Book Review: Courage: Daring Poems for Gutsy Girls

When i first heard of this poetry anthology i got so very excited. Firstly, it was published by one of my favorite publishing houses, Write Bloody Publishing. Write Bloody Publishing is an independent American publishing house that publishes contemporary poetry. Secondly, the book was edited by Mindy Nettifee among Karen Finneyfrock and Rachel McKibbens. Nettifee is one of my favorite modern poets, Finneyfrock and McKibbens on the other hand are new names to me, but i thoroughly enjoyed their work in the anthology as well. And thirdly, besides Nettifee's works, the book also includes some of my other favorite poets such as Amber Tamblyn (from who's instagram i first heard about the book) and Jeanann Verlee. Lastly, America Ferrera, who i adore, said about the anthology: ”These poems are full of pain, humor, and guts. I wish this was required reading when I was in school.” If these points don't make you wanna just go and get your hands on this collection right now, then i don't know what will. Also i don't understand you. At all.

Courage: Daring Poems for Gutsy Girls
edited by Karen Finneyfrock, Mindy Nettifee, & Rachel McKibbens

Paperback
Number of pages: 180
Release Date: 28th of March 2014
Publisher: Write Bloody Publishing
Genre: Poetry
Topics: feminism, friendship, growing up, motherhood, death etc.
On Goodreads

What is it about?
Courage: Daring Poems for Gutsy Girls is pretty much the book what the title promises it to be. It is a collection of poems written by women. More so, it is a collection of the works of (in my opinion) some of the best female poets of today. The works in Courage deal with all aspects of girlhood and what it means to grow up as a woman in today's society. It tackels such issues as race, first love, feminism, being a sister and a friend, motherhood and facing misogyny & sexism.

What did I think?
It's probably given, but i absolutely loved this book! I read it out loud to myself in three nights. It is a book you could read in one sitting but i like to read poems in small proportions so that i can really feel the words and what is being said, or left unsaid. In the foreword the editors promise that the reader will leave the book with at least three new favorite poems. I think that is a massive understatement. I marked 22 poems as my favorites, and that was only cause i tried not to mark every single one (although i wanted to) since what's the point in that. This was also the first poetry book that has ever made me cry, several times. Now, i cry easily for novels or movies etc, but never has a poem made me actually cry. Several poems also punched me in the gut real hard. You know that feeling? Words have power and Courage is one of the most powerful collection of words i have ever read. But it's not all just pain and tears, there are some pretty funny stuff in it too.

Who should read it?
Everyone. If you are a young feminist woman, like i am, it will fill you with nostalgia, and hope. And a little bit of pain. If you are a teenage girl it will help you get through. And for all the men, it is a window to the minds of women, well, at least some of them. It will help you understand. Like the back of the book says, this book is for anyone who is, or has been, or knows a teenage girl. I'm pretty sure that's all of us.

Few of my favorite lines:

”But safety isn't always safe.You can find one on every gun.” 

I Sing the Body Electric , Especially When My Power's Out by Andrea Gibson 

”When your ghost leaves bleeding fog from beneath his sheet,follow him to the traffic light with your eyes. Keep your feetunderneath you whatever you do. Lock the windows.
Make sure the neighbors see it all.” 

Poem for Repelling Ghosts by Karen Finneyfrock 

”December, you are young,you have not yet learnedhow love can ruin you.You are so naïve,you can't believe,that the very thingyou sleep withcould swallow you.” 

December by Erica Miriam Fabri 

”When scars are new,They shine. Be all the glitterYou need.” 

In Case You Ever Need It, It Is Here by Daphne Gottlieb

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Check out the webpage for Courage anthology here.
Write Bloody Publishing.
Mindy Nettifee
Karen Finneyfrock
Rachel McRibben
Amber Tamblyn
Jeanann Verlee

a poem is a city filled with streets and sewers // in defense of poetry!

^Library is a reader's best friend.

I love poetry! I always have. As a child I was fascinated with rhymes. As I grew up, I got really into those angsty preteen poems that you could find from the magazines. I was a well read poetry enthusiast by the time I reached puberty. I delved into the works of Sylvia Plath and E. E. Cummings. I had a dozen note books filled with my favorite poetry, and a few filled with my own.

