Book Review: Angel Food by Brittany Tuttle

Having just finished reading Angel Food, I can’t wait to read it again. The story is a journey which reveals its fullness to you, the reader, bit by tantalizing bit. The seemingly endless road-trip of the Camper siblings is never boring, although the characters in the plot may argue with me on that point.

Angel Food exposes the purest love between two people, a brother and sister. While there is a bevy of entertaining characters in this tale, it is the emotional journey of these two siblings that completely enraptured me. They encapsulate everything that it means to be human – even while one of them is decidedly not.

From the Back Cover:

Anson, River, and Isidore Camper have spent their lives traveling the country in an Airstream, on the run from the angels who have been trying to kill Isidore since the day she was born. On their own since a Gabriel killed their father, Anson has his hands full keeping River off his old drug habit and stopping Isidore from destroying the world with her strange abilities. Isidore just wants to have a good time before she dies--and make sure no other family members are taken out with her.

When the truth about their father's death comes to light, the Camper siblings set out to find answers about their family, dodging Isidore's stalkers, state troopers, accusations of polygamy--and yes, angels--along their way. Their journey leads them from posh seaside Los Angeles through the wilds of the American Southwest, finally culminating in an Oklahoma showdown between good and evil. The only trick is deciding which is which. Angel Food is a riveting tale that spins between humor and tragedy.

Book Review: Thrive by Brendan Brazier

One of my goals for the year was to read Thrive: The Vegan Nutrition Guide to Optimal Performance in Sports and Life by Brendan Brazier.

I must say that while this book has several strong points, it was not at all what I was expecting. I anticipated this book being written by an athlete for other athletes. Instead, it appears to be heavily directed toward couch potatoes and it contains many ads for the author's food products... Not really what I was looking for.

The author claims that if everyone follows his diet plan they will experience weight loss, younger biological ages, less stress, happier lives, and oh yeah - the world will be a better place. All without any citations to his references.

To sum it up, it is written like any other fad diet book.

However, it is not a total fail - in fact, it has many fine points. The guy has to know quite a bit in order to be a professional athlete, much less a professional athlete on a plant only diet. His commentary on how plant based diets are easier on the environment ring true as well. And he does have a lengthy list of references if you want to wade through them to discover how he crafted his practices. Overall, I think the author's material is solid and perhaps his editors/marketing goons just ran away with it.

Other folks have much more positive things to say about it.

So, despite my bashing - I would still definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in learning about performance nutrition or nutrition in general. I haven't tried any of the recipes yet, but will post reviews of any I do try.