This is a lovely book about home design from Joanna Gaines. Thanks to HGTV and Hulu, I've recently become obsessed with the show Fixer Upper, and I was excited to flip through this big book and hear more from Joanna. I find the writing thoroughly genuine and refreshing. I appreciate it more when the author expressed her concern over the unrealistic expectations to write more so that her work would bring her 'more' of what others believe would bring.

Homebody: A Guide to Creating Spaces You Never Want to Homebody: A Guide to Creating Spaces You Never Want to

Though I think young women would benefit the most from Rupi's words, I recommend this book to anyone struggling with issues of self worth or past abuse. The writing. Mind. Heart. Rest. Awake. Those are the four segments in this collection of poetry. Each offers an honest look at some key moments in her (and our) life that ultimately helped shape the woman she has become. Some poems will make you a little uncomfortable, some will force you to take a closer look at yourself and others will make you smile. But there will never not be one moment when you don't feel.. something. TRANSPARENCY....i feel that rating poetry is a very touchy line to run your finger across. The art doesn't judge itself, people judge the art. So with that being said I believe Homebody deserves a five star rating. Rupi Kaur just wrote another book that reflects her own unique experience in life. For that she did great expressing herself...I can now note what I did or didn't like about this collection. And perhaps, as a “young adult” book of poetry, there is an appeal to something written more for commiseration than introspection. As a teenager I read Arthur Rimbaud and Mary Karr, and I relished in their depths, in their ability to be indirect at times, in their ability to push the language to its limits. Pushing the language to its limits is not Kaur’s project.Everything she wrote is way too general. There is more to dive into, there has to be. Instead of her writing about how she wants to be in the present over and over, how about describing the present around her. How does she wake up? What surrounds her home? What's inside her home? What does she do to relax or when she's alone? I think people need to stop describing themselves like warriors and survivors and definitely stop making themselves victims and instead open up. Tell me who you are. All I know about Rupi is that she is a woman of color, but you can just google search her for that. Everything is so vague. There's nothing deep here. I wanted to think that as a poet she will develop and become a better writer. Unfortunately, I think she is regressing, because this is the same stuff she has been selling.

home body” Cuts Through the Numbness | Arts | The Harvard “home body” Cuts Through the Numbness | Arts | The Harvard

Summary: A great design book for beginners, without much specific advice, but with pictures arranged to help you figure out your own style. Kaur’s verses use metaphors and similes that spatialize and give form to mind, body, and identity, helping to conceptualize how each plays a part in our emotions. She alternately characterizes these elements as objects, imprinted upon by our experiences, or as individual beings with their own sense of agency. For example, the poem “there are miracles in me / waiting to happen / i am never giving up on myself” poses the self as divine and also mysterious, consisting of unexplored portals. The poem “there is a conversation / happening inside you / pay deep attention / to what your inner world / is saying” makes one conscious of the different components that coexist to make up a person. Through this internal world-building and grandiose, celestial imagery, Kaur provides a compelling understanding of the human body that doesn’t just deserve to be loved, but demands it. I found the book to be more inspirational than informative — there are descriptions of different styles, lots of photographs and drawings, and some general advice about the design of different rooms (such as Entryways, Kitchens, Bedrooms, Bathrooms, etc.). Mostly Joanna wants to inspire her readers to create a cozy home in their own style, and there are some short and sweet introductory words to each type of room. Recommended for fellow Jojo fans. There is something almost Sapphic to the three-line poem “why does everything / become less beautiful / once it belongs to us.” And there’s something beautiful about the fact of the plainly spoken when it has perhaps not been plainly spoken in poetry: “What if the one I want / is someone who touches me and leaves.” Here is a young woman coming to terms with the complexities of romantic love, the paradoxes of being young and a woman in this society that shames women for their sexuality. There is the need we all have for comfort, and the desire we all have for the thrill of the chase, for the untouchable, for the risky, for the dangerous. We should all be 20 and wild and in love and in doubt and chasing what we cannot have, and Kaur captures some of this feeling. She evokes the unspeakable: that there is a kind of thrill in abuse and a kind of boredom in secure love.

