I kept seeing posts on Instagram like the one below. Who is this Rupi Kaur I would say? making a mental note to look up the poet. I would forget until another poem would appear on my feed. When I finally did my homework, I immediate ordered Milk and Honey, Kaur’s first collection of poems.
Milk and Honey…that sounds nice
this is the journey of
surviving through poetry
this is the blood sweat tears
of twenty-one years
this is my heart
in your hands
this is
the hurting
the loving
the breaking
the healing
– rupi kaur
The poem above is featured on the back of the book and is a brief synopsis of the book. Do not let the brevity of the poems fool you. Rupi’s poems are experiences. They are honest. Kaur breaks her book into four parts: thehurting, the loving, thebreakingand thehealing.
Review: Milk and Honey – Rupi Kaur
The Hurting
The hurting touches on topics of rape, sexual abuse, and abusive parenting. It describes feelings of emptiness and suppression, however, also the ability to transcend the hurt with kindness. It describes the fractured relationship left as a result of abuse.
you have sadness
living in places
sadness shouldn’t live
The Loving
The loving section of Milk and Honey is about love, hope, sex, intimacy, women’s bodies and being consumed by a relationship.
you might not have been my first love
but you were the love that made
all the other loves
irrelevant.
The Breaking
The breaking is about heartbreak, the bitter aspects of relationships, and relationships that break you down or cause to be someone you aren’t.
i am a museum full of art
but you had your eyes shut
The Healing
The healing is about loving yourself, openness and kindness. It’s about celebrating and supporting other women’s successes and celebrating feminine beauty in all its different colors, shapes and sizes.
Dear bookworm, whether you prefer the beach or the pool, you know there’s nothing like having a great book to keep you entertained. Here are a few I plan to check off my list this summer:
Have you read The Girl On The Train? If yes, then know the suspense and mystery that will wrapped in this one. In Into the Water. a single mother turns up dead at the bottom of a river and her teenage daughter knows that there’s more to the story than suicide. I can’t wait to crack this one open!
Think Devil Wears Prada with as a thriller. Here’s the synopsis: A high-powered fashion editor dies in her office, her best friend / work wife Cat knows that it wasn’t because of something she ate (or, in this case, didn’t eat). Cat enlists the help of a detective and they get on the case — which winds the duo up in a web of sex, lies, and makeup counter madness.
For The Bookworm That Loves YA Fiction and a Little Romance
I’m a big fan of the first two books in the To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before series: To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before and P.S. I Still Love You. So I’m excited to revisit all of these characters sipping frosé by the pool. Start with the first book and you’ve got a summer series.
Ace included Between The World and Me on her summer reading list and it’s also on mine. However, I thought I’d give you a classic option to consider. The Fire Next Time was originally a letter, written by Baldwin to his nephew on the 100th anniversary of the “emancipation” of black America and is completely relevant today.
“The impossible is the least that one can demand.”
― James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time
This is a funny pool read that plays out like a E! True Hollywood story and is written by Hillary Liftin who is a ghostwriter that specializes in celebrity memoirs.
I am always Team Book. I will always be Team Book. However, I do like to see the screen adaptations of the books I read. I have to read the book first though. I’ll wait until a movie is available on DVD, rather than view the screen adaption before getting a change to read the book. I’ve got a few book-to-screen adaptations I’m looking forward to in my list below. You will not find the new 50 Shades movie here because I think the book is trash. To be clear, it’s not the “sexy” content that I think is trash, it’s the awful writing.
#TeamBook: 7 Book-To-Screen Adaptations To Look Forward To This Year
I joined the Show Your Blog Love Book Club and Big Little Lies is the book we’re reading for February. My book was just delivered last Friday and It’s a page turner. The HBO miniseries premieres this weekend and I don’t think I’ll be finished in time to watch it live, but I’m off on Monday and don’t plan on leaving the couch much. 🙂
Premieres: February 19, 2017
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Alexander Skarsgård, Shailene Woodley and Zoë Kravitz
Synopsis:Big Little Lies follows three women: Madeline, Celeste, and Jane, each at a crossroads. The book is a brilliant take on ex-husbands and second wives, mothers and daughters, schoolyard scandal, and the dangerous little lies we tell ourselves just to survive.
Before I Fall was recommended to me by a fellow bookworm. The premise reminds me of If I Stay which was also became a book-to-screen adaptation. Before I Fall been sitting on my Kindle for a few months now, but I plan to tackle it after Big Little Lies.
