March Reading Recap

I had a hankering for poetry all March long and you'll see that reflected in my reading choices for the month. I read six books, primarily poetry and a particularly unique graphic novel. Without further ado, these are my recommendations that I read in March.

Rare Flavours by Ram V and Filipe Andrade

The colors and art style caught my eye at the library, but the characters are what pulled me in once I started reading this graphic novel. This is a story about a demonic deity who wishes to be the next Anthony Bourdain, traveling the world in search of humanity's flavors. He wants to make a film, and so he ropes in an amateur filmmaker who has lost his spark for the art. The art style is fresh and engaging; the colors are saturated and beautiful. The prose made me pause and reread them multiple times. This book celebrates humanity's flavors and what makes us human, or demon, or otherwise. It was wonderful read with a fun energy and engaging storytelling.

Craft: Stories I wrote for the Devil by Amanda Lima

This is a short story collection about being a writer, being an immigrant, and being a person today. The narrator claims to have slept with the devil at a Halloween party back in the nineties, and that is where we begin. This short story collection explores what it means to be an immigrant in America, to have family far from you, and how that identity factors into your life. The writing is poignant and unique. My favorite story from the collection is titled "Idle Hands", it is about a maid who works in a hospital who can't help but visit the vending machine. In the vending machine are miniature packaged Americans, wrapped in thin plastic. She tries to stop, vending machine food is so bad for you, but she can't. It was the kind of story that sticks with you for a good long while after you read it.

Whale Day and other poems by Billy Collins

I studied some of Billy Collins's work in my high school creative writing classes but have never picked up any of his poetry books. Admittedly, the cover is what caught my eye and made me want to read it. Which is the purpose of a cover design, I suppose. This book made me smile the whole time I was reading it. Billy Collins has a wonderful way of surprising you with his poetry. It's playful even when it's serious. He is able to lull the reader in a comfortable expectation and then turn it around right at the end. I was making note of all the poems that made me smile in my journal, and I realized I had written down nearly half the book. Two of the ones I wrote down are "And it's raining outside, which always adds" (pg. 8-9), and "Sleeping on my side" (pg.12).

I Was Working poems by Ariel Yelen

This is a quick but fun read. It balances the dissatisfaction of modern office life with playful and comedic language. It is sarcastic in many of the poems, leaning into the absurdity of modern office work. And then it turns around and lays out the struggle of being entrenched in the absurdity with no practical way out. If you're feeling trapped in your work or disconnected with the reality of having to go to work every day, I would recommend this poem collection. It is refreshing when the absurdity is pointed out, when someone else recognizes it and feels the same way. It is a wonderful commentary on modern work culture while not being too heavy, which is ideal for someone who may be burdened with the lived experience of said work culture.

Brute poems by Emily Skaja

Once again, I was suckered in by a cover design. What gripped me was the dog's expression. There's tension around the eyes, the ears are pulled back, and its position is hunched low to the ground. It is clearly fearful, or at the very least, anxious. It's an enormous wolf-like dog in comparison with the relative size of the hand in its mouth. The implication of the animal being scared of something so small reaching into its mouth (presumably the most dangerous part of itself), was a fascinating concept. The poems within dealt with the concepts of self-empowerment, breaking from abusive relationships, and finding yourself again afterward.

April is Arab American Heritage Month, so I have a few books lined up that explore themes of Arab American heritage and experiences. These books have been on my to-read list for a while so I'm excited to finally get around to them.

If you end up reading any of the books I've recommended on my monthly recaps, please leave a comment with what you thought of them. I am always excited to talk about them. Along with that, if there are any books you would recommend, please leave the title and author in the comments. I'm always looking for variety and new narratives to explore. And as always, thank you for reading :)