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Lifting Stones with Doug Stanfield

Guest Post by Mandi Greenwood.

Doug Stanfield’s poetry is an unfurling of wings and a fanning out in every heartfelt direction, reaching all of life’s heights and depths. There is humility and there is enormous bravery. Within the pages of Lifting Stones there is no finite limit to Stanfield’s poetic skill, nor to his quality.

He owns the journey that is Lifting Stones. He owns it with “bare courage and risk”—his words—and to read this book is to step from one stone to the next in the sometimes calm, oftentimes tumultuous river that he has forged between its covers.

Upon one stone I behold the relatively fresh wound of “Love in the Time of Corona.” Atop another stone I discover the fierce elation of “Borrowed Dust.” I skip to yet another smooth muse of stone and I find “As It Was.” I pause at times, to wipe away the tears, but always I progress to the next verse with intrigue and joy.

It’s difficult to do justice to the raw tenderness of Lifting Stones without falling into cliché. Suffice to say it is a singular collection of clarity, warmth, grief, humor, agony, mortality, recollection, despair, and rebirth. It is an expedition, not a journey’s end. It is a unique work of life via poetry, a kaleidoscopic gallery of this poet’s genuine experience laid bare.

Stanfield writes with a dignity. He writes with a frank self-respect that is, to borrow his exquisite words, “eternally becoming.”

Lifting Stones by Doug Stanfield. Rootstock Publishing, June 2021.

Reviewer bio: Mandi Greenwood is the author of Six Steps Down, Caught Inside, and The Silver Renoir.

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Finland Is Full Of Saunas, Berries, Lakes, and Interesting People

Guest Post by Susan Kay Anderson.

Enticing though it may be to dream of cold landscapes when summer days get a bit too warm (already) it does not exactly seem wonderful to imagine taking a sauna during the pandemic and sweating out life even more, getting exhausted even more. That’s not the point of the sauna, as Cheryl J. Fish seems to report in her book of poems/memoir/travel journal.  The sauna is the sacred space for contemplation and just plain bathing and, well, for everything under the sun in order to be close to the sun in the darkness.

Cheryl J. Fish’s The Sauna Is Full Of Maids is an adventure to Finland told with poems, photographs, and lines from the Kalevala, Finland’s origin story/epic/saga.

It is great to look through this book and daydream about journeys and berries and boggy lakes. These are prose poems and travelogues in poem form, told with the sparse flavor of the North. I am really attracted to the ancient lifeways in this book:

“His journey paralleled birds and reindeer. Spread his culture, migrating.”
from “Another Round Of Heat”

“In the Kalevala, birds lay eggs in a barren water-mother’s knee. The bottom half of a smashed egg becomes earth.”
from “Unreliable Snowpack”

It isn’t all ancient lore here. There are meetings with fellow artists and travelers, foragers, dreamers, and recent immigrants to Finland. It is amazing to realize (yet again) that we live on a tiny planet and its inhabitants have been following the flow of the elements forever and that during our lives we get glimpses of what is important, what helps us to be alive. Those things could include the sauna, the icy cold water, vasta birch sprigs, and the steam.

The Sauna Is Full Of Maids by Cheryl J. Fish. Shanti Arts Publishing, June 2021.

Reviewer bio: Susan Kay Anderson lives in Oregon’s Umpqua Basin, author of, Please Plant This Book Coast To Coast, available from Finishing Line Press.

‘Bless the Birds’

Guest Post by Linda C. Wisniewski.

Silver crescent
April moon glimmers anew
clear as your eyes
—Bless the Birds

During this pandemic year, I’ve been reading stories of people living through hard times, successfully or not.  I am less judgmental these days of how people handled things: My mother during the Depression. My father fighting in the Pacific during WWII. A friend with terminal cancer. Maybe it’s a gift of age, but I crave witnessing the journey over advice for a good life.

In her memoir of grief, author Susan J. Tweit writes eloquently of the two years preceding her husband’s death from brain cancer. She ends each chapter with a haiku about a day from that time. Not at all depressing, the book is the story of their attempt to make the best of each day together, sometimes failing but always holding onto love.

Tweit, a plant biologist, and her husband, Richard Cabe, an economist turned sculptor, are settled into a happy marriage and fulfilling work when one day on a road trip, he sees thousands of birds that are not real. The vision was actually a gift, leading to a quick diagnosis and treatment that probably gave them more time together, time they spent intentionally.

They talked about their love, their marriage, their families and their work. They hoped for a cure. They took a long road trip through the American West, enjoying their natural surroundings—the plants, animals, and yes, birds in each stopping place. It was the kind of road trip where you allow yourselves to take time, to stop when you see something interesting, knowing the destination will still be there at the end.

When the end finally comes, you feel you’ve gotten all you can from the trip.

We can’t escape the scary parts of life, though we surely try. This memoir reminded me that facing them head on, with honesty, acceptance, and love makes meaning of even the worst of circumstances.

Bless the Birds: Living with Love in a Time of Dying by Susan J. Tweit. She Writes Press, 2021.

Reviewer bio: Linda C. Wisniewski is a writer, reader, quilter, knitter and happy trail walker in Bucks County, PA, where she guides people writing memoirs. Find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Shattered Triangle: Impending Fate

Guest Post by Manasi Patil.

Impending Fate is the third book in the series, Shattered Triangle. This novel is told through the point of view of Giovanni Lozano, and progresses with the plots of the other protagonists of the series: Lt. Tom Moran, Giuseppe Lozano, and Giovanni himself.

Three determined people, one genius murderer, and an ‘impending fate.’ After the identity of the murderer of Giuseppe Lozano’s family is revealed in A Consequential Murder, and the story is followed in Beleaguered Truth, I was beyond obsessed with the Shattered Triangle series. William P. Messenger is my new favorite author, and I’m so glad to have had this opportunity of reading the trilogy.

Giuseppe’s relationship with Jackson progresses and it’s a cruel twist when the former first kills Jackson’s partner in order to be with him, and then kills Jackson himself, when he sees him as a potential threat. Giovanni is ready to break the sacrament in order to save the country and do the right thing. He may get banished from his church for doing so, but after three years, he is prepared for the consequences.

Impending Fate is a riveting combination of religion, politics, and mystery. The story of ‘Shattered Triangle’ progresses further and also ends, unfortunately, in this edition. After reading the series, the question is: will the broken shards of the shattered triangle survive?

Impending Fate by William P. Messenger. Black Rose Writing, December 2017.

Reviewer bio: Manasi Patil is a young author with a passion for writing.

Shattered Triangle Trilogy: Book Two

Guest Post by Manasi Patil.

Beleaguered Truth is the second book in the series Shattered Triangle. In this second installment, the identity of the killer is known, and they are present right in the front seat, but there is no way to capture them.

Lt. Tom Moran knows the identity of the murderer of Giuseppe Lozano’s family. But there’s no evidence through which he can prove it. And he’s frustrated. Fr. Giovanni Lozano also shares the fate of Tom when the murderer successfully silences him by confessing his sins in a sacred confession in the church. Giuseppe Lozano, in order to fulfill his ambitions, stops at no extent. For him, everything is expendable. Even his family. And the fact that he orders his family to be killed proves him to be an ambitious, but ruthless and cruel person.

After the identity of the murderer of Giuseppe Lozano’s family is revealed in Shattered Triangle: A Consequential Murder, the story left me speechless. It was so unexpected, and yet seemed so real. Beleaguered Truth adds more to the story with Giuseppe’s point of view and how he feels about the consequences he created. William Messenger has done very well in writing out this book, especially in capturing a new point of view. It certainly makes the story more intriguing, as I felt a need to know how Giuseppe feels after murdering his own wife and three children.

Beleaguered Truth is a great political thriller and very captivating, to say the least. The book deals with the impact of the truth on Tom and Giovanni and delves deep into the story that is Shattered Triangle.

The triangle is being shattered. This book questions: will it be broken into pieces, or is it possible to mend them together and reconstruct the once beautiful triangle?

Beleaguered Truth by William P. Messenger. Black Rose Writing, August 2015.

Reviewer bio: Manasi Patil is a young author with a passion for writing.