Coming to theaters: March 3, 2017
Starring: Zoey Deutch, Halston Sage, Logan Miller
Synopsis: Samantha Kingston has it all: looks, popularity, the perfect boyfriend. Friday, February 12, should be just another day in her charmed life. Instead, it turns out to be her last. The catch: Samantha still wakes up the next morning. Living the last day of her life seven times during one miraculous week, she will untangle the mystery surrounding her death—and discover the true value of everything she is in danger of losing.
In one semester of English, in either my freshman or sophomore year of college, (why does this feel like such a long time ago), my professor constructed a WWII unit. In addition to having us all watch Life Is Beautiful, she introduced us to this book.
Coming to theaters: March 31
Starring: Jessica Chastain, Daniel Brühl, Johan Heldenbergh
Synopsis: A true story in which the keepers of the Warsaw Zoo saved hundreds of people from Nazi hands. After their zoo was bombed, Polish zookeepers Jan and Antonina Zabinski managed to save over three hundred people from the Nazis by hiding refugees in the empty animal cages.
I saw this book continuously being recommended in my book clubs and I’ve always wanted to read it, especially after I found out it inspired the Choose Kind Movement, an anti-bullying campaign. I recently saw the trailer and I just can’t say no to a Julia Roberts movie. So the book makes my list.
Coming to theaters: April 7, 2017
Starring: Julia Roberts, Owen Wilson, Jacob Tremblay
Synopsis: August Pullman was born with a facial difference that, up until now, has prevented him from going to a mainstream school. Starting 5th grade at Beecher Prep, he wants nothing more than to be treated as an ordinary kid—but his new classmates can’t get past Auggie’s extraordinary face.
This is probably the book-to-screen adaptation I’m the most excited about. If you liked The Fault In Our Stars, you’ll love Everything, Everything.Seriously if you don’t tear up watching the trailer, you’re a monster — and not one of Lady Gaga’s.
Coming to theaters: May 19
Starring: Amandla Stenberg, Nick Robinson, Anika Noni Rose
What it’s about: A quarantined girl who’s allergic to basically everything and everyone falls in love with the boy next door, who becomes the biggest risk she’s ever taken.
Here’s my disclaimer. You’re either going to laugh at me at the end of this post or totally hate me for bringing back some repressed feelings of grief for fictional characters that you may have finally made peace with. My apologies. I read a lot and I watch a lot of TV. Because of this, I’ve got a lot of thoughts and feelings about fictional characters. I’ve shared a few of my fictional crushes, but I need to process some heavier emotions.
Raise your hands if you’ve ever grieved a fictional death?
Yup, I’m going there. On Sunday The Walking Dead gut punched me and countless others as they brutally killed off two amazing characters. One in particular hurt like hell. Glenn Rhee, the beautiful soul and father-to-be, who in my opinion was the true soul of the show was snatched from our screens. He managed to utter four beautiful last words to the love of his life and from the mass hysteria spreading across the interwebs you would have thought a real person died. I’ve read the comics and knew that Glenn was going to meet his fate. That didn’t make watching Denny Duquette Negan beat Glenn to a pulp any easier. But he’s not even, real!, you say. Uh, I know that, but he’s been gracing my screen for seven years. I’ve watched his character grow and evolve. Suddenly, he’s gone. Can’t a girl feel a sense of loss?
I’m sure every fandom has a few fictional deaths they’ll never let go of. Hell, I’m still angry at Rose for being selfish and not sharing that wardrobe door with Jack. Empathy and sympathy are phenomena we experience almost daily in our dealings with others, and they play key roles in the way we respond to fictional characters.
“These characters are an escape from some of the stresses of life,” he said. “Watching these shows allows you to decompress and not have to think about things for a little while. You’re exposed to different aspects of the characters’ lives — their losses, their loves and their own griefs, everything that goes into the human condition — and you eventually begin to empathize with them and form an attachment. We see some of ourselves in them.”
Because of these emotional bonds we form watching certain characters, it’s perfectly understandable that we mourn their loss when they die on a show, Rowney continued.
Let me start by saying this isn’t in any particular order and I’m leaving Glenn off this list.
1. Poussey Washington, Orange Is The New Black
Poussey’s death was spoiled for me because I had the audacity not to watch all the episodes the day they were released on Netflix. I hope you read that in the most sarcastic tone ever. However, it still hurt, especially with the recent deaths of black people by the hands of law enforcement.
