Gluten-Free

Do you happen to know anyone who has celiac disease, or some other sensitivity to wheat? Until fairly recently, it was difficult to find products that didn't contain some sort of gluten, as most common products contained at least a bit. So, when a person was told to steer clear of gluten, it seemed like the worst possible thing--no more pasta or cookies or cakes or pretzels or bread! Now, however, as more and more people are being diagnosed with sensitivities to wheat, there are more products and recipes to help them out. The Complete Gluten-Free Diet and Nutrition Guide by Alexandra Anca and Theresa Santandrea-Cull contains recipes, meal plans, food guides, and many other things to make life easier for those with celiac disease.

Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef by Shauna James Ahern and Daniel Ahern is a sequel of sorts to Shauna's book, Gluten Free Girl: How I Found the Food That Loves Me Back . . . And How You Can Too. Both titles are based on their popular blog, and their latest book is a love story of sorts. Shauna shares stories about how she fell in love with a chef and how he started to cook gluten-free meals at his restaurant. The recipes and techniques come from Daniel, and they look delicious!

Yes, This Time!!

If you like fun, breezy novels full of spunky women and their dreamy love interests (and if you don't mind an R-rated scene or two), then Jennifer Crusie is the author for you! Her latest, Maybe This Time, was particularly intriguing to me because it upped the ante with a spooky ghost story. If you want to know the truth, I stayed up well past my bedtime so that I could finish it in one night, and it's stuck with me for several days. To me, that's the hallmark of a good book!

Hoarding Explained?

With the popularity of such shows as Hoarders and Hoarding: Buried Alive, it was only a matter of time before someone came out with a book about the phenomenon of hoarding. What's amazing is how Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things remains so fascinating while conveying such a wealth of information. There's plenty of stories of hoarders combined with scientific fact, all of which allows for a very sympathetic look into the mind of a hoarder. If you know a hoarder, think you might be a hoarder, or are simply fascinated by this problem, this book is for you.