Elemental Witness

Guest Post by Michael Hettich.

Perhaps the most striking characteristic of Blood Aria, given its poems’ formal dexterity, nuanced tonal shifts, and emotional depths, is that it is Christopher Nelson’s first full-length book of poetry. In its range of subject matter and at times harrowing emotional risk, as well as in the sheer dexterity of its strategies and tones, Blood Aria is a deeply powerful and necessary book, one of the richest first books of poetry I have read in years. This is work that reminds us of the depths of insight and feeling that are unsayable except in the most dexterous, courageous, emotionally capacious poetry; it reminds us as well of an essential human need that finds expression only in the best poetry’s capacity to speak through the blood and guts of being, balanced against the scintillating engagements of the formally-adept mind. Continue reading “Elemental Witness”

Shattered Triangle Trilogy

Guest Post by Manasi Patil.

A Consequential Murder is the first book in the series, “Shattered Triangle” by William Messenger. This is an uncommon and unique book with complex characters and plots.

The blurb of Shattered Triangle: A Consequential Murder was enough to hook me right in the book. I was certainly expecting a lot from this read, and am glad to say that I had a fulfilling time, and the end left me speechless. It was very unexpected and made me want to read the whole book again just to understand how and why the plot twisted in such a manner. Continue reading “Shattered Triangle Trilogy”

Antsy Anticipation in ‘Leave the World Behind’

Guest Post by Julia Wilson.

The sense of dread the reader experiences starts with the first sentence of Rumaan Alam’s Leave the World Behind.

“Well, the sun was shining. They felt that boded well . . . ” In fact, it does not.

Alam uses a few methods to keep the reader on edge. He intersperses somewhat alarming but sketchy details haphazardly, and doesn’t always return to explain. For instance, the narrator tells the reader one of the characters always has his epi-pen within reach, then moves on, leaving the reader to wonder: Why is it mentioned? How will it fit into the story? This keeps the reader filled with antsy anticipation.

Then there are the layers of possible menace facing the characters. The first is suspicion based on race. But are there larger threats facing them all as a group? Should they unite and put aside their differences? Alam reveals these details throughout the novel in a slow, tantalizing thread.

And finally, and most impactfully, there is Alam’s use of the omniscient narrator. In this novel, the narrator is used as a technique to impart to the reader information that none of the characters know. For instance, the narrator tells us a tick has burrowed into a boy’s skin, unbeknownst to him or anyone else. Later, when he falls ill, the reader is sure they know what has made the boy sick. But is that really the culprit, or is it something else, with the tick serving as a distraction?

Alam pulls the reader along, dropping asides from the narrator, making it clear that something really big and really bad is going to happen. And the reader watches as the characters try to catch up.

Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam. HarperCollins Publishers, 2020

Reviewer bio: Julia Wilson is currently pursuing a Masters in Writing at Johns Hopkins University.

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An Unquiet Mind

Guest Post by Diana De Jesus.

“I doubt sometimes whether
a quiet & unagitated life
would have suited me – yet I
sometimes long for it.” — Byron

This statement by Byron quoted in the text illustrates what life can be like for someone with mental illness.  An Unquiet Mind is a memoir by Kay Redfield Jamison, a Professor of Psychiatry, in which she candidly discusses her struggles with living with bipolar disorder (formally known as manic depression) from a variety of perspectives rather than just one lens.

Jamison references her journey from her adolescent to college years in which her manic depression illness slowly makes an appearance, altering her moods and performance unbeknownst to her at the time. However, as time progresses, so does the state of her illness. Jamison provides in vivid detail the many highs and lows she experiences because of her mental illness, and many incidences occur as a result; for example, extreme spending sprees, mood changes, violent episodes, engaging in uncharacteristic behavior towards her colleagues, and lastly a suicide attempt.

Soon after, she begins to see a psychiatrist at the age of 27, thus, eventually, learning her manic depression is hereditary since her father was dealing with the same affliction when she was a young adult. Moreover, her therapy sessions did not go without problems of course, as she confesses her reluctance to take medication more specifically Lithium.  In reality, she learns the hard way eventually realizing medication is a necessity rather than a hinderance; thereby, making peace with herself and her mental illness as she embraces her disease.

Through her writing, Jamison displays much resilience, and courage in spite of her illness. Her honesty and efforts in making sure people with depression and other psychiatric disorders do not feel ashamed nor stigmatized is quite commendable. In my view, she is a warrior and not a victim of her own mind. I recommend An Unquiet Mind to anyone; whereby, hopefully changing any preconceived notions regarding those who struggle with mental health issues.

An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness by Kay Redfield Jamison. Vintage, January 1997.

Reviewer bio: Diana De Jesus is an adjunct professor from Queens, NY, she is a fan of books, 80’s music to rock out too and old television shows. Additionally, she has a blog she is still very slowly and surely updating.

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A Mystery that Only the Dead Can Solve

Guest Post by Heather McCardell.

Elatsoe (pronounced el-at-so-ay) by Darcie Little Badger follows Ellie Bride, a Lipan Apache teenager, as she, her ghost dog Kirby, mom, and best friend Jay seek to uncover the truth about the night her cousin was found in a single car crash. This hunt takes them to the little town of Willowbee, where Ellie discovers a town secret that haunts her more than the dead she can wake. In this riveting debut novel, Little Badger crafts a world where magic is the norm and passed down through family lines – Ellie can wake the dead, passed down through her Great-Six Grandmother, and Jay is a direct descendent from the fairy king Oberon – and weaves a tale about family, allies and advocacy, and the ongoing colonization of Indigenous peoples. Little Badger handles the topic of colonization with delicacy, approaching it through character dialogue and entwining it with the ending revelation.

One thing I adored about this book was the oral storytelling culture that appears throughout, especially in the tales of Great-Six. These act as teaching moments for both Ellie and the reader, and provide readers a deeper look into Ellie’s family history and relations. At the heart of this novel is a story about a young girl who will do what she can to get justice, and allies who believe and support her and her family when they rightfully claim that her cousin’s death was no accident. In between the detective work, Ellie continues to work on her skill of waking the dead, much to the concern of her mom, but there is one rule passed down with this magic that Ellie plans to abide by: never wake a human ghost. With Dr. Abe Allerton as a suspect, Ellie senses a conspiracy that involves her cousin’s murder, and this is one secret she won’t let stay buried.

Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger. Levine Querido, August 2020.

Reviewer bio: Heather McCardell is a graduate student at the University of Windsor, studying English Literature and Creative Writing. When not writing essays, she enjoys writing poetry and hiking.

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An Everyday Cult

Guest Post by C. Jane Taylor.

An Everyday Cult invites the reader to ride the spiritual rapids of the Center for Transformational Learning, a cult whose leader hopes you will drown. Working under the guise of a trusted therapist, the cult’s aloof, captivating, even sexy leader—referred to only as ‘Doug’—gives weekly ‘homework’ assignments that use pathologies, psychological archetypes, and dream interpretation as the foundations for self-annihilation.

The author’s elegant use of language makes An Everyday Cult read like a literary work of fiction and yet her treatment of the subject matter makes the tale race like a horror film. We watch from behind reluctantly parted fingers as the dark reality of the cult unfolds.

The reader travels with Buglion as she falls—simultaneously in love with the cult’s charismatic leader and asleep to her own identity—drifts, sleeps, and then snaps awake to the eighteen-year nightmare she has endured. The narrative reminds us to open our own eyes and stay awake to the dangers of authoritarian leaders claiming to know us better than we know ourselves.

An Everyday Cult by Gerette Buglion. Rootstock Publishing, May 2021.

Reviewer bio: C. Jane Taylor is the author of Spirit Traffic, a woman’s motorcycle journey of family, fear, and fledging. She lives, writes, and rides in Hinesburg, Vermont.

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The Necessity of Human Myth

Guest Post by Adrian Thomson.

Jesse Lee Kercheval’s “The Boy Who Drew Cats” speaks both to our current time and to the necessity of human myth. Confined to a house in Uruguay as her children face quarantine in Japan, Kercheval connects to the hero of a Japanese fable, the titular drawer of cats, in an attempt to find solace within herself through her own artistic ventures.

