Historic Female Friends in Bosom Buddies by Violet Zhang, Sally Nixon (Illustrator)

Featuring 25 remarkable and inspiring female friendships throughout history, Bosom Buddies is an illustrated celebration of these empowering relationships between women. From the formidable Trung Sisters and friendly rivals Katherine Mansfield and Virginia Woolf to powerhouse partners Oprah Winfrey and Gayle King, writer Violet Zhang captures the love, challenges, encouragement, and adulation of female friendships across time. With winsome illustrations from illustrator Sally Nixon, Bosom Buddies is a tribute to gal pals everywhere. Great as a Galentine’s Day gift or to share with your best girlfriend, just because.

Bosom Buddies arrived in the mail as a saving grace for the coming Shabbat, since I didn’t have anything left to read (save for dipping in and out of my worn copy of Fangirl) with my local library going through renovations.

Also perfect timing for this book, on female friendships through the ages, to land in my hands, considering the movie I recently watched that expresses the tiny nuances of a friendship between Marlo and Tully, which I rave all about in my film review for Tully here.

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The first thing I noticed upon picking up Bosom Buddies is the effort put into producing the book: the feel of the paper in your hands as you flip from page to page and the clear jacket bounding it make for timeless pieces. And I’m just grateful such a neat concept exists in the book world.

I do want to note that at the very start of my reading experience, the entries of the female friends come across a bit Wikipedia-esque, but since they were so quick to go through, I overlooked this tiny hindrance. The essays did provide many unknowns with a prompt speed.

However, since this is about the grandiosity of friendship, which is so personal, I would’ve enjoyed that aspect to be expanded by offering more intimate tales, like an inside joke or an experience the women shared together; something I couldn’t find on my own through googling their names. I wanted someone to write about them through extensive research so that I wouldn’t have to do it on my own.

I did then appreciate the end of each essay giving voice to the women by sharing their quotes. Though it sometimes felt like the entry beforehand and the quote shared after had no shared correlation.

So I was also glad to see that the more I read on, the more my requests were being answered. Featuring remarkable girlships such as:

  • Virginia Woolf & Katherine Mansfield (1910s)
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  • Oprah Winfrey & Gayle King (1970s)Bosom Buddies bookspoils 3
  • Amy Poehler & Tina Fey (1990s)Bosom Buddies bookspoils 1
  • Ilana Glazer & Abbi Jacobson (2000s)Bosom Buddies bookspoils 4Screen Shot 2018-02-28 at 09.46.55

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Expected publication: August 14, 2018

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Review: soft magic. by Upile Chisala

soft magic. is the debut collection of prose and poetry by Malawian writer, Upile Chisala. This book explores the self, joy, blackness, gender, matters of the heart, the experience of Diaspora, spirituality and most of all, how we survive. soft magic. is a shared healing journey.

I so crave that feeling poetry collections evoke in my reading experience, so stumbling across soft magic. was, well, magic.

I do have to note that the tiny amount of poems that feature aimless, filler poetry lines derailed the epic scope of the ones that shine so brightly. But I want to focus on those adoring pieces, mainly concerning love and knowing your self-worth.

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Life and death in the hands of the tongue.

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It was well worth reading through this whole collection just to reach this one poem.

As well as this great follow-up:

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I never tire of discovering well-written and memorable poetry collections and the featured pieces in soft magic. are one for the books.

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Review: yesterday i was the moon by Noor Unnahar

It’s been quite the minute since I last read a poetry collection, so when my eyes landed on this beauty of a book I was beyond keen on diving in.

yesterday i was the moon is a collection of poetry by noor unnahar – it explores courage, self-love, culture and the struggles of making peace with your heart and art. it contains black & white photographs paired with poetry pieces; giving it a photo diary feels.

Like many poetry books I’ve read and reviewed before, yesterday i was the moon starts off with the basic poems you encounter in the modern ones (like bearing similarities to the sun or a phoenix), so I wasn’t as impressed with the first half. In particular, as I started noticing this pattern of including a bunch of description (usually three meaningless adjectives) but evoking no real emotions. Like so:yesterday i was the moon 2-- bookspoils

But as I started highlighting more and more poems, I noticed the author gaining confidence in her words once we were in the deeper half of the book. And that’s when I really began enjoying my reading experience, especially those poems concerning religion, kindness, growth, and home. (Also, listening to this melody was magical.) And this is my segue into including some of my favorite poems and interspersed black & white illustrations: yesterday i was the moon 3-- bookspoils

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Note: I’m an Amazon Affiliate. If you’re interested in buying yesterday i was the moonjust click on the image below to go through my link. I’ll make a small commission!
Support creators you love. Buy a Coffee for nat (bookspoils) with Ko-fi.com/bookspoils