Stay 40 by Richard Lippman. I read this on the Kindle, which costs the same as the ebook. Maybe it would've seemed less jumbled if I'd read it in paper -- that way I could've flipped the pages back and forth to see whether he was being as inconsistent as I supposed. I could've gotten the BIG picture, so to speak. As it was, I found myself pondering that the author was bragging about his sharp mind while displaying obvious need for an editor to get his rambling writing under control. Please, if you want to impress me with your intelligence, stop babbling.
Actually, the guy did have some really good points. After reading the book I started taking some supplements, and I do feel more energetic and more focussed. I think my skin's improved, too. But he has some ideas I disagreed with, things that left me rolling my eyes. His fascination with hormones reminded me of the adage "he that is good with a hammer thinks everything is a nail".
As far as figuring out which supplements to take, it was a matter of sorting through his various recommendations. At one point he would strongly recommend X, Y, and Z; at another point he would find A, B, and C as the most important. Gah.
Your Skin, Younger by Alan Logan, et al. I had started reading this about a year ago, and wandered off in boredom. After finishing Stay 40, though, I picked it back up. Hey, it talks about pretty much the exact same supplements! Which makes sense, since things that help you be healthier as you age will help your skin look better as it, too, becomes healthier. The tone of the book is a lot more gee-whilikers than Stay 40 -- it seems more targeted to those who like to read books about beauty (well, duh, they've targeted a particular audience). Enough science info to assure you that they're not making this stuff up as they go along. And, blessedly, the authors don't go on and on about the wonders of taking hormones.
My Life As a White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland. I'm not big on zombie lit, but who could resist a title like that? And it turned out to be plenty of zombie fun. The author claims that there are no defined zombie traits in literature, unlike, say, vampires (which are NOT sparkly creatures, thankyouverymuch). I've no clue. Perhaps this would offend some zombie-sensabilities. The language will offend those who don't care to read white-trash-speak.
It appears to be the beginning of a series, but works well as a stand alone.
Wool by Hugh Howey. Okay, that link is to the initial short story entitled Wool. There are currently 5 stories/books. I got the Omnibus of all 5 as a free checkout on Kindle for Amazon Prime.
The initial short story is ... amazing. So is the second story, but in a different way. And so on and so forth. The final, fifth, novel-length story is a bit more along the lines of a movie or television show -- I wasn't so surprised by the structure of it.
Let me tell you what's REALLY amazing -- this guy is self-publishing these. And they absolutely do NOT read like typical self-published books. I read a decent amount of freebies and cheapy ebooks and Kindle books that are self-published, and usually you can tell that they didn't pass through the hands of an editor, let alone a copy editor. At best, they read a bit like really good fanfic -- the story hangs together well, but the characters are somehow flat. Often you can really "see" the author behind the story -- the personality of the author (and his/her conceits) overshadows the personality of his/her characters. For the most part, I read them, then pretty much instantly forget them. They're not worth holding in memory. A lot like fanfic, which I also read piles of.
But Wool is different. It's going to be a phenomenon. If you read it NOW, you'll be in on the ground floor. And when every one's talking about it some time in the future, you'll just nod knowingly, since you first read it soon after it came out. You'll be THAT COOL.
If you only read one book on this list, make it Wool. It's that good.
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