milk and honey

By rupi kaur

204 pages.  

$14.99 U.S.A.  ($19.99 Canada)

Andrews McMeel Publishing

Copyright 2015

ISBN: 978-1-4494-7425-6

Rupi Kaur, the author of the inspiring book milk and honey, says “I want readers to experience the poetry fully, feel what I feel, and heal how I’ve healed. I want to put readers directly in the mind and body of my subject. I am hoping it is that powerful”.  I think Kaur did exactly what she was hoping for. While I read her book, her poems put me in her situations and some of them hit home for me, “a daughter should not have to beg her father for a relationship”.  Her poems made me feel pain, sorrow, grief, love, self confidence, and they even made me realize some of the things I couldn’t realize myself.

My question from the very beginning was, even though you can connect to this book and have experience to all of these feelings, is reading this book beneficial or worth it?  The answer is yes! Since you can connect with Kaur and feel what she is feeling, it makes you learn a lesson before you have even lived it. In life you go through the negative before you learn and gain the positive.  This is what milk and honey does for you.  It puts you through the negative and then gives you the positive.    

Kaur uses her four chapters: the hurting, the loving, the breaking, and the healing, to talk about her past, to where she is know.  She talks about her abuse she went through as a child and her abusive relationships.  Read if you ever want to find out if her life gets better.

One of the moments Kaur has surprised me when she talked about her abuse.  When you see the words milk and honey you think sweet.  But after you finish reading the book you think sour and sweet.  It was very deep and emotional to read what she went through. At that moment I became even more thankful that I had what I had.

Kaur is the main character, that talks about her relationships with her mother, father, family members, women, men, and her past boyfriends and what she has learned from them.  

Kaur’s writing is very personal, highly feminist, and talks about uncomfortable subjects. For this reason, I would recommend this book to females 15 years or older who needs some inspiration, realization, or self confidence.  Rupi has another poetry book called the sun and her flowers.