by Diana Hockley

Details at the end of this post on how to enter to win a copy of I Used to Be Taller. There is also a link to purchase it from Amazon.

When we are young, we can’t imagine growing old. Most of us couldn’t see past the next clubbing event or party! When I was 24, I suddenly realised that I, too, could grow old. How ridiculous that sounds now that many of us are in our dotage!

Of course, old age means “coming apart at the seams,” and worrying though this might be, Maria Ruiz has managed to chronicle the event with humour and clear information.

Gravity, says Maria, is the root cause of our deterioration! “Now, if I stand as tall as I can, I’m 5-foot, 4-inches. One day I’ll just be a blob on the floor,” states Maria at the start of her opening chapter. It’s all downhill from there!

Our skeletons collapse, we get fat or so skinny we could slide through a drinking straw without touching the sides. Our brain which controls everything else can get a fit of the sulks, retire to a corner, and refuse to come to the table. It goes from processing fifty-thousand thoughts every day to nil, but all is not lost. Keeping active and possibly, among other activities, learning a new instrument can help to keep our brain from turning its back on us.

The skin, our largest organ, gets revenge for all that sun baking on the beach showing our gorgeous bodies off to whoever will look at them! Spots, tags, moles, and bumps emerge along with our grey hair and those strong, ripped arms start to look like those wind ruffles across the Sahara Desert so beloved of wildlife photographers.

Maria Ruiz goes on to list all the changes which our bodies throw at us as we age, but she writes with sympathy and great good humour. It is impossible to be any less than fascinated by the details in this short book, and I not only enjoyed it, but plan to keep it on my kindle—which is a great honour, as I usually delete any books which are no longer relevant.

This one is a keeper!

To enter to win a copy of I Used to Be Taller, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “taller,” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen April 14, 2018. U.S. residents only. If entering via email please include your mailing address, and if via comment please include your email address.

You can also use these links to purchase the books on Amazon. If you have ad blocker on you may not see the link:

Diana Hockley is an Australian mystery author who lives in a southeast Queensland country town. She is the devoted slave of five ratties & usually finds an excuse to mention them in her writing, including her recent novel, The Naked Room. Since retiring from running a traveling mouse circus for 10 years, she is now the mouse judge for the Queensland Rat & Mouse Club shows. To learn more, check out her website.

Disclosure: This post contains links to an affiliate program, for which we receive a few cents if you make purchases using those links. KRL also receives free copies of most of the books that it reviews, that are provided in exchange for an honest review of the book.