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| View Larger Image | Gluten-Free Girl: How I Found the Food That Loves Me Back...And How You Can Too
by Shauna James Ahern
| | List Price: | $24.95 | | Price: | $16.47 | | You Save: | $8.48 (34%) |  | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours | | | | | Sales Rank: | 38729 | | Studio: | Wiley | | | Binding: | Hardcover | | Number Of Pages: | 288 | | Publication Date: | October 05, 2007 | | Publisher: | Wiley |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
"A delightful memoir of learning to eat superbly while remaining gluten free."
—Newsweek magazine "Give yourself a treat! Gluten-Free Girl offers delectable tips on dining and living with zest–gluten-free. This is a story for anyone who is interested in changing his or her life from the inside out!"
—Alice Bast, executive director National Foundation for Celiac Awareness "Shauna's food, the ignition of healthy with delicious, explodes with flavor—proof positive that people who choose to eat gluten-free can do it with passion, perfection, and power."
—John La Puma, MD, New York Times bestselling co-author of The RealAge Diet and Cooking the RealAge Way "A breakthrough first book by a gifted writer not at all what I expected from a story about living with celiac disease. Foodies everywhere will love this book. Celiacs will make it their bible."
—Linda Carucci, author of Cooking School Secrets for Real World Cooks and IACP Cooking Teacher of the Year, 2002 An entire generation was raised to believe that cooking meant opening a box, ripping off the plastic wrap, adding water, or popping it in the microwave. Gluten-Free Girl, with its gluten-free healthful approach, seeks to bring a love of eating back to our diets. Living gluten-free means having to give up traditional bread, beer, pasta, as well as the foods where gluten likes to hide—such as store-bought ice cream, chocolate bars, even nuts that might have been dusted with flour. However, Gluten-Free Girl shows readers how to say yes to the foods they can eat. Written by award-winning blogger Shauna James, who became a interested in food once she was diagnosed with celiac disease and went gluten-free, Gluten-Free Girl is filled with funny accounts of the author’s own life including wholesome, delicious recipes, this book will guide readers to the simple pleasures of real, healthful food. Includes dozens of recipes like salmon with blackberry sauce, sorghum bread, and lemon olive oil cookies as well as resources for those living gluten-free. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 61 reviews)
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Fun, touching, I love the food! 
As a person who is perfectly capable of eating all the gluten I like, I appreciate the chance to try out some different food choices. I found the stories entertaining and the tone of the book very approachable.
August 07, 2008 | |
Embarassing to read 
I have been reading the author's website for a while, and pondering whether to get tested for celiac disease, as I have some of the symptoms. I got this book from the library, thinking it would have more information about the disease and practical information about diagnosis, lifestyle, et cetera.
This book is merely a rehashing of a lot of her longer blog posts. Some are word-for-word, verbatim. That's a lazy approach to writing a book. At some point, she looked at all her lengthy blog posts and thought, "I've got a book here!" No. No, you don't.
The flowery descriptions of food at some point got unbearable. Her snobbery regarding food and foodies is apparent, especially when she shuns a "thin, wan girl with no discernible personality" (apparently only those who wax poetic about food have personality) who simply states that she doesn't understand why people "talk about food all the time. It's just food." The author states that she and that girl had nothing to talk about after that. I would like to point out that a good sign of maturity is the ability to talk to others about what THEY are interested in, not reject them because they don't share your pet passion. I have friends who don't share my passion for homeschooling. I don't reject them.
This passage, more than any other, turned me against the author. It is a wonderful thing to be diagnosed, finally, with a crippling illness and to find the way back to health. And with celiac, it is clear that it is wonderful to find the treatment in the very thing that once made you sick. It is another to become so insular and snobbish that you look down on those who don't share your passion for, say, truffle salt or fine olive oils. For some people, yes, food is just food. I bet there are celiacs out there who look at food as fuel and get on with their lives.
The other passage (actually, it's a whole chapter) that was just cringe-worthy was the one describing her meeting her future husband. While I'm happy for them, and sure that they'll have a wonderful, blissful life together, this didn't need to be in the book. For me, it was way too personal and passionate; I felt as if i were reading a love letter she'd written to "The Chef" (which, sorry, pretentious. He has a name, right?) I felt like I'd been dropped into a Harlequin Romance, where people moan and giggle in the kitchen rather than the bedroom. Way too personal, and added nothing to my knowledge of celiac disease.
The passage at the very end, "Where does Gluten Hide" seems like an afterthought, plunked down after her ecstatic description of "the Chef's" proposal. It would have been better placed in the section about her diagnosis, or about gluten, for heaven's sake. It's like the editor got to the end and said, "Uh....what is gluten, again, and where can you find it?" And the author said, "Oh. Yeah. Let's get back to that aspect of my life."
Do not buy this book, unless you want an overly-personal, florid description one's relationship, with a big helping of snobbery. After reading it, I felt as though the author was presenting us with her ideal image of herself and her life, not the reality of living with celiac. She's "never" had the urge to eat a piece of bread? Or a slice of pizza? Wow. When I had to go on a low-fat diet for health reasons, even though I was told that eating too much fat could seriously harm my body, I sure was tempted. I found her superiority and snobbery hard to take.
I gave this book two stars for the recipes, which look interesting and worth trying. Without the recipes, it would have been one star.
July 25, 2008 | |
Good for you Chick Lit
I downloaded the sample of this book on my Kindle ONLY because I'd been hearing about gluten-free this and gluten-free that and I knew nothing about the topic. I ended up enjoying the writing so much that I bought the book and further educated myself. I have no medical need to be gluten free, but I enjoy reading about food and this was just a plain good read -- chick lit that is good for you!
July 16, 2008 | |
Gluten- free eating advice
Great reading for those recently diagnosed with gluten sensitivity. A writing style that is pleasing and informative, with recipes that are original and enticing. Recommended reading.
June 18, 2008 | |
The support I needed
I felt as if this book (and the writer) understood my life as a person devoted to foods who just so happens to have an allergy to gluten. Before reading this book, I felt alone in this disease. People seemed to have made the assumption that I was a freak who could not enjoy good eating. I believed them, that is, before I read this book.
If you are diagnosed with celiac disease or gluten intolerance, please read this book! In it you will find:
-how to embrace life and food in a way that you never thought was possible again.
-how to find grains that are naturally gluten-free.
-the importance of sticking to a gluten free living if you are diagnosed with a condition that prevents you from eating gluten.
-where gluten can be hiding.
-and the kinship of someone who is undergoing the same problems you are.
I didn't need an exhaustive recipe list that contained gluten free dishes. That is something I could find at any natural food market store. No, what I needed was support. Previous to reading this book, being gluten free meant living a solitary life where I had to face food allergy issues alone. Just from reading this book, I regained my passion for food, and I found the gumption to ask for gluten free dishes at restaurants.
As a side note, someone wrote that her descriptions of food from her childhood was senseless, but I don't believe it was. From my perspective, she was comparing a life that did not have any food restraints to the life she leads now that does contain diet restrictions. Ironically, the life she lead when gluten was allowed did not satisfy her stomach or palate. Once gluten was nixed from her life, she found freedom in eating foods that she would have traditionally avoided. I don't think this makes her bratty. She found her food identity in an unexpected place, a place she would have never imagined: gluten-free living.
May 28, 2008 | |
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