Stuff I've Been Feeling Lately

Here’s a collection of poems regarding the highest of highs and lowest of lows in life, touching everything from success to trauma to deep love to identity.

There were some incredible poems on the A-side (such as track 4, 19, 29) but there was a lot of hit-or-miss for me personally. The B-side felt more cohesive and I suppose the formatting helped a bit with that.

Nothing touched me quite as deeply as the Track Four (A-side) did. I full-on burst into tears taking in these words about love between women. No matter how it was intended by the author it rang true to my own experiences as a lesbian, and it felt so good to feel so at home in this?

This book of poetry reminded me that I actually like poetry. So many of them spoke to me, spoke to my heart. The idea to attach them to songs, and also to do remixes, is inspired. I love that aspect to these poems. I can't wait to get my hands on the new edition so I can tab all the poems I bookmarked in my digital copy!

If you're scared to read poetry because you feel like you don't "get" it. This is a great collection to start with. They're very readable. I think almost anyone can find a poem they can connect with in this collection. Maybe you'll even find your new favorite song.

a lively and original collection of poems discussing a plethora of topics.

This was my first ever book full of poetry compilation. Through videos and bloggers I came to know bits of information about this book as how easy read it was that a first timer won't be overwhelmed with too much of poems. There were a few poems which struck a chord with me and I was thrown into the pool of feelings like Track 37 and 68 from Side A to name a few and some were a miss. I loved the idea of songs associated with each poem and Side B had some of my favourites which helped to me associate with the poem at a deeper level if I can say. This book was an easy read and I would recommend to those friends of mine who would it appreciate it more than I can ever do.

Beautiful poetry and a bright young talent.
I adore this raw and honest description of situations that everyone can relate to.

Although I have a few favourites that particular stuck out (including tracks 6, 12, 29 and 55) I generally enjoyed the majority of the poems on both sides of this collection. All of the originals are very readable, both aloud and to oneself, with many lines that stood out as particularly emotive and resonating. I didn't know what to expect from the remix poems but I loved how they were done — especially how the relevant words were circled and the others simply crossed out rather than blacked out entirely, as it emphasized the poems being remixes and their connection to the originals.

Overall, this collection was both sincere and candid in both sides, and the remixes really brought something new to their originals.

One of the best books I've read recently. I absolutely love her poems! ♥

I really liked this collection of modern poetry. The writing style was easy to follow (for the most part). Both Side A and Side B have a lot of poems that I think will be relatable for a lot of people. Overall I would say this collection is modern, young, well-written and just very pleasing to read. It was not quite a 5 star read because I felt that it was a bit repetitive at some points, and some of the tracks in Side B was a bit difficult to read because of the format.

I have depression and so many of these poems made me feel as if I'm not alone. I believe this book will sell a lot if they advertise it right. The poems in this collection reached into my hearts and pulled me by the strings. It made me think of the people who I loved, left, hurt and been hurt by. It is a wonderful book that is extremely relatable. I will be looking for this on the shelves

This was my second venture in to the world of poetry and I did enjoy most aspects of it.

It was quite difficult at the start to get into the flow of reading poetry as it was something I was not used to but once in flow the book easily reads in one sitting. The poetry in side A did not entrance me as I wished, however side B totally redeemed this.

Side B was full of black out poetry, something about the simple scoring out of words to highlight others is so powerful. It is definitely a technique of poetry that intrigues me as a reader and is totally different from what I have seen before.

I would recommend this book for anyone who wants to venture into reading poetry in particularly the blackout form.

*ARC received from netgalley and publisher in exchange for honest review*

This is my first time reading the poet and it won’t be my last. I absolutely adored Stuff I’ve Been Feeling Lately. I could read most of the poems over and over and never grow tired of the language, images and feelings they invoke. Cook writes the type of poems I love to read and write and was definitely my cup of tea. I was really moved by some poems on side A, especially the ones that explored grief. I just really enjoyed all of the poems. I wasn’t sure how I felt about side B at first. Some of the poems were not all that different from side A but gradually I fell in love with these as well. I thought Stuff I’ve Been Feeling Lately was great. I cannot wait to read more.

Alicia Clark's book of poems is a lovely mix of music and love, life, and family. I really love her writing style, and how she speaks so truly of something which I think a lot of people can resonate with.

The "remix" half the book was probably my favourite. I love blackout poetry, so doing this with her own poems was a real addition to the collection and I felt like at times some of the poems she'd blacked out were, in fact, more resonant than what she had left in.

Some of the poems on "Side A" really were beautiful, but they didn't all live up to what I had hoped they would be. Many were powerful and I bookmarked a lot of them - but "Side B" is, I feel where Clark's creativity and authorship really came through.

