I came to Adrienne Rich via Cheryl Strayed and Wild and while that is not necessarily something to brag about, I do think it would make Cheryl Strayed incredibly happy. Wild was about literature and grief as much as it was about hiking and recovery and her inclusion of the books that were meaningful to her at that point in her life seemed incredibly deliberate. Especially because she left her favorite quotes as her signature in all of the trail books, suggesting a desire to share her favorite authors with the world.
Anyway, I read The Dream of a Common Language because she made it sound so entrancing, and it was a rich and rewarding experience that I've already indulged in a few more times. Like Strayed, I feel a strong desire to take it with me. This is a book that will probably go on some camping trips this summer. It is deeply personal but somehow manages to be very political, a feat it pulls off so gracefully. If you haven't spent much time with contemporary or feminist poetry, this is the essential text (in my humble opinion) to get you started.
The Bookhive List is a weekly recommendation of my all-time favorite, must-read books.
