Juliet Takes A Breath || A Book Review

I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This book was released January 2016. So it should already be on some bookshelves somewhere, and I hope it finds space on even more shelves in the coming years.

This novel follows Juliet Milagros Palante from the Bronx to a summer internship in Portland Oregon with the author of her favorite book. While in Portland she plans on figuring out this whole “Puerto Rican lesbian” thing, and how to get her mother to talk to her again after coming out to the whole family at dinner. This novel is a coming of age story, that deals with white feminism and finding space in queer communities as a POC.

Take Me With You || A Book Review

I received a galley of this collection of poems from PENGUIN GROUP Blue Rider Press & Plume through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This collection is set for publication on January 23, 2018.

I will start by saying that if you are even a casual “I saw this piece in a Button Poetry youtube video” fan of Andrea Gibson and their work. You should get your hands on this collection ASAP. Andrea Gibson is an award-winning poet and activist from Calais, Maine. Their poetry focuses on gender norms, politics, social reform, and LGBTQ issues. The galley description states: “For readers of Rupi Kaur (Milk and Honey) and Atticus (Love Her Wild), a book small enough to carry with you, with messages big enough to stay with you from one of the most quotable and influential poets of our time.” And that feels like an apt description. This collection is divided into three sections and is full of one-liners, couplets, and long-form poems and each of them what made me fall in love all over again with Gibson’s work.

This review might be overshadowed by the fact that while reading this galley in the breakroom at work, I almost started crying because Gibson’s poetry knows how to cut at my baby-queer heart.