It Was Me All Along, by Andie Mitchell

It was Me All Along is a memoir about a young woman's life, loves, and relationships, particularly when it comes to food.  All her life, Andie Mitchell turned to food for comfort, companionship, and as a refuge from the turmoil in her fractured family life.  This story chronicles that disordered relationship, and the toil it took on both her body and her sense of self of self, as she navigates the ups and downs of growing up, going to college, and eventually finding where she does - and does not - fit in the world.  Reaching an all time high weight of 268, Andie does the hard work to discover why she's always turned to food, what she can do about, and ultimately the path she needs to take to find health and healing.

I really connected with this book.  Ms Mitchell is a wonderful descriptive writer and story-teller, and she makes you both root for her all while wincing at the stops and starts along the way.  It did take me a little longer to finish than it normally takes me.... not because the book wasn't great (it was), but because it was a heavy and at times heart-wrenching read.  Her story was a messy one, but it was also filled with hope.  It left me feeling inspired, and proud of this woman I have never met.  Her weight loss (of over a hundred pounds!) was amazing, but it was almost secondary to the realizations about self-love she made along the way, as well as the healthy and balanced relationship she had with food by the end.  As someone who really appreciates good food, in what I'd like to think is a healthy way, her triumphs made me happy, especially after learning that she actually went into food blogging and writing as a career.  It was as if her disordered eating - which could have chewed her up and spit her out - instead refined her, made her stronger, and forced her to find the tools she needed to turn her love for food into something beautiful and healthy and life-affirming.

Very inspiring.

For me, the mark of a great book versus a good one is what I do when I'm done.  When I finished this book, I immediately looked up Andie Mitchell to follow her all over social media (which, by the way, I suggest you do too.... if for no other reason to find out what became of her relationship with Daniel)

Beautiful book, and beautiful human.  Inside and out.

Prison, by Toni V Lee

I really wanted to like this book.  The plot sounded so interesting:  Sonja Grey and Max Trent are narcotics detectives who are chosen to go undercover to capture a "thug" who is dealing drugs at Sonja's church.  Promising mystery, suspense, and romance, it was indeed the makings of a good book.

Unfortunately, this kernel of a good story was completely lost in a bunch of cliches, overly stereotypical characters, and unbelievable dialogue.  Sonja and Max go from acting like immature grade schoolers - dealing with their attraction for each other by picking fights - to becoming the stuff of a Christian version of a Harlequin romance.  I lost track of how many times Sonja admired Max's "bulging, rippling muscles," and at one pointed she deemed him "looking good enough to eat."  For his part, Max struggled with controlling his fleshly desires, allowing himself only to "kiss her senseless"  (more than once), and delivered lines like, "Don't you know my heart beats in time with yours?"

The secondary characters, including the young man they were trying to capture, were basically caricatures, rather than believable, three dimensional characters.   We're also led to believe that the bad guys are going to be covered in tattoos and wear dreadlocks, because obviously, tattoos and dreadlocks equal a thug.

Ultimately, I was disappointed and frustrated while trying to read this all the way through.  I did finish the book, but found myself skimming at times, because it was just too difficult to take seriously.



I received this book for free from the BookLook Bloggers program in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

The Mountain Midwife, by Laurie Alice Eakes

Ashley Tolliver is a third generation midwife living and working in the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia. She is devoted to her work and to her clients, but is also feeling a pull to leave her small hometown to go to medical school. When a mysterious couple arrives at her door late one night, she finds herself unexpectedly delivering a baby only to have the driver, baby, and mother (who is dangerously bleeding) vanish out into the night without a trace.

Hunter McDermott is a successful engineer from the DC area who is begrudgingly experiencing his fifteen minutes of fame after rescuing a young girl.  He returns home after working overseas hoping to rest and catch his breath for awhile.  Instead he finds a cryptic phone message from someone claiming to be his birth mother. After confronting his parents, he learns that he was in fact adopted, and goes on a quest to research this new-found piece of his personal history.  His journey brings him to the mountains of southwestern Virginia, where he crosses paths with Ashley Tolliver.

Eakes tells an interesting and fast-moving story here.  The mystery of the young missing mother, and Hunter's personal quest to find his parents are intertwined as Ashley and Hunter meet and forge a tentative relationship. There are plenty of twists and turns that kept me turning the pages, and the characters are well-developed.  The mountains and landscape of the area are described beautifully, and almost serve as a character in their own right.

Unfortunately I did have a few gripes that kept me from giving the book a higher rating. There were some confusing plot lines and continuity issues, and the ending was extremely abrupt, leaving many secondary stories completely unresolved.  It is a shame too, because Eakes is a great writer, and I enjoyed her overall descriptive style.

This is the first book I've read by this author, and little quibbles aside, I would definitely give another of her books a try.



I received this book for free from the BookLook Bloggers program in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Classic Human Anatomy In Motion

Classic Human Anatomy in Motion, by Valerie L Winslow, is as beautiful as it is practical.

I recently resurrected a long-neglected drawing practice, so I was thrilled at the opportunity to review this book. It did not disappoint. As an artist and a yoga teacher, I am fascinated with the human body... how it all works, how it moves together, how nothing acts in isolation, but instead works in harmony with everything around it. It is the perfect marriage of science and art, and the author of this book understands this so very well.

