Autumn Lala
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Writing
  • Editing
  • Contact
  • Bibliography

NetGalley Book Review: A Little Daylight Left by Sarah Kay

3/25/2025

1 Comment

 
Picture
Are you familiar with the poet Sarah Kay?

If you’re thinking
no, then the only right answer going forward is: not anymore. 


I am proud to say I have always used Sarah’s live reading of her poem, “Brother,” in my Introduction to Creative Writing course at the end of my poetry unit. It’s a spectacular piece for my students to discuss, in performance and in mechanics. Her level of sentiment has always stuck with me, so when I recognized her name as an option for a NetGalley review, I jumped on applying for an ARC.

Sarah’s second full-length poetry collection, A Little Daylight Left, arrives a full decade after her acclaimed debut, No Matter the Wreckage. Over these ten years, Sarah notes on her Instagram that her poems have evolved as she has navigated life's transitions in early adulthood. The result is a powerful, introspective book. Her work in this collection captures human vulnerability, growth, and the courageous act of facing the uncertain spaces of our lives with tenderness and humor. 

In over forty poems - across three carefully curated parts - 
A Little Daylight Left invites us to explore the fragility and strength that exist in each of us. 
Image of A Little Daylight Left by Sarah Kay Book Cover

Her Chosen Themes & Their Emotional Impact

Sarah beautifully tackles the most human themes: nostalgia, family, loss, love, and self-discovery. She frequently captures the bittersweet feeling of holding tightly onto fleeting moments of joy, despite - or perhaps because of - their transitory nature. Poems such as "Allow Me Just This One" resonated deeply for me because of its vulnerability. 

As I continued to read, it was clear that Sarah has a gift for articulating complex feelings with simplicity and grace. It reminded me that we are never alone in our uncertainties or joys.

Her Craft & Poetic Techniques

The collection showcases a rich variety of poetic forms, including free verse, sonnets, prose poems, and even ars poetica. As a reader and writer who appreciates variety, this approach was right up my creative alley. I found myself not only reflecting on her chosen themes, but also pausing to appreciate her experimentation. Sarah often playfully bends and breaks rules to enhance the emotional impact of her poems. Her experimentation with form and white space, evident in pieces like "The Poet's Father Wakes in a Cold Sweat," makes them hit that much harder. 

​I’m sure that reading digitally slightly altered my experience, as the physical format probably enhances Sarah’s thoughtful choices around white space, italics, indentations, and refrains. I’d recommend purchasing the physical copy to fully experience the sensory and emotional intentions of Sarah’s clearly meticulous formatting decisions.

The Collection’s Standout Poems & Lines

Each section had its treasures. Part 1 opens strikingly with "Ode to the Two Girls in the Outfield of the Tee Ball Game" - a true and immediate immersion in nostalgia. "I Am Seventeen & Everyone" captured my attention through the intentional offset stanza, which broke the poem open in a new way, creating a lasting visual and emotional impact.
​

In Part 2, the poem "Table Games" stood out for its rhythmic dialogue and poignant questions, while "To Whoever Broke into the Rental Car & Stole My Vibrator" unexpectedly delivered one of my favorite lines from the entire collection: "Sometimes I envy        your ability to take" - the spacing true to the line itself (I told you, she experiments with white space!). For me, this closing line captures Sarah’s strength as a poet: her remarkable ability to bring us into the stories of her life while distilling complex emotions into concise, compelling statements.
Credit: James Duncan Davidson / TED
Credit: James Duncan Davidson / TED
​For me, Part 3 deepens in introspection and emotional revelation, beginning with "Unreliable." I was hooked by the first line, since the poem cleverly invokes the concept of unreliable narrators. As both a reader and writer, the idea of this alone made me curious and inspired. Nevertheless, I continued on. Throughout this section as a whole, Sarah continues to bravely lay bare elements of her life, relationships, and internal dialogues. 
​
Part 1 to Part 3 is an emotional evolution, indeed.

Final Thoughts

Sarah’s voice feels authentic, warm, and engagingly conversational. As a reader, I felt close to her, almost like a companion. I think readers familiar with her will recognize her signature blend of tenderness, wisdom, and humor. Even as she delves into heavier topics, her voice maintains a comforting, approachable quality, making each poem feel personal and genuinely heartfelt.

