This is by far the most recent book on this list, as it was only published in June, but it is just as trustworthy as any classic collection of poems (not to mention, it has a much more fun yellow cover to brighten up your bookshelf). I Do Everything I’m Told touches on topics including, as one review put it, “strangers, ancestors, priests, ghosts, the inner child, sisters, misfit raccoons” and spread to every corner of the world with poems grouped based on locations from Shanghai to Brooklyn, Paris to Los Angeles, Saturn to Earth. Fernandes’ voice as a poet is clear in every line, as she allows herself to be confidently vulnerable in themes of romance and heartache, race and sexuality, dreams and desire, and the past and the future.
Opening Line: “But we never tire of them, do we?”
Favorite Line: “We fall. We don’t always get to ask why.”
Why I Like It: Sometimes, it’s way easier to sit down and read a poem than it is to read a page of a novel.
Read If You Like: Introspective poetry, Sylvia Plath, those slide shows of poems on TikTok.