Book of the Month: The Sun and Her Flowers

Hayy book of the month, my favorite! I missed it last month and may overcompensate by having two books this month. Let's see. The book featured today is by Rupi Kaur, The Sun and Her Flowers.  It's a collection of poems divided into five chapters: Wilting, Falling, Rooting, Rising, and Blooming. It has themes of love, loss, immigration, motherhood, heartbreak, trauma, equality, sexual assault. Yes, all of it.



Some people might find the book too all over the place, but that's what makes it endearing in my opinion. It's a very emotional book because I think the author really digs deep to write the poems. But isn't that the problem with poetry sometimes? That it can too easily come off as corny or as trying too hard. Honestly though I didn't feel that way with this book.  I think it's smooth and the author is quite talented. Some words jump out to me and I will emphasize them in this post of course. Know that this is also a very, very easy book to read, and you can be done in days even if you're the slowest reader ever. Some of the poems, you gotta pause and think. Many others, you just keep flipping through. I posted a lot of the words on Instagram. Speaking of Instagram, follow the blog(!!). I really have been posting a lot there these days.


Oh I forgot, it has nice drawings that accompany the poems too, which make them really artistic. And I think I'm supposed to warn that some of the content were a little bit too much; too graphic and I would certainly not recommend the book to a minor or frankly, neither would I recommend it to an adult struggling through emotional and mental issues. It requires a LOT of trigger warnings so just be aware of that. The interesting part is I'm told it is with this collection she demonstrates self-love and growth. Apparently, previous collections were even darker so LOL.


The above was definitely one of my favorite poems in the book. I think a lot of people (particularly immigrants from parts of Africa and perhaps Asia) are not raised to be assertive the way our American (ahem white) counterparts were. She raises a very valid point: how can a person verbalize consent as an adult if they were never taught as a child. If a child was always told they had no say; if a child was never allowed to partake in conversations because "adults are talking"; if a child was never allowed to have debates and challenge the positions of the "adults"; how can they be expected to embody any of these skills? They will always view people in authority as demigods. And the facts have it: many immigrants are never able to speak up in class to contribute; they find it hard to negotiate salaries, and are usually less assertive.


Another important theme was immigration.



A third theme I was absolutely in love with was feminism. She tackles matters of equality and womanhood in a way that made you embrace your femininity, yet embrace your power and agency.


In a nutshell, she was very raw, honest, and open, and it certainly made for better poems. Oh also, shout out to my lovely friend R, who gave me this as a birthday gift. Thanks girl!

Love,

I

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