I didn't read most of the book, but I did get some good inspiration from the multitude of pictures that were included (and their captions)! Poetry is all about the art of mastering transitions: verbal transitions, thematic transitions, and the life transitions that often become poetry’s finest subject matter. Where the book does more with less, it is best. The short poem, “i’m surprised I got out at all” envisions in three lines a relationship so small and entrapping, the hostage can’t “see the exit.” The claustrophobia of the relationship is echoed in the claustrophobic brevity of the poem. Brava. Like I’ve said about Kaur’s other work, I wish she’d edited herself; I wish she’d separate the wheat from the chaff. Here she does it.

home body – Rupi Kaur home body – Rupi Kaur

Share a moment of time with your readers. Don't lecture them. Don't tell them things they already know. Yes, the earth is heating up. Yes, there is racism. Yes, the world is chaotic and no one will live forever. Not you. Not me. Not your mother or your father. We all experience pain. No one is special. Depression and anxiety are everyday occurrences. We are all apart of this experience. But, who are you? That's what matters. Who are your loved ones? What are some of your bad habits? What are you interested in? Receiving this book as a Christmas present from my son this past year, was a delight. I have slowly gone through each section reading and viewing the pictures of their home and others she has created, providing me with various visuals. It gives insight into how they started off and the epiphanies/lessons-learned she has garnered over the years.I love that most of the twenty-two "case study" homes, introduced at the beginning of the book, are a blend of the six foundational styles (farmhouse, modern, rustic, industrial, traditional, boho); I didn't love that the book is then organized room by room, so it isn't easy to follow which home is which or to really get a good feel for each home as a whole. I had hoped after reading Milk and Honey ( which I review here) that Kaur would mature as a writer. In some ways, Home Body does offer us a more mature Kaur. The second poem in the book unfolds with uncharacteristic restraint. By withholding the subject of the poem, Kaur evokes a sense of suspense. It’s a simple tool in the poet’s toolbelt, but it’s promising to see Kaur taking her first steps into exploring the richness of the poet’s rhetorical options. There is a hasty feeling to this book, the sense of someone fretfully and fitfully sitting in a room for a few nights, hashing it out. Later in the book, Kaur exhibits some self-awareness on this front, writing “your rushing is/ suffocating the masterpieces.” Many of the poems do feel rushed. The old themes could have been let go, or given more time to mature. The new themes perhaps needed more time to develop. There’s a “work in progress” feel to this book, but perhaps that is its charm. I am a huge fan of Joana Gaines' design aesthetic/philosophy. I have followed Joana and Chip's show 'Fixer Upper' over the years and always came away with something that I truly liked. I don't prescribe to all her looks and 'distressed' being one of them, but how she approaches a space based on her clients personalities and what 'season of life' they are in, shows me the thought and care that goes into the overall design and finished product. Homebody has a lot of art illustrated by Rupi. That alone always magnetizes me to read her books. To me, some of her illustrations are slightly child like...but for some reason I enjoy them and the creativity behind them. I don't think as many illustrations existed in Homebody like the last 2 books Rupi has written. Regardless, they are very nice to look at.

Home Body by Rupi Kaur | Goodreads Home Body by Rupi Kaur | Goodreads

I love the sage, if not novel, design advice to tell your story within your home, filling it with things you love ("creating spaces you never want to leave"), rather than adhering to a certain style or guidelines; I didn't love that, even though there are some helpful tips and takeaways here and there, it isn't particularly helpful or insightful overall as a "guide," in my opinion.As always, I love her poetry when it brings up issues about mental health, relationships and women. But what I loved more about this collection was the way how the issues of productivity, writing, immigrants and a bit of politics were brought up.