This is a funny short story, I attended Mbogi ya Mawriters for the second time at its third or fourth edition after I had promised myself I was going to attend all of them from the first one when I was totally drawn in on the writers' vibe which is super chilled and always positive even when they write gore content, you know. I am really interested in reviewing books and it's something I recently just picked up and the feedback is quite motivating, so then let's get to it.
Holy Crimes by Elove Poetry and Vincent De Paul is a collection of mini poetry that explores the aspect of love from the beginning to the end and in the between. Such a universal emotion, who wouldn't be interested? Well, when I bought the book unlike some of you, who get attracted to the cover or get a calling (book lovers will get this) I was a bit curious of its contents and knew right away I would be interested in Holy Crimes authored out of love by a couple (at least according to their Facebook status) and yes of course it's was the most affordable one considering my pocket at the time. The cover not so pleasing to the eyes but never judge a book by its cover.
Considering the author is a CEO and publisher of Mystery Books, the company that was curating the book sales it was thoughtful and professional of them to sell their books with free bookmarks and you get a receipt for proof of transaction. Oh, that reminds me, I never got my book signed, sigh!
A couple of days later, I had finished the seventy five-paged book and was full of envy (as a poet myself) of the seamless rhythmic stanzas and the casual use of the ‘F’ word appropriately. My favourite line lies under the eighth verse of the one-paragraphed poem headed ‘I Still Love Her’ that reads; …even with thorns, we pick roses…(deep, right?) It is an easy read, which translates to a lovely journey of young, toxic, mystic, obsessive, dysfunctional, mythic, satisfying, eager and broken love. Better still it has a contents table for a bird's eye view of the book DO NOT be fooled by the few typos here and there, pssst… there is a page 45 that is amiss from the table of contents that is actually there.
With that, I am definitely curious about what the other fourteen books are about and can’t wait to get them, now that I have a commitment to buying a Kenyan-authored book per month! What’s yours?