Overall, A Little Daylight Left is a deeply compassionate collection, and one I recommend for anyone who finds beauty in reflecting on their own life journeys. Readers who enjoy poetry that invites contemplation, celebrates vulnerability, and finds wonder in everyday moments will find much to treasure. Those who often find themselves revisiting memories, seeking connections, or examining their evolving identity will particularly resonate with Sarah’s heartfelt explorations.

She’s just that good. Truly.

As someone who frequently looks to poetry to process and reminisce, I found myself wanting even more of Sarah Kay’s creative and emotional depth—beyond what she's already so generously provided here. It’s a poetry collection worth savoring, sharing, and revisiting. I’m excited to have my own physical copy since it publishes on April 1!
Picture
Interested in reviewing books for NetGalley? Visit their website at www.netgalley.com to learn more!
​

Disclaimer: Any quotes used in this blog post, or any promotions, are based on available sources generously provided by NetGalley. However, quotes may differ from those in official publications.
1 Comment

NetGalley Book Review: Me, But Better by Olga Khazan

3/10/2025

0 Comments

 
Picture
Can personality truly change, or are we stuck with the traits we were born with? 

In Me, But Better, journalist Olga Khazan sets out to answer this question with a bold, year-long experiment on herself. Using the Big Five personality traits—Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism (OCEAN)—as her framework, she explores whether deliberate actions can shift the way we think, behave, and feel.
Because don’t we all want to feel better, sometimes?

I was immediately drawn to this book after seeing that Gretchen Rubin had reviewed it. As a longtime fan of Gretchen’s work on happiness and habits, I was curious how Olga would approach the subject of personality change. I first discovered Me, But Better on NetGalley, and it arrived in my life at just the right time. As Olga says in her introduction, “Moments stack.” 

Oh, goodness, how they stack. One after the other like Legos we can’t avoid stepping on forever.
​

Our thoughts, choices, and behaviors compound over time to shape our lives. Like her, I’ve felt the weight of certain aspects of my own personality, and I was excited to see what strategies helped her create meaningful change in her own life.

The Science (and Reality) of Personality Change

The early chapters lay the groundwork for what personality is and how much of it we can actually change. Like many nonfiction novels that center around such topics, these early chapters are more dense in nature; there’s admittedly a lot to catch up on when it comes to the field of personality studies.

Olga explains that while traits are partially genetic, they are also shaped by experience and environment. No surprise there, given what we all learned about in school. But beyond that, research suggests that we aren’t entirely fixed in our ways - we can gradually shift traits through intentional actions. 

And Olga certainly did her due diligence.

One key insight from the book is that “you more likely act yourself into feeling than feel yourself into action.” This quote by Jerome Bruner encapsulates the idea that if we want to change, we must first behave in ways that reflect the person we want to become, even if it feels unnatural at first. 
Image of book cover
​I’ll say this, above anything else: Olga leans into the discomfort of her experiment. She doesn’t shy away from it - or from sharing her true thoughts - even once. Her hard truth is sometimes palpable on the page, and even as a reader, it was difficult to confront. Even a book can be a mirror, and the best ones are.
​
I can only imagine how she felt, throughout the full experiment, and now, as her book publishes this month on the 11th.

How the Experiment Developed

After her introduction, Olga dedicated one chapter to each aspect of OCEAN, but not in the order you might expect. She began with the traits she most wanted to change, and which ranked the poorest on the Big Five Personality test she took directly from researcher Nathan Hudson’s website.

Yes, I took the test, and my own results made me even more curious about how Olga approached each of the traits.

Trait 1: Extroversion

As an introvert, Olga began with extroversion. From improv classes to awkward networking events, she examines whether faking extroversion can lead to genuine personality change. She tackled this trait first—headfirst. I admire her tenacity where extroversion is concerned. Her commitment to dive into the deep end, to commit to this lifestyle in the ways that she did, told me just how serious she was about becoming a better version of herself. 

I was hooked. 

​One of the most striking insights from this chapter is how social interaction can disrupt - even prevent - negative thought spirals. As she said, “Through all of this activity, I found that
occasional extroversion can be a tool. It pauses the broken record of the depressive mind: Nothing rescues you from endless rumination like social interaction, even when forced.”

