No Less Days

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS A PARAGRAPH THAT SOME MAY CONSIDER A SPOILER.

AMANDA G. STEVENS

Goodreads synopsis: How many lifetimes can God expect one man to live? Over a century old, David Galloway isolates himself from the mortal humans who die or desert him by making a quiet life as a used bookstore owner in Northern Michigan. But then he spots a news article about a man who, like him, should be dead.

Daredevil celebrity Zachary Wilson walked away unscathed from what should have been a deadly fall. David tracks the man down, needing answers. Soon David discovers a close-knit group of individuals as old as he is who offer the sort of kinship and community he hasn’t experienced for decades—but at what cost?

David finds himself keeping secrets other than his own. . .protecting more than himself alone. He’ll have to decide what’s worth the most to him—security or community. When crimes come to light that are older than any mortal, he fears the pressure is more than he can stand. What does God require of him, and is David strong enough to see it through?

Stats for my copy: .pdf ARC, Shiloh Run Press, expected publication date May 1, 2018.

How acquired: Via BookishFirst.

First line: His books were burning. 

My thoughts: I entered to win this book from BookishFirst because the title and cover caught my eye first, and then the synopsis and first page piqued my interest. So I was excited to learn I'd won a copy. The pace is a bit slow in the beginning, with a very interesting premise. David Galloway is over a hundred years old, and has no idea why he cannot die. He's built himself a solitary life, revolving around his bookstore, and has closed himself off to friendships and relationships with others. Then he meets three men and a woman who already know who he is, and who are also immortal, and know how they – and David – gained their immortality. From that point the pace picked up quickly, and I sat up late a couple of nights because I was more interested in the book than my bed.

Before meeting the others, David thought that his immortality was a burden beyond his understanding that God had placed on him. While I liked the direction the story took, and I'm not a religious person, I thought it would've been very intriguing if David's belief was correct, and God had purposely chosen him to carry that burden. But I was happy to start getting to know the group who welcomed him into their fold and became his people. Everyone should have people that they can think of as their people.

There was a nice little side plot about a clerk in David's store who is in an abusive relationship, and a hopeful romance growing between David and his assistant, Tiana.

When I was a few pages from the end I began to fear that it was going to suddenly wrap up all neat and tidy in too short a span of time. But no, the book just ended, the way each day of the week ends. Some issues resolved, others not, and tomorrow is another day. I sure hope this is the start of a series, because I was not quite ready to leave David and his new friends behind.

The Poison Tree

ERIN KELLY

Back cover copy: In the sweltering summer of 1997, strait-laced, straight-A student Karen met Biba – a bohemian and impossibly glamorous aspiring actress. She was quickly drawn into Biba's world, a for a while life was one long summer of love. But every summer must end. By the end of theirs, two people were dead – and now Karen's past has come back to haunt her...

Stats for my copy: Trade paperback, Hodder & Stoughton, 2011.

How acquired: Via BookCrossing.

First line: I let the telephone fall from my hand.

My thoughts: And another fantastic new to me author! Claire Seeber, Peter Swanson, and now Erin Kelly. I've already hunted down and collected most of Seeber's and Swanson's back list (plus preordered Swanson's newest), and now my Discover card will get another workout as I hunt down everything Ms. Kelly has written. For a long time my go to has been romance, but these three authors are sending me on a new and wonderful path!

Told in first person POV by Karen, the narrative bounces back and forth between the present and the past. In the past, Karen meets Biba and is mesmerized by her, and by her Bohemian drug-fueled life's-a-party lifestyle. Not so much by Rex, though in the present we know that she and Rex are a couple and have a daughter. We also know that Rex was just released from prison for murder, but we don't know who died or when.

I love Ms. Kelly's writing, it's as mesmerizing as Biba is to Karen. As Karen tells us her story, she drops tantalizing little hints or alludes to something that happens later, and I was constantly on the edge of my seat waiting for the big reveal, and grasping at each secret that finally came to light. Guessing who would die, and then second guessing myself. With good reason, as I was completely wrong.

A five star read for me, and I'm upset that none of the platforms I subscribe to - Netflix, Amazon Video, Hulu, Acorn TV – have the movie version available! I need to see it! 

Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body

ROXANE GAY

Synopsis from Goodreads: From the bestselling author of Bad Feminist: a searingly honest memoir of food, weight, self-image, and learning how to feed your hunger while taking care of yourself.

“I ate and ate and ate in the hopes that if I made myself big, my body would be safe. I buried the girl I was because she ran into all kinds of trouble. I tried to erase every memory of her, but she is still there, somewhere. . . . I was trapped in my body, one that I barely recognized or understood, but at least I was safe.”

In her phenomenally popular essays and long-running Tumblr blog, Roxane Gay has written with intimacy and sensitivity about food and body, using her own emotional and psychological struggles as a means of exploring our shared anxieties over pleasure, consumption, appearance, and health. As a woman who describes her own body as “wildly undisciplined,” Roxane understands the tension between desire and denial, between self-comfort and self-care. In Hunger, she explores her own past—including the devastating act of violence that acted as a turning point in her young life—and brings readers along on her journey to understand and ultimately save herself.

With the bracing candor, vulnerability, and power that have made her one of the most admired writers of her generation, Roxane explores what it means to learn to take care of yourself: how to feed your hungers for delicious and satisfying food, a smaller and safer body, and a body that can love and be loved—in a time when the bigger you are, the smaller your world becomes.

Stats for my copy: Trade paperback, HarperCollins, 2017.

How acquired: Via BookCrossing.

First line: Every body has a story and a history.

My thoughts: In the beginning I found the writing a little repetitive and...youngish? I don't want to say juvenile, so maybe just short of being juvenile...the first few chapters. And then after her account of the rape, it hit me that those first few chapters were almost hesitant, as if the author wanted to tell us about it but it was a hard thing to talk about and so she needed to work up to it. And after that it didn't feel so repetitive or short-of-being-juvenile. It was just very real. I can't even imagine the courage it took to write this book.

I am about thirty pounds overweight. And I will admit that sometimes when I see a very large or obese person, I think to myself, how did they let themselves get to that point? But underneath that, what I'm thinking is I hope I don't ever get to that point, and I'm constantly reminding myself that I need to exercise more and eat better, and then I don't. I just hope when I've looked at a very large or obese person, my look hasn't actually made them feel like I was judging them.

A powerful and moving book, and a good example of how cruel people can be to others who don't fit their definition of perfect.