I found out that Natasha Trethewey was chosen to be our next poet laureate and so I looked to see if our library owned anything by her. I was pleasantly surprised to see that we owned this, the book she won the Pulitzer for. 
 It was everything I hoped for. Trethewey deserves to be the poet laureate - her poems are both personal and universal; she writes about history and the present - all in all, she is excellent. I especially loved what she wrote about her mother. 
 I know that trying to get folks to read poetry is difficult, but I do highly recommend this book. If you decide to try some of these poems, be sure to read them out loud. That is how poetry should be experienced.