Book Review: "Eighteen Inches: The Distance Between the Heart and Mind" by Mirtha Michelle Castro Mármol

TW: Anxiety, depression, death, rape, sex, abortion.

"I am a woman who lives and does everything passionately. When I love, I love hard; when I hurt, hurt badly."

It was difficult to read this book. Difficult to the point I considered stopping. It made me cry since the beginning and made me remember things I thought I was ready to let go. So, pay attention to the back cover's warning and mine: "this book might make you cry..." Even so, I regained courage and continued. Yes, I kept crying, but less this last time. The other part of the warning is also true, by the way: "{this book might] fill you with nostalgia, empower you, or even give you hope."

It's both sad and comforting to know that we are not alone when it comes to heartbreaks, even if it seems that way. Castro Mármol writes down feelings of pain and longing that we might not know how to express through letters and poems, which might seem familiar from other poets nowadays, but that have the precise words to connect directly to you, even if you are not experiencing any of these feelings.

"Eighteen Inches" is an inch-by-inch journey that shows us that love might come and go and that it can be also found again, even if it comes in a different way. I don't feel empowered or hopeful after reading it but I think it's because I'm not there yet, not because this book fails in its purpose. I'm sure that it can be just right for someone else. 

I'm eternally grateful to Mirtha, who decided to share a part of her soul to us.

I could read this book thanks to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing ;)

MIRTHA MICHELLE CASTRO MÁRMOL is a Dominican born actress and poet. At the age of five, her family migrated to Miami, Florida. She wrote her first poem at the age of six and since then cultivated a passion for poetry. She currently resides in Los Angeles, California. “Letters, to The Men I Have Loved” is her debut as an author. It consists of profound letters and poems directed to various men during different milestones in her life. Her work expresses loss, love, pain, growth, and hope.

Read More

Book Review: "break your glass slippers" by Amanda Lovelace

"fairy godmother says villains almost never look like cackling witches, cruel stepmother, or bratty stepsisters, they're so much quieter than, & i think that's what makes them so menacing. in some chapters of your storybook, you'll find them hiding everywhere -even in the faces of those you hold dearest. they never reveal their true intentions until you've already trusted them too much & just like that, everyone you know has turned into a stranger."

I read "the princess saves herself in this one" back in 2016 and I completely fell in love with Amanda Lovelace's style and, if I'm completely honest, I think that book made me change my opinion about poetry books. Even so, I didn't read the rest of "Women Are Some Kind of Magic" books, I don't know why, but I did read "to make monsters out of girls" and it made sense to me perfectly again because I was in a very bad place.

Sadly, I didn't feel any connection with this book. I love the concept, and, for some reason, I love Cinderella (Disney's Cinderella), but I felt nothing. There are a couple of verses I liked but not enough to feel the same way I felt with the previous books.

There are illustrations that fit with the poems, there are illustrations that are repeated several times, but what's worse is that there are some blank pages, which makes the price of the book insane. I think they could've tried more poems or even different illustrations to make it better.

The only reason I'm giving this book an extra star is that I can see a personal evolution in Lovelace. I'm pretty sure that she's transformed from a queen into a fairy godmother whose magic spells are actually these words specially created for broken hearts and desperate souls. 

Respect! 

I could read this book thanks to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing ;)

AMANDA LOVELACE began writing books of her own, & so she did. When she isn't reading or writing, she can be found waiting for pumpkin spice coffee to come back into season & binge-watching Gilmore Girls. (before you ask: team jess all the way). The lifelong poetess & storyteller currently lives in New Jersey with her partner, their moody cat, & a combined book collection so large it will soon need its own home. she has her B.A. in English literature with a minor in Sociology. 

Read More

Book Review: "Forgive Yourself: These Tiny Acts of Self-Destruction" by Jared Singer

"Goodbyes

are exactly like that—

no matter how ready you think

you are for them,

they always leave you with so

many things you want to say."

Reading this book wasn't what I expected. I know that reading someone else's poetry you enter in a part of their soul that is not always available to anyone else. Poetry can get very personal. It's not only a writing genre where you put words together to make them rhyme, but it's also a process where you express what you can't say with your voice in a certain moment, and I feel this process is different than writing a diary because mind and heart look for the correct words or even invent them to capture them on a piece of paper to never let them go.

Jared Singer talks about different kinds of love: the one that is romantic, the one that comes from friendship, the one that comes with one's identity and culture and self-love but also about their counterparts, like a partners' loss because love is gone, the loss of friends due to suicide or hate crimes, the loss of one's self, which happens often and can involve any of the aforementioned losses and, therefore, the need of self-destruction as well as the path to acceptance.

I'd say "TOXICITY" and "I STILL MISS YOU" were poems that felt like a bunch of slaps because they reminded me of myself. And that's the thing about poetry that differs from characters in novels. Even though these aren't your words, you can find your feelings finally expressed and that you are not the only one that thinks the same.

The only one I disagreed with was "YOUR SLEEPING PILLS." Didn't I get the point of it? Maybe. But as someone that has been in treatment for months, I can't tell myself that I don't need them. Of course, my body and mind would love not to take them, that I'd be better off without them in a certain way, but taking those pills is something that I need to get used to since what I have is not something that will ever end. Still, even with those pills, I do have those moments of self-destruction (you need to read the poem to understand such moments).