This connection to cultural myth—and Kercheval does cement her own tale very concretely to the modern as well as the mythical—inspires the author in its assertions of safety, balance, and a sense of stability. The myth helps her recapture her own love of art and facilitates a return to  the page where flowers transform into felines. Kercheval does not uphold the myth as a perfect guideline, either—she comments upon it, accepting the good she sees there while acknowledging elements she appears to dislike.

But her inclusion of the fable also speaks to the wider purpose of human myth—as a necessity of the imagination to allow us to “visit” faraway places and to inspire. Kercheval places both within the story to generate trust that the world will get better, as well as trust in her own abilities.

“The Boy Who Drew Cats” by Jesse Lee Kercheval. Brevity, January 2021.

Reviewer bio: Adrian Thomson is a graduate student at Utah State University, currently working toward his MS by way of a thesis in poetry.

Explorations of Identity

Guest Post by Natalie Hess.

This was a really weird book, but in a good way. It follows a girl named Jenna Fox who was in a car accident and woke up from a coma with no memories at all. She has to build a new life for herself while also trying to find out about her past.

There are some sci-fi elements in the medical parts of this story as well which made for some really shocking plot twists, and the way that Jenna’s new life is shaped because of those things is so much different than normal people’s lives.

This book also brings up identity and what it means to be yourself and have your own personality and I really enjoyed that part of it. I also liked the whimsical way the story was told. There were parts where I felt like I was reading poetry because the writing is so pretty, but it was really easy to understand, even the more scientific parts.

If you really enjoy stories about medical miracles, or utopian stories, this is a great book to pick up.

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson. Square Fish. 2009.

Reviewer bio: I’m Natalie Hess and I’m simply a high school student who LOVES reading everything from scifi to romance to nonfiction and everything in between. I also love sharing my thoughts and I hope you enjoy!

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What It Means to Be an Underdog

Guest Post by Gabrielle Thurman.

Dog Boy by Eva Hornung is the harrowing tale of a young boy raised by wild dogs. Based on a true story, the novel follows Romochka, a four-year-old boy abandoned by his family, as he attempts to survive the Russian winters in the aftermath of perestroika. At its heart, this book is a story about what it means to be an underdog, both literally and metaphorically.

Every scene in this book had me gritting my teeth. I laughed. I cried. I walked away from it in horror and disgust, only to return to it again and again. It’s one of those books that even after you finish reading it, you still think about it. I can’t look at dogs the same way I used to. Hornung does a fantastic job of examining what it means to be a “person.”

The book isn’t perfect. There are parts where the plot gets a bit fuzzy and convenient. She stretched my suspension of disbelief a tad bit too far in places. Overall, though, this is one of my new favorites, and I’ll definitely be recommending it to others. If you love books about  dogs, survival, Russia, humanity, violence, family, and hope, then this book is for you.

Dog Boy by Eva Hornung. Viking, March 2010.

Reviewer bio: Gabrielle Thurman is a creative writer, professional editor, queer woman, native Arkansan, and aspiring novelist. Her creative nonfiction can be found in The Elephant Ladder and The Vortex Magazine of Literature and Fine Art.

 

‘Even the Saints Audition’

Guest Post by Sherrel McLafferty.

When we are asked to carry stories with us, fables and religion and family origins, we carry not just their words but their implications. Opening with a thoughtful exploration of Job, we witness the haunting impacts of “. . . the Devil asking / for permission to torment” and “God saying yes” on a vulnerable persona who ties these poems together. As a reader, the three acts serve as a pathway between childhood, where poems are playful including asking questions about sex in Sunday school, to the self doubt and self-harm of teenagehood, and ending with a young woman’s struggle with addiction.

In the background of this transformation, there is God and this story that haunts the beginning of each act, Job. God let him suffer. God lets our persona suffer. The commitment to the theme is astonishing; Jackson uses erasure of hymns, references to Jonah, and the anticipated language of sin. However, the redemption arc is not quite there. Jackson keeps us hungering for relief that only appears in the occasional rhetorical line or question, “Who am I /to go against God & the saints?”

I arrived at this book in need of fellowship about midway through this hellscape of a year. What a welcome 75 pages of commiseration. An open hand to anyone, regardless of religion, despite its theme because at its heart, it builds a story of abandonment, of melancholy, of needing someone to witness one’s pain.

Even the Saints Audition by Raych Jackson. Button Poetry, September 2019.

Reviewer bio: Sherrel McLafferty is a Pushcart nominated writer residing in Bowling Green, Ohio. For more information, visit her website at sherrelmclafferty.com or her Twitter @AwesomeSherrel.

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At the Intersection of Religion & Generational Conflict

Guest Post by Madeline Thomas.

When a combination of a Catholic upbringing and the unforgettable viewing of a commercial for The Exorcist sends a young girl’s mind to the inevitability of a personal demon possession, the first steps are taken on a path to parental disappointment. Jessica Power Braun’s “Black Alpaca” places readers at the intersection of religion, generational conflict, and closet-Jesus nightmares with sharp humor and unflinching honesty.

The essay, published in Hippocampus Magazine, works through the realities of fear and guilt in the Catholic Church, the slow movement away from your family’s religious identity, and the discovery of a poignant black alpaca painting in the context of Braun’s identities as a mother, wife, and daughter. Humor forms the heart of the piece, but the essay makes no attempt to pull away from what is both painful and real—forming a balance that cultivates both emotional impact and investment for readers.

In a time where I feel the need for constant breaks from the mire of news and the world in general, the humor and tone present in “Black Alpaca” provides needed relief. Braun utilizes her power in storytelling to craft something worth connecting with.

“Black Alpaca” by Jessica Power Braun. Hippocampus Magazine, January 2021.

Reviewer bio: Madeline Thomas is a graduate student and writer at Utah State University.

A Memoir of Two Illnesses

Guest Post by Kylie Smith.

In Every Last Breath: A Memoir of Two Illnesses, scholar and memoirist Joanne Jacobson strings twelve independently stunning essays together to create a lyrically compressed contemplation of the always frail body.

The essays detail Jacobson’s heart-wrenching experience of discovering her own chronic illness even as she was writing about her mother’s. Both memoir and biography, the book rejects the linear trajectory of conventional narrative to call the reader “out of time” and into the lives of two Jewish-American women as their diseases, one of blood and one of breath, force them to confront “end of life” together.

With the precision of a poet, Jacobson gracefully and honestly explores the ephemerality of time and breath and speaks deeply to the shared human experience of incremental loss. Every Last Breath is a hopeful and hurting reminder that the body is both singly inhabited and commonly shared.

Every Last Breath: A Memoir of Two Illnesses by Joanne Jacobson. The University of Utah Press, 2020.

Reviewer bio: Kylie Smith is a writer based out of Logan, Utah.

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A Departure from the Everyday Love Story

Guest Post by Aramide Salako.

Love it. I reckon this to be the best Romance/Young Adult fiction ever. All love stories, fiction and nonfiction, are each unique manifestations unlike none other. But here, the story of love takes a clear departure from your everyday love story. What makes this book a brilliant read is the simple presentation of the power and shortcoming of love in the face of mortality.

Humans have a life to live, and the love to share wholeheartedly with another is the blessedness of being human. That humans will ultimately die, leaving the one bereaved of such felt assurance and aliveness that only the other half could provide, is the nemesis of being human.

Hazel Grace and Augustus Waters, bound with the affliction of cancer and then again bound by the Cupid arrow, grapple with the reality of their fate stoically, braving the odds stacked against them. They experience, enjoy, and embrace love, but death, that Grim Reaper, of course, has the final say.

The Fault In Our Stars is a fictitious narration of a story of our lives. Life is transient—a mere finite number within infinity.

We shall not have all the time in the world to experience the profundity of companionship, mirth, eros, and all of the fine attributes accompanied by love. But in that brief expanse of time—cancer-ridden, poverty-ridden, crisis-ridden, virus-ridden—love endures and triumphs over all human vagaries and the finitude of time.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. Penguin Group, April 2014.

Reviewer bio: My name is Aramide Salako from Nigeria. I enjoy reading classics and bestsellers. I’ve read some classics that linger in memory, both fiction and nonfiction. I self-published my first book this year: Thoughts in Traffic; 243 Quick-fire Notes to Aid Your Outlook on Self, Life and the Afterlife.

