The Beauty and Long Life of Poetry
THE BEAUTY AND LONG LIFE OF POETRY – After Rain a Little Girl Straightening Worms The poems in this collection are selected from a lifetime of Florence Miller’s work. Born in New Jersey in 1922, Miller moved to Berkeley during the sixties and made a name for herself as a Bay Area poet. After Rain […]
Acquainted with the Cold
Two strangers meet at a bar in the dead of winter: We can’t stop/erasing the ghost between our bodies, leaving//our mouths’ lost words all over/one another, whoever we are. Taken from the poem, “Mysterious Origin,” these lines invite us to explore the multiple facets of identity in Lexa Hillyer’s debut collection. Winner of the 2011 […]
The Weather and Our Tempers
The vortex exists, and poetry is one place to find it. It is a phenomenon that occurs when a single image triggers a memory from personal experience. This is what brings depth to Townsend’s verse. In her debut collection, The Weather and Our Tempers, we find language that is much more dense than it appears […]
Shameless and Plotting Temporality
Tell me something I don’t know. It’s a good conversation starter whether you’re engaging with another person or, in this context, a poem. As I reader, I get the most thrill out of a poem that directs my attention to something I’ve never noticed before. This is what you can expect from Shameless and Plotting […]
At Ease in the Borrowed World
AT EASE IN THE BORROWED WORLD Turn to the last page of At Ease in the Borrowed World and you will find an important piece of advice: Whatever you’ve brought, set aside. / This is enough. These words preface the state of mind that we are called to occupy before entering At Ease in the […]
The House on Mango Street
The House on Mango Street: 25th Anniversary Edition What purpose does art serve? What inspires you to practice your craft? These are questions that aspiring artists confront at some point in their lives, and it is affirming to read answers from mature, experienced voices. During my time as an undergraduate, no work of literature has […]
Elseplace
Our lives are infused with more poetry than we may think—recurring memories that unfold like refrains; the analogies we turn to as we struggle to understand a difficult situation; and the hopeful words we utter like a mantra for healing. These are the words we find in Elseplace, the debut collection of poet and educator Laurie […]
Rituals Rhapsody in Blood Vol. One
Rituals is the first of four volumes in a modern odyssey by Roz Kaveney. Along with Neil Gaiman and Mary Gentle, Kaveney was one of the core members of the Midnight Rose Collective, a group of science fiction and fantasy writers based in the United Kingdom. Her background as a cultural commentator and poet manifests on […]
If There is Something to Desire
Looking for a collection of poetry is like trying to figure out what you’re hungry for. When I visited Sundance Books to kick off my reading list for the new year, I realized I wanted to gorge myself on spicy verse—lines with sharp wit and bold sentiment. I had to look no further than the […]
Eyes, Stones
Eyes, Stones is the winner of the Academy of American Poets’ 2011 Walt Whitman Award, an honor given to American poets who have not previously published a book of poems. In her debut collection, Elana Bell examines the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the voices of different characters. Among them is Zosha, Bell’s grandmother and […]
Why Read or Buy Poetry?
If you don’t dress in black or hang out in coffeehouses, why would you want to read poetry? I mean really, you squeaked through all those high school English classes and managed to overcome a college survey course in world lit, so why would you now want to read poetry again? Unless you are a […]
You’re Never Too Old for Romance or Ballads
Ah, youth! Booking’ with Sunny is very fortunate to have reviewers who are chronologically closer to YA books than I will ever be. You don’t have to be a kid to read YA, but reviewing a teen romance in the fantasy range is way out of my comfort zone, or so I thought. I’ve just […]
Sailing Alone Around the Room
Do you avoid poetry because it is something you were always told to decode? If so, you may be one of many who’ve contracted FOP (fear of poetry). In his poem, Introduction to Poetry, Collins sums up written verse as many of us are taught to approach it: …all they want to do/is tie the […]
Welcome to Our New Reviewers
Bookin’ with Sunny is pleased to introduce two of our newest book reviewers: Dan Erwine: Dan holds a BS in Telecommunications, San Diego State University and recently retired after four decades in radio broadcasting. His background includes San Diego stations KFSD and NPR’s KPBS, and KUNR in Reno, NV. Over the years, Dan has produced and hosted […]