But I always kind of felt ashamed of my poetry enthusiasm. I didn't really read poetry in public for the fear of seeming pretentious. I hardly ever mentioned to people that I wrote my own poetry. When people declared poetry as something stupid and juvenile I would just grind my teeth and try to act nonchalant. Although such statements made me furious and I would defend poetry quietly inside my head.

^books from personal collection and borrowed from a friend

^currently reading: Selected Unpublished Blog Posts of a Mexican Panda Express Employee by Megan Boyle

Why did I feel this way? Maybe I didn't want to be seen as the cliché teenage girl writing crappy poetry and drowning herself in other poet's angst. But poetry is not juvenile or stupid. I could go into extensive feminist rant about poetry and teenage female poets and all that, but that would be a completely different post than what I set out to write (maybe I will do that rant at some point though). But I feel like being a girl had much to do with my shame. Maybe I felt like my feelings weren't valid, that the voices of the female poets I read weren't for me or that I wasn't allowed to relate to the big, important words of the male poets.

Still, here’s my long due declaration: I love poetry!

I love it because I love language. I think poetry is the purest form of magic we have. A one phrase, sometimes just one word, can make my insides turn over. Poetry makes me feel emotions I didn't even know existed.

^marking favorites in Rise of the Trust Fall by Mindy Nettifee 

^Mrs. Dahmer, a favorite from The Bones Below by Sierra DeMulder

We, humans, are not as individual as we like to think. Much of what we go through in life, the emotions we believe to be deeply personal, are actually very universal. But it’s incredibly hard to explain a feeling. We use sayings like a broken heart and feeling blue to describe how we feel to make those sentiments more clear to one and other. What poetry does so well is that it describes the universal human experiences that we think to be unique and personal to ourselves. Poetry connects us in a way that prose simply isn’t able to. I’m not saying that other forms of literature don’t move us or touch us in the same way, but rather that we relate to fiction through the characters and their experiences. In poetry we don’t always know the characters or the narrators but we relate to the words through our universal emotions.

I read for the reasons I believe we all read. We want to feel that we are not alone, that we are connected. We read so that we can feel that we belong to this world and that our thoughts and feelings are not strange or alienating. Poetry makes me feel less alone. I can relate to someone else’s emotions like they are my own. It’s the closest one can get to someone else’s mind, to being inside someone’s thoughts and feelings. It makes the world smaller. It’s magic.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
April is the National Poetry month in The United State, Canada and all over the internet.
For all things poetry, check out the Poetry Foundation.
For spoken word poetry performances, watch some of Button Poetry’s amazing videos.

Books seen on the photographs (and highly recommended!):
Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg
Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘Fore I Diie by Maya Angelou
Across the Land and Water by W. G. Sebald
Ariel by Sylvia Plath
Selected Poems by Walt Whitman
The Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over The Hills by Charles Bukowski
Selected Unpublished Blog Posts of a Mexican Panda Express Employee by Megan Boyle
The Bones Below by Sierra DeMulder
Rise of the Trust Fall by Mindy Nettifee

this life is sweeter than fiction. (i made a book blog!)

i decided to start a book blog! it's actually something i've been thinking about for a long time, but wasn't sure how to do it, or if i would do it. this blog, Sometimes my life is like Bob Dylan's 115th Dream has been around almost four years. there's never really been a concept or a clear vision for what this blog should be or what it is. it's just my personal space on the internet, where i do what ever i feel like and when ever i feel like. i know that's not the most successful model for blogging, but that's how i like to do things.

so, i'm not sure why i feel like i want to do a separate book blog. maybe because with that, it's actually easy to keep some kind of structure. maybe because it's easier to reach more people with a blog that's not all over the place. or cause it also inspires me to read more and to think about what i read and how i read when i'm also writing and talking about the books i read. and i want a place (besides sites like Goodreads) to talk about the books i've read. so, if you like books and reading and want to know what i read, take a look at my book blog. it's called Good Literature Makes Your Head Throb Heartlike (because David Foster Wallace = ♥).

if any of you know good book blogs or have one, please let me know in the comments!

