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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #349919 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780470137307
• Condition: USED - VERY GOOD
• Notes:

Customer Reviews

Worth the read; two big flaws
I love food and like to read about it, and I read this book in about two days. Ahern's descriptions of food are a real treat; as I read them I thought, "Hey, that's EXACTLY what that food tastes like." I also could relate a lot to her experience of growing up on a bland American diet and discovering new tastes in adulthood.

Her attitude about eating gluten-free is very good - I have researched many a restrictive diet and gluten-free seems most intimidating. She chooses to see the glass as half-full and looks at her restrictions as a gift that opened up a whole new world of food and healthy living.

The first problem with the book is there are not enough recipes. It's really more of a food memoir. The few recipes that are provided are not really mindful that a lot of GF eaters also need to avoid other allergens. I wish I could have combed through a book chock full of her recipes, culling out those that are also dairy, egg, and nut free.

The second problem with the book is Ahern's writing style. There is an arrogance that distances the reader. I'm sure this is more a function of being a first-born and child of a professor rather than a real personality flaw, but it's pretty hard to take at times. (Like when she tells about the proper pronunciation of quinoa then triumphantly proclaims something like, "We learn something new everyday." As if most of her readers didn't know how to pronounce quinoa). The other thing that drives me crazy about her writing is her overuse of the comma (,) as a literary tool. She puts commas in like too many crushed peppercorns and it is distracting!

The flaws cost a star each, but I still recommend it, especially to people on any kind of restricted diet.

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.

A Foodie Memoir...Oh, and She's Celiac, Too
Shauna is an excellent writer, but don't get this if you are looing for a cookbook. It's more chick lit than anything, and a warning to potential readers....she's pretentious as all hell. I rolled my eyes A LOT. I'm entertained by it, though. Whatever. I like to read.