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bookishmillennial's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
disclaimer: I don’t really give starred reviews. I hope my reviews provide enough information to let you know if a book is for you or not. Find me here: https://linktr.ee/bookishmillennial
Lush prose teeming with justified anger, disillusionment, and exhaustion. I highly recommend this collection of poetry, and “The First Water Is The Body” was my favorite poem. It commented on rivers and humans as mirrors, and not so different. Both worthy of protection, dignity, and reverence.
Overall, this was a thought-provoking and evocative collection of poems, forcing U.S.ians especially to confront our shameful, oppressive, and violent history. I will definitely be buying a physical copy for my home library.
Lush prose teeming with justified anger, disillusionment, and exhaustion. I highly recommend this collection of poetry, and “The First Water Is The Body” was my favorite poem. It commented on rivers and humans as mirrors, and not so different. Both worthy of protection, dignity, and reverence.
Overall, this was a thought-provoking and evocative collection of poems, forcing U.S.ians especially to confront our shameful, oppressive, and violent history. I will definitely be buying a physical copy for my home library.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Police brutality, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Misogyny, and Genocide
robinks's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
I really enjoyed a bunch of these works, although the order of the poems didn’t make sense to me. I particularly liked Run’n’Gun.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Blood, Colonisation, and Violence
Moderate: Death, Addiction, Sexual content, Genocide, and Gun violence
Minor: Police brutality
katharina90's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Many of the poems in this collection either deeply moved me, educated me, or made me laugh out loud.
Favorites include:
-American Arithmetic
-If I Should Come Upon Your House Lonely in the West Texas Desert
-Top Ten Reasons Why Indians Are Good at Basketball
-exhibits from The American Water Museum
"I have a name, yet no one who will say it not roughly.
I am your Native,
and this is my American labyrinth.
Here I am, at your thighs—lilac-lit pools of ablution.
Take my body and make of it—
a Nation, a confession.
Through you even I can be clean."
From: I, Minotaur
"2.
Because a long time ago, Creator gave us a choice: You can write like an Indian god, or you can have a jump shot sweeter than a 44oz. can of government grape juice—one or the other. Everyone but Sherman Alexie chose the jump shot."
From: Top Ten Reasons Why Indians Are Good at Basketball
"Only water can change water, can heal itself. Not even God
made water. Not on any of the seven days. It was already here.
Or maybe God is water, because I am water, and you are water."
From: exhibits from The American Water Museum
"Art of Fact:
Let me tell you a story about water:
Once upon a time there was us.
America’s thirst tried to drink us away.
And here we still are."
From: exhibits from The American Water Museum
"Police kill Native Americans more
than any other race. Race is a funny word.
Race implies someone will win,
implies, I have as good a chance of winning as—
Who wins the race that isn’t a race?
Native Americans make up 1.9 percent of all police killings, higher per capita than any race—
sometimes race means run."
From: American Arithmetic
"At the National Museum of the American Indian,
68 percent of the collection is from the United States.
I am doing my best to not become a museum
of myself. I am doing my best to breathe in and out.
I am begging: Let me be lonely but not invisible."
From: American Arithmetic
Favorites include:
-American Arithmetic
-If I Should Come Upon Your House Lonely in the West Texas Desert
-Top Ten Reasons Why Indians Are Good at Basketball
-exhibits from The American Water Museum
"I have a name, yet no one who will say it not roughly.
I am your Native,
and this is my American labyrinth.
Here I am, at your thighs—lilac-lit pools of ablution.
Take my body and make of it—
a Nation, a confession.
Through you even I can be clean."
From: I, Minotaur
"2.
Because a long time ago, Creator gave us a choice: You can write like an Indian god, or you can have a jump shot sweeter than a 44oz. can of government grape juice—one or the other. Everyone but Sherman Alexie chose the jump shot."
From: Top Ten Reasons Why Indians Are Good at Basketball
"Only water can change water, can heal itself. Not even God
made water. Not on any of the seven days. It was already here.
Or maybe God is water, because I am water, and you are water."
From: exhibits from The American Water Museum
"Art of Fact:
Let me tell you a story about water:
Once upon a time there was us.
America’s thirst tried to drink us away.
And here we still are."
From: exhibits from The American Water Museum
"Police kill Native Americans more
than any other race. Race is a funny word.
Race implies someone will win,
implies, I have as good a chance of winning as—
Who wins the race that isn’t a race?
Native Americans make up 1.9 percent of all police killings, higher per capita than any race—
sometimes race means run."
From: American Arithmetic
"At the National Museum of the American Indian,
68 percent of the collection is from the United States.
I am doing my best to not become a museum
of myself. I am doing my best to breathe in and out.
I am begging: Let me be lonely but not invisible."
From: American Arithmetic
Content Warnings
Moderate: Police brutality, Colonisation, Racism, and Violence
Minor: Sexual content and Addiction
jessereadsthings's review against another edition
challenging
informative
fast-paced
4.0
Really good, but not a favorite. Also, I really enjoyed hearing about her insights and inspirations at the end. Definitely makes me want to do a reread in the future with these things in mind!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Colonisation, Racism, and Police brutality
dacha's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism and Colonisation
Moderate: Gun violence, Police brutality, and Addiction
mayavd's review against another edition
emotional
funny
sad
fast-paced
5.0
Sapphic social justice with astonishingly expressive imagery and a through line of Native/Latinx/Mestizo culture and soul. The author both invites you in to see her culture and ancestral lives while also firmly delineating that Native practices cannot be expressed through Western metrics.
The Manolete reference also floored me- truly masterful.
The Manolete reference also floored me- truly masterful.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Police brutality, Colonisation, Death, Genocide, and Gore
becksusername's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.0
Natalie Diaz is obsessed with her lover's hips
Content Warnings
Minor: Racism, Death, Genocide, Grief, Police brutality, and Trafficking
gay's review against another edition
emotional
sad
medium-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gun violence and Racism
Minor: Police brutality
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