Rating: 
Summary: Wow, Excellent
Review: I stumbled upon this book by accident, read the jacket and thought "ok, sounds interesting." Well, it went beyond interesting into gripping, powerful, and suspenseful. Read this book after reading a slow paced or a boring book because it will take you for a ride you'll enjoy. Excellent.
Rating:
Summary: Good Read
Review: This was a very good read...I enjoyed it from beginning to end!
Rating:
Summary: Pleasantly Surprised!
Review: This book was recommended to me and I was slightly reluctant to read it because of the source, but WOW...what a great book! I was completely enthralled with this book from the very beginning to the last sentence. And when I was done I wanted more, more, more. So now I'm on the second in the series, "The Living Blood". For those who are just purchasing this book, do yourselves a favor by purchasing both at the same time. Believe me, you will want the story to continue and you won't want a pause in between.Tananarive Due has done an excellent job in bringing these characters to life. This book will make you think twice and hug your family just a little harder.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting premise, but doesn't deliever
Review: This story is a real departure from your typical fangs in the throat vampire. The premise is fascinating, from the living blood and how it is shared, to the pain this particular man feels having loved and lost over so many years and his struggles with living a double life. However, I don't think this book packs as much punch as it could. I found the first 3/4's of the book slow, with only glimmers of excitment. The ending was great, but it didn't make up for the rest of the book. I have to say, I was disappointed. I've heard so many good things about this book, that I was really looking forward to it, and it's sequel. Now I'm not so sure I want to continue with the saga. If I do, I won't be purchasing the book. I suggest a trip to the library and hope for the best.
Rating:
Summary: Move over Stephen King . . .
Review: First of all, this book made me begin to think about my own mortality. Life can be as long or as short as we make it out to be. The characters and there struggles seem all too real and familiar. My Soul to Keep is certainly one of the top ten fiction books of the last 15 years. The plot had enought twists in it to keep anyone on the edge of their seat. I can't figure out why there hasn't been a movie made yet.
Rating:
Summary: Heartwrenchingly provocative and thoughtful
Review: The strength of this novel lies in the possibility of life after death. In the last few books that I've read, not by choice but by happenstance I keep running into this theme of immortality. Of the fear of death. What makes this novel different is that we get the fear from the perspective of Dawit/David who is immortal and is not afraid of dying but off his family doing so. After he kills a child who now lies in a nursing home and then must kill his wife's friend a reporter who uncovers a clue about him and then Khladun, creator of the Immortals from the blood of Christ, we see how complicated immortality is.
The concept of changing identities every twenty or thrity years is posisble to imagine. But there are things that must be sacrificed. Children, love, even to a degree notoriety because this is what ultimately starts unraveling David's cover, his notoriety in one life is flickering like a flame at the edges of his new one.
Here's what I wonder, do the ties that bind African-American communities, the inter-relationships, ultimately put David at a greater risk? Being not the majority percentage in America given enough connectability, isn't there the possibility that if not related in blood, most African-American are by story, by some touchstone?
Is immortality particularly dangerous to David because he's passing for Black in a country where someone of his intellect and ability to pick up talents would stand out, much along the lines of "the Talented 10th"? The book then brings us to another question, what are you willing to die and kill for? And Ms. Due suggests that the easiest kills are the ties that bind us because there will come a point if we live long enough that they strangle. It is only David's refusal to be alone anymore that brings this whole novel to the point of being worth a story. What I really liked was that David is both hero and villain to his own family and ultimately to himself. To love so deeply that he's willing to keep killing, even eventually his family to resurrect them, makes me wonder about the long terms effects of immortality and the wisdom of Khaldun keeping the Life Brothers to a limited number and hidden away. Our emotions are irrational, our desires foolish and the lengths we are willign to go to for the silliest things our undoing. Now on some level we all get and observe this in our daily lives but Ms. Due's book forces us to realize that without discipline we couldn't handle immortality, the burden of it the responsibility, the temptation to play God. Because one of the abilities that God holds is over life and death and this beautiful book turns everything upside down when it asks what happens when we assume one fo God's powers. It's a nice touch that the "Living Blood" comes from Christ himself, it both humanizes Jesus in a way that makes us think of him as pure down to his last cell and at the same time real.
I also liked how these religious questions were raised, how Jessica's faith was challenged by the fact that suddenly the God she prays to is made real and a miracle is before her. This could've simply been a horror story or a fantasy tale but by making her hav to confront her thoughts about God and the temptation to immortality, it really rang true as the kinds of thoughts a normal person in extraordinary circumstances would have,
Rating: 
Summary: I was quietly hooked
Review: The first time I picked up this novel and read a couple pages, my heart beat a little faster because I knew what I was in for a real treat. The story is a tragic love story, albeit a strange one. I hate it when reviewers describe detailed scenes in the book, so I'll skip the deconstruction and analysis, and just provide my opinion: It really blew away my expectations because it was an exceptionally well-written supernatural thriller. (My favorite kind of book in the world!) Hard to find because it's hard to do. You try to convince the cynical reader that what's incredible can actually be credible--good luck. The prologue and chapter 1, tell you everything about the two main characters. The first chapter was quietly harrowing, I found that I was tensing up as I read on, which is probably the best review that I can give to a book. I forgot I was reading a work of fiction and was totally into the shared reality thing. I am giving this book 4 stars (4 and a half stars if I could) and not 5 because there are a couple subplots that should have been developed a little more --could have had better editing - maybe?, it's not perfect, but why sweat the small details? Overall, it is better than good. T. Due is a graceful, talented storyteller! She authors with a voice, emotion and a beat that is hers, I will certainly be reading the rest of her novels. I'm starting on The Living Blood now (the sequel) and it promises to be even better, I can tell already that the style is more polished and it's going to take me where I want to go!
Rating:
Summary: My Soul To Keep
Review: Tananrive Due really wrote a wonderful book. I just finished it and I am reeling from it emotionally. It is a whole lot of thiller with a seasoning of a love story. To be honest, this book has me at a lost for words, it really touched me emotionally.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome and Eerie!
Review: Ms. Due does an excellent job of telling Jessica's story. Her characters were rich, full of life and so integral throughout the book. This book forces the reader to not only think about death but make a conscious decision within themselves as to whether they would like to live forever or simply pass on at the appointed time. Again, the author forces readers to look deep within themselves to analyze that issue as well as mentally take on the rollercoaster ride through this truly unforgetable story. I would also like to add that Ms. Due was gracious enough to attend a SWAP (Sisters with a Purpose)bookclub meeting via teleconference to discuss the book, plot, motivation for the book's premise as well as the sequel, The Living Blood, and what is on the horizon for herself. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You! Keep writing and we will continue to enjoy your literary work!
Trinice Speight Moses
Sisters with a Purpose Bookclub
Rating:
Summary: Once Is NOT Enough
Review: I'm an avid reader and I enjoy a good science-fiction more than anything else. When I stumbled across this book in 1998, purely by luck, I was not prepared for the ride it took me on. Ms. Due has earned her place among the ranks of Steven King and Spielberg. Since 1998 I've read this book twice -- and I'm not normally a person who reads a book more than once, but this story grabs you, takes you to a another place altogether and you'll never in your life forget the main character, Dawit (or Daud, or David-just one of his many names). This book leaves you hoping that just once this could be true, that there really could be people out there like Dawit and if you're really fortunate, maybe one day you'll meet one. I sincerely hope, as I've been hoping since '98, that Ms. Due will do a sequel. It will be well worth it!
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