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Chaos Walking Conclusion

Guest Post by Natalie Hess.

Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness is the conclusion to the Chaos Walking trilogy. Like the second book, this story follows Todd and Viola as they fight to be together, only this time, there is a war between the people and the spackle. We also get to read about the thoughts of a spackle and see their motives and their lives which adds a lot to the story.

The Ask and Answer are still not exactly in agreement, but their fight was put on pause to focus on the spackle. This was quite a bit different from the other two books because most people seemed to actually want peace, instead of just wanting to rule over everyone else. It’s wild how every single character is so trustworthy and suspicious at the same time, and just when you start to actually believe someone’s intentions, they do some significantly bad thing out of nowhere.

Like the other books, there were some parts that were confusing and sections where I just didn’t care what was happening, but there were also parts that were really good and I had to know how things turned out. Ness did a good job of tying up all of the loose ends and giving everyone the ending that suited them in one way or another. If you liked the other books, you’ll like this one too.

Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness. Candlewick Press, 2014.

Reviewer bio: I’m Natalie Hess and I’m simply a high school student who LOVES reading everything from scifi to romance to nonfiction and everything in between. I also love sharing my thoughts and I hope you enjoy!

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A Gripping YA Sequel

Guest Post by Natalie Hess.

This sequel to Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi was quite gripping as we learned what happened after Zélie brought magic back to the people of Orïsha.

When two groups of people have been fighting for decades, it seems nothing can unite them, even if peace is ultimately what they both claim to want. It is so easy to see how these characters can become so confused by their morals and so easily fooled because of their trust, but it’s very frustrating at the same time. As the reader I just wanted the best for all of these characters at all times but it seemed that something bad awaited them at every corner.

I cannot wait to see how the author ties up these loose ends in the conclusion when it comes out.

Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi. Pan Macmillan, March 2020.

Reviewer bio: I’m Natalie Hess and I’m simply a high school student who LOVES reading everything from scifi to romance to nonfiction and everything in between. I also love sharing my thoughts and I hope you enjoy!

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“Cathedrals of Hope” by Lauren Markham

Guest Post by Holly Vasic.

In the 35th-anniversary edition of the San Francisco-based literary magazine ZYZZYVA, Lauren Markham’s essay, “Cathedrals of Hope,” reminisces on the women’s suffrage movement. This piece is timely as 2020 America marked the centennial anniversary of women gaining the right to vote. Markham not only reflects on the women who sacrificed their freedom and endured abuse so that women can vote today but also discusses populations forgotten in the 1920s: men and women of color.

Markham weaves her own narrative into the larger historical picture, describing how her first-time voting was marked with devastation when George Bush Jr. won—again. Markham takes a unique look at where we as Americans are in regard to democracy while commentating on where we came from. Markham writes, “How easy human beings can forget the people who came before us, and the debts we owe.”

“Cathedrals of Hope” by Lauren Markham. ZYZZYVA, 2020.

Reviewer bio: Holly Vasic is a Graduate Instructor seeking a Master’s in Folklore at Utah State University with an undergrad in Journalism.

Plundered Beliefs

Guest Post by Andrew Romriell.

In “White Witchery,” from Guernica, Elissa Washuta offers fierce insight into the varied and complex ways whiteness has plundered Indigenous bodies and beliefs. Here, Washuta offers difficult truths surrounding colonialism and settler violence alongside the strength of her own perseverance.

Growing up in a “heavily Catholic, forest-and-farmland slice of New Jersey,” Washuta found a sincere desire to make magic, to be a witch who “brings change to the seen world using unseen forces.” To Washuta, magic became a way of finding stability within the uncontrollable world surrounding Native women in America, an America where, Washuta describes, “[colonizers whisper] that I’m not wanted here, not worthy of protection, nothing but a body to be pummeled and played with and threatened into submission.” Yet, through magic, her own tenacity, and the communal strength she finds in a women’s spiritual circle, Washuta says, “ My whole body is a fire” and “I have not died yet.”

“White Witchery” grants a rare and vulnerable insight into the capitalistic industry of the United States, the pop-culture surrounding self-care and self-healing, and the internal struggle of surviving a colonized America as a Native woman, a woman with “nothing now but my big aura, my fistful of keys, and my throat that still knows how to scream because no man has succeeded in closing it.” Though the journey Washuta takes us on is not an easy one, it is one of the most compelling, vulnerable, and important ones we can take.

“White Witchery” by Elissa Washuta. Guernica, February 2019.

Reviewer bio: Andrew Romriell is an avid writer, teacher, and student who is passionate about experimental forms, research-based writing, and intersections of genre. Learn more at ajromriell.com.

What the Heart Remembers

Guest Post by Kelsie Peterson.

Catherine Young’s essay, “In That River I Saw Him Again,” published online in November 2020 by Hippocampus Magazine, reads like a coal train passing by you. It is full of glimpses of beauty and wonder, as well as the past, with a poetic through line that moves like the “shadows” Young describes. Using the imagery of coal trains from her childhood, photographs, and early motion pictures, Young’s essay wonders at the idea of memory, of life, and of those lost in her childhood.

The central question running through this essay is, “What can the heart remember?” Young invites readers to discover an answer with her as moving pictures first allow her father to come alive once more, and then ultimately, her uncle. Young’s writing offers a unique and engaging perspective on the life of memory.

What engaged me most as a reader was this piece’s inventive use of engaging imagery and repetition of poetic meditations. The reading experience mirrored that of a train passing or of the flicker of the early motion picture. The flashes of ideas flowed together in a truly unforgettable piece.

“In That River I Saw Him Again” by Catherine Young. Hippocampus Magazine, November 2020.

Reviewer bio: Kelsie Peterson is completing her last semester at Utah State University and will graduate with her MS in English.

A Portrait of Perspective

Guest Post by Padmaja Reddy.

Safia Elhillo’s Home is Not a Country is a novel in verse with beautiful poems about Nima, her mama, her baba she has never seen, and the better and beautiful version of herself.

She opens with talking about the photographs in a lifetime before her and when her parents were not yet parents. She knows about her father through the photographs everywhere in their house including the one in her mama’s wallet.

Her verse captivates in narrating her life in suburban America, the land still foreign to her mama, her only friend Haitham, her school, Arabic classes.

Her name is supposed to be ‘Yasmeen’ not ‘Nima’ which means grace. And she believes she is not a graceful girl quite contrary to her name.

She echoes her mama’s grief over the loss of her father and a lost world where she would be happier.

I miss him too          my father            though we never met

I miss the country that I’ve never seen the cousins

& aunts & grandparents I miss the help

They could have offered

When she is bullied and called a terrorist, she questions mama: ‘why did you bring us here? they hate us’ and spills the desire to have her baba or someone to protect her, a common notion shared by all immigrant children about their parent’s decision to migrate leaving homeland.

Elhillo’s poetry elegantly captures how the questions about where we come from can take over our life. It’s a portrait of perspective, which holds up a mirror to show that ultimately, we are telling our own stories, and we can choose to see them differently.

Home Is Not a Country by Safia Elhillo. Make Me a World, March 2021.

Reviewer bio: Padmaja Reddy, originally from India, lives in Connecticut. She received an MA in English Literature from SK University. Former journalist and she published poetry and book reviews in various publications like Yale Review of Books, NewPages.

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Blue Desert: Historical Fiction for Avid Readers

Guest Post by Sherri A. Wilkinson.

Alice, a young eighteen-year-old British woman, moves to Africa with her family in 1910, where they live through the fallout of the war (World War I). After an auto accident, Alice finds herself living among the Tuareg tribe in the Sahara Desert. She then has to re-enter British society seven years later, a changed woman. When she receives a telegram in her senior years (age 78, set in 1970) her secrets are revealed.

The story moves at a steady pace alternating between 1910 and 1970; her life in the desert is remembered as well as her current situation. As an older woman, we see how her early years have affected her. The story takes place in about one week’s time, but there is a lot we learn, with a lot of family drama. I was fascinated about the Tuareg culture and how Alice adapted.