I would definitely recommend STUFF I'VE BEEN FEELING LATELY.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review!

I really enjoyed the majority of the poetry in this. I like the topics she covers and the way she covers them. There are quite a few more prose-heavy poetry, and that's where it started to be very hit-or-miss for me. Some of them I liked, others I didn't.

I think the Side A/Side B idea is brilliant, and all of the blackout poetry in Side B was top-notch. Definitely check this out if you've been thinking about it.

I loved this collection to pieces. As a music lover the tape format was so cool. I resonated with almost every poem and even ones I couldn't relate too I could still feel the emotion. The writing was beautiful and the "remix" side was such an unique feature!

I loved reading this book. The first part is relatable and honest. The second part is a fun black-out poetry of the first part. Each poem is accompanied by a song and the author's taste is impeccable. Some songs I've already listened to and some artists I've already loved. Definitely one of the best poetry collection I've read.

I purchased the original copy of this title earlier this year and loved it. I was very excited to see it up on Netgalley for review and just finished it. If I thought that I enjoyed that edition as much as I could have I was very wrong. This edition is amazing!! I found the poetry so heartfelt. When I was younger I thought that I just did not like or understand poetry. It turns out I just had not read the right poetry for me. I cannot wait until it comes out to purchase a finished copy.

I will put a review up on Amazon when it releases.

Every once in a while I like to cleanse my reading palette with a little poetry.
What I really like about modern poetry like this is that it feels so genuine, like the author isn't trying so hard to make themselves sound good, and instead are just typing their emotions right onto the page.
I was pleasantly surprised with how many of the songs referenced in this collection I actually knew, and I think this made me feel more connected to the story because I felt like the speaker and I were on the same wavelength.
The first section was very lovely and painless; then part two came around and I grew even more pleased.
I think blackout poetry is the coolest thing and I love how Alicia Cook "remixed" her poems into completely new ones in this unique and aesthetically appealing way.
I flew through this. It is a great option if you're looking for some light, yet meaningful and interesting poetry to read in one sitting.

***I received an e-ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

This was an absolutely beautiful and brilliant collection of poems. It was deeply heart warming, thought provoking and inspirational. The words were so meaningful, placed with careful consideration, thus to fully comprehend what just happened I felt like I had to reread sections. The words carried emotion, conveyed a story in such a short amount of time. Throughout the collection I've been asking myself "How did someone thread these words into a lovely piece of art?" I loved the mixtape aspect: side A with all the author's poems and side B with them again, but as blackout poetry. All the songs that were "Currently Listening To:" tied in wonderfully with whichever poem was created. All in all I'm glad I decided to pick this up and read.

In my opinion, what makes this book a great one is its structure and style. In the first part (aka side A) there is a collection of 92 poems, and each one of them is connected to the song the author was listening to when she was writing. But my favourite part is side B (the remixes), which includes amazing pieces of black-out poetry based on the poems we find in the first section of the book, but connected to different songs. I think this is very original and unique.

Moreover, "Stuff I've been feeling lately" is much more than a compilation of poems. It's a book about grief, about growing, and finding the person you want to be (even if it isn't the person you used to be). Also, I love the way Alicia Cook emphasises that recovering is a journey, that it takes time, and that there are bad days... But there are also good ones. And I think this is important.

This is the second poetry book I have read this month. I've been completely intrigued with this genre and I've been scouring every book source for more poetry books to add to my TBR. I actually ran across this on one Netgalley and I was so excited!

I've never read anything by Alicia Cook before (she has one other book-not poetry though). I really enjoyed reading this book. It was a super quick read and I read it within an hour or so.

The setup/format of this book is so unique and I freaking love it! I'm pretty sure that's part of what makes this book special.

This book was so wonderful, but I really enjoyed Side B of the book that was the Remixes of her Tracks in Side A (blackout poetry). This was my first experience with blackout poetry and I really loved it!

The tracks on Side A definitely touched on some pretty raw and sensitive subjects which made Side B so much more enjoyable. I loved the blackout poetry, which I kept referring to as the hidden messages.

The only reason I didn't give this book a full 5 stars was because I felt like Alicia Cook hinted at some deeper emotional issues but never elaborated on them. I think I would have like a little more detail to expand on those things. Yes, I understand it's poetry and it's supposed to be short. But that's just my opinion and something that could've made the book a little bit better. I wanted to know exactly what made her damaged and not just hints of things that happened.

I'm pretty sure Alicia is working on book #3 and I'm so excited to see what she has in store for us next! I swear I can never get enough poetry books on my TBR and I honestly think they need to be promoted more so that authors are more willing to publish theirs!

Powerful series of poem...made even more so with the blackout poems of side B. So many of the poems felt real and relatable.