Every heart is a package tangled up in knots someone else tied (color coordinating + book haul)

Reorganised my book shelf, once again. i do this way too often, simply because i can't decide what i like best. Last time the books were organised by genre, now by color. this is visually pleasing, sure, but soon enough i'll go crazy by the fact that books that should be togehter, aren't. (like all the Gatsby's or John Green books or poem collections etc.) but right now, i like it like this. also, here's a little books haul. might be the last one for a while. i've been buying books faster than i can read them and i want to catch up a little. also i need to save some money. i have pretty neat summer plans (like a trip to Dublin for a small vacation and Josh Ritter concert!) so i can't spend so much money on books. anyway, here are the books i've bought recently:

Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler
This is what i'm currently reading, and it's been pretty great so far. it's no secret i love F. Scott Fitzgerald, but i also love his wife Zelda and their amazing, yet tragic Love story. i find it really interesting. This is not a biography, but a fictionalised story of Zelda Fitzgerald as Zelda herself might have told it.

Bright's Passage by Josh Ritter
Josh Ritter is my favorite musician of all time, i'm sort of in love with him, so i am really excited to read his first novel. i've been meaning to buy it for a while and now i finally did. Josh Ritter's songs are often like epic stories and he is a storyteller first, a musician second, so i expecting a lot from this.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
i already read this book and absolutely loved it. it's one of the best book i've ever read. you can read my full review of it here.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth
i've heard a lot of good things about this one and i am really in a mood for great YA literature, so i hope this is as good as people say it is. i'll probably read it next

what books are you currently reading? 

i guess it all adds up to joy to the end. (book haul #2)

i often hear that i buy too many books, but one can never have too many books! if you run out of room you don't stop buing books, you move! these are the books i've bought in February/March, and even tho i am running out of room i refuse to stop growing my personal library. there aren't a lot of things i'd rather do than read. from this pile i've already read six books if you count The Great Gatsby's which i collect and have read more than once. some people love shoes (i'm not one of those people, i have like three pairs) and well, i love books!

i absolutely love what Penguin has done with the classics, especially everything Coraline Bickford-Smith has designed. you can check them out here. damn i need all those F. Scott Fitzgeralds.

Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Maphead: Charting The Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks by Ken Jennings

Penelope by Rebecca Harrington & A Hologram For The King by Dave Eggers

The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick & The Line of Beuty by Alan Hollinghurst & Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Collide by J.R. Lenk & Ask The Passengers by A.S. King

ave you bought or read any good books lately? also i will review all the books i've read this year at some point. promise. happy weekend everybody!

that's the way i remember her best. (book haul)

i got some great classics for Christmas with such beautiful covers. i am currently reading Pride & Prejudice and this edition is just simply beautiful, it was published by Barnes & Noble. and i think the cover of Around the World in 80 Days is just stunning. the edition of Dracula that i got is from Penguin English Library which i absolutely love. classics in paperback with beautiful covers! i'm a fan of hard covers, but my wallet likes paperbacks more, so i love when they come in these pretty editions.

then of course i had to check out the sales and buy some more books. few classics, a biography of Virginia Woolf and some YA. i have challenged myself to read 40 books this year, last year i challenged myself to read 20 books and i read 24. i also want to read more classics this year and i have decided to tackle three big ones, James Joyce's Ulysses being one of them (the others are Moby Dick and Les Misérables). i collect editions of The Great Gatsby, cause it's my favorite, and i didn't have this one so i had to buy it. also, i love me some YA, i already read both If I Stay by Gayle Forman and With Or Without You by Brian Farrey and loved them. reviews coming soon.

what book(s) are you currently reading? did you make any reading related new years resolutions?
and if anyone wants to become friends at Goodreads, that'd be nice!

i wait for you to reappear.

