Sponsored by Karma: A Yogi’s Guide to Crafting Your Destiny
Who really understands the concept of karma? Half the time when people are referencing it, it sounds like some form of revenge. But karma is a much deeper and richer concept than that. As explained by Sadhguru, yogi & mystic, karma means action. Sadhguru turns the tables by showing us clearly that karma is an empowering possibility for taking charge of our lives by choosing how we respond to what is happening to us. With celebrity fans from Will Smith to Tom Brady, this enlightening book offers in depth insights on the concept of Karma and shows how to achieve true happiness.
Welcome to Read This Book, a newsletter where I recommend one book that should absolutely be put at the top of your TBR pile. Recommended books will vary across genre and age category and include shiny new books, older books you may have missed, and some classics I suggest finally getting around to. Make space for another pile of books on your floor because here we go!
Today’s pick is a book of poetry that made me feel all kinds of feelings in a way that few books ever have.
Black Girl, Call Home: Poems by Jasmine Mans
Jasmine Mans is a spoken word poet and the book is described as “an unforgettable poetry collection about race, feminism, and queer identity,” but in my opinion that’s a huge over-simplification. The poems in this book are just so much. So much what? So much everything. So much pain, so much joy, so much passion, so much memory, so much generational trauma, so much community. It’s just so much. I’m amazed I read it as quickly as I did because every few poems I would come across a line or a stanza and I would have to put the book down and stare into space. Or take a walk around our apartment. As if her words made my brain bluescreen and I had to wait for my mind to get back on line.
Some of these poems were very hard to read, not due to complexity but due to the raw emotion. For example, one of the poems is from the point of view of one of the little girls that died in the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama. The poet also offers many poems as memorials. In honor of Sandra Bland. In honor of Whitney Houston. In honor of the countless Black women mutilated and terrorized by American doctors in the name of science.
There are poems of love and loss and love that lead to loss. And not only romantic love, but love between a mother and daughter, or the love of grandmothers and aunties. There’s a poem titled “Footnotes for Kanye” which I happened to read right after his divorce from Kim Kardashian was announced and though I do not care about Kanye West, this poem hit extra hard when I read it.
I am both changed and seen by this poetry collection and I highly recommend it.
That’s it for now, book-lovers!
Patricia
Find me on Book Riot, the All the Books podcast, and Twitter.
Find more books by subscribing to Book Riot Newsletters.