#PoetryMatters Day 31: #Stew

#MayMontage Day 31: An ironic #NatlSmileDay with the missing mouth in this fascinating cover of RF Kuang‘s book. Bound to be my 5th Kuang novel for this year. Thrilled to finally get my hands on this one.

#PoetryMatters Day 30: #Sterile

#MayMontage Day 30: #IntlJazzDay - this story told in verse revolves mainly around a famous photograph published in Esquire magazine in 1958, featuring American jazz. Art Kane did not even own a camera at the time, but pitched the idea of gathering as many jazz musicians as he could in front of a Harlem brownstone. My full review: https://wp.me/pDlzr-iUK

#PoetryMatters Day 29: #Step

#MayMontage Day 29: For #MemorialDay, I am sharing photographs I have taken of the Neue Wache (English: New Guardhouse) in Berlin back in 2017 which serves as the “Central #Memorial of the Federal Republic of Germany for the Victims of War and Dictatorship”. More here: https://wp.me/pDlzr-eG5

#PoetryMatters Day 27: #Stem

#MayMontage Day 28: #Water - The book begins with questions. Written in verse, this is a story that cannot be told in prose. Poetry distils the essence of pain, courage, wisdom – the enormity of emotions unbound, in rhythm and heartbeat. There is unmatched power here that started off with shame transformed into discovered joy in one‘s unexplored ancestry. My review: https://wp.me/pDlzr-pf2

#MayMontage Day 27: A story that spans 3 generations of Arab women seems the perfect fit for #GirlPower or #WomenPower. Book club pick of the month for the Emirates Lit foundation. Better start cracking with this one. Paired with the local cheese mousse in Romania - telemea cheese from sadu, beet powder, crispy charcoal flavored cheese with caraway seeds, fresh radishes and chlorophyll oil; and kohlrabi cream soup with nettle and poached egg.

#PoetryMatters Day 26: #Stellar

#MayMontage Day 26: A Picasso-like #FaceOnCover. Reader in Romania overlooking the famous Bridge of Lies in Sibiu.

#PoetryMatters Day 25: #Steer

#MayMontage Day 25: “Maybe Death Isn‘t Darkness After All, But So Much Light Wrapping Itself Around Us” #Dark.
More here: https://wp.me/pDlzr-l1k

#PoetryMatters Day 24: #Steep

#MayMontage Day 24: Liquid #Therapy (lemon mint for me and margarita for ze husband) as I read Cărtărescu while in Romania this week for a transnational research meeting. 💕

#PoetryMatters Day 23: #Steed

#MayMontage Day 23: In this book, the reader gets introduced to Marcus Brutus (assassin of Roman Leader Julius Caesar), Charles VI of France (who “suffered from a strange illness that caused his hair and nails to fall out” p. 20), Queen Victoria and Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria. #VictoriaDay. My full review: https://wp.me/pDlzr-1Q7

#PoetryMatters Day 22: #Steam

#MayMontage Day 22: #GlovesOnCover. As Iphigene wrote in her comprehensive review: “It is the seemingly (or supposedly) dark, cruel and violent story that makes these moments stand out and makes the point even more poignant and even more profound. After all, we only do appreciate the good things in life when we‘ve seen the ugliness it has to offer.” More here: https://wp.me/pDlzr-2fO

Just arrived last night in the country of Mircea Cărtărescu‘s “Nostalgia”. Started reading this while in a 12 hour layover in Istanbul - the lounge was absolutely perfect with shower facilities and never-ending buffet that gets replenished every so often.

#PoetryMatters Day 21: #Stealth

#MayMontage Day 21: This picturebook portrays #Incarceration quite movingly. The shame, the guilt, the anger are all treated here with a light-feather touch that never felt contrived or heavy-handed. My full review: https://wp.me/pDlzr-pej

#PoetryMatters Day 20: #Steal - posting a day early since traveling early tomorrow.

#MayMontage Day 20: Posting a day early since will be traveling. There were #ArmedForcesDay in some of the places the overlanders went to with checkpoints and visa issues. What a trip!

