I don’t know about you, but my bookshelf is overflowing with wonderful authors and it’s been too long since I’ve read someone new, or old but new to me I’m feeling the need to read lately and would like to be exposed to different points of view. So,I’ve decided to include you in my search for new voices to read.here’s a short listof my preferredgenres and authors ..

Crime fiction  JamesEllroy 

Biographies, including autobiographies ,specificallyabout famous women 

Political thrillers  Gore Vidal

Anything funny  Christopher Moore,  Tom Robbins 

Strong, sexy, independent  women,  Jackie Collins 

Mysteries  Agatha Christie 

Classics  like Rebecca, wuthering heights 

Vampire fiction Ann Rice 

Easy reads Dan Brown, JK Rowling 

Anything gritty  Truman Capote,  Harold Robbins 

Odd ducks Douglas Copeland,  JG Ballard, Anthony Burgess 

Don’t b afraid to challenge me or recommend outside my favourite genres 

If you’re an author, feel free to plug your work, but you might have to sell me on it 

I’m very much looking forward to seeing what recommendations come in. I like to read all of an authors work, so if they’re prolific, that works for me. 

You can reply here or on twitter via the Hashtag #recommendanauthor 

Please include a snippet about why you liked the author or book 

I am a lover of fashion, who,no matter what size I happen to be, am lucky enough to have bought and worn off the rack comfortably. I could hold a pair of pants, a dress or a shirt in front of my body and know if it would fit. I shopped quickly. It used to take me less than 90 minutes to scour the mall for a change of season wardrobe 

I can’t shop malls anymore. The stores don’t have enough room for my wheelchair, let alone the tiny  dressing rooms that I now must use. Shopping for clothes has now become a tedious and exhausting chore. There is only one store in which I can now shop in relative comfort, where the dressing rooms are big enough for me, my husband who is necessary because I cannot dress my upper half without help,  and my wheelchair. That store is Old Navy.

 I’ve gone from designer shops to one step below the Gap,at least the clothes are alot more affordable. . My winter coat is now a puffy vest because of the paralysis in my left arm, I can no longer wear fitted  sleeves

. Thankfully, Old Navy has the best quality yoga pants,since I can’t work a button or a zipper.  

I have several pairs that still look and fit like new after 10 years, all of which cost less than  $15 .The designer sweaters I own, I can’t wear because the neck opening isn’t large enough,,thankfully, Old Navy has great slouchy sweaters with roomy 3/4 sleeves that work well. I was able to find a great poncho style sweater that has become my favourite.because it’s easy to get on and off.

 Kudos to the designers at Old Navy for making cute clothes that are versatile enough for even the hardest to fit customers, the disabled. 

The joy I used to feel while shopping is now mostly gone, with only one store available to me, that now takes me at least 3 hours to find an outfit I like,that fits my challenged body. Even trying on said outfit can take up to an hour I am no longer built for a quick trip to the mall, I’m now built for comfort and making a day of it.  There was nothing I loved shopping for more than clothes, except cars My husband and I are currently looking for a new SUV.  Well, new to us. So now we get to try on cars We currently own a 20 year old GMC Jimmy that causes me pain when I’m in it for more than 45 minutes. In order to visit my husband’s parents, I must be able to tolerate riding in a car for 2 hours. It’s been 2 years since we last visited them, during which time they’ve moved into a new house which hopefully will be accessible to me. Whatever car we  buy must not only be relatively easy to get into and out of,not too high or too low  but must have room enough for my manual wheelchair and have a smooth enough ride as my neck is still problematic when it comes to bumps in the road. The car with the best ride I’ve ever driven was a Mercedes-Benz E320 that I drove from Los Angeles to Montreal without issues , and so, we have our first outing planned for Thursday morning starting  at the local Mercedes-Benz dealership. I fully expect it to take a few weeks of trying on and  test driving every SUV on the market before we find the most comfortable one for me. I can only hope that it’s not wickedly expensive and that hubby likes to drive it as much as I would if I could still drive.  I will keep you posted. as to what we buy. 

Just when it seemed my daily pain in my left side caused by the massive stroke I had a year and a half ago was under control with the help of one triple strength Marijuana gummy bear in the morning and one at night ,a couple of weeks ago, I woke up with a horrendous new  pain on the left side of my jaw . It was swollen and it affected my speech. I got into see the dentist who put me on the advil diet for 7 days. Then he canceled my follow up appointment and made me wait for a week to reschedule at the next appointment i was given a referral to a periodontist,with whom I’ve been trying to get in with for a week now for acute TMJ  During all of this I’m still in pain, which is all too slowly getting better, or at least responding to the pot gummies.  The jaw is less swollen and has stopped throbbing.  If all of that isn’t enough, all of my usual pain is underlying and making itself known with all encompassing, full  body spasms which are both painful and shocking, in that I don’t feel them coming. It’s amazing I was able to describe the situation with more letters than just AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!! 

Fortunately I think of pain as my bitch. And no bitch is gonna break me.  I’ve booked a standing appointment for a weekly massage because my neck and left shoulder aren’t helping the situation by being so tense. That’s the thing about being paralyzed, ifyou come out of it, you do so  tiny bit by tiny bit, so slowly you’re not aware of it even as you pay close attention. You expect your body to snap back like it used to but it doesn’t.  When it’s paralysis caused by a brain injury it’s even slower as the brain must heal around the intrusion. And the pain is mostly nerve pain, the bitch of the bunch. 

I’ve been thinking about the phrase she battled cancer, lately  battling a severe medical issue isn’t putting on boxing gloves, it all in the head, even when the pain is not in the head.