood was/is Jallianwala Bagh Massacre.
We all must have read about it in our history classes, but I never knew the backstory of Marcella Sherwood, or the crawl on your bellies Acts. We all knew, a madman named General Dyer gave his men orders to shoot on people who had assembled without any weapon to talk about THEIR NATION.

It’s 100 YEARS TODAY!

About Book

This book is divided into two part’s first talks about all those amazing fictional work written around the Event. You can read translated work of Saadat Hasan Manto, Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, Mulk Raj Anand and many more.
Each story, giving us different details of what happened on that evening.
I loved reading (snippet of) Massacre at Jallianwala Bagh by Stanley Wolpert, which talks about the committee of inquiry that was set on General Dyer for the Massacre. Though the final verdict didn’t make this book, but I surely now want to read the original.

Second part consists of those amazing weapon words in form of Poetry. As the massacre took place in Amritsar, there are many translated poems from Punjabi and some from Urdu.
Though I feel, some of them had left the essence of being a poem in translation but the core feeling still remains, the pain still remains.

Final Note:

Recommended to each one, to know the history of this day when a massacre ripped opened Mother earth on Baishaki (marks the beginning of the harvest season and birth of the Khalsa). The book actually opened my eyes on too many blinded spots I had as a child (e.g. the Marcella Sherwood, the crawl on your bellies Acts)

Any historical book is so difficult to rate, and this is no different.

Overall: 4.6/5★ (not 5 because poetry did let me down a bit)

I would like to thank Niyogi books, to send me a review copy in return of an honest review.

 

Sheets

Book : Sheets
Author : Brenna Thummler
Pages : 240
Publication : Caracal

I LOVED this !! said to be a children’s book, but it has learning for adults too.. Graphic novels are such a relief when we are bored with big intense reads.
This one worked such a stress buster, the look of it shows it as a funny, humorous novel, but in fact the book takes up serious topic and leanings too.

The story is based around Marjorie Glatt, a 13-year-old girl, which runs laundry for feeding her family every night. But the cleaning isn’t easy, with her customers returning to her with issues for clothes. And Mr. Saubertuck, a businessman, who wants to buy the place and open a huge hotel/spa. He tries to ruin Glatt’s image in front of her customers. Until Glatt, comes face to face with Wendell, a Ghost. Wendell doesn’t seem to fit in with other Ghosts and their rules and hence he somehow turns up in Glatt’s laundry.

Is Wendell a good ghost or bad one?
Will Marjorie be able to save her laundry from Saubertuck?

The illustrations are so colorful, and detailed. I specifically liked those illustrations where pink flowers cover the pages, across. These were beautiful.

The story had good pace. But characters, could have been given more depth (apart from Marjourie). There is happiness, that ends asap the moment end. And sadness takes the major chunk of the book.

Marjourie, is shown such a strong girl. Who is determined to overcome the challenges life threw at her. She multitasks her studies and work, and try to balance between them. She is shown frustrated, sad and trying to cope with everything. I would have loved to see more of Wendell and his past. May be Sheets 2 ?

Thanks NetGalley, and publishers/authors for an e-arc in return of an honest review.