#PoetryMatters Day 19: #Steak

MayMontage Day 19: #Letters - May you find a kindred somewhere out there in the world who would capture your soul in the same way that Lemony Snicket expressed his undying love to the lovely Baticeer Extraordinaire, Beatrice – through word play, silence knots, and utterly absurd and senseless declarations of shining devotion. Full feature here: https://wp.me/pDlzr-Pq

#MayMontage Day 18: one of the protagonist‘s name here is Queenie, thus #Queen. Paired with Nando‘s kunafa cheese cake (may be available only here in this part of the world) and watermelon mocktail. 💕

#PoetryMatters Day 17: #Stare

#MayMontage Day 17: #Bridge - This is the first book I can recall reading with the tumultuous and revolutionary history of Algeria as backdrop to a romance that is doomed to fail. While the first quarter of the novel appealed to my sensibility with its vulnerability, longing, and willingness to open unhealed wounds, the rest left me feeling impatient with a “Get on with it, please.” My full review: https://wp.me/pDlzr-oUJ #DecolonizeReading2023

#PoetryMatters Day 16: #Stare

#MayMontage Day 16: In every road trip (and this one is pretty epic from Singapore to London), there is always the #MellowCharacter - this is an #EmiratesLitFest Emirates Lit Foundation book club pick for the month, to be discussed Thursday this week. 💕 Paired with hot and cold mezze - to die for. All yum. Middle Eastern cuisine at its finest.

#PoetryMatters Day 15: #Star

#MayMontage Day 15: This is just the #Authors2ndBook yet it is so hands down brilliant. RF Kuang is a literary gem filled with rage. Well at least her characters are.

#MayMontage Day 14: Perfect for #MothersDay, this book is spoken through a child‘s voice describing a mother who happens to be larger than life. The child‘s gaze towards her mother is adoring and joyful with an intimacy that is well-defined and embodied with grace. I love how contemporary the sound of this narrative is: it jives with a beat, a stomp, a rhythm of its own that is distinctive and true. My review: https://wp.me/pDlzr-oBE

#PoetryMatters Day 13: #Stand - I featured this poem when I shared a post celebrating the nakedness of women here, its physicality and vulnerability: https://wp.me/pDlzr-khf

#PoetryMatters Day 12: #Stamp

#MayMontage Day 13: These two books fit the #150To225Pages prompt - while I own tagged book, I have yet to find the other one. @bookriot actually did a pretty good job curating a list of books under 200 pages here: https://bookriot.com/best-books-under-200-pages/amp/

#MayMontage Day 12: #ReadDuringStorm - featuring 5 stories in all from different countries across different time periods. I find this to be very effective as the narratives are also juxtaposed against a historical timeline (starting from the 1600s to 2016) of various people migrating from one country to another, traveling by boat - either caused by famine, war, terrorism, persecution among others. More here: https://wp.me/pDlzr-gzi

#MayMontage Day 11: There is something infinitely #generational about these historical fiction novels - how lucky I am that the tagged book was gifted to me by the author who hosted our stay while my husband and I were in London for over a week. Candy is such a generous-hearted soul.

#PoetryMatters Day 10: #Stall - such a powerful poem.

#MayMontage Day 10: I really like the #DesignOnCover of books published by Daunt Books - the same bookstore I went to during our last full day in London. I didn‘t realize they published books, too! I like their designs way more than the monochrome blue of Fitzcarraldo which I find to be uninspiring and frankly, lazy rather than ‘minimalist.‘

#MayMontage Day 9: #InvolvesAWedding - my friend took this photo of tagged book I gifted to her while she was in Brussels. Bought it for her when we spent a week together in Madrid since she was dating an Italian-American guy at the time - now the father of her child. 💕

#PoetryMatters Day8: #Stale

#PoetryMatters Day 7: #Stake

#MayMontage Day 8: Sherlock Sam is a nerd who is a science freak, hence #ScienceRelated with loads of hijinks and adventures. Glad to have seen my good friends, husband and wife author tandem of the Sherlock Sam yesterday in Sharjah. They were invited by the Sharjah Book Authority for the ongoing reading festival.

#MayMontage Day 7: This is clearly a #DiscussionBook - found my copy at Daunt Bookstore in London. Literally had to hunt it down since Foyles and Waterstones have run out of copies. 💕📚

#PoetryMatters Day 6: #Stair

#PoetryMatters Day 5: #Stain

#MayMontage Day 6: #SunSunglassesOnCover - didn‘t know about this book cover version. Interesting.

#MayMontage Day 5: Possibly #22ndOnYourTBR - husband and I watched the final (available) season of The Crown and naturally I had to hunt this book down while we were in the UK two weeks back. It wasn‘t easy finding a copy, actually. More on my book hunting expedition post on Sunday.