{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20261010T034321Z-reviewed-full-unique-works","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/1324066180?tag=bookfrontie00-20","asin":"1324066180","authors":["Sandra Lim"],"book_id":"9781324066187","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/the-curious-thing-9781324066187","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781324066187.jpg?v=03dec891089c5574","description":"In this gorgeous third collection, Sandra Lim investigates desire, sexuality, and dream with sinewy intelligence and a startling freshness. Truthful, sensuous, and intellectually relentless, the poems in The Curious Thing are compelling meditations on love, art making, solitude, female fate, and both the mundane and serious principles of life. Sandra Lim’s poetry displays stinging wit and a tough-minded approach to her own experiences: She speaks with Jean Rhys about beauty, encounters the dark loneliness that can exist inside a relationship, and discovers a coiled anger on a hot summer day. An extended poem sequence slyly revolves the meanings of finding oneself astray in midlife. A steely strength courses through the volume’s myriad discoveries—Lim’s lucidity and tenderness form a striking complement to her remarkable metaphors and the emotional clamor of her material. Animated by a sense of reckoning and a piercing inwardness, these anti-sentimental poems nevertheless celebrate the passionate and empathetic subjective life.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9781324066187","publication_date":"20231010","publisher":"WW Norton","slug":"the-curious-thing","subtitle":"Poems","title":"The Curious Thing"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"POE005060","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Asian American Poetry","score":0.8104,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"POE023050","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Family Poems","score":0.8016,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"POE023020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Love Poetry","score":0.7967,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"POE005060","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Asian American Poetry","score":0.8104,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"POE023050","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Family Poems","score":0.8016,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"POE023020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Love Poetry","score":0.7967,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"POE005060","confidence_band":"high","label":"Asian American Poetry","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"POE024000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Women Poets","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Asian American Poetry","score":0.8104,"slug":"asian-american-poetry"},{"label":"Family Poems","score":0.8016,"slug":"family-poems"},{"label":"Love Poetry","score":0.7967,"slug":"love-poetry"}],"reader_fit":["Readers drawn to introspective poems about love, art, and solitude."],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Li-Young Lee"],"book_id":"9781324123477","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781324123477.jpg?v=161ffea3f3457065","score":0.7285,"title":"The Invention of the Darling","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781324123477"},{"authors":["Li-Young Lee"],"book_id":"9780393357875","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780393357875.jpg?v=1283b945c18084f7","score":0.7209,"title":"The Undressing","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780393357875"},{"authors":["Sandra Cisneros"],"book_id":"9780679755272","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780679755272.jpg?v=dcea0af0c7349195","score":0.7071,"title":"Loose Woman","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780679755272"},{"authors":["Sandra Cisneros"],"book_id":"9780593468111","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780593468111.jpg?v=bf69540d2e065582","score":0.7037,"title":"Woman Without Shame","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780593468111"},{"authors":["Megan Fernandes"],"book_id":"9781953534880","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781953534880.jpg?v=b446e7e25b7a7c7c","score":0.6953,"title":"I Do Everything I'm Told","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781953534880"},{"authors":["Oluwaseun Olayiwola"],"book_id":"9781593767761","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781593767761.jpg?v=0309f1b9115d2374","score":0.695,"title":"Strange Beach","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781593767761"},{"authors":["Emily Jungmin Yoon"],"book_id":"9780593801185","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780593801185.jpg?v=7bc7b824c65d5043","score":0.694,"title":"Find Me As the Creature I Am","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780593801185"},{"authors":["Jane Hirshfield"],"book_id":"9780060959012","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780060959012.jpg?v=8e9300183f060cf1","score":0.6928,"title":"Given Sugar, Given Salt","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780060959012"}],"topics":[{"evidence_refs":["keyword:poetry books"],"label":"Poetry","score":0.1898,"slug":"poetry"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:books for women"],"label":"Women","score":0.1854,"slug":"women"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:poetry collection"],"label":"Collection","score":0.035,"slug":"collection"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:poems"],"label":"Poems","score":0.0265,"slug":"poems"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:poem"],"label":"Poem","score":0.0264,"slug":"poem"}],"what_you_get":["Themes: Desire and sexuality, Love and solitude, Midlife self-discovery.","Pacing: reflective, voice-and-character forward.","Themes: Poetry, Women, Collection."]},"llm_signals":{"confidence":0.9,"pacing":"reflective","reader_fit":["Readers drawn to introspective poems about love, art, and solitude."],"themes":["Desire and sexuality","Love and solitude","Midlife self-discovery"],"tropes":[]},"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":true,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":15,"goodreads_ratings_count":192,"goodreads_reviews_count":41,"quality_score":0.8926}}