Posted in blog tour, bookreview

Girls Like Us

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GIRLS-LIKE-US-COVER
Girls Like Us

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

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synopsis

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.

review

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.
favQuot

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.

ratingne

⭐ ⭐ ⭐  .5

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author

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.*
Posted in bookreview

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

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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.
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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

Posted in My Words

~ A Little Reminder ~

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picture is taken from internet

And we often forget the spark of being self.
Be You-ng
Be-You-tiful

Our inner spark is what people see outside. No it’s not the face, it’s the glow on your face. The radiance pours out of you.
It’s only possible, when you are happy to be you.
It’s only possible, when you are content where you are.
It’s only possible, when you don’t see the flaws of people and only appreciate their uniqueness instead.

Let yourself live today like you have just started in the world.
Age doesn’t matter when you have your head and heart both into it.
Happiness is what will take you a long way, and Being You is what will make you happy forever.

This is just a reminder for you
To Be You ! 
To Be Happy ! 

Posted in bookreview

Saudade

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Book : Saudade
Author : Husna Mohammad
Pages : 149
Price : 250/-
Publication : The Write Place

I picked this book in crossword Mumbai, when I went to meet my booksta kid reader_Vidh .
And this was TOTALLY a Cover BUY at first. But then I read it’s blurb, and it was short stories. I knew it, this will be a great read. Because RECENTLY I love reading short stories compilation (yesh yesh, I have told this too many time)

Saudade : (n.) A deep emotional state of nostalgic longing.

And I clearly remember 2 of the stories gave me a nostalgic feel. Also other stories were written in old times I liked them too

The setting of all stories are in Kerala, and as Authoress herself is from same location. There was detailing for places, people. And I loved it.
The characters were special, short stories don’t have much time to grow their characters. But I LOVE when author in just few pages describe the aspects, the habit, and much more about the character and Husna has surely captured this very well in her stories.

Stories

Che Guevera’s Legacy
Is story of a 22-year-old boy Krishnan aka Kitu. Who believes in Che Guevera’s words and can do anything to bring justice to Che Guevera’s legacy of removing individualism.

The Calling
Is story of Mullah Masood, an Imam at mosque who got a higher calling for his life. I loved how the author has shown Aysha (Masood’s wife) thoughts of what happen to women behind the veil, how they feel and how they sometimes react that outside people can never think about

Beevitha
Is one of a kind supernatural/paranormal story of Beevitha (Beevi), how she found her child after 3 months with no memory of her.

The Commodore’s Daughter
story that touches your heart, how a daughter guards his fathers secret for her lifetime. Even though the thought of such can hurt someone badly, still she accepts it and keep with her and not letting anyone know about it.

The Inscrutable Case of a Lilac Saree
is another story with paranormal touch. The end left me in a state of fear, what alone people go under.

A Walk in the Rain
This one was one of my favorites, as this one had a poetic touch in it. The protagonist Naaz married to a man who kept her well, loved her, gave her everything a women wants yet she couldn’t love her back. Her heart belonged to something else, and then came a night and an old friend and the walk in the rain. Believe me this is not a love story.

The Dairy of an Insomniac
MY FAVORITE, as I could relate so much from this one. No not the heart-break, or anything. But a DAIRY, and an Insomniac well that’s me. Story of Ashiana who finally gets over insomnia after writing all her thoughts in dairy, and finds the beauty of life in the end.

The Empty Canvas
Story how an artist feel connected to a place, that when she is brought away from the place and lost people she loved. She goes into depression. And how once again, she finds the will to fill that Empty canvas with her thoughts. Another favorite.

My Name is Arif Mushtaq and I am Gay
This story is so gross in a way, and yet so touching in another way. A child, who doesn’t know about sexuality loses virginity to another 18 yrs old child/man. And then in future Arif marries a girl, just because she loved him too much. But will this unison be for long time ?

Writing

Each story takes you to different state of emotion, and some takes you under many emotions in one story. It’s commendable on author’s part that the roughness of characters are kept in it. Characters are flawed, and yet their stories will make you like them. The language is simple and no extra heavy words are put in to show off. As the stories are based on Kerala, the culture, places are well researched off.
The only thing that didn’t worked for me was Grammatical errors. The book need more editing.

Words that touched

That strange sense of being different stays with you. You long to be with people who are more like you. Similarities are what bonds humans than differences, Beevitha.

– that no matter how unconditional a love may seem between two people, there could still be instances in time when that love pales in significance before far more powerful forces of emotion, or perhaps temptation.

As children we see everything in hues of white, in harmonious balance. look deeper and there would be parallel narratives – A Pandora’s box just waiting to be opened.

So much has changed and yet everything remained the same.

Between the thin red line
Of words restrained and controlled
Where thoughts are veiled
And emotions guarded
Time lies witness to all that’s unsaid
Mired in the dichotomy of You

That a love as intense between two people who thought themselves to be unbreakable, could just vanish was simply another learning curve.

I guess that is what wounded souls do. They carefully annihilate the essence and self-worth of another, embedding seeds of their sinister darkness into them, so that with time, they create prototypes of themselves.

 

Final Note :

If you can ignore grammatical mistakes, like I did many-a-times. This book is perfect coffee-read on any evening and you should read if given a chance. Author Husna has tried so much to convey in these compilation of short stories.

 Rating: 4/5