An in-depth study of joints, muscles, and bones; a detailed primer on accurately representing it all through pencil and paper; AND a gorgeous coffee table book all in one, this is a book I will refer to again and again. What makes the book truly great is that it doesn't just show you - for example - how to draw a hand. It helps you understand what is going on beneath the hand, making your artwork richer, more balanced, and more realistic. Covering everything from facial expressions to arm and leg movements, to full nudes, this book covers everything you need to know about drawing or painting the human body, and then some.

It is a must for any artist, from the beginner to the most experienced. Detailed, thorough, and packed with information and beautiful images, it should be on everyone's shelf.... whether you are an artist, want to be one, or just appreciate the wonder of the human form.


*I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.*

Fix by Force, by Jason Warne

Fix by Force, by Jason Warne, tells the story of Spencer, a high school student who is staggering under an enormous weight.  He is relentlessly bullied at school, he is dealing with the death of his father and the illness of his mother, he is wrestling with feelings of inadequacy and self-loathing, he is struggling to find his place in the world, and walking the line between playing the role he's believed has been dealt out to him, and forging his own path.  In short, he's dealing with what many teenagers are dealing with... but magnified to an alarming degree.  When a series of events lands him in a special school for kids with behavior problems, he turns to what he believes will solve all his problems:  steroids.

This was good (albeit heartwrenching) story, and a fast-paced, quick read.  The characters were well-developed, and I especially enjoyed the relationship between Spencer and the girl he meets at his new school.  The author was not afraid to delve into some very deep topics here, and the result felt honest and lifelike.  I found myself rooting for Spencer, and hoping that he would eventually find his way.

My one nitpick, if I had to make one, would be that the ending felt a little rushed.  I wanted more. Still, it was a good book that dealt with some important issues facing our young people today, and I think that it's worth a read by young and older adults alike.



I received this book for free from the BookLook Bloggers program in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Messy Grace, by Caleb Kaltenbach

I was really looking forward to reading Messy Grace.  In it, Caleb Kaltenbach tells the story of how he grew up with gay parents, very much immersed in the gay community, how he eventually came to God, and how he ended up reconciling his love for his parents with his love for Jesus with his beliefs in the Bible.  At its core, it is a book about (as the title suggests) grace, and about showing love and compassion for those folks in the LGBT community.  As Kaltenbach points out, it is a demographic that has been historically been treated poorly by many Christians, and as such they need our love and support more than ever before.  They need us to love the way Jesus loved, and Caleb Kaltenbach understands this so very well.

Unfortunately, I finished reading the book with decidedly mixed feelings.  First, it is very well-written.  He uses a warm, conversational style that is easy to read, and he allows the reader to genuinely care about his story, his family, and his past.  He also effectively delivers much of what the book promises:  a convincing argument for more compassion, more grace, and more love.

Where Mr Kaltenbach lost me was about midway through the book, when he got to the "conviction" part of the book's tagline:  "How a pastor with gay parents learned to love others without sacrificing conviction."  While I absolutely agree that we should never sacrifice our conviction, and never cease speaking the truth, the way the issue was presented in the book left no room for differences in interpretation or differences in theology.   There are many faithful, Bible-believing Christians who have found that the Bible does not condemn homosexuality in and of itself, nor do they feel that - as Kaltenbach does - that celibacy is the only right answer.   We're told that those people are simply wrong, disobeying God, and/or ignoring the truth, which is.... disappointing.  The issue is not quite as black and white as we are so often led to believe, and drawing such a hard line halts the conversation and the dialogue and the research that still so desperately needs to be had.

Still, the book was a step in the right direction, and makes an important case for offering love and grace for all of God's people, even (or especially!) when we disagree.




*I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.*

Lifted From Darkness, by Alexa Foster

Lifted from Darkness is a true story. It's a memoir. I found I was reminding myself of that fact over and over, because I didn't want to forget. What read like a harrowing but gripping Hollywood blockbuster was in fact a very real woman's very real nightmare. It tells the story of how she met, married, and ultimately escaped from a drug-addicted, controlling, physically, sexually, and emotionally abusive man. She chronicles her experiences in painstaking detail, and takes the reader inside both the outward torment she endured at his hands, and the inward struggle as she fought to save herself. 

Ms Foster tells a very important story here, albeit one that is incredibly difficult to read. First, she deftly and heartbreakingly answers the question, "Why?" Why would someone stay in an abusive marriage for so long? I think that there is a major lack of understanding in this area, and that because it's such an uncomfortable topic to discuss, we as a society tend to hide in our ignorance. But we need to understand it. We need to talk about it. What Alexa Foster does is share her immensely difficult and personal story in an effort to increase awareness about what it's like to live in that prison, and that's exactly what this book does. Second, and just as importantly, she gives the reader HOPE. Because through it all, she persevered, she fought, and she didn't give up. She came out stronger, and she did what she'd once believed was impossible: She built a healthy and successful life for herself.

Ultimately, this is a story of triumph, and it's one everyone should read.



I received this book for free from the BookLook Bloggers program in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.