The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney ★★★★

Alex is a Junior in Themis Academy, a quiet, competetive boarding school in which teachers trust their students never to do wrong. And when they do, they turn a blind eye, because a Themis student never does wrong. Only Themis is not a magical world where nothing bad ever happens, just like in the outside world, immoral things happen and crimes are commited. That's why Themis Academy has The Mockingbirds, a justice system founded by the students, and executed by the students. When Alex is date raped by an other student, The Mockingbirds are who se turns to, and they help her to take a stand and fight for what's right, fight for herself.

The author of The Mockingbirds, Daisy Whitney was dated raped on her freshman year in Brown University, so she clearly knows what she's writing about. The Mockingbirds is a moving story of a girl trying to find her voice after it's been taken from her. At first the book moved quite slowly and i didn't feel cpativated by it, but as the story progressed i found my self more and more hooked. What i find really refreshing, is how Alex isn't made into a typical victim, even tho she is at loss with herself and how to cope, she begins to rebuild herself and her life. And that is something Daisy Whitney has been able to write very beautifully. It's not a story about revenge, it's a story that shows the true meaning of taking control and seeking justice.

“I don't need to be any place else, because the music takes me to the only place I want to be right now. To the place where I am and have always been wholly me, the only church I've ever belonged to, the only place I've ever prayed.” 

i don't love you, but i always will.

Crank by Ellen Hopkins 

★★★★★

Kristina has an alter-ego, her name is Bree. Bree is the opposite of Kristina, she's sexy and andventurous, she's completely fearless. Where as Kristina is a good girl, gets good grades and never gets in any trouble. When Kristina goes to visit her father one summer, she meets a boy, but instead of being her good old Kristina, Bree takes her place. The boy introduces Kristina to the monster, crystal meth, crank. And nothing in Kristina's life is the same.

Crank is the first book in the series that follows Kristina's life while she struggles with drug addiction. The interesting thing about Crank is that it's entirely written in free verse, something i didn't know when i first picked it up. But it's what makes the book so brilliant, it's beautifully written and the story just flies. It's a brutally honest narration of the world of drug addiction. It's compelling and haunting, it will keep you hooked til the very last page, leaving you wanting for more. Very much like the Crank

“Life was good
before I 
met
the monster.
After,
life
was great
At least
for a little while”

you and i are the same.

The Duff: Designated Ugly Fat Friend by Kody Keplinger

★★★★

Seventeen year old Bianca is witty and cynical. She doesn't always feel like the prettiest of her friends, but she's smart. Too smart to fall for the charms of the schools hottie Wesley, who happens to be a complete douche and only after one thing.

Then one night Wesley appoints Bianca to be the Duff of her group, The Designated Ugly Fat Friend. This gets Bianca furious and makes her hate Wesley even more. So why does she find herself kissing him and even worse, in his bed?!

Things at home are not so great for Bianca, her mother hasn't been home for months, claiming to be on a business trip. Her father, with a drinking problem, regardless he's been sober for Bianca's whole life, seems to be stuggling to stay that way. So what if Bianca uses Wesley for distraction, after all, Wesley is using her to get to her frieds, right? But Wesley turns out to be a good listener, and maybe everything's not so great in his seemingly perfect life either.

Kody Keplinger writes with a wit and honesty, her characters are complex and real. I find the main character, Bianca, very relatable. She is smart and ambitious, but also a teenager, and a person, who makes mistakes and misjudgements. The Duff is a quick and easy read, but it has a real message. It's true in a way it describes teenage relationships, sexuality, insecurities and struggles.

"I was the Duff. And that was a good thing. Because anyone who didn't feel like the Duff must not have friends. Every girl feels unattractive sometimes. Why had it taken me so long to figure that out? Why had I been stressing over that dumb word for so long when it was so simple? I should be proud to be the Duff. Proud to have great friends who, in their minds, were my Duffs."

i get a little bit bigger, but then i'll admit i'm just the same as i was.

Amelia Anne is Dead And Gone by Kat Rosenfield ★★★★★

Becca has always been a girl who makes plans, and her plan is to escape the godforsaken town of Bridgeton. But when on the night of her graduation, her boyfriend James breaks her heart and a body of a mysterious girl is found on the side of the road, everything changes. Becca lies awake at night, wondering who is the girl, how did she end up here, who was the person she saw last, the person who took her life. Beccas obsession with the girl paralyzes her and for the first time in her life she doesn't know how to move forward. Then things start to unravel towards the horrifying truth of the death of Amelia Anne.