Overall I enjoyed Blue Desert and recommend to avid readers.

Blue Desert by Celia Jeffries. Rootstock Publishing, April 2021

Reviewer bio: Sheri A. Wilkinson is an avid reader and reviewer from Princeton, Illinois. She is a longtime member of LibraryThing.com, where she has reviewed over 1000 books.

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Get Happy with Lawson

Guest Post by Natalie Hess.

This book was absolutely phenomenal and it was a 5-star read! It dealt with mental health, specifically anxiety and depression, in such a fun way. I burst out laughing so many times that people would actually give me weird looks or ask what was happening. Jenny Lawson is just so funny and she somehow combines this humor with her terrible experiences to create the intriguing, hilarious, inspiring masterpiece that is Furiously Happy. There are lighthearted parts, and there are parts that are really serious and it all balances out perfectly.

This book did leave me with more questions than answers, but it definitely made me think about how “normal” my life seems compared to hers. I also learned that both of those lives are perfectly acceptable.

To anyone who is struggling with mental health, this could definitely help you, and even if it doesn’t you will probably still enjoy it nonetheless. I know I did.

Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things by Jenny Lawson. Flatiron Books, February 2017.

Reviewer bio: I’m Natalie Hess and I’m simply a high school student who LOVES reading everything from scifi to romance to nonfiction and everything in between. I also love sharing my thoughts and I hope you enjoy!

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Sweetness of Honey

Guest Post by Christopher Nicholson.

The best friend I ever had was my dog Milo. He offered the best kind of love—not unconditional but predicated on the most reasonable conditions. I had to earn his love and could feel good about that, but he didn’t expect me to be perfect. This sensation is nothing new to most people who have had a pet.

In “Honey, I’m Home: Beyond the Rescue Door,” published in the Fall/Winter 2020-2021 edition of Magnets and Ladders, Bonnie Blose reminisces on sharing such a love with the titular cat, Honey, who found her at a local rescue shelter and chose her immediately. Honey had some traumatic experiences in her past that affected her behavior and didn’t make her an easy pet. Blose committed from the very beginning to give her the love she needed, no matter what, for however much time they had together. She did exactly that.

Blose extols her cat’s intelligence and emotion, painting her as almost human—or as Blose would insist, better than human. This is also a relatable mindset for me and other past or present pet owners. They are not mere accessories; they are our friends, our family, our confidantes. Honey shows as much personality in the story as any human character, and one senses that it’s true to life, that Blose isn’t just anthropomorphizing her for dramatic purposes.

Magnets and Ladders is an online magazine for writers with disabilities, and this story won first place in the nonfiction category of the National Federation of the Blind Writers’ Division’s 2020 contest, so the author’s disability is a constant subtext without ever being stated outright in the story. One gets the impression that Blose needed Honey as much as Honey needed her, that their relationship was symbiotic in a way. Many people are so preoccupied with finding romantic companionship to “complete” themselves that they overlook the potential of pets—but in this time when human connection is so limited, they may rediscover an appreciation for the one-of-a-kind bonds that animals can offer.

Take a few minutes, open your heart, and give this story a chance.

“Honey, I’m Home: Beyond the Rescue Door” by Bonnie Blose. Magnets and Ladders, Fall/Winter 2020-2021.

Reviewer bio: Christopher Nicholson is an English 1010 instructor and Creative Writing graduate student at Utah State University. He writes and blogs about all kinds of things at https://www.christopherrandallnicholson.com.

Mortality and Motherhood

Guest Post by Mia Jensen.

“When the butterfly struggles out of its pupa, for three long hours its wings are wet and as utterly useless as a newborn’s hands.”

In “Life Inside,” found in Issue 211 of Cimarron Review, author Caroline Sutton contemplates the limitations of mortality and motherhood amid the upcoming birth of her first granddaughter. Sutton ingeniously weaves the eager experiences of her pregnant daughter with the vulnerable life cycle of monarch butterflies and their fruitless efforts for survival in a hostile world.

Reflecting on her own complicated pregnancy decades before, Sutton likens the near loss of her infant to the toxic consumption of milkweed leaves. Monarch mothers lay eggs on milkweed plants and milkweed plants alone, for when monarch larvae ingest the plant’s toxic properties, predators avoid the black and yellow creature. Sutton thinks back to her traumatic delivery and questions her blind trust during the delivery, her assumptions that everything would be alright because it always was, because mothers always offered protection. But, in a world strung with chaos and turmoil, perhaps there are some obstacles a mother cannot predict.

Sutton concludes by comparing her daughter’s upcoming delivery with a caterpillar’s metamorphic emergence. Rather than reflecting on the cliché symbol of hope, Sutton contemplates the feebleness of the new creature. Its wings, wet, useless, and unable to defend against predators looking to “attack and devour the butterfly, toxins and all, before the wings ever open fully.” Although monarch mothers provide protection from larvae to pupa, they cannot predict the perils awaiting beyond the chrysalis.

“Life Inside” by Caroline Sutton. Cimarron Review, Spring 2020.

Reviewer bio: Mia Jensen is a graduate student at Utah State University studying creative writing. She loves horror novels, trail running, and her Australian Shepherd.

“The Wide, Wide Sea” by Patrick Ness

Guest Post by Natalie Hess.

Patrick Ness’s “The Wide, Wide Sea” is a short story from the Chaos Walking series that takes place before the start of the first book, but is meant to be read between the second and third.

I am a sucker for a good forbidden love story and this one did not disappoint. The main character is a human who has fallen in love with a spackle, and they have such a wholesome story in such a gruesome place. Realistically, I don’t think any of the plot twists were super unpredictable, but I personally did not see any of them coming and that was such a roller coaster of events coming out of nowhere. Not to mention how loveable the characters were despite the fact that the story was less than 40 pages long.

This was an extremely enjoyable story and I gave it 4.75 out of 5 stars.

“The Wide, Wide Sea” by Patrick Ness. Walker Books, 2018.

Reviewer bio: I’m Natalie Hess and I’m simply a high school student who LOVES reading everything from scifi to romance to nonfiction and everything in between. I also love sharing my thoughts and I hope you enjoy!

Listen to ‘The Songs of Trees’ with David George Haskell

Guest Post by Carolyn Dille.

How many tree whispers and shouts can you hear? How many mysteries and histories are there in wood and water, bird and human, ice and insect? How much do you like to travel? Go with George David Haskell to explore these questions and many others. He takes us far beyond tree rings and photosynthesis, far below roots and above crowns, though we visit those too when we read of his forest adventures around the world as a researcher and teacher of biology and environmental studies.

Listening to Haskell’s lush language, alive with many forest voices—maples and green ash in suburbs and forests, and Sabal palm forest in Georgia dunes—we attune to the wonders of our own senses of sound and touch and sight. Trees have developed their own suite of senses: They sense when water is fresh or salt and know how much to take up and conserve. How to shorten and wax-coat leaves in dry climates.

We meet individual trees and hear their rhythms throughout a year and into their afterlife. That afterlife is part of the larger symphony of nature, where the sounds and touches and sights include every sentient creature’s life and afterlife.

From an Amazon forest preserve in Ecuador where the ceibo tree is a living deity, through Echizen, capitol of Japanese artisan wood paper, with stops in New York City to listen to street trees, to the Florissant Fossil Beds in southern Colorado, and to other places with their own tree songs, Haskell writes the music of trees in a language that allows us to tune into the symphony of terrestrial life.

The Songs of Trees: Stories from Nature’s Great Connectors by David George Haskell. Penguin Random House, April 2018.

Reviewer bio: Carolyn is a poet and a Soto Zen priest who leads art and meditation retreats and workshops. She lives in Santa Cruz, California.

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Ness’s “The New World”

Guest Post by Natalie Hess.

“The New World” is a short story and prequel to the Chaos Walking series by Patrick Ness. It follows Viola as she first travels from her beloved home ship in space to the new planet where her people are trying to find a new place to call home as their old planet is being slowly destroyed.

It was definitely very strange to read about this being described as such a big opportunity for all of these people, but for Viola to be so against the idea of being the first one to go to this place because of the risks it involved. Her negative attitude throughout the whole story was very obnoxious but relatable at the same time, and the ending made me question my judgement of her throughout the story even more.

