Tag: memoir

Book review: Scribbles, Rhymes, and Lima Beans: Poems that grow on you by Rachael Waldburger

5 out of 5 stars

Scribbles, Rhymes, and Lima Beans by Rachael Waldburger is a poignant poetry collection that is divided into three parts. Per the author’s note at the beginning, Scribbles is about life and love; Rhymes is about writing, art, and inspiration; and Lima Beans is about growth and renewal. However, there is so much more to be found and recognized throughout this collection.

The poetry of Scribbles describes a nostalgic love the author has for her grandparents and a past crush, and the act of falling in love. In what becomes a theme tying together all three collections, Waldburger also gives us the first hint of divisiveness and dichotomy. Her first poem, The Wall, gives us a stark, yet short, literal description of the purpose of all walls—to bear the weight of division. The next few poems, “Lying on My Back in October,” “Raspberries,” “Running,” and “Old Crush,” seem to represent life and the wonder of love in its different forms and the hope it carries within. The following poems, “Argument,” “Realization,” “Wild-Grown,” and “Wolf” describe life and the lack of love and all that comes along with that emptiness. The rest of this section rotates between this dichotomy of what happens when love is present (and the idea of growth is introduced) and when love is absent due to ineptitude or just losing the very people we love dearly. Two of my favorite poems describing finding love in this section are “Knight Errant” and “Tilting at Windmills.”

The poetry of the second section, Rhymes, takes the themes Waldburger has introduced us to in Scribbles and expands on those while exploring writing, art, and inspiration. She deftly explores learning the rules of poetry and breaking them, rhyming (though most of the poems in this section do not adhere to conventional rhyming schemes), and the art of writing poetry. She tells (naming art pieces, constellations, and poets) and shows us what inspires her words and how those words find their way to the page. One of the most nostalgic poems for me in this section, “Poetry Purrs,” appears to show inspiration from E. E. Cummings and Carl Sandburg. This poem reminded me of the eighth grade when I began to fall in love with poetry. Carl Sandburg was my introduction, and suddenly I felt transported back to little cat feet.

Honestly, before reading the last section, I wasn’t sure about lima beans being about growth and renewal, other than I had to grow to like them as an adult. However, Waldburger, being the descriptive writer she is, shows us how to connect lima beans and growth in a comforting way. She transports us through the seasons of life, the plans we make while filled with uncertainty and hope, and plans realized as she becomes a mother. The poems in this section are longer and filled with more contemplative language than the previous two sections. She also continues the dichotomy of love that is present and love that is absent. And in the penultimate poem from which this collection is named, we find how lima beans and growth are connected. I will leave this discovery for you.

Overall, this poetry collection is well thought out. The overall theme that brings the collection together is not only evident in the poems themselves; my paperback edition has poems of differing points of view facing one other across the binding. There is a natural ebb and flow of life, love, and loss throughout that begs me to pick it up once again to see what I missed in the first read-through.

I received a complimentary copy from the author. This review is honest and voluntary.

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Book review: Exposed: Nevertheless She Persisted by Alicia Curry

4 out of 5 stars

Mother. Educator. Counselor. Daughter. Sister. Aunt. Friend. Coworker. All of these help define Alicia Curry. But they do not tell her complete story. While she is one or more of these to each person in her life, the most important description in Exposed: Nevertheless She Persisted is survivor. Curry bravely tells her story of enduring workplace harassment and toxic workplace behavior and the years it took to fight back against a system that protects the abuser.

Curry starts the memoir describing the toll the loss of two of her brothers and other family members had begun to take on her. What Curry does well throughout is describe how not only one aspect of self is affected by loss, but many if not all are affected. The loss of Curry’s brothers affected her as a sister, daughter, aunt, friend, mother, etc. Grief affects even someone who can compartmentalize most things and move on with their plans.

Curry carefully planned what career path she wanted to take and how it would take her to an administrative position within the school district. She worked hard for her career to provide for her daughter, to help serve the student population, to be a supportive family member. Then Curry starts receiving abusive behavior from someone she once trusted and from multiple people who would shape the course of her career.

Exposed is more than a simple retelling of a fight against an abuser, the systems that protected him (in multiple states), and the compounded affect it has on someone who was already fighting to find new routines after familial loss. Curry draws in the reader with her beautiful descriptions of the people who supported her throughout and with the description of her faith journey. Exposed is a story of strength and inspiration.

