each alike in integrity, setting a scene in wildly different locales, yet both resonated with me.
First comes Love, then comes Malaria by Eve Brown-Waite.
This was a fantastic book. A real-life love story and adventure, which I did not want to end. It had a bit of a rough start, which did initially put me off the book a little... the beginning felt a little too superficial somehow, and while I understand that this was for contrast with the later portions, it could have been achieved a little more smoothly. The book does recover quickly from a shaky first chapter and plunges you into the story of her experiences, first in the Peace Corps in Ecuador, and then in Uganda. I just really enjoyed reading about the people, places, and experiences she had. Some of them evoked my own childhood in Egypt.
Not Becoming My Motherby Ruth Reichl.
Reichl takes an unusual tack in this book about her mother... she talks, proudly of not becoming her mother, but of becoming what her mother wanted her to be. She talks about this in the context of her mother's own life and experiences and thwarted desires...
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
The 'G' Books...self-help or hindrance?
Two books, both with G in the title, and both self-help, of a sort.
The first, the 'G-free diet' by Elisabeth Hasselbeck can be summed up in one word, shallow. It just felt shallow, and only had a few sources. She does give some good tips, buried in the rubble, but it just seemed to be about her life with gluten. Now granted, the thing that REALLY annoyed me about the book was the chapter about going gluten-free (I cannot type G-free, her little catchphrase, its just too, too blond, perky, sorority for me) for weight loss. EXCUSE ME? Going gluten-free did not help me lose weight. And really, if you find going gluten-free has an advantage to your health, maybe its because you really have a wheat allergy or celiac. She does have some tips on sharing a kitchen with non-celiacs, but I find that to be a little unrealistic, and she may have real problems once her kids become teenagers. I just found the book a little flighty. (Can't you tell?)
I do think its good that gluten-free is getting more notice, but I just wish this had been a slightly more serious book, which had left out the chapter on gluten-free and weight loss. I don't think most gluten-free people find weight loss to happen gluten-free, since most gluten-free products are sugar and white rice, and your gut does start absorbing more nutrients as it heals. She does make a good point about finding good substitutes when you start, having a gluten-free bagel, or a gluten-free cereal, instead of saying "oh just have a salad". While salads are always options when dining out, it can become tiresome.
It just felt very self-absorbed, even though she does have some well-laid-out chapters, and does have a clear list of wheats/glutenous food to avoid. And she has a nice little card in the back to take to restaurants and such. Although I WISH the card did not have 'G-free' in large letters on the top, but included the words 'gluten' somewhere on the card. My only other real issue with the book is that all the resources have websites. No phone numbers. There are still people in this day and age who do not go online. And she only has six books in the resources. One of which belongs to the doctor who wrote the foreword praising the book.
Its not a bad book, don't get me wrong. But I would not use it as the sole guide to going gluten-free, or trying to live with a gluten-free person. And I freely admit, if you hadn't guessed already, that I am not crazy about the words "G-free".
The other book I picked up was called "Getting Naked Again: Dating, Romance, Sex and Love When You've Been Divorced, Widowed, Dumped, or Distracted" by Judith Sills, PhD. I didn't even get through this book. I picked it up because I thought it might have good tips to get back into the dating world (not that I was ever really 'in' the dating world, so to speak...its always something I've had a hard time with). Its aimed mainly at the older woman of my mother's age, mid-sixties up, who have been with a partner or have had a family for many years, and who have more of a persona built around being 'in a relationship'. It really isn't as broad as the title implies, so while it might be excellent for someone of a different generation, it wasn't good for me.
The first, the 'G-free diet' by Elisabeth Hasselbeck can be summed up in one word, shallow. It just felt shallow, and only had a few sources. She does give some good tips, buried in the rubble, but it just seemed to be about her life with gluten. Now granted, the thing that REALLY annoyed me about the book was the chapter about going gluten-free (I cannot type G-free, her little catchphrase, its just too, too blond, perky, sorority for me) for weight loss. EXCUSE ME? Going gluten-free did not help me lose weight. And really, if you find going gluten-free has an advantage to your health, maybe its because you really have a wheat allergy or celiac. She does have some tips on sharing a kitchen with non-celiacs, but I find that to be a little unrealistic, and she may have real problems once her kids become teenagers. I just found the book a little flighty. (Can't you tell?)
I do think its good that gluten-free is getting more notice, but I just wish this had been a slightly more serious book, which had left out the chapter on gluten-free and weight loss. I don't think most gluten-free people find weight loss to happen gluten-free, since most gluten-free products are sugar and white rice, and your gut does start absorbing more nutrients as it heals. She does make a good point about finding good substitutes when you start, having a gluten-free bagel, or a gluten-free cereal, instead of saying "oh just have a salad". While salads are always options when dining out, it can become tiresome.
It just felt very self-absorbed, even though she does have some well-laid-out chapters, and does have a clear list of wheats/glutenous food to avoid. And she has a nice little card in the back to take to restaurants and such. Although I WISH the card did not have 'G-free' in large letters on the top, but included the words 'gluten' somewhere on the card. My only other real issue with the book is that all the resources have websites. No phone numbers. There are still people in this day and age who do not go online. And she only has six books in the resources. One of which belongs to the doctor who wrote the foreword praising the book.
Its not a bad book, don't get me wrong. But I would not use it as the sole guide to going gluten-free, or trying to live with a gluten-free person. And I freely admit, if you hadn't guessed already, that I am not crazy about the words "G-free".
The other book I picked up was called "Getting Naked Again: Dating, Romance, Sex and Love When You've Been Divorced, Widowed, Dumped, or Distracted" by Judith Sills, PhD. I didn't even get through this book. I picked it up because I thought it might have good tips to get back into the dating world (not that I was ever really 'in' the dating world, so to speak...its always something I've had a hard time with). Its aimed mainly at the older woman of my mother's age, mid-sixties up, who have been with a partner or have had a family for many years, and who have more of a persona built around being 'in a relationship'. It really isn't as broad as the title implies, so while it might be excellent for someone of a different generation, it wasn't good for me.
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