Kat Rosenfields writing is lushious, heavy and lyrical. The death of Amelia Anne creates a Twin Peaks-esque atmospehre that sets over the town like a thick fog. The book follows Beccas last summer in Bridgeton side by side with the last day of Amelias life. We get to know the small town through Beccas eyes, the secret short cuts, the things everybody just know, like the fact that there is a red Ford tractor hidden in the water at the south end of Silver Lake. Kat Rosenfields way of describing a small town life is spot on.



Amelia Anne is Dead And Gone is a dark and mysterious story told so beautifully it sends shivers down your spine and tears into your eyes just for the sake of words combined so perfectly together. I have never read an epilogue so beautifully written than the one in this book. It's not the most original and unexpected story plot wise, but it's so compellingly written you just want to keep reading it forever, and when it's done, read it again.

"An anonymous death in a small town, that's a different thing. It makes people uneasy. They stop gossiping, talk only with trusted friends, or - realizing that nobody can truly be trusted - they don't talk at all. Instead of settling in the streets or running throught the municipal sewer system, murder moves inside. It becomes internalized. It seeps around the corners of locked front doors. It creeps into people's bedrooms. It runs in their veins.  People sit on their porches, they smoke, they look with  narrowed eyes down the darkened streets and into their neighbors' windows. Inside, murder tiptoes up the back stairs and hides behind a bedroom door. The people, alone on their porches or gathered quietly around the kitchen table, consider the unknowns. They form theories. They wait for information. And when they go inside, upstairs, when the lights go out and they lie, wakeful, in their beds, they wonder if everything has changed."

There is no sunrise so beautiful that it is worth waking me up to see it.

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling   ★★★★ 

These days everybody seems to be writing a memoir, doesn't matter if you're famous or not, have done nothing interesting with your life or don't really have anything to say. we are supposed to be interested in everyones every thought and we feel like we are entitled to have the same attention. i blame facebook. so i often don't bother with books by familiar faces from tv or movie screens, most of them don't know how to write anyway.

but Mindy Kaling's different, she's funny, witty and has her way with words, after all that's what she has won awards and gotten Emmy nominations for. (if you didn't know, she writes, produces and acts in a show called The Office.)  Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) is a set of essays of Mindys thoughts on her childhood to what makes a great best friend to one night stands and how to make an Irish Exit (don't know what that is? neither did i but i'm definitely gonna use it!). Reading Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? feels like a conversation with a friend, you laugh, agree, feel like shouting That's exactly how i feel! and at some points, might cry a little too. if you're an easy crier like me, or Mindy.

Mindy Kaling is definitely not an other Hollywood-person, trying to convince you what a struggle her life was before all the glamour. Actually, Hollywood life seems a little less glamorous from Mindys point of view, but a heck of a lot more interesting.

“Teenage girls, please don’t worry about being super popular in high school, or being the best actress in high school, or the best athlete. Not only do people not care about any of that the second you graduate, but when you get older, if you reference your successes in high school too much, it actually makes you look kind of pitiful, like some babbling old Tennessee Williams character with nothing else going on in her current life. What I’ve noticed is that almost no one who was a big star in high school is also big star later in life. For us overlooked kids, it’s so wonderfully fair.” 

That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you’re not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.

i used to be a regular bookworm, always reading something, anything really, but for the past few years i've been a very lazy reader, barely going through a book or two a year. so this year i decided to change, working in a library might have affected my urge to start reading again, and i'm really happy i did. now it's like i never stopped. my original goal was to read 20 books this year, i know it's not that much, but yet a lot more than in the previous years. i have just reached half of my goal, so i might have to aim bigger, but i'll make a decision about that when i reach the goal. anyway, here are the 10 books i've read so far.

1. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green ★★★★★

16 year old Hazel Grace Lancaste suffers from stage IV thyroid cancer, at a support group she meets Augustus Waters, who she is about to fall in love with.

