This was a great poetry book. I always absolutely enjoy her work and I can't wait to read more in the near future. I highly recommend it.

I really enjoyed reading this book! I read this book in one sitting because I could not put the book down, I highly recommend reading this book!

I enjoyed The Day is Not Ready because the poems were beautifully written. Malee tackled a lot of important subjects, but most importantly was feminism. Her poems were raw and vivid and I think they really conveyed the message she wanted to send to the reader

Alison Malee's poetry can bring feelings to an unusual way. Through piercing, deep and sometimes painful words that made me aware of many things. Mourning is a complicated and difficult thing for humans. But Malee turned all of them into soothing words.
I was impressed with all this series of poems and took a breath after reading them. Obviously, this work is worthy of being included as a collection.

This looked like a great book, but unfortunately it was archived before I could read it. I will pay more attention to that before requesting. Thank you.

This is the first collection of poetry by Malee that I have read and I really enjoyed it a lot. It was such an inspiring and enlightening work, and I found myself completely captivated by her words. There tends to be a lot of repetition in modern poetry in terms of subject matter, and I believe it takes a special writer to truly distinguish their writing from the rest. Malee does this with such ease—she has a remarkable talent for expressing her thoughts and feelings both on her own experience and on society as whole. Her poems tackle very important subjects, such as feminism, that are especially topical right now.

Malee’s writing and imagery is beautiful and vivid, and the messages she wishes to convey shine through clearly. Her depiction of raw human emotion—happiness, love, grief, pain, strength—is incredibly relatable and will pull the reader into her words. Personally, I felt a deep connection with every theme within this collection. She puts into words that which feels so complex and challenging to grasp. She spells these feelings out in a creative way that makes every thought even more powerful.

I had mixed feelings at first on The Day is Ready for you, the second collection of poetry by Alison Malee. When I first read the book I struggled to connect with the poems, on the second reading I began to appreciate the way in which Malee constructed her sentences. She writes with lowercase letters, as well as with the lines spaced, so it felt more intimate. It was that intimacy that made me start to connect with the poems, and enjoy the book. There was a feeling in the poetry of alienation, of not belonging. The questions Malee was asking based on the environment, and the experiences, of the narrator. The love poems gave me the sense the narrator believes love is for the few, and that they don’t believe they are one of those few. I liked the writing was whimsical too at some points, and I liked a lot of the metaphors that were used. I loved the title of this book too, which I interpreted as The Day is Ready for you: You are Ready for the Day. I would read more from this author.

I can see many people loving Malee's writing, but unfortunately I'm not one of those. This book was exceedingly bland and full to the brim with a desperate attempt at writing heartfelt poetry that did after all feel like a bad desperate poetry.

I was very disappointed.

Lovely collection of poems, although some poems felt too forced and I didn't feel much. I understand the writer wanted to put her feelings out there and it doesn't mean I have to feel them too, so I'm not rating it based on that.

The cover is what drew me in, but the writing is captivating. Written in contemporary poetry style, the collection is divided into three parts. The sections and poems flow well into each other and use of ‘we’ creates intimacy between the poet and the reader. The words are precise and easily evokes emotion. I look forward to other works by this author!

The Day is Ready for You by Alison Malee is a poetry collection divded into three parts: unmoveable things, a restless pause, and prayers like exhales. The entire collection is free-verse, and written in all lowercase text.

Part one seems very anger filled, with themes of a wanting for love, the inculcated beliefs of being not good enough, and finding mismatched love that inevitably breaks apart. I can so grok these things. Part two seems more about broken love or departed love, learning to survive these things and how hard that can be. How it can seem much easier to try to hold one instead of letting go. Part three seems more spiritual overall, generally more about learning to be brave, finding your sense self-worth, and learning to love oneself.

'playing cards’ was one of my favourite poems. It reminded me of a quote from the show House, MD where Dr House somewhat cynically, and sadly, notes “If the wonder is gone when the truth is known, then there never really was any.” Both poem and quote speak to the metaphysicist in me, both perhaps taken in a different light than intended.

