Author (Poet) Talks – AV Anjali Menon

I think it is “My Five Dead Friends”. It happened to me at a very intense moment and I wrote it quite spontaneously. I never edited the poem, I wanted to keep it raw and real. It’s about coming of age, how we are brought up to believing in things for its arbitrary value and how the exposure to philosophy, music and literature changes your perceptions. There are so many things that we unlearn as we grow up. By “five friends”, I meant five senses. We initially take things at its face value, but as we evolve, we realise that things are not the way we see, hear, taste, smell, or feel. We keep adding layers and connotations to our linear understanding of the world.

Adding Poetry to Your Daily Life #GuestPost

It amazes me how poetry transcends form and shape. When we say poetic, we don’t necessarily refer to written poems. By Wordsworth’s definition of poetry, “spontaneous overflow of powerful emotions”, poetry could be anything: your clothing, your house, your perfume, or anything materialistic or spiritual, worldly or imaginary can be poetic. All we need to have is an eye for beauty and the heart to appreciate it.

Mexican Gothic

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a gothic horror fiction that transports the readers into a haunted house. The story begins with the stylish and flirty Noemi Taboada, the protagonist, leaving a party early to see her father. And soon after the scene, she leaves her glamorous life in Mexico and travels to a dingy existence in the old mansion called High Place.

Piled Up Pauses

Piled Up Pauses – A collection of poems by A V Anjali Menon is, as is evident by the title of the book, a poetry collection. There are more than fifty poems with varied lengths and a range of emotions. For the most part though, the central theme appeared to be a heartbreaking romance. While some poems are straightforward, others have veiled feelings for a sincere reader to find. The Tragedy of my Superhero, an example of straightforward poems in the collection, is a beautiful tribute to her nanny.

The Society

The Society by C.G. Abbot, the first in Elizabeth Grant Thrillers series, unveils a shocking conspiracy led by a group of influential and powerful white supremacists fanatical about shoving their agenda down the throats of everybody in the US. The group worked under the title of The Society for a Restored America and carried out their unlawful acts silently. Little did they know that an apparently harmless woman named Elizabeth Grant would turn out to be their worst nightmare. Unaware of her significance, Elizabeth was suffering from the loss of her best friend, Loralie. Seven years ago, on a fateful night, Loralie went missing, never to be found.

The Elegant Out – A Novel

The fiction, The Elegant Out – A Novel, by Elizabeth A Bartasius follows thirty-six-years-old Elizabeth as she juggles between her obsession of birthing another child and finally writing a novel. Once upon a time, she had dreamed of becoming a writer, but now, when she could actually work toward materializing that aspiration, the loud ticks of her biological clock distracted her. Although she had a ten-year-old kid, Jack, from her previous abusive marriage, the hankering of creating a child with the man she loves nagged her like a plague. As if the battle inside her head wasn’t enough, her boyfriend’s reluctance to marry her and have babies with her added an emotional conflict to the equation. In her more rational times, however, she wondered if she wanted a child as an excuse to put off working toward her dream of becoming a writer.

The Forest of Enchantments

The Forest of Enchantments by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is not a new story; it’s a retelling of Hindu mythology Ramayana in the voice of Sita. When we think of Ramayana, we think of Sita as a woman who suffered in silence. Therefore, her reflections, thoughts, and emotions regarding the many injustices that were imposed on her remain concealed. Finally, through The Forest of Enchantments, Chitra Banerjee has given voice to the woman who walked beside her husband only to be discarded by him in the end. Chitra Banerjee’s Sita raised questions without losing her calm and dignity. While the history remembers Sita as a devoted wife and companion of Ram, Chitra Banerjee has unfolded many attributes that make this woman much more than just a life-partner.

Truth of the Shadows

Truth of the Shadows by Slade Templeton is a psychological thriller/horror fiction that revolves around Dr. Joseph Hoffman. He was a head psychiatrist at Cottage Grove Hospital who relied on logic and his vast knowledge seconded by science. In front of his patients, who talked about furniture moving at its own will, their dead son coming back to be with her, hallucinations of angels, etc., Joseph was the calm and composed psychiatrist who had a logical explanation for their delusional paranoia. However, underneath his confident demeanor resided an ever-consuming guilt and sorrow.

The Women of Great Heron Lake

Written in the historical subgenre of fiction, The Women of Great Heron Lake by Deanna Lynn Sletten connects two women who married into the same Madison family but existed decades apart from each other. When, after over a year of fighting pancreatic cancer, Nathan passed away, her wife, Marla Madison felt free. After marrying Nathan, she had quit her job and devoted her life to caring for her daughter, Reese, and her husband. Now that Reese was a twenty-years-old adult and her husband had passed away, suddenly, she did not know what to do with the ocean of time available to her. Outside her family, she hadn’t formed any real connection with people. With nothing else to do, she threw herself into renovating her mansion. It was during one of these renovation times that she found the journal of the first Mrs. Madison, Alaina. As she delved deeper into the journal, she shivered at the eerie similarities between her and Alaina.