Jenni Ogden, Off-Grid Writer

Lisa Genova’s new book “Left Neglected” about a multitasking superwoman and guilt-ridden mother, who was transformed in an unguarded instant into a ‘Left Neglect patient,’ is, in my opinion, even better than “Still Alice”. I know a lot about hemineglect; I did my PhD on it way back in the early 1980s when only a handful of researchers were studying it and publishing articles about it, and since then have published and written about it often, including cases in my books, and have supervised students in the area. (Today it is a very “popular” neuropsychological disorder to research.) So I was looking forward to reading a novel written in the “1st person” where the protagonist shares her experiences about living with left neglect.  Read More 

In the last month I finished Solar; what a great, turn-about ending… Say no more, just read it! Then I picked up Anita Shreve’s new book, Rescue: A Novel, as a beach-read in between making sandcastles. I had heard a bad review of it – “unmemorable” was the catch phrase - but I enjoyed it as I do most of Shreve’s books when I am in the mood for them.  Read More 

The silly season is over and our children and grandchildren have gone leaving in their wake two electric toothbrushes (left by two separate families…), one piece of jigsaw puzzle, a CD of Christmas songs for toddlers, and a lot of fish bait in our freezer. This I have re-wrapped in three plastic bags as the smell of fish bait, however solidly frozen, somehow permeates everything near it. I would love to throw it out but it will apparently be used to catch some big fish in due course. Our vegetable garden is 10 feet high and finding anything specific in it is a journey of discovery; it is in sore need of a few long hours of weeding. But the sea out there is blue and warm and the sand golden and hot, and a lazy day on the sheltered sandy beach across the rocks, lying in the shade of a huge pohutukawa tree reading, dozing, and occasionally venturing into the water to float and dream, or even catching a wave or two at the main surf beach is irresistible.  Read More 

My writing plans for the holiday season did not quite happen; I think I have lost the skill of writing – or even editing -- with noise and children everywhere. I must have been able to do it once when I was the mother and not the grandmother, and couldn’t “give the children back!”  Read More