'drop them’ spoke deeply to me, as one who carries these loaded guns around as well, the demons of low self-worth, the inculcated limiting beliefs I need so desperately to drop, to let go of, yet how hard that is!

'worth’ was another poem speaking to me of reclaiming my sense of self-worth.

Others that spoke deeply to me were 'slow’, 'strange thing’, and 'does it’. Overall, I enjoyed this collection. It made me think, and left me pondering at times. Plus, it has a gorgeous cover! Highly recommended for those who enjoy free verse poetry.

***Many thanks to Netgalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This is a fantastic book of poetry. My favorite poem as someone who deals with speech is "language"

we communicate
with hands and eyes.
it is our accidental language.
we learned it clumsily,

but i think we will keep it.

Very different and unique. I loved the beauty of these words. Very profound in its ideas and beautiful in its presentation.

I love poetry, I really do. But I’ve been struggling with the contemporary enjambed poetry that seems to be the style of choice for most poets these days.

What struck me right away about this collection is that the stanzas aren’t arranged in any particular way, at least not that was meaningful to me. I also had difficulty with enjoying the imagery used. I didn’t like the first poems I read, so I struggled to continue with the collection. And not even the subjects of the poems really spoke to me.

However, I did really like a couple of the poems in the collection, like “Forging” and “Told You”. “Forging” is a feminist poem, and I quite enjoyed it. “Told You” was a hopeful take on finding love, and it being with someone who knows you wholly and accepts you as you are. Both are longer poems, actually, which is good. Often short enjambed poetry read like a single short sentence. But the two poems I just mentioned are uplifting.

"The Day Is Ready For You" is, unfortunately, not my cup of tea. I really only enjoyed two poems out of the collection.

I absolutely loved so much about these poems. Beautifully written, captivating, emotional, and so many wow factors. This truly had a passionate spark, and from never reading any of Alison Malee before, you can now consider me a big fan. Recommended to anyone and everyone.

While there were some parts of this I enjoyed, there wasn’t anything that especially stood out about this collection for me. I was just glad to see that the pieces felt thought through and meaningfully constructed.

*arc provided by netgalley*

it took me a while to get through this but i think i just wanted to savour it as much as possible. coming back to it a few times rather than devouring it in one sitting was great for me because every time i got around to reading a portion of it, it brightened my day. these poems were so precise and lively. i loved reading about this poet's experiences with relationships. there is something special about how the author uses "we" in her work, like there is truly a collaborative force between the storyteller and the reader- it made for a really intimate reading experience. the writing is so inspirational to me as a poet and i know that this collection will stay in my head for a while and it even gave me fuel to work on my own writing.

This was the first book that I've read from this author, and I already know I will forever be on the look out for more of her poetry. This was a beautiful collection of poetry that touches on the subjects of love, heartbreak, relationships, and grief. As I normally find with poetry collections, some poems spoke deeply to me, and others I simply couldn't connect with. Nevertheless, Alison Malee writes so beautifully, and everyone will relate to at least a handful of these stunning poems.

I have received a much appreciated digital copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

The cover of The Day Is Ready for You caught my eye and when I saw it was published by Andrews McMeel (one of my favorites), I knew I had to read this book.

This is a lovely collection of poetry by Alison Malee that showcases her gift for stringing together words mindfully. Most of the poems center around love, both present and lost. The majority of the poems are less than a page long, which kept me reading along ("just one more"). I got through the book quickly, but definitely paused to savor certain poems or phrases. By the end, I had bookmarked a dozen poems -- including Citrus, Worth, and All at Once -- as the ones that had spoken to me most. I anticipate revisiting this book in the future.

I recommend this book for poetry lovers, especially fans of Amanda Lovelace or Lang Leav. And if you love beautiful covers, be sure to get the print version to adorn your shelf.

Kraftvolle Bildsprache und viel Gefühl finden sich in diesem Band wieder. Die Gedichte kommen in unterschiedlicher Länge daher und laden ein, um über das Leben, den Augenblick und so vieles mehr zu reflektieren.