I received a complimentary copy from the author. This review is honest and voluntary.

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Book review: Stories of a Harlem Resident by Javier Sarmiento Jr.

4 out of 5 stars

Stories of a Harlem Resident by Javier Sarmiento Jr. is a short yet powerful collection of poetry that gives us a look at everyday life in Harlem through the lens of poetic and descriptive language. The author uses his poetry to show his inspirational vision of making the world a better place, making his community stronger, and helping the world to understand a viewpoint they may not have seen before.

Sarmiento Jr.’s vision and passion for social justice shine throughout, especially with “Journeyman” and “The Blue Men.” He teaches us how to be kind, to listen to one another, and to make better informed choices, all while giving us descriptive snapshots of the struggles he has experienced.

I would have loved to see a few more poems further illustrating his vision of what helping one another looks like for him. His eagerness to impact the world is palpable, and I can’t wait to see what this author has in store for his readers. His gift of perception and description will continue to develop and aid his unique poetic voice.

I received a complimentary copy from the author. This review is honest and voluntary.

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Book review: A Serial Killer’s Daughter: My Story of Faith, Love, and Overcoming by Kerri Rawson

What would you do if you had an awkward FBI agent come to your apartment and deliver the news that the man who helped raise you and shape your general world views is really a serial killer? Kerri Rawson answers this question throughout this memoir when she is faced with the news that her father is BTK. It’s a complicated path laced with trauma, depression, repression, and ultimately confronting her PTSD. Rawson is helped on this journey with her faith journey and the love that she is shown throughout and that she gives to others. Overcoming such a realization is not an easy switch to say goodbye to everything she has ever known. Loss is complicated and can come in many forms.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. It is about a daughter’s journey aligning the father she knew with the man who committed terrible crimes, as well as her journey in processing the information that was given to her throughout the years. I imagine she is still encountering new information that she has to weave into her family’s history.

There are negative reviews complaining that this is a book that focuses too much on Rawson’s faith journey with Christianity. Faith not only is part of the title, but it seems to be a large part of how Rawson finds her way through the depression, trauma, and PTSD that she deals with throughout her life. She reinforces the up-and-down battle that is her faith journey by repeating details or biblical quotes that are important to her. Very few faith journeys are linear without hills and valleys, and Rawson’s is no different.

Equally mentioned in the title are Love and Overcoming. Rawson shares different aspects of love: familial and marital, as well as her love of animals and nature. All of these add to her healing during different stages of self-discovery and I would argue, overcoming. Some of my favorite passages are her descriptions of hiking trails in the Grand Canyon with a cousin and her father, her brother later joining the hiking party. These details help frame the duality of her father’s personality and how others reacted to him.

If you are looking for an in-depth description of the grisly murders of BTK or a psychological analysis of why he committed these crimes, this is not the book for you. And as a memoir, it doesn’t fit into nice and neat chapters that make it easy reading. The content is raw and is presented as such. This book is part of Rawson’s healing journey, helping her weave the details of a man she did not know existed within her father into the history of her family and her life. It would not have been the same book if it had been neatly edited and meticulously trimmed. The reason I give it three stars is that it is a solid book that does exactly what the title describes. I didn’t pick this book to read because I expected award-winning prose that leads to enthusiastic epiphanies. I picked this book because we don’t often hear the side of the story of a serial killer’s family and all they lose to the actions of someone they once held dear. It is an interesting viewpoint, and I thank Kerri Rawson for sharing her part of the story.

And that leaves me to a final point. There are times when Rawson questions the harm it does to her family, especially in the chapter “175 Years is a Long Time.” Some reviewers have taken that to mean that she is self-centered or not caring about the loved ones of the murdered. She does state that the prosecution asked the victims’ families’ permission to present all of the details of the crimes at the sentencing, but the prosecution doesn’t ask BTK’s family’s permission. However, later on the same page, she states “In hindsight, I understand why the prosecution—the detectives—did what they did.” Rawson realizes that her discomfort does not compare with what the victims and their families went through. A few pages later she says “After he murdered, he should have turned himself in to the police. He should have been in jail the past thirty-one years. People should still be alive. But my brother and I wouldn’t be. I was okay with that—I’d trade my life for theirs.” And that is a powerful statement in the midst of a tumultuous journey.

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