PARROT 8 I Fell in Love With a Monster Truck
by Amanda Ackerman
Saddle-Stitched chapbook
2 Color cover, Black & White interior
Matte finish, Opaque cream, 70# text (104 gsm)
Dimensions: 6.125" x 9.375" x 0.125", 20 Pages
ISSN: 2169-3811-8
She sat me down squarely in the middle of the store, among the hats, belts, and scarves, and began to give me instructions. Round your feet through your heels and feel more connected to your feet. Straighten your back (this will create healthy internal organs) and reach your right knee over to your left. Stretch your left arm to the right, look under your left shoulder, and twist excessively. I hovered there as I felt imprinted with a new heart. I was becoming a better version of myself. When the woman saw that she had succeeded, she asked for a form of payment. Cash. CASH. And she sighed. I looked at her straight in her telescopic eyes and proclaimed: Dear lady, and while you were talking, I was trying to think, I was trying to think. The thought struck me. None of us shall profit from the suffering of others.
Included in Janice Lee’s list of favorite books from 2011 at HTMLGIANT. She says, “This book gave me so much pleasure, … I love Amanda’s writing. &, if you aren’t already familiar with the PARROT series, you should be. It’s a brilliant and beautiful set of chapbooks.”
Included on the Poetry Foundation’s Harriet blog as one of Michael Slosek’s favorite books from 2011. He says, “In the chapbook category, Amanda Ackerman’s I fell in Love with a Monster Truck, Parrot 8/Insert Press, should be mentioned in a ‘best of’ list for 2011. … A beautifully written and designed book, perfect for reading in a single sitting that you’ll want to dip back into again and again.”
"The guts and the language of the thing were compelling and confusing and intriguing and I kept reading—I like to think at the pace of the author while writing it, altogether manic and piling atop itself in fits of hilarity—and by the time it was done I knew I’d read a portrait of some life somewhere and that was good, too."