Book Reviews – Authors Twinkle Khanna & Amanda Lovelace

Over the last week, I read two books written by women, one a work of fiction with a female lead, and another an anthology of poems. Both books had strong messages on feminism though. Both books were light reads, yet talked about serious issues women have to face even today.

**Trigger Warning for both books : Rape, Relationship Abuse (amongst others)**

Book 1: Pyjamas are Forgiving by Twinkle Khanna

Twinkle Khanna started her career as an actress, but soon realised that her mind was even more polished than her acting skills. So now, she is one of the funniest Indian columnists we have today. And this is her third book.

What I liked about the book:

• The humor – hands down, she makes me laugh out loud. It was the same when I read her other book, Mrs Funnybones, and it was the same with this. Those witty retorts or comments that the lead character – Anshu comes up with were hilarious. Even in scenes that were serious, Anshu’s thoughts would end up softening them
• The length of the book and the simplicity of the prose. You don’t need to have a bachelor’s in English or literature to be able to read and enjoy this book. This is for everyone, and best read on a flight, or on a beach, or vacation
• Very relatable characters

What I didn’t like so much:

• I felt as if the ending came too fast. Or rather Anshu’s realization on what she needed to do came too late, and too quick. I think that was my only problem with the story. I can’t divulge much without putting out spoilers, so I’ll leave it at that

Overall, I’d recommend this book to people who want to read about self discovery, feminism, standing up for yourself and your friends and have a laugh while doing all this 🙂

Book 2: The Witch Doesn’t Burn In This One (a collection of poems) by Amanda Lovelace

I was presented this book from a pen friend earlier this year. Then, I signed up for for Paige’s reading challenge for 2019, and for April, we were supposed to read a book of poetry. So, it was great that I had this book already, and read it in 2 hours straight! I don’t read poetry, and just last year I had read my first book of poems in my adult life – Milk & Honey by Rupi Kaur (my review here), and this was my second. The style of writing/poetry of both these poets seemed very similar – apparently, they’re calling it insta-poetry or tumbler-poetry or modern poetry. But if I had to rate between the two, then I’d say I was able to relate more and was more inspired by Rupi Kaur’s poems than Amanda’s poems in this book.

What I liked about the poems:

• The simplicity of it. I know, I think for most avid readers of poetry, these poems would not make the mark. However, for poetry-idiots like me, these are perfect. At last, I can say, oh, of course I read and appreciate poetry too. Have you read Rupi Kaur or Amanda Lovelace? Lol 😀
• I didn’t find many poems that inspired me, or that I could relate to, but some of my favorite were the ones where she urges women to love themselves, stand up for themselves, to stop apologizing and being treated like doormats all the time. I hope I am able to take these away with me, and try and implement them in my own life 🙂
• Short  – Forget blinkist, with this collection, you can actually say you read an entire book under an hour! And I’m not joking

What I didn’t like:

• I liked the simplicity, but at the same time, over simplifying is not a great thing to do either. There were some pages, where the poet has literally repeated the same sentence with a full stop, and covered two whole pages. Remember the punishments we used to get in school? No? Ok maybe you were the good student, but it felt like someone wasted two pages of a book, writing out a punishment. There were other instances, where only a single sentence was written, like a fact, or a theorem. How can that be poetry? Don’t you need at least 4 lines? I don’t know, I’m asking 🙂

So, I’m not the right person to be recommending any books on poetry, but if you’re like me, and want to say you’ve read some poems, or trying to check out that ‘read a book on poetry’ as part of your reading challenge this year, then this would be a good place to start, I guess 🙂

Questions to you guys:

What are you all reading this summer? Have you read either of these books?

What are your thoughts on this new style of poem-writing? If you were to recommend a book of poems to a novice like me, but something that is easy to read and digest, and is inspiring too, which one would you recommend?