Two Reviews Postponed

(I don't believe that anyone other my darling husband is reading these posts, but that is quite all right... This is for him, as he is one of my biggest fans-)

I was hoping to have written two reviews this week. One of which I didn't get to even start reading. One I have yet to finish and one unexpected audio book that I started because I was bored with the back of my eyelids. This week threw me for a loop. More so than most weeks. In the past two weeks, my children have paraded conjunctivitis, ear infections, the common cold and sniffles through this house. I believed myself to have arrived on the other side unscathed, however I was wrong. My body turned on me and decided to play host to nasty germs that left me completely reeling and incapacitated.

So thankful for my long-suffering husband who took up the slack and let me heal. That being said, there was no energy left for reading and I wanted to listen to something that held my interest.

If you haven't heard of the podcast Books on the Nightstand then, you're welcome. If you are a rabid book reading fan and look forward to all things books and enjoy hearing what people in the publishing world have to say about the books they are reading and the books they know to be released soon, then you are in for a world of fun. And that is where I got the recommendation to LISTEN, yes listen, to Margaret Atwood's The Heart Goes Last. Now, I am not one to listen to audio books. I don't believe I've ever listened to an audio book other than children's books on road trips and once during a bout of crazy cleaning a few years ago, I listened to The Art of War by Sun Tzu (which I believe to be a fascinating book from a parenting perspective if one would merely remove the word 'enemy' and replace it with 'children'). I guess I am Old School and feel that it's a form of cheating if you aren't trapped behind the wheel of a car or have been unfortunately blinded for life, in which case, it's a savior and a complete delight. So, up until now I haven't really allowed myself this opportunity, but seeing as how my eyes did not want to cooperate and I was forced to sit upright surrounded by pillows with an eye mask so my entire sinus system didn't implode and destroy my entire skull, I wanted to listen to something enthralling and quiet to distract me from my present state of unlovely affairs. It had popped into my head that it was reviewed by the lovely people of BOTNS and I recall that the ever insightful Ann Kingman, one of the reviewers of this podcast, made a comment that possibly something more in the listening to than the reading of this story might be derived than in one just reading it off the page. I was greatly intrigued by that thought and as a fan of Margaret Atwood's speculative fiction, I tucked it away in the back of my mind for about a week until I could no longer read the book I had started reading a bit ago.

I have yet to finish either the audio book of Atwood's that I just started or the hardback of Night Film by Marisha Pessl so I can't give my definitive thoughts and overviews on their entirety just yet, but I can say that so far they are quite intriguing and each are diverse from the other and both are equally complex in completely different ways and I am quite glad that I am reading (and listening) to both of them. I am sure that by next week there will be reviews ready to go and a stack of my "To Read" to highlight for what's coming up.

Until then, Happy Reading and Happy Turkey Day Festivities!

xo

JMA

The Reinvention Game (And Other Book News)

Time has a way of hustling us along in a fog of busyness. One moment we are in one point in time and then at the next moment, a flash of clarity, a sense of just waking up and years, yes years, have passed. Personally, I feel that I have drifted from my true love, the thing that makes my heart sing, the thing that gets my blood pulsing and my eyes flashing and my brain ticking away faster and faster-- reading and writing, writing and reading, and yes, I am a firm believer that to do one is to have to be completely and utterly intertwined and entrenched in the other. They are yin and yang. But, my life has set me adrift, and not necessarily in a bad way, but like my posts from years past, I've gotten into that misguided place where I am imbalanced. I've been busy with my three children and my husband and my dog and everything else that makes the world go 'round and I've not carved out enough time for myself to do the things that I've always had in my heart to do. Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that we are heading into the holiday season at the end of yet another year, perhaps it is because I am staring a birthday in the face accepting a number of years that utterly shocks me seeing as how I feel like I am so very much not a true Grown Up, hardly Adult in my opinion, but there it is-- I must be; perhaps I am finally taking to heart all the inspirational podcasts and sermons with which I try to encourage myself, all those things. So here it is. I'm back. This needs to be a writing outlet for me. It just does. And not that I am so arrogant or prideful to think that I have something that people would desperately want to read (if that happens then I'll gladly take it), but more because if I don't write, than I feel that a part of my soul with simply vanish. I need this. Even if it is for selfish reasons and a if reader would prefer not to waste precious, precious time on my ramblings, then I encourage you, dear Reader, to pursue something that lifts your spirits instead... This is lifting mine as I tap and click.

Here now, you shall find my honest book reviews, excerpts from what I may be reading, highlighting my favorite writers, book blogs, podcasts, and other things that spark a light of creativity.

Today is Monday. It's as good a start as any other. Carpe diem and all that, right?

Follow me on Twitter @jennarbo

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So, if you are so inclined, follow along as I begin the (re?) invention process, the construction of this part of my world that I've left painfully bare for far too long.