Chella Courington

This book, a collection of vignettes, moments in the life of main character Diana, an English major struggling to survive on an adjunct professor's meager salary, paints a picture that the reader is truly able to visualize. The prose is clear and descriptive. I just ate it up, really enjoyed it, and would have liked to have kept reading. The title is what initally attracted me, and the writing lived up to my expectations.

I always find it difficult to formulate my thoughts on why I love a certain collection of poetry, and this book contains two such collections by two fabulous writers. Both these women write about the pain and awkwardness of female adolescence straying into adulthood. Though they are very different writers with very different takes on the world, both writers provide readable and textural poems with darkly playful relevance and depth. They were a good, cohesive pair to put side-by-side.