A mostly enjoyable book of poems about the highs and lows (sometimes very low) of life. I liked the 'B side' selection better.

Well, what can I say? I an speechless and happy. Speechless, that I don't have enough words to express all that I am feeling after reading this, and happy that I decided to read this book despite having no information about it at all. It was just a cover choice for me as the cover is so unique. Though I read and ebook, but I kept imagining how beautiful it would look when I'll have a physical copy of it.

This was my second poetry this year and I can say now that I love poetry. This book was very unique, right from its cover, to the writing and the presentation. It is divided into two parts - Side A and Side B (same as a mix tape) and each side has various tracks (similar to a tape). The other unique thing was that each track was associated with a song. I must admit here that was not familiar with any of the song but I really get the essence there and I have created a list of all the songs to listen later.

Side A was full poetry, while Side B was something different. It was black-out poetry of the poems from Side A, and I didn't expected it at all. The writing of the book was really simple and you can easily get into it. While reading it, I felt as if each track is speaking to me and what I sometimes feel is written out there. My favourite track, however, was track 46 on Side A.

The poems depict love, loss, healing, warmth, problems of growing old. Each track has its own charm. But you'll be surprised by seeing how flexible these poems are. You can make your own versions out of these. Some poems will make you feel that you are in great pain, your heart is broken, while some of them will make you realize that you are healed and you have to live your life to the fullest. They teaches you that pain is not permanent, it has to go away one day. They appreciated the beauty of people around you, talked about the importance of your home and more personal things.

Every poem felt personal to me. I loved the writing style of Alicia Cook. The author is also doing a great thing by donating all the profit from this book to Willow Tree Center and I really appreciate her.

All in all, this was a great collection and definitely is now one of my favourites. I would recommend it to every poetry lover out there. I seriously want to write many more appreciating things about it, but I am really out of words now.

While I didn't really like Side B (the remix) of this book, I really loved most of the poems of Side A, especially the last ones. Her poetry spoke to me and I could really get a sense of who she is, and how much she suffers and rebuilds herself through all that's happened, grief and longing and heartbreak.
Definitely recommend this book for everyone who loves very honest and open poetry. It got me excited to find more poerty from new authors.

I found this book to be very compelling with interesting characters and an engaging plot but it would be difficult to adapt this to a classroom setting.

"Images are closer than they appear and not as pretty as they seem."

I am so impressed with this book! I have never seen poetry set out so uniquely! This book was very well thought out despite the fact that the poems are repeated twice in this book. When I got to Part 2 of the book, the way I interpreted the repeated lot of poems was totally different to the first time. I finished this book feeling amazed that much a small book could have such a huge impact.

I had an awesome time reading this. I really loved the "currently listening to" at the end of each poem and the whole sideB, with the remixes, was an amazing concept.
I really don't know what else to say since I feel like I haven't read enough poetry in my life to properly review this.......

An amazingly unique collection of poetry.

This poetry collection was thoughtful, inspiring and beautiful. It still amazes me how poets can make me feel emotional while using just a few words or sentences, and Alicia Cook definitely did this, too.
The added 'remix' to this collection (black out poetry of her own poems) was very original, and touching. I loved every single poem, and every single second I spend reading this.

I am going to be the woman you fear.

As of late, I've been expanding my poetry shelves and when I came upon Stuff I've Been Feeling Lately, I knew I had to give it a read. Something about the format is appealing to me and I had a feeling I'd love it. I didn't know just how much I would. Not only is the format told in a way that sparks my interest (mix tapes and poetry?!) the prose is so full of life that I found myself short of breath on more than one occasion. I kept saying this, this collection is modern poetry at its finest.

Alicia Cook has a way to her words that leads us readers to her thoughts. Straightaway, what she writes is what we feel. It's so easy to connect with her and there's this sense of honesty to every word that is impossible to describe. Poetry is all about connecting us to a person's heart and soul and Stuff I've Been Feeling Lately is a total nod to this. You're embraced by this intimate look at her life. The good, the bad, the everything. I loved exploring every minute of it and finished it in one sitting because it's just so good.


I smiled often. I cried during some moments. It's everything you'd expect a collection of poems to be. There was a bit of nostalgia in some words; the songs, too, held a glimmer of the past for me. I think that beyond the power of Alicia's words, the songs really kicked things up a notch because we can connect so easily to both of these things on their own. But together? Together it makes the experience more powerful and ties us into something new.

For example. Rent. The references to Rent connected me to the words far more than anything else did. If I'm there, if I'm describing myself, that musical is somehow always involved. It changed my life from the moment I saw it and anytime I hear it, it's like I'm alive once more. So seeing a bit of appreciation thrown towards it--and how it connects Alicia to her life and past--was something that drew me that much closer to it all. Something about its reference moved me. It didn't define the collection or what she portrayed in referencing it but it did tie it together.