This was quite a fun read, and I enjoyed learning about some of Viola’s background. I gave this one 3.75 out of 5 stars.

“The New World” by Patrick Ness. Candlewick Press, September 2010.

Reviewer bio: I’m Natalie Hess and I’m simply a high school student who LOVES reading everything from scifi to romance to nonfiction and everything in between. I also love sharing my thoughts and I hope you enjoy!

“She” by Grace Camille

Guest Post by Tyler Hurst.

In “She,” published in Issue 18 of Into the Void, author Grace Camille begins with an inventory of the things that the she has chosen to hold onto. Through the memories the objects invoke, we are introduced to the narrator’s own addiction, a need to belong, to be a part of something and to nurture “a proper addiction” that “began as a Hail Mary plan to be accepted by sleek, serious coworkers.”

Camille’s loneliness becomes our loneliness through the use of the third person, creating an emotional distance from events that still allows the reader to recognize. When she meets “him,” he makes her feel needed, wanted. When he leaves for the Peace Corps, the world becomes one of routines. “She jogs in the evenings, washes her hair weekly, flosses daily, eats sometimes,” and the list goes on. One-hundred-and-three days later, she’s still wishing after him, remembering him and longing for what she cannot hold. While she “reaches for his hand,” he is “reaching for a firefly,” revealing the futility of trying to hold onto that which does not wish to be held.

“She” by Grace Camille. Into the Void, 2021.

Reviewer bio: Tyler Hurst is a graduate student at Utah State University studying creative writing while completing his last semester there.

Explorations of Pain

Guest Post by Kayla Berryman.

In Pain Studies, published in 2020 by Bellevue Literary Press, Lisa Olstein explores her relationship between pain and chronic migraines with the simple statement that “all pain is simple. And all pain is complex. You’re in it and you want to get out.”

From there Olstein takes readers through the explorations and complexities of pain by connecting pain to language, medical dramas, translations, and surprisingly, Joan of Arc. Readers will see echoes and references of Eula Biss’s lyric essay “The Pain Scale,” as well as references to the works of the poet and translator Anne Carson, among other poets. Olstein asks readers to consider migraine as “a particular version of the present. What happens when its present becomes yours for extended periods of time, for a significant portion of your life?”

Pain Studies by Lisa Olstein. Bellevue Literary Press, March 2020.

Reviewer bio: Kayla Berryman is a graduate student at Utah State University.

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Citro’s Shining Reflection

Guest Post by Susan Kay Anderson.

At first, it is hard to get past the title as it is with all of Christopher Citro’s titles. They are so good in the way that they trip you up and shine back on you.

Take the title of If We Had A Lemon We’d Throw It and Call That The Sun. Lemon points to Citro’s name and its meaning, a citrus category of fruit. He also points to exuberance. The word sun points to son or to Citro as a son. It points to survival. This scene is also dismal, it is dark. If a lemon shines brightly as the sun, then this is a sunless place. Maybe a dark cedar forest. This title is desperate and makes me think of immigration or refugees who have nothing, no vitamin C.

Am I making too much of the title? Probably. It is hard to ignore its shiny reflection. I wonder where I am and wonder which side of the shadow I will go to next. I am tempted to list all his titles here, you would get lost in their stark imagery and artful sound. Teasers:  “Dear Diary Where Is Everybody” and “In Small Significant Ways We’re Horses.”

Continue reading “Citro’s Shining Reflection”

Boundless Energy in Yi Lei’s Poetry

Guest Post by Karina Borowicz.

In tension there is energy, and the energy in My Name Will Grow Wide Like a Tree is released in fistfuls, waves, gusts, and flames. It is an energy that bursts forth from confrontations: between wild and tame, individual and universal, being and oblivion, exuberance and despair. And with these collisions and collusions it becomes clear that the lines we draw, the walls we build, and the boundaries we dare not cross are, despite their seeming solidity, in truth quite tenuous. They are maintained by belief, and we are free to escape. The poet declares, “I don’t believe in walls. May walls / Cease this very moment to exist. / I’m boundless.”

These poems are voracious for boundlessness, an unhooking of the self from the anchor of obedience to norms that emphasize divisions. The voices in these poems speak with revolutionary fervor about such acts of disobedience. “I am composing an explosion,” the poet says in “Besieged,” a poem in which the vertigo of broken bonds is at first frightening, then thrilling.   Throughout the book, a blissful freedom and expansiveness is found in surrender to nature and the sensual world, in merging the self with the other, and in artistic expression. Overstepping boundaries, however, is not without cost. To expand, one must break. The thrill in these poems is also a kind of searing pain.

Co-translator Tracy K. Smith says she tried to capture the original’s “rhythmic and emotional insistence.” Sound play and patterning give these poems muscle and a heartbeat: “Weary, wary, watching you / Watch me. Your gale-force gaze / Wants to topple me. I give.” One can’t help but feel windblown after reading this book. It’s a force of nature.

My Name Will Grow Wide Like a Tree by Yi Lei, translated from the Chinese by Tracy K. Smith and Changtai Bi. Graywolf Press, November 2020.

Reviewer bio: Karina Borowicz is the author of three collections of poetry, most recently Rosetta, which won the Ex Ophidia Prize. She writes about the craft of poetry at karinaborowicz.com/blog/.

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A Grade-A Sequel

Guest Post by Natalie Hess.

This sequel to The Knife of Never Letting Go literally made me gasp and have to pause the audiobook to process all of my life decisions on multiple occasions. At the start of this book Viola and Todd have just made it to Haven, and based on the recent events that occurred at the end of the previous book, they are expecting a war, but that is not what happens at all. The town doesn’t try to fight at all, and they are overtaken by Mayor Prentiss as he tries to completely change the ways that all of these people live.

It was really cool that we got to read from both Viola’s and Todd’s perspectives as we watched them be repeatedly separated and reunited. Their romance is their main motivation for all of their actions without completely taking over the story and it’s such a great balance.

The concept of corrupt leaders and having to choose sides is so interesting to read in this book because both options seem terrible and everyone seems to be hurting people and only trying to make the situation even worse than it already is. This gave me major Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins and The Maze Runner by James Dashner vibes so if you enjoyed either of those, I think you’ll definitely like this. Like the first book, I also gave this one 4 stars.

The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness. Candlewick Press, July 2014.

Reviewer bio: I’m Natalie Hess and I’m simply a high school student who LOVES reading everything from scifi to romance to nonfiction and everything in between. I also love sharing my thoughts and I hope you enjoy!

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The Magic of Making a Decision

Alma’s MFA in Creative Writing director Sophfronia Scott offers decision-making advice for students approaching the graduate school application season.

There’s a wonderful quote by the Scottish mountaineer William Hutchison Murray about making decisions. Specifically he’s talking about getting to that first step of a climb. The quote goes like this:

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too.

All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favour all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.

Note he says “committed,” which means you have to make a firm decision before the assistance shows up. Why? Continue reading “The Magic of Making a Decision”

Out of One’s Head and Into the Godhead

Guest Post by Bruce A. Mason

A philosophy professor wants to get out of his head . . . and into the Godhead.

Thousands of years ago in India, great beings explored the inner Cosmos of their own minds through meditation, seeking answers to the big questions. Who are we? What is the purpose of life? How can we overcome the intractable problem of human suffering? These are the metaphysical matters at the center of To Be Enlightened, the debut novel by Alan J. Steinberg.

Set in southern California, the story tracks the spiritual quest of Abe Levy, a philosophy professor at Pomona College. Deep into midlife, he struggles between the duties and pleasures of being a husband and the strong desire to expand his consciousness. As his pursuit grows increasingly zealous, so does the anxiety of Abe’s longtime wife, Sarah, who fears Abe’s ascension will divide them. At the college, Abe teaches “The Insider’s Guide to Our Self” (a survey of Vedic philosophy and the roots of religion), which serves as the setting for much of the novel’s Socratic-style debate and helps outline the book’s philosophical ideas. Namely, that Vedic philosophy addresses many questions left unanswered by Western philosophy.