2. Room by Donoghue ★★★

5 year old Jack has lived inside The Room for his whole life, her mother has lived in it ever since she was 19, when a man that Jack knows as Old Nick kidnapped her and put her there.

3. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald ★★★★★

In the summer of 1922 Nick Carraway moves to Long Island and in tthe gigantic mansion next to him, lives a mysterious man called Jay Gatsby who  throws extravagant parties every Saturday night.

4. Bang Ditto by Amber Tamblyn ★★★★★
Amber Tamblyn's second collection of poems paints a picture of what it's like to be a young woman in Hollywood.

5. Devil's Knot by Mara Leveritt ★★★★★
The true story of the trials that convicted three innocent teenagers for murdering three 8 year old boys.

6. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins ★★★
In the ruins of a place that was once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, divided to 12 districs. each year one boy and one girl from ages 12 to 18 from each district is forced to participate in a deathly game that only one can survive, called The Hunger Games. 16 year old Katniss Everdeen volunteers to take her younger sisters place in the games.

7. Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares ★★★★★

The familiar characters of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series, Tibby, Lena, Bee and Carmen are reaching their 30's and life's all figured out, or is it.

8. The Perks of Being a Wallflower ★★★★★

Charlie stats his first year of high-school, kind of terrified and writes letter about his life to an uknown person.

9. Ihanasti Hukassa ja Miten Sieltä Pääsee Pois by Merja Mähkä ★★★★

Merja was in her 30’s when she decided to pack her bags and go for the ultimate packbaging trip that lasted a year and a half and covered 35 countries.

10. Rupture by Simon Lelic ★★★
history teacher Samuel Szajkowski walks into a school assembly with a gun and murders three students and a colleague before killing himself. Detective Lucia May gets assigned to what should be an open-and-shut case, but something in the case troubles her, and she starts to look deeper into it.


what books have you read so far?

there's something in the way the street looks when it's just rained.

Things i'm enjoying right now:

• Reading so many books at the same time i sometimes get confused by who's who and what's what.
• The little spots of ground without snow! also known as the Beginning of Spring.
• Drawing into my new scetchbook 642 Things To Draw!
• More books, the said scetchbook, currently focusing on reading Devil's Knot, studying english!

Some infinities are bigger than other infinities.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
★★★★★ 

First, let me tell you a two parted background story of how it was possible for John Green to write this novel. And how, in my opinnion, it was possible for him to do it so well.
About ten years ago, John worked as a student chaplain at a children's hospital where he had to face young people with cancer and other serious diseases. This made him to want to write a story that would honestly embody what these kids are really alike. We are often told that kids with cancer are these fountains of wisdom, wise beyond their years when in fact, sick kids are a lot like other people.
The second part of the story that made John Green able to write his book came in 2008 when he met Esther Earl, a girl who was a reader of John's books and who died of cancer. John has said that it was knowing her that made him possile to write this story. (Tho you must realize that Hazel is not Eshter. TFiOS is pure fiction.)

The Fault in Our Stars tells a story of a sixteen year old girl, Hazel Grace Lancaste who suffers from stage IV thyroid cancer, that has made her attached to an oxygen tank for the past three years. Her condition is terminal and all of her treatments are just for prolonging her life. At a support group Hazel meets Augustus Waters, a beautiful boy who is about to change her life, as well as she is about to change his.


John Green has written an honest, moving and incredibly funny book that shows kids with cancer exactly how John wanted it to, a very much like all the other people. The Fault in Our Stars is witty and devastating and no other book has ever made me laugh nor cry as much. I find it hard to write this review, since i wanna respect Johns wishes to keep everyone spoiler free, which i do find important for the book to have the Magic i expericend when first reading it. It is an important book that i recommend everyone to read, it might just make you see life for what it is. It's like when in Doctor Who the Doctor says:

Every life is a pile of good things and bad things. The good things don't always soften the bad things, but vice versa, the bad things don't necessarily spoil the good things, and make them unimportant.

Hazel and Augustus really added to each others piles of good things, and i guess, that's all we can hope for, to have people to make our lives worthwhile.