Cover Image: In Real Life

In Real Life

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Member Reviews

I love poems and I loved this book.

The different diagramming for pages, and the beautiful illustrations.

We have simple poems and also with deep tones, about life, fellings, thoughts, loves, relationships, some about our current 21st century with the use of the internet.

I highly recommend it, I didn't know the author, but I'll start to follow.

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In Real Life contains poetry to savor. Leticia Sala writes well and gives readers a craft to enjoy and appreciate.

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This was a super lovely and quick book. I found interesting the bilingual component of this book and I'm glad the author chose that path, since it's a lot more enriching. In terms of content, the only downside was the quality of the few illustrations, because (at least in my copy) they had a lot of pixelization, and their placement felt a little bit random. I liked the modernity and honesty of the poems, and I felt this was a autobiographical 21st century love anthem. It was nice knowing the characters' story and finding a lot of aspects relatable among the uniqueness of the couple, and I wish Leticia and Pau all the best!

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I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

In Real Life was an extremely relatable and emotional poetry collection. It talks about long distance love in such a genuine and honest way that you can't help but root for Leticia and Pau.

I loved that it was extremely easy to read and the use of social media terms made the poems more real.

It was incredible to see the story unfolding after every poem and they each left a mark on my heart.

I highly recommend this to any poetry lovers or simply to anyone who's ever had a long distance relationship.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an early copy.

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Reading this in both language was unlike any experience like any other (Personally I enjoyed the poems in spanish more- especially reading them out loud- the words felt rich and meaningful). But the opportunity to have the translation is clever in reaching out to non-spanish speakers. This set of poems tells a story of a relationship taking shape in the modern age with social media having a large impact in our society. If you're on social media or other sites in which you are online dating- you will find yourself in these pages.

My three favorite poems included: On Writing a Book, The Exact Second, and When my Days Come to an End. These poems brought thoughts of past moments in my life and that type of human connection/emotion is what should be brought out in the reader when reading and connecting with poetry when the writer does a phenomenal job.

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Beautiful compilation of Spanish and English translation poetry.
Loved the poems about couples and relationships. And I loved how it all formed a story.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC!

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This was really fun! I think because the majority of the poems focused on a long distance relationship, the bilingual poetry style made a lot of sense. As someone who is attempting to become fluent in Spanish, trying to figure out what the poem was saying and then immediately being able to check my work was a lot of fun. That being said, the poems didn't exactly blow my mind, although a lot of them were clever and they were fun to read.
I think if you're familiar with Spanish and you're interested in the topic, you might enjoy this collection.

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This is a book of poems that reads like a story of two lovers who seek ways to explain how much they love each other, how much their love for each other is worth, and how much more they want from each other.
Each poem is so beautifully crafted and so heartfelt that it pulls you as the reader into the relationship. It expresses deep love, acceptance, loss, grief, second chance, and most importantly self-reflection.
One that really stood out to me was the 'Reflection' poem
"Couples are the most perfect mirrors" and it just made me think about the importance of having a partner that reflects your heart. You only stay with someone you think you want. If you look in the mirror hoping to see a perfect you, then that is what you will see.

Another is 'Twisted'
"You, pretending to be, the person you think, I'm expecting you to be
Me, pretending to be the person I think you're expecting me to be"
This is true in a lot of relationships, especially at the start, if you are going to pretend to be someone else's type then you really shouldn't be dating that person in the first place. It will just be this rollercoaster where you keep trying to be someone you are not.

My personal favorite has to be 'Waves'
where she takes about commitment and sacrifice, basically if you are not ready to commit to this for the rest of your life, then don't go in. at least, go in knowing that you will give it all you've got, sacrifice what you have to, then you will know that you did everything you could for it to work.
I really enjoyed this book and I hope everyone checks it out.

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I loved this book a lot.
As someone who is studying Spanish, it was really interesting to read Spanish poems and having the English ‘translations’ next to them.
In the end, all the poems form a full story and that was beautiful to read.

Thank you NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for providing me with this copy in exchange for an honest review.

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Synopsis: In Real Life, by Leticia Sala is a book that tells a story through poems. Most of the poems mention something common to the 21st century lovers: social media, long-distance relationships, how the internet plays a role in modern romance. All of the texts are presented twice: once in Spanish (Ms. Sala is Spanish) and in once in English.

Review: I don’t usually read poetry but the premise of In Real Life caught my attention. The poems are extremely easy to relate to due to mentions to “stories”, “stalking”, “googling”, etc. So, uunlike many poetry books that require a certain familiarity to the genre, this one if very approachable. Another thing that is important to mention is the fact that Leticia herself translated the poems to English; I usually think translated poetry loses a bit of its meaning, but when the author does it herself, the meaning behind the poems is always there. Last but not least: even though it’s poetry, the book can still be considered a novel: you will read about romance unfolding and developing, hoping the couple will be together in the end!

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