I could read this book thanks to NetGalley and Button Poetry ;)

JARED SINGER is an audio engineer and poet currently living in New Jersey. He grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, and came to maturity in Brooklyn. This life has taught Jared that both beauty and hardship will find us wherever we go, and cannot hide from either. What we can do is choose which we look for and which we focus our life around. Jared is proud to have his poems focused on joy, science, and learning from his worst moments.

Read More

Reseña de libro: "Que. Te. Jodan." de Soma

16:44

Pero la tristeza y el vacío y las lágrimas y la culpa y la vergüenza y los recuerdos y la pena y las canciones y los abismos. Siempre vuelven.

Odio a Soma y él me odia a mí. Me odia por leerlo y yo lo odio a él por tener la capacidad de poner lo que yo necesito escribirle al idiota que dijo que yo valía la pena y que después me hizo sentir como mierda pisoteada en la calle. Así que estamos a mano.

Hace unos tres días entré a la librería sin intención alguna de comprarme algo, sin embargo, me fui a la sección de poesía y este era el único ejemplar de Soma, persona a quien no conocía en absoluto pero que me atrapó con solo leer la frase "Yo no escribo poesía. La vomito". El verbo que eligió fue, sin lugar a dudas, aquello que he estado tratando de hacer con todo lo que tengo en el bendito cerebro que me maldice día y noche. Soma dice en su portada "Que. Te. Jodan." y yo le respondo: "ya lo hicieron, por eso estoy aquí, maldita sea".

Este libro "antipoético" nos muestra personalidades distintas. Aquella que desea que esa persona amada se quede y aquella que quiere que se largue, aquella que quiere que se jodan juntos, aquella que quiere solo se joda el otro y, suena asqueroso (porque esa es la idea), pero mientras el autor vomitaba su sentir, yo devoré el libro un par de veces a modo de catarsis. Lo que terminé descubriendo fue que puedo tomar frases y acomodarlas de manera que cuente mi propia historia; de hecho tuve que anotar esas que de verdad me dijeron "esa eres tú a pesar que Soma te diga en 16:28 que no sabes el dolor con que cada palabra es escogida". Se puede decir que me llegó tanto, que no pude esperar a escribir esto a pesar de tener otras reseñas pendientes. 

Siento que el autor tiene potencial para escribir más poemas y para que estos queden más caóticos sobre la hoja si se lo propone, que puede hacer travesuras con la maquetación del texto y aún más con la creación y juegos de palabras, y eso que aquí da algunos detalles excelentes, así como también muestra la creatividad al nombrar los títulos como las horas del día en que llegó a escribir cada cosa.

Las ilustraciones fueron otro punto a favor porque parecen no tener alma, como si se tratara de seres destrozados, mutilados, ciegos, sin colores brillantes. Porque la vida siempre se trata de ese blanco y negro con uno que otro tono de gris. Y sí, Soma. Las palabras quedan bonitas, lo único que me desesperó es el uso de las itálicas para las palabras en inglés, pero pues eso ya es cuestión de cada quien.

Este librito me dejó estupefacta y con el recordatorio del infinito deseo que tengo de escuchar ese 22:23, porque a lo mejor así podré encontrar lo que el autor tuvo para plasmar esa repugnancia y cansancio que muchos hemos sentido.

SOMA lleva más de dos décadas dedicándose profesionalmente a la música y desde el año 2000 es uno de los productores musicales más prestigiosos del mundo del HipHop, en el que acumula más de mil millones de reproducciones en Youtube de las canciones en las que ha trabajado. Por sus manos han pasado referentes del género como Nach, ZPU, Ambkor o Porta, con quienes realiza giras por España y Latinoamérica de forma constante.

Read More

Book Review: "Where the Sidewalk Ends" by Shel Silverstein

"Listen to the MUSN'TS, child,
Listen to the DON'TS
Listen to the SHOULDN'TS
The IMPOSSIBLES, the WON'TS
Listen to the NEVER HAVES
Then listen close to me-
Anything can happen, child, 
ANYTHING can be."

I heard about this book when I was at university. A teacher gave us the poem Hug O' War and asked us how we would translate/adapt it into Mexican Spanish -being aware that we were upon a pun and also a tiny drawing related to the text. Those kinds of translations make your brain explode, by the way, but you also have a lot of fun doing them. I don't remember how we collectively translated it, but the title of the poem and its little drawing stuck for a while. I never looked for that book, though.

Years later, I started to read small poems with drawings, Rupi Kaur style, and I found Where the Sidewalk Ends when looking for more similar works. I didn't recognize the book at first, but it caught my attention because of the funny dog on the cover. Then I turned the page and saw it: the tiny drawing of two kids hugging. Hug O' War. I had my flashback and I knew I had to read this book completely. And what a delight!

This is one of those books that you can't put down until you finish it... or at least that's what would've happened if I hadn't had an existential crisis in the middle of it. The poems are aimed for children, but I think it was written with the purpose to entertain their parents as well. I have no kids, but I was equally entertained and happy reading it... maybe I'm still a kid, I don't know, I need to ask. The texts are rhymed, have puns, have jokes, and have drawings that are also poems! If you're an adult, they transport you to your childhood and remind you of your dreams and games. If you're a kid, you laugh at their hilariousness, their sound, and their drawings.

Definitely 5 stars! And I can't wait to read it again!

SHEL SILVERSTEIN grew up in Chicago, started out as a cartoonist, publishing work in Playboy and the military publication Stars & Stripes, before turning to children’s books. Silverstein’s poems are often darkly humorous, irreverent, and populated with invented characters. Silverstein’s poems and stories are accompanied by his simple yet energetic pen-and-ink illustrations.

Read More