like the people in the trees, by hanya yanagihara, this is a book about a two-man-one-woman group of early anthropologists studying and living among a pacific tribe. He continued: “It’s been a great reminder of just how meaningless a lot of the outside views the trans community is because, at the end of the day, they’re just people.

A book about anthropologists in the 1930s ought to transport and educate, but Euphoria does neither very well. Too often I was told what’s happening in the tribes, not placed in the center of any action.Leaves of Grass is] the incomparable achievement of one of America’s greatest poets—an exuberant, passionate man who loved his country and wrote of it as no other has ever done. Walt Whitmanwas a singer, thinker, visionary, and citizen extraordinaire.” Goblin Market and Other Poemsby Christina Rossetti (1830–1894) The story is mostly told by Bankson in a first person narrative where I got a sense of his personal losses, his frame of mind, and his feelings for Nell. Nell’s journal entries are interspersed and they reflect her deep commitment to the people she is studying, especially the women and children and a sense of how she feels about the people in her life . We only learn about Fen, my least favorite character, through these narratives. While I went into this thinking it would be Nell’s story, I ended up thinking that it was as much Andrew’s story. He was my favorite character and I have to admit I fell a little in love with him. F.s. Yousaf's Euphoria is a polyphonic, poly-visual journey that ruminates on the human experience from multiple vantage points. Inside the silent abyss, there's a symphony of light. At times, the sadness is overwhelming but the collection is carried by the ambition to find and occupy a space between sadness and joy, to a least temporarily balance the scales of contemporary life.

Greenwood said collating the book has been “therapeutic and beneficial” to the team, a “blossoming of all these lovely moments”.

The book is divided into four chapters, each representing a stage of the sunset. This unique structure takes readers on a transformative journey mirroring the emotional rollercoaster that is life itself. I find I am more interested in this question of subjectivity, and the limited lens of the anthropologist...Perhaps all science is merely self-investigation." A quote I enjoyed was “There are times when I wanted the worst for you, Hoping you would understand The roots of my thoughts. I needed you to feel the pain I held, But here I am Praying you never feel like I did. Hoping no one ever sees you Like the way you saw me.” I was fond of these words strung together because I’m aware that at times I feel this type of emotion and others feel it as well. This isn't helped by the fact that this triangle involves three characters King failed to make authentically human. Probably because this story was inspired by the life of Margaret Mead, King devoted most of her attention to Nell. Nell is therefore fleshed out pretty well; however, King gave surprisingly short shrift to Nell’s husband Fen. He’s a cardboard character who’s never not an uncaring husband and often an uninterested anthropologist who increasingly annoys Nell. When he gets jealous, viciousness rises to the surface in a flash.

Every single piece, regardless of whether it's short or long is laced with raw emotions and stunning imagery. Nicole has touched on important and relevant topics such as love, heartbreak, self love and growth in this book which I believe are relatable to most of us. There were several pieces that resonated with me so deeply and I personally believe that being able to read someone else's writings and relate to them is an amazing feeling. That’s the beginning of this gem! I was a goner before I knew what hit me. Don’t worry, the book isn’t full of dead babies, but it’s full of life and gorgeous writing and intriguing characters and I can’t end this sentence because I can’t stop raving about this book. This debut collection is a fast-paced tour of Mojave life and family narrative: A sister fights for or against a brother on meth, and everyone from Antigone, Houdini, Huitzilopochtli, and Jesus is invoked and invited to hash it out.” Bestiary: Poemsby Donika Kelly King’s decision to have Bankson narrate the book is a stroke of genius. He’s an outsider figure with a tragic history: both of his older brothers have died (one in the war, one to suicide), and he’s always been a disappointment to his family, who don’t consider his field of research to be actual science. So he’s hungry for a substitute family, not to mention companionship and professional stimulus that will spark his own research.

