Anissa Gray Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Anissa Gray is an American author of fiction books and an Emmy and Dupoint-Columbia award-winning journalist. She was born and raised in Michigan where her father pastored a Pentecostal church. Anissa has schooled in Michigan University and the New York University where she received her master’s in English. Working at Reuters, Manhattan, she covered global financial news where she later moved to Atlanta starting her broadcasting career at the CNN. At CNN Gray has held the positions of a producer and an editor which has seen her receive multiple awards for the coverage of many popular stories.

After working for a long time as a journalist at the CNN Anissa pursued her love for fictional writing where she started on her book the care and feeding of ravenously hungry girls. She covers the newsworthy incidences and her passion for storytelling to create remarkable stories.

The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls

In the book, The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by the award-winning author brings in the issues of identity and family, mothers and daughters and how life can unexpectedly change and more so from those that one thought could be of the greatest help. Three sisters from the Buttler family, Viola, Althea and Lilian have been through a series of tries but what was to come was far much greater than they could imagine.

The Butlers were that kind of family that had a dysfunction that was extremely prevalent and widespread that it seemed almost impossible to unpack. Althea and her husband were a highly respected family in the society. Unfortunately, the two are involved in an embezzlement case that sees them drop from the top position in the society to the underdogs and unrecognized. The price of their crimes is not only a jail sentence but also a life of pain to viola and Lillian. Althea was the tough kind of a woman be it as a mother or even as a sister to viola and Lilian which has ended up costing her significantly.

Before Althea was sentenced for her crimes, she was the mother to her sisters and brother after the passing of their mother. Their father was never around for most of the time as he spent time travelling around like a preacher. Even when around he was never sufficient as life was imbalanced forcing althea to take over the position of everything running smoothly for the family. She never knew what to do best only that she followed the example set by their late mother which worked at times and failed at other times. Althea meets proctor who offers sanctuary to her, and together they have two children. Even while in marriage she still felt insufficient and had moments of self-doubt from the life that she grew up in which hurt her marriage and children. They grew rich and began being referenced in the society, regularly being called in for fundraisers and charities.

All of a sudden everything comes crumbling down leaving Althea and her husband behind bars. The charges placed on the two left everyone angered and betrayed. The hard part of the incidence fell on their daughters and althea’s sisters who were no longer recognized and even taken for criminals. Lilian takes over the mantle of the family dragging along the difficulties in her own life making it hard to raise the teenage girls left by Althea properly. Viola steps in with her imperfections and broken life adding on to the damage that is already present. The two try helping each other to see what they can do best to raise the two girls who had a sudden collapse of life even though they knew not of proper parenting.

While Althea and her husband are in jail, many secrets come out which have a huge and negative impact to the butler. The secrets surrounding the death of their mother come out while they are living with their father who had a tough temper. The family has scars that not even the adults want to face but have to be dealt with so that the sisters left behind can help the children left behind by Althea. The scars of their youth come tearing painfully into the adult life of the butlers which create divisions and even self-denial. The past catches up with butlers repeating the same cycle that they have worked so tirelessly to overcome. Althea’s children find themselves in the same circle that her mother has grown up in only that they are left under their aunts.

Life has been a struggle for the family, and after leaving for what they have worked over the years for a short period, everything comes falling down. In jail, Althea is most confused to the point of even questioning her worth and identity, its painful for her but she has to deal with the consequences of her actions. Pain eats into the butlers as they struggle to regain what they have strongly worked for over the years with the absence of parents. It is while in the state of confusion, self-denial and anger that so many things come to light passing on a difficult task to the two sisters to work on so that what transpired in the past is overcome.

The novel is emotional, looking into how life can be entirely disrupted by secrets and hiding things that could have been addressed early enough. It additionally touches on betrayal from people that are close to you and how that comes when it is least expected. The choice of characters and how they are developed as the story ages is incredible. Their actions have a lot to do with daily life occurrences forming a kind of mirror as you read through the book. Anissa Gray has meticulously crafted a story to show the guilt, loyalty, family secrets and different pangs of hunger and how they can cause problems to generations. Reading the book will leave you wanting more and pondering on simple life things that are sometimes not recognized.