Grabbing the Muse by the Throat - Wendy ... Wendy Barrett is an ordinary Australian. She has a family, a busy life and oodles of creativity to squeeze out. Grabbing the Muse by the Throat is a journal of the challenges she's set herself and many of the complications she's faced over the period of a year.

Wendy is fairly likeable and I'm able to relate to her well; she has so much creativity, yet she doesn't always have the time to put pen or pencil to paper, or even the confidence. It's written as a sort of diary, so there are a lot of things that one might not be interested in. For example, not every reader might be interested in the varying doctor visits or excursions of her children. However, I felt that it was a large, realistic touch to the book. Without her family and friends, she might not have had some of the inspiration to create certain works. It really puts a certain perspective to the art as well; she has a lot of stuff to do apart from the art and one has to admire her ambition to complete her many challenges. Yes, in some places, the family portions outweighed the art production, but otherwise I think it was reasonably interesting to read into another family's life like that.

Overall, it was a fairly interesting book and Wendy's challenges were very encouraging to my own creativity. I'd like to think that many other people would also take bits of inspiration away from the book as well.

Her blog is also worth checking out; there are examples of art and further inspiration to be obtained. There's also a newsletter sign up on the sidebar if you're interested in updates. I just signed up for it as well. :)
http://www.wendybarrettpainting.blogspot.com.au

I won a copy of this book via a First Reads giveaway and these are just my honest thoughts on it.

If bad luck is all we're going to get then I want no luck at all. This year has been ridiculous with repairs and shelling money out. If I had it falling out of my ass then it wouldn't be a problem. Unfortunately I'm on a tight budget and even tighter ass. No money there. My hubby said he hates odd years and I'm starting to agree with him. I'm so over 2015. Can it be 2016 now?

 

William Gabienu’s book literally grabs you by the horns and shakes out the lethargy that has beset so many of us. Although he concentrates on fables set in the bible, their meaning is clearly meant for all mankind. Uplifting and awe-inspiring is the message that instills in the reader a renewed sense of purpose that will lift us to such lofty goals previously declared unattainable. One beautiful story stands out as it is explained how elephants at an early age are tethered and trapped. The same rope is used to continue to tether the elephants now fully grown. With little effort the elephants could burst free, but memory tells them they are trapped and so they live that way.
This book goes very far in truly helping us all attain that which we might have first thought impossible. Read this 5 star book for an uplifting insight into all our failings and learn to become a success.