Being 30, sometimes it feels like trans identities are a discovery only younger people go through, but it’s not like that,” Laird said. Neon Vernacularis] an award-winning poet’s testimony of the war in Vietnam.Yusef Komunyakaa is an American poet who teaches at New York University and is a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers.” What the Living Do: Poemsby Marie Howe (1950–) Basho, one of the greatest of Japanese poets and the master of haiku, was also a Buddhist monk and a life-long traveller. Each poem evokes the natural world – the cherry blossom, the leaping frog, the summer moon or the winter snow – suggesting the smallness of human life in comparison to the vastness and drama of nature.” Songs of Innocence and Experienceby William Blake (1757–1827) The first book of the Trilogy, ‘The Walls Do Not Fall,’ published in the midst of the ‘fifty thousand incidents’ of the London blitz, maintains the hope that though ‘we have no map; / possibly we will reach haven,/ heaven.’‘Tribute to Angels’ describes new life springing from the ruins, and finally, in ‘The Flowering of the Rod’… faith in love and resurrection is realized in lyric and strongly Biblical imagery.” The Poems of Marianne Mooreby Marianne Moore (1887–1972) The other small nit is that Nell has a broken ankle but manages to climb up and down ladders. Maybe the writer should have given her a broken left wrist or something, because I just didn’t buy that she could climb a ladder with a broken ankle.

And all the while I am aware of a larger despair, as of Helen & I are vessels for the despair of all women and many men too. Who are we and where are we going? Why are we, with all our “progress,” so limited in understanding & sympathy & the ability to give each other real freedom? Why with our emphasis on the individual are we so blinded by the urge to conform? … Being agender became less of a burden I felt squashed by, in terms of having to tell people and confront it, and it became something that I admitted finally that I wanted to embrace instead of pushing away,” Laird explained. I think King's constantly heightening interest only to then almost immediately deflate it by dillydallying. I'm not loving the construction of this book. There is much that's interesting but I just don't feel she's making it all run together very well. McAllister's words cut to the core of human emotion, capturing moments of vulnerability that resonate with us all. Her poetry is raw, relatable, and deeply human.As Nell, Fen and Bankson compare the culture of their subjects to their own, there is much that defines what it is to be human and much that makes them wonder at how superior civilization really is. Loosely based on the experiences of real-life anthropologists Margaret Mead, Reo Fortune, and Gregory Bateson, Euphoria is a captivating work of historical fiction. Set in the 1930’s Territory of New Guinea, the setting is exotic and the various cultures in the region are intriguing. I became immediately interested in learning about the tribes living along the Sepik River right along with the fictionalized characters Nell Stone and her husband Fen, and the depressed and isolated Andrew Bankson. These three are drawn to one another; and their interactions, both professionally and romantically, are well developed and quite irresistible. I admired Nell and could feel such empathy for her at times as she struggled not just to understand the people of New Guinea, but humanity itself. “I think above all else it is freedom I search for in my work, in these far-flung places, to find a group of people who give each other the room to be in whatever way they need to be. And maybe I will never find it all in one culture but maybe I find parts of it in several cultures, maybe I can piece it together like a mosaic and unveil it to the world.” The novel is told from Bankson’s point of view, which I found very appealing as his character was more approachable to me and lent an air of nostalgia to the story. Snippets of Nell Stone’s diary entries are also interspersed throughout and add additional perspective to the narrative. The anthropologists Nell and her husband Fen, opposed poles but a research team on the life and culture of the tribes in the area, bump unexpectedly into a colleague in the field, Andrew Bankston. That meeting will represent the starting point of a battle of egos that will accentuate the unbalanced power dynamics between the married couple, triggering a turbulent love triangle that will turn upside down the lives of the three protagonists. In one panel, an artist describes the euphoria they feel when fencing, as it’s “impossible” to tell their gender in the “bulky” and “concealing” armour they wear. When they wear it, they feel “free of expectations”, “unburdened” and “unjudged” by others. Even wilder, it happened earlier this year when (after A Little Life destroyed me) I read Hanya Yanagihara's only other published book, which shares a synopsis, setting, conceit, cast of characters, and rating from me with this one.