Connecting the dots between science and alchemy, Eastern and Western philosophy, and the underlying wisdom of many faith traditions—from Judaism to Christianity to Hinduism to Sufism—Steinberg invokes the “God” beyond all religion, reminding us that no religion has dibs on Ultimate Reality. A pleasurable read that makes Eastern philosophy accessible, the book is plausibly far-out. It makes a convincing case that everyone has the potential to transcend.

To Be Enlightened by Alan J. Steinberg. Adelaide Books, 2021.

Reviewer bio: Bruce a writer, aspiring playwright, lover of life, globe trekker and dweller on the threshold. You can read some of his work in his Huffington Post column and on his Instagram page.

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‘Ghost in a Black Girl’s Throat’

Guest Post by Lannie Stabile.

A Black girl can be a dog, a rat, a gadget, a myth, a ghost, a mermaid, origami, or livestock. A Black girl can be a scavenger, a caged bird metaphor, a “perfect little alien,” or unwelcomed roots. A Black girl can be a black cloud, but she cannot be the white sky. A Black girl can be any imaginable thing, but she is not allowed to be a person. Not in the eyes of a white crowd, anyway. This is the trap, the endless, disparaging loop, that Khalisa Rae describes in her debut book of poetry Ghost in a Black Girl’s Throat.

The collection is broken into three sections titled: “Fire,” “Wind and Water,” and “Earth and Spirit,” and it’s easy to see why this is an important designation. Rae writes, “You will be asked, where are you from? more than you are asked, how are you doing?” As if white people don’t know Black girls are elemental, powerful, and from the very core of this earth.

But, still, the expertly-crafted poems are mournful and simmering with unexpressed rage. They illustrate quiet resignation (“You’re left to break and mend, stitch your wounds to not spill the secrets, sober your sorrows and be back before Monday’s 8:00 a.m. exam.”), peaceful protest (“Sometimes, I go to white spaces, plant myself. I know my roots aren’t welcome there.”), and grave desperation (“We gamble with our obituaries like we don’t have a thousand other ways to die.”).

When white people feel entitled to every space, what is a Black girl to do? The advancement is made in excruciating inches, but it comes at the expense of her raw throat and heart.

Ghost in a Black Girl’s Throat by Khalisa Rae. Red Hen Press, 2021.

Reviewer bio: Lannie Stabile (she/her) is the winner of OutWrite’s 2020 Chapbook Competition in Poetry; the winning chapbook, “Strange Furniture,” is out with Neon Hemlock Press. She is also a back-to-back finalist for the 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 Glass Chapbook Series and back-to-back semifinalist for the Button Poetry 2018 and 2019 Chapbook Contests.

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Underrepresented Indie Poetry

Guest Post by M. A. Dubbs.

As I’ve turned more to e-books and my Kindle through this COVID-19 winter, I have fallen in love with some beautiful indie poetry. 207th Bone is one of these books and showcases translated prose from China. Written by Zhou Li, a Chinese doctor and caretaker of one hundred tortoises, it explores themes of slice of life China, sensuality, depression, and the stress of practicing medicine.

The book starts with an introduction from Xi Nan who discusses the difficult translation process from Chinese to English. Next is an interview from Li as he explores his worldview of nihilism and how this has influenced his writing. The poems are untitled and separated by time periods of Li’s life. The tone shifts from bleak and visceral (“Go down the throat / Into my stomach / Don’t know which season is growing / In my body”) to political (“’China Dream’ is written / Under the billboard / A beggar is sleeping on the ground / I dare not toss a coin to him / I’m afraid the sound / would interrupt / His dream”).

207th Bone is a great read for anyone looking for modern Chinese poetry which is largely underrepresented in current literature.

207th Bone by Zhou Li. Simi Press, August 2020.

Reviewer bio: M. A. Dubbs is an award winning LBTQ Mexican-American poet from Indiana.

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Visible & Invisible Identities of Immigrant Life

Guest Post by Padmaja Reddy.

The Language We Were Never Taught to Speak debut poetry collection by Grace Lau, is an intensive attempt in discovering concealed elements of immigrant inheritances, queer yearnings, and multi-generational mysteries.

These poems valiantly exhibit the lonely corners and abandoned experiences of great pain. Readers explore the visible and invisible identities of immigrant life in poems like “Ginseng, winter melon, lotus root,” “My grandmother’s wallpaper,” “My grief is winter,” “Family Vacation,” “Going Home.”

Influences of church, technology, western culture, and ancestral customs among second-generation lives are revealed artfully in her poetry. A granddaughter wonders about her grandmother’s age as she believes the latter stole a few years to work early to feed her family in “The Lies That Bend.” “She said loneliness is better; than sin” summarizes how the Asian parents feel about unconventional/queer lives.

The emotional intensity of Lau’s work is shown in these compelling lines:

“She swung a sword as a man,
Wept as woman
Sang as both”

“How do you find yourself
When you don’t know your motherland”

“He has been mourning
The future
For the last twenty years”

“Loss that lives in a new-silence snow.”

I loved reading this very remarkable poetry collection.

The Language We Were Never Taught to Speak by Grace Lau. Guernica Editions, May 2021.

Reviewer bio: Padmaja Reddy, originally from India, lives in Connecticut. She received an MA in English Literature from SK University. Former journalist and she published poetry and book reviews in various publications like Yale Review of Books, NewPages.

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‘The Knife of Never Letting Go’

Guest Post by Natalie Hess.

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness is a dystopian story told in quite a strange way. It follows the main character Todd Hewitt as he lives in a place called Prentisstown where all women have been wiped out by a disease which has caused all the men and boys to hear each other’s thoughts. This portrays a very chaotic life for all of these people because there is never a time when they have the luxury of hearing silence, until Todd comes across a girl. That’s all I’m going say about the plot of the story because I don’t want to give anything away, but the way the story was written was really cool.

Patrick Ness did a really good job of giving Todd a lot of personality with his thoughts. It’s also surprisingly easy to differentiate between Todd’s thoughts and the thoughts of others, despite how chaotic and messy the combination of all of those seem. Throughout the story, I really loved seeing Todd having to decide who to trust and transition from always being told what to do to having to make major decisions on his own without much help at all.

I listened to this novel as an audiobook and I did get a tiny bit lost in a couple places, but I think that was more my fault for not being able to focus than the book’s fault for being confusing. Overall, I gave this book four stars and if you’re on the fence about whether or not to pick it up, you should totally go for it!

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. Candlewick Press, May 2008.

Reviewer bio: I’m Natalie Hess and I’m simply a high school student who LOVES reading everything from scifi to romance to nonfiction and everything in between. I also love sharing my thoughts and I hope you enjoy!

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Convenience Store Woman: An ode to the odd

Guest Post by Vanessa Cervini Rios.

When Sayaka Murata writes, she blocks out the version of herself that lives in the real world, the one bound by conventionalities of a so-called functioning society. Instead, she conjures scenarios that might lead to ‘real truths’ she’s been searching for since childhood. That’s what her 10 books have been, experiments to unveil what senses dulled by normalcy can’t spot.

Konbini Ningen—Convenience Store Woman in English—became a sensation of sorts when it was published back in 2016 and addressed the revered subjects of marriage, social norms, and work dynamics in Japan head-on. In just over 160 pages, the author lays out the full picture of Keiko Furukura’s life as a single convenience store employee in her late 30’s. A self-proclaimed cog of society, her mere existence threatens the carefully assembled foundation of everything that is acceptable; and what’s more unnerving for anyone that knows her, that’s all she wants to be.

Diving into Murata’s transparent narrative is a trip. One worth taking for anyone willing to defy conventional thinking. And if that sounds odd to you, tell me, what does normal mean, anyway?

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata. Translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori. Grove Press, September 2019.

Reviewer bio:  Vanessa Cervini Rios is an avid reader in four languages and enjoys writing about the link between cultural products and the social imaginary. More words by her: 12booksclub.substack.com.

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Finding Strength in Ocean Currents

Guest Post by Chloe Yelena Miller.