Reviewing poetry is so hard because it's everything all at once. So I'm going to leave my review with a glimpse at one of my favourites from the set--and leave you with the hope that it takes your breath away and captivates you like it did me. You can't want anything more than to feel connected with the words and Things I've Been Feeling Lately is one of most relatable and complete feelings in the world and definitely one of my favourite discoveries this year. It's a rare release that gets better the longer you read it and I can't get over the feeling of a journey that came with it.

“You always want one more day.
You always want one more picture
as the old ones begin to fade.
You always want that one final hug
to have lasted just a tad longer.
You always want the fondness
of the remember-whens
to outnumber the might-have-beens.
You want more years, more months,
more weeks, more days,
more minutes, and more seconds.
You want the happily ever after
you always thought you deserved,
but the only thing actually promised
in this life is uncertainty.”

Is there anything more true than that?

Received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review.
Thanks to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for the opportunity to read and review Stuff I've Been Feeling Lately by Alicia Cook!

This book consists of poems labeled Track One through to Track Ninety-Two. Each poem is followed by a song the author was currently listening to when constructing the poem.

My favorite poem is Track Fourteen:

"Just because I don't trust you
doesn't mean I have trust issues.
Just because I won't commit to you
doesn't mean I have commitment issues.
Just because I watch what I eat
doesn't mean I have body image issues.
Just because people have left my life
doesn't mean I have abandonment issues.
Just because I yearn to grow and evolve
doesn't mean I have identity issues.

I know exactly who the hell I am."

That is a slam dunk of confidence and well being!

There are two sets of ninety two poems. The first set is each full poem with a coinciding song. The second set is a remix of each of the previous poems, in order, with specifically chosen words to create new, smaller poems with a different song that matches the remake better.

This book is full of healing poems that feel like a balm applied directly to your heart! I plan on purchasing this poetry book for the patrons at the high school library because I know several students who will appreciate the heartfelt words pouring into each poem. 5 stars!

The concept and structure of this book is what makes it unique and stand-out in the myriad of poetry collections for me; the mixture of simple and black-out poetry with the addition of songs that accompany each poem is amazing!

Cook’s writing is so personal, there are times when you actually doubt that you’re not reading her diary instead of poetry – it feels like she’s spilling her feelings rather than words when writing. The poems are a sundry assortment that deal with love, grief, self-doubt, nostalgia, healing, growing – all things that everyone can relate to; you’ll be in love, experiencing a heartbreak, walking barefoot in your family home and fighting all of your demons whilst reading this collection!

Unpopular Opinion: Although I enjoyed both the sides, I loved side A much more than side B for some reason. Side B in no way "redeemed" side A for me because I was already blown away by Side A.

The cause that this book supports is also a reason which added in my adoration for the writer. Highly recommend this book; short, very readable, and very relatable.

Oh, this is a must read book of poetry! It was completely unique and spoke directly to many of my own thoughts and feelings. It was unlike any poetry book I've read before with the author's original poems paired with songs and then "remixed" as blackout poems.

The collection touches on a variety of topics: grief, loss, identity, and love. There's definitely something for everyone and even not, the author's words just hold so much power that you can't help but feel moved. I honestly felt like some poems were written just for me and that's why I loved this book so much! It cracked my heart open and made it bleed with emotion. Beautiful, beautiful stuff!

I now want to purchase a physical copy of this book because there's nothing better than being able to hold it to your heart. Plus, the blackout poetry was difficult to read at times. I enjoyed it even though I had to squint and zoom in, but I think my experience would have been better if that wasn't the case. Then again, this was a PDF review copy so I can't complain.

I can't recommend this gorgeous collection enough! Poetry lover or not, this is a book that people from all walks of life would enjoy. I know for sure it's one that I'll come back to again and again.

I thought it was quirky, clever in its execution, and ultimately very moving.

This is a very interesting book. I like poetry first, and also there are so many modern poetries do not carry the meaning, however, it becomes superficial, lyrical. But this poetry makes me feel like connected, and I like it's sensitivity. Grateful to have the chance to review it.

I've really got in to poetry recently but this doesn't feel stale or like anything I've read before. Beautifully written and cleverly laid out like an old school mixed tape to a lost love.

I really enjoyed the few poems that I read from this collection and I would recommend the book based on that. I will be seeking out a print copy of this to read in the future.

I really loved this book. A total page turner, and I almost couldn't get enough of her words.

A perfect choice for readers looking for the next "Milk and Honey" - "Stuff I've Been Feeling Lately" will appeal to millennials and Gen-Xers alike. Alicia Cook's voice is engaging and relatable.