Pillow Thoughts: A Book Review

by - July 05, 2020

Happy Sunday all! I hope everyone is hanging in there and staying safe and healthy... and sane of course! I wanted a change of pace this week. Instead of talking about the events going on in this world and continuing to lecture my readers about wearing a mask when they go out, I figured something lighter and more fun would be nice for a change. Really ever since the pandemic went into full force I have been trying to shed a positive light on the issues and how we can help one another out during this time of uncertainty. Today I wanted to stray from that and do something I haven't in a while, a book review! More specifically a poetry book review.

If you know me at all you know my relationship with poetry has been an interesting one. To be frank I hated the poetry units in high school and in college. I know, pretty funny that an English major hated poetry when so many famous works are in verse. I purposely avoided having to do my final presentation as an English major during the poetry unit as well. Needless to say I did not exactly enjoy reading poems and I certainly wasn't doing it for fun. Fast-forward to a couple of years ago and I am not only enjoying reading poetry but writing it and I even have some of my poetry published. Pretty ironic to think that someone who disliked poetry so much is now a published poet! It has been a pretty crazy ride I must say! I also have a nice collection of poetry books that I just love to read on my own time. A few weeks ago this book, Pillow Thoughts by Courtney Peppernell caught my attention when I was at Target so I decided to give it a try and share my thoughts for all of you.

Pillow Thoughts is a collection of poetry focused on all different emotions. There are poems about love, heartbreak, longing, if you are in a long-distance relationship and missing someone, and many more. The book is made up of sections for all these emotions and the back even reads: "It is divided into sections to read when you feel you need them most." I honestly loved that. Each section is broken up into these specific segments making it really easy to find what your heart might need most. The poems are free-verse and vary in length. A cute little touch in my opinion was the little illustrations on the cover, and at the beginning of each section/chapter of the book. These illustrations are little jellyfish, somehow relating to the content of the section to follow. As you can see in the picture I included here, this section is about love and the jellyfish are forming a little heart. I thought this was such a nice touch that adds a little personality to the book. Overall it is a book packed full of emotional poems for all different emotions you may be feeling in your life.

"May your weapon be kindness
Your shield compassion
May flowers grow again
To sprout love from all this sadness," 
-Courtney Peppernell, Pillow Thoughts, Page 127

So what are my thoughts? Well I absolutely loved this book of poems! I honestly could relate to so many of the poems and even bookmarked many with sticky-notes to reference back or even send to someone else. I am a highly emotional person as many of you know so I loved all the different feelings this book covered. You really can sit down with this book and read through a specific emotion you may be feeling at the moment. Personally this book inspired me to start writing more poetry as well. I have never really written much free-verse until this book inspired me to do so and I have a new love for it! I have been very happy with my writing lately too I must say. The poems in this book are truly beautiful and you can very much feel the emotions that were put into each and every one of them. Even the poems that are just a handful of lines like the one I quoted have such a lovely feel to them and I enjoyed reading every single one of them.

As I was reading this book I found out that it is actually the first in a series. Pillow Thoughts II, and Pillow Thoughts III are both already published, and Peppernell also just announced Pillow Thoughts IV is on the way and releasing in August. To think that this one, the very first, was only published in 2017 and the fourth installment is due to be published in 2020 is truly impressive. It shows the impression these poems have left on others, myself included. I for one plan on reading every single one of them. I highly recommend this book if you are looking for some poetry to enjoy. Sometimes fiction novels are a little overwhelming to take on, especially if you read right before bed like I do. If that is a struggle for you I highly recommend you get a nice poetry book to just tackle a little but at a time. Pillow Thoughts would be a wonderful book to add to your collection!

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