I first picked up From Unincorporated Territory: Åmot after seeing it on a library display, knowing nothing about it other than I liked the unique layout of the poems. Through beautiful poetry, it details Craig Santos Perez's experiences in Guam and mainland United States as a CHamoru person, and bits of Guam's history.

The non-traditional layout of the poems and interlacing of the CHamoru language forces the reader to slow down and intentionally take in what is being said. It is not a book to breeze through, but one to piece together like a puzzle, slowly taking in individual aspects of it and working to put it together until you can see the bigger picture.

Because of this book, I would now very much like to learn more about the history of Guam, as well as read the other From Unincorporated Territory books, then come back and re-read this one when I've done more learning. ( )