2.The Young Ones, The Hunger Games
Primose Everdeen and sweet, innocent Rue. Lawddd why?! I know the tributes are going to die, but I closed my book/shutdown my Kindle when we lost little Rue. To make matters worse, Prim’s death is the reason Katniss chooses Peeta – which I wholeheartedly disagree with.
3. Jen Lindley, Dawson’s Creek
I became a puddle of tears watching Jen Lindley record a goodbye video for her daughter. Also, can we talk about the choice of having Sarah McLachlan’s Angel play during this scene- like we weren’t already suffering.
Dear John Green: The Fault In Our Stars was already sad then you riddled Gus with cancer and gave us this eulogy from Hazel.
“I can’t talk about our love story, so I will talk about math. I am not a mathematician, but I know this. There is an infinite between 0 and 1. There’s .1 and .12 and .112 and an infinite collection of others. Of course there is a bigger infinite set of numbers between 0 and 2, or between 0 and a million. Some infinities are bigger than other infinities. A writer we used to like taught us that. There are days, many days of them, when I resent the size of my unbounded set. I want more numbers than I’m likely to get, and God, I want more numbers for Augustus Waters than he got. But, Gus, my love, I cannot tell you how thankful I am for our little infinity. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. You have me a forever within the numbered days, and I’m grateful.”
9. Tris Prior, The Divergent Series
I’m still not convinced this death had to happen. Veronica Roth, get at me girl. I need to chat with you about this one.
If none of these fictional deaths registered with you shame on you I’m going to give you one more chance to prove you’re not heartless.
10. Mufasa from the Lion King
I hope the sadistic Disney writer who suggested this particular scene is proud of himself. I am 27 years old and Mufasa’s death is still one of the most tragic things I’ve ever seen.
Hmm, I may have to make a Part Two of this list. Which fictional deaths would you add to this list? Leave a comment below.
I was never an English major. I can’t discuss Sylvia Path or Kafka at length. Pride and Prejudice is my favorite Jane Austen book and I’ve been told (by lit snobs majors) that this makes me basic. *Kanye shrug* I love books!! I have fictional crushes on literary characters. I have a Kindle, but I love and use my library card like I’m trying to earn frequent flyer miles. I refuse to see a movie unless I’ve read the novel it’s based on first Basically this is me:
Back in undergrad, I started writing down some of my favorite quotes or passages from literature. I now have a few notebooks of these fantastic book quotes and I wanted to share a few with you all (with some of my commentary 🙂 ).
Memorable Book Quotes
Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. “Pooh?” he whispered. “Yes, Piglet?”
“Nothing,” said Piglet, taking Pooh’s hand. “I just wanted to be sure of you.” — A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh
“’Why did you do all this for me?’ he asked. ‘I don’t deserve it. I’ve never done anything for you.’ ‘You have been my friend,’ replied Charlotte. ‘That in itself is a tremendous thing.’” —E.B. White, Charlotte’s Web
I couldn’t pick just one quote from Maya Angelou’s I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings.
Sorry, not sorry.
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
“Life is going to give you just what you put in it. Put your whole heart in everything you do, and pray, then you can wait.”
― Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
I love John Green. Sue me.
“You can love someone so much… But you can never love someone as much as you miss them.”— John Green, An Abundance of Katherines
“She was beautiful, but not like those girls in the magazines.
She was beautiful, for the way she thought.
She was beautiful, for the sparkle in her eyes when she talked about something she loved.
She was beautiful, for her ability to make other people smile, even if she was sad.
No, she wasn’t beautiful for something as temporary as her looks.
She was beautiful, deep down to her soul. She is beautiful.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and Damned
“Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I’m not living.”
—Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
I’m always looking for new reads. What are some of your favorite passages or quotes from books? Leave a comment below.
Review: Milk and Honey – Rupi Kaur
Before I Fall was recommended to me by a fellow bookworm. The premise reminds me of If I Stay which was also became a book-to-screen adaptation. Before I Fall been sitting on my Kindle for a few months now, but I plan to tackle it after Big Little Lies. 
I saw this book continuously being recommended in my book clubs and I’ve always wanted to read it, especially after I found out it inspired the 
Here’s my disclaimer. You’re either going to laugh at me at the end of this post or totally hate me for bringing back some repressed feelings of grief for fictional characters that you may have finally made peace with. My apologies. I read a lot and I watch a lot of TV. Because of this, I’ve got a lot of thoughts and feelings about fictional characters. I’ve shared a few of my 
