An upbeat, approachable culinary guide.
Blogger and former nurse Widick and creative consultant Alden offer a debut self-help book with recipes for readers who want to go gluten-free.
Although celiac disease is now a well-known phenomenon, there was a time, not long ago, when many people suffering from gluten intolerance were misdiagnosed. Widick should know; it was an agonizing 15 years before she found out what ailed her. The focus of this book is to dispel readers’ fears of changing their diet—whether they have celiac disease or not—and it aims to make the transition to healthier choices as smooth and easy as possible. This isn’t, however, a one-size-fits-all approach; rather, the book celebrates individual needs and tastes: “Wellness is a dynamic, individual, ever-changing, fluctuating process. We should aim to strive for a personal harmony that feels most authentic to us.” Everything in the book is designed to get readers thinking about steps that they can immediately take on a journey to better health. To facilitate this process, the authors suggest journaling ideas and offer mental exercises to foster inspiration. Because any life-changing decision requires a plan, the authors model their strategies after classic aviation principles. As such, readers are urged to create an individual “flight plan” by progressing through metaphorically titled chapters, including “Flight Route,” “Timeline,” and “Fuel Calculation,” among others. Overall, this collaboration brings a fresh approach to the gluten-free movement. Throughout the book, the prose style is engaging, not preachy, and Widick intersperses the text with her own poems. Alden, meanwhile, brings her eye for design to the colorful photo illustrations, which add a welcoming element to the recipes, such as a “strawberry spring mix salad with flaked crab.” An image of a plate of “artichoke hearts with bacon parm crisp,” for example, is mouthwatering. The “shrimp tacos with chili-lime mayo,” meanwhile, appear to be ideal for a summer dinner party or a satisfying weeknight meal.
An upbeat, approachable culinary guide.Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-578-40091-4
Page Count: 214
Publisher: Time Tunnel Media
Review Posted Online: Feb. 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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