Trait 2: Neuroticism

Olga describes neuroticism as one of the most difficult traits to change—after all, anxiety and emotional sensitivity are deeply ingrained. She explores various methods to calm an overactive mind, including meditation, cognitive behavioral therapy techniques, and mindfulness practices. For every chapter, she speaks with many experts in the field of behavior and habits.

She references conversations with Dan Harris and Jon Kabat-Zinn, as well as her own struggles with meditation: “Quieting the mind is impossible at times.” She routinely acknowledges the tension between wanting to change and feeling trapped by long-held emotional patterns.

For me, one of the most relatable moments in this chapter is when she describes feeling happy, but immediately fearing that something will go wrong. “I was elated—but for the neurotic, happiness is always tinged with the suspicion that you’ll screw it up somehow.” 
​

It’s a relatable fear. And while this chapter did not end in the way I expected it to, the next few were impossible to put down.

Traits 3, 4, and 5: Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness

Openness to experience is often associated with creativity, curiosity, and adaptability. While Olga realized she already does many of the things that open people do - including watching foreign films, reading novels, appreciating art, discussing controversial topics (especially as a journalist), and more - she wondered how she could challenge herself to become more open by trying new experiences and embracing uncertainty. 

Like how she threw herself directly into an improv comedy class to increase her extroversion score, she put herself off balance again by pursuing an interest she always shook off: surfing. What’s more open than that?
Headshot of Olga Khazan
​Agreeableness, however, was an area she hoped to work on. She herself noted how she could be angry, blunt, skeptical, and resistant to small talk. But could she become more empathetic and agreeable, still speak up and participate, without feeling like she was smothering or losing herself? In addition to her experiences using Bumble BFF and Meetup, Olga volunteered to serve lunch to the homeless on a weekly basis. More than most, this chapter widened her understanding of what it means to be agreeable.

Sometimes, it meant being disagreeable.

Her last OCEAN trait chapter covered conscientiousness - a trait she was proud to score highly on initially at the beginning of her year long experiment. As she said, she was finally able to speak from a place of lived experience because she had already increased her conscientiousness years before. In fact, it was her passion for her future that did the trick. I know I appreciated reading through how she changed that part of herself so drastically.

It also served as proof that the personality change she hoped to find within herself was one that she had already long accomplished.

​This sentiment shepherds nicely into her final two chapters. 

On Knowing When to Quit

One of the most emotionally powerful sections of the book is Olga’s exploration of when to persist and when to walk away. In self-help culture, people are often told that perseverance is key—but sometimes, quitting is the wiser choice. Olga captures that well. 

This chapter includes an emotional discussion of values versus goals. One I’m personally familiar with and advocate considering for anyone interested. She writes, “Values cast a spotlight on what’s important, and invite you to step in.” This idea - that understanding our core values can guide our decisions - feels like one of the book’s most lasting messages. I knew my own values before reading this book, but they cemented further in my heart. 
​

There’s little more that I could ask for out of the second-to-last chapter.

Final Chapter, Final Thoughts: How to Keep Changing

In the final chapter, Find Your Beach, Olga reflects on how to sustain personal growth over time. She emphasizes that personality change isn’t about rejecting who you are, but about expanding your possibilities.

Ultimately, Me, But Better is a deeply engaging blend of personality science, self-discovery, and humor. Olga’s writing is sharp and honest, but she goes to great lengths to make psychological research feel accessible and relatable. While the book doesn’t offer a rigid step-by-step guide for change, it provides something even more valuable: a roadmap for experimenting with who we are and who we want to become.

It provides hope.

​If you‘re curious about the psychology of self-improvement, this book is a continual reminder that growth isn’t about becoming someone else - it’s about becoming the best version of ourselves.

Picture
Interested in reviewing books for NetGalley? Visit their website at www.netgalley.com to learn more!
​

Disclaimer: The quotes used in this blog post, or any promotions, are based on available sources generously provided by NetGalley. However, the quotes may differ from those in the official publication.
0 Comments

2025 Writing Goals and Progress

3/4/2025

0 Comments

 
Picture
I can hardly believe the end of February is already upon us. While January was a crawl to the finish line, February has been a test of keeping pace. At the end of January, I set aside time to review the month ahead and determine some milestones. With the year passing me by, how will I achieve what I set to - what I wrote about in my first blog?

