The best word I can find to describe the poetry and prose in this book is elegant. I have far too many favorites in this short book to mention them all.
The poem why drew me into a similar memory, one which I have written about but not as well.
The title of the offbeat the offbeat poem is a misnomer because with lines such as
"i listen to the world as it moves andante
while my heart is beating presto alla tedesca"
you can see that Martin doesn't miss a beat at all. Her creativity in such accurate descriptions is truly amazing.
First date insecurities in the prose piece, The Door are so raw and real that I cringed as if I had felt them just yesterday. The poem broken is a plaintive voice that speaks to what the poet regards as a mismatched love. Yet, as words go, it is hard to match Martin's skill in writing.
The book ends with my number one favorite, the short story "Brief Love." It was too brief. As I read from paragraph to paragraph, I truly could not put it down and at the end, I was more than a little disappointed that this fine story was not the beginning of a full length novel.
The end of the book held quite an assortment of reviews and promotional pieces for other work. I don't think Ms. Martin needs them. Although I wasn't enamored with the promos, I can live with them, especially since this wonderful book was a free download. The book, itself, should encourage readers to seek out her other works. I know I will in the hope they are as excellent as this one.
(My personal guide for ratings are as follows: 5 stars, equal to any book of its genre, better than most; 4 stars, content that easily moves past a few formatting errors that do little or nothing to impact it, still highly recommended; 3 stars, technical errors or format choices impaired the flow of the book although I did enjoy the content. 2 stars, I struggled with the book due to either technical errors and/or a concept that was trite or underwritten. 1 star signifies a book that I abandoned before finishing due to structural errors in either plot or mechanics.)