Ocean Currents by Hannah Rousselot offers the reader the narrator’s strength as she directly faces emotional and physical pain and struggles with mental illness. Rousselot does what a good teacher should do, as she writes in the poem “Guidance,” “Or, I should say, I do not teach them- / I provide the tools they need to live within themselves.” Rousselot gives the reader the tools to face and learn from such hard emotions.

The collection opens with the poem “Vacation” which immediately introduces suicide. The poem begins, “What if you could kill yourself, / but like, only for a day?” When I read the opening line, I paused. Could I handle reading this, I wondered? The conversational tone and turn in the poem with, “but like,” offered me a path into the poem and the collection.

Ocean Currents is rooted in the body. The narrator describes hurting herself, but also actively grounding herself. She writes in “Immersed,” “When I rise out of the pond, water drips down / my skin and sinks into the ground. The Earth is soft // between my toes. Standing there, wet and grounded, I can feel the rotation of my planet.” When the narrator’s hurt and relief are boldly and physically described, the reader knows she can trust the poems.

This is a book that instructs: face your truth while tending your needs to survive. In “Sleepwalking”, Rousselot writes, “It {Life} needs a reminder to wake up.” Ocean Currents grounds and wakes up the reader to know herself and others.

In “Leather Gloves” Rousselot writes, “& how can you be adult with so much / child inside of you?” But she has the superpower described in the same poem, “In college, I tell my friend about my / ‘world’ hurts and she tells me / that I have a superpower.”

Ocean Currents by Hannah Rousselot. Finishing Line Press, June 2021

Reviewer bio: Chloe Yelena Miller is a writer and teacher living in Washington, D.C.

People among Us: Leo Touchet’s Collection of Photographs

Guest Post by J. Guaner.

Leo Touchet is an American photographer who has traveled to over fifty countries to photograph for corporate publications and national and international magazines including Life, Time, National Geographic, New York Times, Der Stern, Panorama, and Popular Photography.

Touchet’s interest in photography sprouted as a high school photographer. In the early 1960s he lived in Greenwich Village and maintained his interest by studying the archived photographs of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paul Strand, Eugene Smith, Edward Steichen, and Gordon Parks in the Museum of Modern Art. In Rochester, New York, Touchet met Beaumont Newhall, then director of the George Eastman House Museum and bought a used Leica M3 from him. His meeting with Joan Liftin, a photo editor at the United Nations, was a turning point in his career. Liftin convinced him to be a full-time photographer, and then he hopped on the plane to Saigon, Vietnam for his first foreign trip as a photographer. Continue reading “People among Us: Leo Touchet’s Collection of Photographs”

Moral Quandaries, Deal-Making, and Courtroom Dramas in this Legal Memoir

Guest Post by Hamilton Davis.

The early 1970s were rough on Vermont’s criminal justice system. Central to that era was the long criminal career of Paul Lawrence, the bad cop who, while working as an undercover narcotics agent for state and local police, framed more than 100 young Vermonters on drug charges. Lawrence’s depredations managed to contaminate the whole justice system—state police and several prosecutors and judges—and his crimes and the resulting turmoil put Vermont on front pages across the land.

One public official deeply affected by the Lawrence mess was Kimberly Cheney, a Yale Law School graduate and a Republican, who had just been elected in 1972 as Vermont’s attorney general. Cheney, in his candid memoir A Lawyer’s Life to Live, tells much about his life in Montpelier, Vermont, as attorney general but also, earlier and later, as a small-town private attorney and county prosecutor. He describes all the moral quandaries, deal-making, the courtroom dramas, and the shenanigans that readers would expect from an observant lawyer-turned-author.

But what he also offers is a striking assessment of what became known as the “Paul Lawrence Affair.” Lawrence’s crimes were committed long ago, but Cheney’s book is an important reminder of how things can go wrong. The author is as tough on himself as he is on other players who were far more involved in that affair. That’s a quality that is rare and praiseworthy in the literature of public life.

A Lawyer’s Life to Live: A Memoir by Kim Cheney. Rootstock Publishing, February 2021.  

Reviewer bio: Hamilton E. Davis has been a journalist and policy analyst for more than 50 years. He is the author Mocking Justice: America’s Biggest Drug Scandal (Crown Publishers, 1978).

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The Other Hamlet Brother

Guest Post by Manasi Patil.

An extraordinarily ordinary play script is what draws Tim Hamlet, the twin brother of Prince Hamlet, the crown prince of Denmark, towards Elsinore to uncover the dark secrets that awaits him, whether he wants it or not.

When I started reading the first chapter of The Other Hamlet Brother, I was entirely drawn in the book. Luke Swanson’s words kept me on the edge throughout the journey of reading ‘The Other Hamlet Brother’. Well, I’ve always loved this genre, so I was more than happy to review the book, and I’m pleased to say that it did much more than simply ‘satisfy’ me. Continue reading “The Other Hamlet Brother”

Cozy Up with Calder

Guest Post by Michael Rhames.

Back when I was a teenager and the internet wasn’t a thing, one of my favorite activities was to sit or lay down with a book. Anything by Agatha Christie I could get my hands on ended up being a favorite. This one may just be a close second, as far as cozy mysteries go.

While Eve Calder’s style is her own, the resemblance to Christie’s is undeniable, and doesn’t stop with the title. Kate McGuire even has her own modern-day Hastings to help her solve the mystery presented in this little masterpiece of the genre.

After losing her job, her fiancé, and her apartment all in the same day, Kate decides to move south from New York to beautiful Coral Cay, Florida. There, she arrives at The Cookie House where owner Sam Hepplewhite won’t sell cookies, of all things. Being a pastry chef, but still needing a job, Kate takes the front clerk post offered to her instead. All the while, she’s been seeing someone following her around.

Then she meets Stuart Lord, a millionaire who wants to turn the island into an exclusive vacation destination for the rich. He is trying to bully Sam into selling the business, but Sam won’t budge. From there, everything goes downhill. There is a death, and Sam goes to jail as the main suspect.

Kate enlists new friends to help uncover the true killer’s identity. Their discovery is unpredictable, just the way it should be. But that is why it’s called a mystery!

I have absolutely no complaints about this book, which is rare for cozies lately. If you like cozies and a fair amount of food talk, this may just be your thing.

And Then There Were Crumbs by Eve Calder. St. Martin’s Press, July 2019.

Reviewer bio: Michael Rhames. Birth Date: 6/8/1971. Birth Place: San Juan, PR. Living In: Boston, MA.

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Poetic Lessons on Love & Gratitude

Guest Post by Padmaja Reddy.

A beautiful collection of poems, How to Love the World is a true pleasure to read.

The poems seem to be written by the hearts that view the world through the lens of kindness. Poems that reflect on “Joy of Presence,” “Small Victories,” “Pieces of Heaven” and other modes of positive outlooks.

The love of a father and his desire to see his kid painted so vividly in such a short poem (“Bus Stop”). Another father appears “taking care [of his daughter] in full silence and secrecy.” He loves her even when she is lost in sleep. Such beautiful images of love and bonding.

Readers can see an optimistic parent believing in the goodness of the world in the words of January Gill O’Neil “and wonder who could mistake him for anything but good.” The speaker also fears “for his safety—the darkest child on our street in the empire of blocks.”

Rain sounds different and appears as remembered wisdom in “Praise of Darkness.” We imagine ourselves as immortal in bright summer nights and learn to love both ordinary and extra in “Perceptive Prayer.”

Poetic expressions like “Hope doesn’t know its destination”; “Tomorrow the world will begin again, another fresh start”; “A letting go of one thing, to fall into other”; “A girl of color is a light house”; “A day that began like a gift”; and “the decades of side-by-side, our great good luck” fill hearts with warm joy and bliss.

“My Daughter’s Singing,” “Fifteen Years Later, I See How It Went,” “Kindergarten Studies the Human Heart,” “Held Open,” and “The Lesson of the Falling Leaves” are among some of my favorite poems.

To sum up aptly, “Glad to be in this place, this life and to read this book” as in the poem of “Astral Chorus.”

How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope edited by James Crews. Storey Publishing, April 2021.

Reviewer bio: Padmaja Reddy, originally from India, lives in Connecticut. She received an MA in English Literature from SK University. Former journalist and she published poetry and book reviews in various publications like Yale Review of Books, NewPages.

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