Anyone who knows me, knows I often set ambitious goals for myself. I tried to dial it down for 2025, but even now, I’m realizing the mountain I have set myself up to climb.

For my reading, I’m planning for a solid 50. I also consider other genres in that count, such as essay collections, poetry collections, or even scripts and plays. Beyond that 50, I’m also counting more shorter forms I read - poetry, short stories, shorter essays - because it all ultimately adds up to how I have enjoyed what others have created.

​
I think that’s my favorite part of reading and writing communities: the way they uplift one another. 

Given my track record for reading, the writing goals I set for myself are the most ambitious ones. In my first blog, I included that I plan to complete and/or post online: 
  • 12 blogs
  • 24 poems
  • 1 book draft
  • 1 script draft

I’m happy to say this is my 6th blog! I haven’t posted that many in a year since… 

Wow, actually ever.

I produced 9 articles about writing in 2016 for Odyssey Online before I became Editor-in-Chief for our local chapter. After that, my time was spent editing and supporting my team of contributing writers so that they posted every week instead. I reposted all of those “Wrong, or Write?” articles to this blog in December 2016, but that hardly counts as this blog when I really look at it.

Hindsight is terribly revealing sometimes, isn’t it? 

The truth is, this style of writing takes less time than the ambitious 4-book romantic fantasy series I have planned, or even the script I partially drafted in 2023 (which I have yet to revisit). Even with designing the posts for my social media accounts, blogging as a whole requires less time and effort. It comes from a more simple place. 

Me, with my hopes and dreams and passions, just trying to connect once again.

Maybe the book and script writing comes from there too - deep down - but it’s muddled by a pressure I subconsciously place on myself. I started publishing when I was 20 years old. Short, little pieces locally before collaborations published internationally. Contests, too. I’m forever grateful for those experiences. I learned about my process, my preferences, and my perspectives on different genres. 

It would be fair to say that all that has changed, or that I am open to the fact that how I work and what I enjoy isn’t exactly the same as it was more than 5 years ago. This year, I return to my writing like a grown adult returning to a childhood haunt. What’s in front of me is part familiar, part foreign. 

Engaging in the process again means giving myself over entirely to it. In author and professor Brandon Sanderson’s first recorded lecture as part of his science fiction and fantasy writing course, he asks the question: 

What makes you consistently do the things you want to have done? 

I’ve listened to him ask that question probably a dozen times, mulling it over, and it reinforces my desire to attend writing groups and carve out time for writing in my day like I used to. Stolen moments on napkins, scrap pieces of paper, even the Notes app on my phone. In the state of revision I find myself in for my book series, blocks of time are better than chunks, but chunks of time are better than nothing at all. 

It’s what I have. So I’m working on giving myself the gift of time again. 

So right now, this is what I have in mind, subject to the natural change and demand of life:
  • By the end of April, I will have a more detailed grasp of the overarching plot and the character developments for the series as a whole. To me, this means the primary and secondary character histories, goals, motivations, and conflicts are more clear. This also means I have a more organized understanding of the timelines at hand for each book. After speaking with an editor I met last year, I’m realizing how large of a mountain this series is—how steep of a climb plotting will be.
  • By the start of May, I am beginning to write the next draft of Book 1. 
  • By the end of July, 91 days later, I will have completed the next draft of Book 1. 
  • By the end of August, I will have replotted my 2023 script idea or created a new one. Depending on the state of my book draft, I will also send this to others for discovery feedback. It won’t be ready for publishing, but revising again… Oh, yes.
  • By the start of September, I am beginning to write the script. Whatever it may be. 
  • By the end of November, 90 days later, I will have drafted that script.​

​It’s a nice plan. Still, I might toss the script draft out the window entirely in favor of my series. With two jobs and other priorities, it’s hard to say how this plan will unfold. Already, February has been plagued with sickness and ripe with healing. I won’t know what pace makes sense until I begin - until I am in the thick of the process, and in the thick of life - but I’d like to think I’m well on my way. 


Until next time!
0 Comments

    Archives

    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    November 2023
    May 2022
    July 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    September 2016

    Categories

    All
    Book Review

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Writing
  • Editing
  • Contact
  • Bibliography