Customer Reviews

Foolish/Unfoolish: Reflections on Love

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

I checked out this book because I was searching for the hidden talent to back up the tremendous hype Ashanti has been receiving. Perhaps I could find it in her "phenomenal" writing skills. Yet, just like her songs, her poems lack sophistication and depth. They are always about the same old topic: "ups and downs of love." She might as well put her song lyrics (from her debut album) in the book and called it poetry. The grammar and the structure of the stanzas seem to reflect "elementary school" level poetry. Despite my negative comments, I must give her credit though for having the courage to publish her poetry. All she needs is a bit more inspiration and maturity in order to become the true artist she was meant to be. She has wonderful potential, unfortunately, its being channeled in the wrong direction.

This book was the worst thing I have ever read in my life. Ashanti is a horrible singer to begin with and now I find out how terrible of a writer she is. As a poet myself, I was deeply upset by this book's contents. Ashanti needs to promise the world that she will never dabble in writing again.

Foolish/Unfoolish: Reflections on Love is a very short book only 100 pages. I was surprised when I reached the last page of the book so suddenly. The book looks well over 200 pages because of the thick sheets of paper, the text didn't even feel up most of the pages. This book lacked a lot of details, Ashanti only mentioned her situations such as the way she felt when her prom date stood her up and she had to go alone with her girl friends; and the time she went on a date with her boyfriend and kissed in the restaurant after dinner and didn't care who was looking because she was in love, or the time she got into a very bad argument with another boyfriend in a car. If I wanted to hear experiences girls have with relationships I could asked any girl, not worth the price of this book. Your better off listening to Ashanti's album of the same name. Each chapter starts with lyrics from her album. Ashanti never delved into any sexual situations which was a disappointment. Lets hope Ashanti comes out with an autobiography someday.

In no way do i consider myself an amazing poet, but i do know what i like, and Ashanti's book is not that! Every single poem sounded the exact same. in fact, i think it would have been quicker, and more enjoyable to open up one of her c.d cases and reading her lyrics...as they could very well be considered her best poems. There were basically no mechanical devices, no hidden meanings so it was very easy to read, but in the same sense her poems have no point to them. Her lack of substance makes me wonder how her writting is even considered poetry. In my opinion they are just lines of emotional nonsense that could have been written by anyone.
I read this book as a poetry assignment at school, and found it VERY hard to even find poetry characteristics within it! Even the rhyming scheme is not constant or even understandable. sure it may sound great when made into a song, but for straight poems, it sounds horrible! Ashanti has an amazing voice, and i pride her for her courage...but please, no more books! Her writting hurts my brain.

"Foolish/Unfoolish" is very much like T-Boz's "Thoughts" in terms of structure: poetry is intertwined with antedotes and somewhat misguided advice for the consumer. Unlike "Thoughts," which dealt with T-Boz's ideas about things she didn't understand (like Marilyn Manson, in my opinion) and things she did (like her troubles with sickle-cell disease), this book deals with 1) Ashanti's poems, 2) what Ashanti thinks about love and 3) Ashanti's love life in high school, especially her proms. I have to admit to liking some of the poems--"Watch Me Glisten" and "To the Club" are my favorites--but one has to remember that she wrote all these poems in high school, meaning that they lack maturity and possibly a few good edits that professional poets would do before releasing poetry books. Every poem in Ashanti's book could be written by any junior high/high school girl in America (whether they're in a honors English class learning about "fancy-smancy" poets like Ashanti brags about or not); when I think of Ashanti's poems, I think of the girls in my 10th grade honors English class that still wrote sappy poems about love (and I wasn't one of them). There's nothing extremely special about most of these poems (unless you include the fact that parts of "Gotta Get Out" and "Us" were used as interludes on "Chapter II" and "Concrete Rose," respectfully). As for the antedotes, my favorite is when Ashanti forgets to pick up her sister to take her to a dance...to reveal the rest would be a spoiler. Otherwise Ashanti is either trying to provide good advice for teenagers in love or talking about her boyfriends. I couldn't care less about her boyfriends--she comes off as this preppy, popular, lovestricken teenager with fairly mundane adventures. If I grew up with her, I probably would be an outsider watching Ashanti maneuver her way through the popular crowd, not giving a damn about whether she would be homecoming queen or not. And since I am four years younger than Ashanti, practically her peer, I can't really take her ideas about romance seriously since I feel she lacks the romantic experience and confidence to give good relationship advice. (I also feel that she has some hang-up about sex, since she never delves into the topic fully in this book or in several of her romantic songs.) I feel that Ashanti could possibly be a good writer (and, sadly, for you people hoping she should never write a book again, she's inked deals to write more books for children) if she were a bit wiser and confident in love.

I happen to like Ashanti CD but I do not like her book at all. It talks about love but it's nothing really deep all she talks about is how she used to talk on the phone with her boyfriend all the time. This book is not at all what I expected. Please do not write anymore books please stick to writting half way decent songs on your CD and singing.

This book is a waste of good paper. I don't even know why anyone one would buy it!. If you want what's in this book go ask a five year old to write something for you. I know that will be much better than this mess

There can be only one explanation for why Ashanti calls this a book: she probably hasn't read one before. This is a scam, to put it mildly. There is no poetry here, and I think it prudent to note that there are no reflections, either. So, Ashanti remembers a bunch of ludicrous high school [stuff]; she seems to have come away with virtually no insight apart from "Damn, I had a lot of boyfriends!" Did you know, or rather, do you care that she would have gone to four proms in four years of high school, if only her boyfriend's lungs hadn't collapsed?

In addition to the worthless anecdotes, this slim volume contains some of her horrendous "lyrics," characterized by her marked inability to rhyme. "Foolish/Unfoolish" would be fine as an insert in Teen People, but as a thirteen-dollar hardcover book targeted at kids who can neither afford it or know better, it is a sin.... Please, please don't buy it.

I don't think Ashanti really put this out to show that she was some great poet, I think she was told by her handlers to put out one more thing for fans to buy. Strike while the iron is hot. This books is for die-hard fans only because they'll be the only ones to really get something out of this. I found the entries to be redundant and wishy washy. In one "reflection" Ashanti is trying to tell young ladies they don't need a man, love yourself, and play hard to get. Then in the next "reflection" she's saying that she wants to be with her boyfriend constantly, it's ok to have a little jealousy in your relationship, she's sneaking out of the house and from school for a guy. Which examples do you want young ladies to follow? It's one thing for Ashanti to write about her experiences but if she's trying to pass on lessons at least lead by example. It sounds like she was doing big girl things at an early age, some girls are mature enough for that but many are not. I give this book 2 stars instead of 1 solely based on the strength of her fans. They'll love anything she does like a true fan would, so I can see how they'll eat this up. Maybe with a little more time and proper editing this would have been much better.

I really dixliked this book. When you start reading it you are expecting something dramatic to happen. But to me it all seems like elementary school stuff. She doesn't know exactly how to make her stories come alive. In order for you to have a great book, it has to come alive. Whether it be drama or adventure! I really expected more from Ashanti but it turns out that she isn't that much of a great writer at all. So if I were you I wouldn't even waste my time to get up and buy this book.