Introduction

 For those who do not know me my name is Martha Hinckley. The basics are that I am a 39-year-old married mother of two girls who happen to be Autistic. The deeper part of me is a deeply passionate bookworm who enjoys a wide variety of books and genres. I love historical fiction, fantasy, science fiction, and contemporary fiction. I feel that books are windows into our souls and show the universal humanity of our experience. I take comfort that we are not unique and our feelings are echoed across time and distance. I once read that science fiction is not the story of science, Space, or the future rather the story of human beings in different settings. I believe that is true for all genres. 

While I am a passionate reader I am also a parent of Autistic children and that comes with its own challenges, for example, my older daughter enjoys ripping my books page by page. Reading in paper or electronic form also excludes other activities. When you sit down to read you aren't cooking, cleaning, driving, or supervising children (at least not my children who need both eyes on them). For that reason, I am grateful to live in a time with easily accessible audiobooks. All the books I read now are in audio form I consider this to be every bit as authentic as reading a paper or electronic book. 

I acknowledge the limitations of audiobooks. I am experiencing the narrator's interpretation of the narrator, instead of my own impression. I admit that when I have re-read a book with the audio version it has changed my interpretation of a situation or a book or I have disagreed with the narrator and felt they got it wrong. Then again I don't think there is any "right" interpretation of art. I have often taken meaning from a book that the author did not intend to give, or missed what the writer was trying to convey. I passionately believe that the experience and interpretation of art belong to the person experiencing the art. When the artist gives the work to the world the experience does not belong to and cannot be controlled by the artist. If Harry Potter fans feel the books are a metaphor for being Queer then that is their reality. If I see Miltilda as a story about how adults (even the kind Miss Honey) fail children either by direct abuse or failing to stop the abuse that IS the meaning, but by no means the only meaning. 

In this blog, I will mostly be talking about the books I am reading but also what is happening in my life as I read (or listen) to new books and re-read old favorites. I might read a few books of a series and lose interest or I might binge an entire series. Please only read if spoilers are okay and I welcome a conversation and even debate about any of the books I write about. I hope to keep people entertained and to use this blog as a journal of sorts.