Violet Bent Backwards Over The Grass by Lana Del Rey
As someone who listens to Lana Del Rey's music, these poems are a perfect balance of what you’d expect from her while also seeing new parts and perspectives of Lana which are not always seen in her songs. Her poems have the feminine and nostalgic touch of her songs and her intimate and raw descriptions of California are like a love letter to the state. The only one thing that slightly threw me off when reading this book is the number of pictures in the book, some not even taken by Lana. Although these photos are beautiful I feel many of them are very similar to each other and not needed. They also take up a lot of space in the book, I’d say close to one-third of the book is just photos. My personal favorite poems in this book are “Violent Bent Backwards over the Grass”, “what happened when I left you”, and “Never To Heaven”. Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who does enjoy her music or people who like reading poems about women's emotions, perspectives, experiences, and the female gaze.
Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
Rupi Kaur’s Milk and Honey is Rupi’s experiences before, during and after a relationship. The book is divided into four different chapters; the hurting, the loving, the breaking, and the healing. All of Rupi’s poems are mainly based on her experiences with her family, men, society, and her body as a woman of color. Rupi makes a connection with the reader due to how raw and vulnerable the poems in this book are but personally, I feel that many of the “poems” are just sentences separated into different stanzas with no deeper meaning and a lot of her word choices felt very amateur. Many of her poems also just felt like quotes you’d see as captions on those “motivational” Instagram accounts and the amount of blank space left in pages due to little writing is criminal. After reading this book I feel it is most appropriate for teenagers and anyone older due to some of its mature topics. But overall, although this book has a beautiful message about expressing femininity, healing, and being comfortable with yourself I feel many of the poems are very amateur and I expected more from this book since I had heard so much about it. Which is why I personally would not recommend this book.
Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo
Clap when you land is about two sisters Camino and Yahaira Rios, who lose their dad in a tragic airplane crash. Camino lives with her aunt in the Dominican Republic and only sees her dad in the summers while Yahaira lives with their dad and her mom in New York. The sisters don’t know about each other but unexpectedly connect after their dad’s death. This book is written through poems of each of the sister’s different cultures, and perspectives through the process of grieving their father, finding out about each other, and growing from that and having a relationship. Although it is written in poems the book is very easy to follow and understand. The characters are fiction but American Airlines Flight 587 was a real flight coming from the Dominican Republic which crashed in Queens, New York. The book has a beautiful message of growing from grief and healing while also building relationships with others. It celebrates Dominican culture and Latina women while also touching light on the teenage experience as a Latina girl. This book is most appropriate for anyone who is a pre-teen or above and wants an enrichening experience of Latin culture and grief.
Where the Sidewalk Ends By Shel Silverstein
I will always have a special place in my heart for Shel Silverstein’s “Where the Sidewalk Ends” since this was the first poetry book I ever read. Silverstein’s fun and youthful poems mixed with his quirky and engaging illustrations create a world of its own full of happiness, madness and innocence. “Where the Sidewalk Ends” is the perfect poetry book for young children but it can be enjoyed by all ages. There is something very genuine and special about Shel Silverstein’s writing which I have never even seen closely replicated by any other poet or in any other poem not written by him. His creativity is beyond incomparable and I wholeheartedly believe his writing and his poems are one of a kind which is why I recommend everyone read a Shel Silverstein book at least once in their life. My personal favorite poems from this book are “Forgotten Language”, “Listen to the Musn’ts”, and “No Difference”.
