A Word About the New Look

Wait, wait, wait! You're in the right place. I know everything looks different, but don't worry, it's still Jen's Book Thoughts. After quite a few years with my femme fatale, I have decided to make a change. Several reasons played a role in my final decision to work on a change. The first being I like to play with the blog's layout. Luckily, it's a bit laborious or I might be doing it all the time.

Another reason, a tad more important than my desire to try different looks, is the fact that my reading has branched out within the last year or so. I still adore crime fiction and you can plan to see plenty of it here--I'm not jumping ship--but I'm also reading more non-fiction on topics that interest me as well as other types of fiction that spark my curiosity. I hope I can pique some of your interests with those books as well.

But the biggest reason I made the decision to change the look of the blog is my growing concern about the gun culture in the United States. I'm an advocate for stronger gun laws, and I've never been shy about admitting that. Rationally, I've always separated the reality of firearms and the fiction of their portrayal in the books I read. However, I do not want to glorify guns in any way, even the smallest way. I want to glorify reading. That's always been the point of this blog.

I remember the realization I had about the damage a racial slur said in ignorance can make. Phrases in our language are full of them and we continue to propagate (often hateful) stereotypes by using them, even when we don't realize we're doing it. We learn the language from others around us and use it blindly. I began to feel that way about my femme. The art is wonderful and it got attention, but I want to be clear about my own message and that's a great dislike for what guns have come to represent in this country.

So, I hope that you'll enjoy my new header--I made it myself. I'll probably still be doing some minor tweaks here and there to get the whole blog in sync with the new header, but for the most part it's set.

Thanks for continuing to share a love of reading with me. It means the world.

Happy reading!