{"id":5594,"date":"2026-02-13T09:37:25","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T09:37:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=5594"},"modified":"2026-02-13T09:37:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T09:37:25","slug":"over-55-conniptions-by-gerri-almand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=5594","title":{"rendered":"Over-55 Conniptions by Gerri Almand"},"content":{"rendered":"

A timeless reflection on what it means to settle down, face your age, and not let it define you<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Aging comes for all of us, if we\u2019re lucky. There is no side-stepping it or passing it along to the next person in line. So when the signs of aging start to catch up with Gerri Almand, she does the only reasonable thing there is to do: trade in her full-time RV life for a cush home in an over-55 community. Along with her husband Michael, she makes Eugene, Oregon her forever home.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But as health issues arise and doctors\u2019 visits become more frequent, forever doesn\u2019t mean what it used to. She was once the reluctant RV wife\u2014the title of her debut memoir was just that\u2014but now she\u2019s on a brand new adventure: realizing that life, no matter where you\u2019re living it, is the best gift of all.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

As a big fan of her first three books (the RV Wife series), I was thrilled to hear that Almand had a new book coming out. And it felt like a perfect deviation from it\u2014how would she handle this new stability in this new place? Reading about her RV adventures with Micheal was a blast, but I, like many of her readers, was in it for Gerri herself. Her introspection and curiosity are what keeps readers coming back, and this book just gives us another glimpse into her charmed life. Almand\u2019s voice makes you feel like a good friend, and she\u2019s trusting only you with her most unfiltered introspections about life. It\u2019s intimate and revealing, shocking and intelligent. I read it with gusto.<\/p>\n

Much like I expected, Almand enters her new community and can\u2019t help but feel like the odd woman out. All the people who live there are, well, old. And she, a spunky 74-year-old fresh off of living on the road full-time, feels like she does not belong. It all seems like one big joke the universe has played on her, and her reluctance is the first thing she carries with her into this experience. Though not initially feeling like part of the gang, it turns out that people in their 70s do fit in at over-55 communities, and \u00a0 with a little open-mindedness, Almand finds out that there\u2019s more than meets the eye to her new neighbors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Almand\u2019s relationship-building is a real standout in Over-55 Conniption<\/em>s. I liked many of her neighbors in this book, but one stands out among the pack. A woman\u2014well into her 90s\u2014lives across the street and holds a wealth of knowledge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When Almand is grappling with what to plant in her garden\u2014a beloved past-time she hasn\u2019t enjoyed since her last full-time home in Florida\u2014she learns that while Eugene, Oregon is a fantastic place to grow almost anything, for the best results, she\u2019ll have to take the slow route. Her blueberry bush, for instance, may take years until it\u2019s yielding the handfuls of berries she wants to eat every day. This idea alone makes her wonder if it\u2019s even worth it to plant anything the right way since she may not be around to see it in a few years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But her neighbor, who has a solid twenty years on her, tells her the story of her own mother who, in her 70s, had planted a tree outside her window because she wanted the shade. And over twenty years later, that woman passed away in her bedroom, under the shade of the tree she wasn\u2019t hesitant to plant. There are seeds like this planted throughout the book that give both Almand and the reader hope to live like there will be tons of tomorrows, and it brings much much comfort.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While travel takes a back seat in this book, the local drama steps in to steal the show. As Gerri\u2019s community grows tighter and smaller, the drama unfolds rapidly. The over-55 community works almost like high school, with cliques and gossip, love interests and bad break ups, as well as the occasional cat fight (to be fair this fight is more of an argument, and it is about actual cats).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Almand\u2019s role is more on the sidelines than anything, as she observes and comments freely about the activities around her, occasionally getting so sucked in to other people\u2019s issues that it overtakes her mind entirely. Her pal Jeremy, for instance, recently lost his wife who was one of Gerri\u2019s good friends while RVing around the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Just a few months later, he finds himself in Almand\u2019s neck of the woods and reveals that he is on the hunt for a new, much younger wife. He hires an online dating coach, joins all the dating apps, and jumps head first into trying to find the one. His conquests and Almand\u2019s unfiltered reactions end up being a focal point in the story, and as she hyper-fixates in the situation, the book does as well. I felt as ready for a break from their drama as Almand ends up feeling toward the end of the book.<\/p>\n

Despite her friend\u2019s situationships and drama becoming a main storyline, it\u2019s not exactly their issues that she\u2019s grappling with but what it all means for her. Her reflections often lead back to the idea that aging changes so many things, especially for women. Will anyone want her should her husband pass before her? Will she even be open to that, because she notices that so many widowers her age are truly uninterested in patterning up again. Will her next fall off her bike be her last? Will she ever truly fit into this community that she joined? She considers all this and more in Over-55 Conniptions<\/em> and keeps readers laughing along the way.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Just as in her RV Wife series, Almand\u2019s personality and perseverance shine through in this relatable and honest story, filled with hope for the future. When faced with the idea of holing up and staring out of the window, Almand instead chooses to buy a bicycle and ride for miles each day. She frequents a vineyard with a bunch of hip 50 year olds and parties there weekly. She goes to music shows and dances. She squeezes every last drop out of the grapes of life and then makes wine with it.<\/p>\n

The post Over-55 Conniptions by Gerri Almand<\/a> appeared first on Independent Book Review<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A timeless reflection on what it means to settle down, face your age, and not let it define you Aging comes for all of us, if we\u2019re lucky. There is no side-stepping it or passing it along to the next person in line. So when the signs of aging start to catch up with Gerri […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bookreviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5594"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5594\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}