the sun and her flowers by rupi kaur

I spent the first couple of hours in bed this morning, finishing the sun and her flowers by rupi kaur. I set a goal to finish it today, so that I could write a review. And I did. So here we are.

This isn’t a traditional book review. There’s just something about giving a book X stars out of 5 that doesn’t sit well with me. What does sit well—very well—with me? Quotes.

While reading, I like to underline, highlight, or dogear parts that I like, that I can relate to, or that I just think are written well. Rupi’s second book of poems and illustrations is broken into five parts.

In the back of the book, it says:

the sun and her flowers is a
collection of poetry about
grief
self-abandonment
honoring one’s roots
love
and empowering oneself
it is split into five chapters
wilting, falling, rooting, rising, and blooming.

-about the book

While I was reading, I found five themes in the words that I was underlining:

1. words that I can’t relate to but can emphasize with because they’re beautiful
2. struggles with relationships—not able to let go, being jealous, being addicted
3. advice. Things to remember—like not taking things for granted
4. self love—a relationship with yourself. Like the second one but body love.
5. and just other things I like that don’t fit in with anything else.

(With these on paper, I realize they’re almost exactly like what rupi categorized—just in language that I can relate to.)

We’ll get to that in a minute. For now, here’s a poem giving a little back info on rupi’s five sections:

this is the recipe of life
said my mother
as she held me in her arms as i wept
think of those flowers you plant
in the garden each year
they will teach you
that people too
must wilt
fall
root
rise
in order to bloom

And now for the meat of it. Let me say, I picked out 53 of these, but I’m saving you all and just going with 25 (five from each category).

Empathy

Relationships with others

Advice

A relationship with the self

Misc.

And I’d like to end by saying that I enjoy rupi’s style. She rarely capitalizes words or uses capitalization. Not to mention the cover is amazing and her illustrations inspire me to draw. My kind of gal.