Book Review: How to be Vegan

I've decided to put to use my love of reading by reviewing the books I read (for better or for worse).

Today we review "How To Be Vegan" by Elizabeth Castoria.


Rating: 7 out of 10.  Uneven as some parts of the book are top notch and some parts not so much.
                                                                     
Pros: Fun charts, easy reading, some good info, provides the basic info the majority of people would need to become a vegan.

Cons: Way overgeneralized travel chapter.  Pointless manners chapter.  Wastes time stating the obvious.

"How To Be Vegan" starts out strong in the first three chapters.  These chapters are easy to follow.  Castoria does a great job teaching people how to eat a good diet, listing foods and products that are vegan and yet at the same time common, and providing more information on where to obtain vegan foods and products.

While I knew a good deal of what was in the first three chapters, I felt like even with my knowledge I learned plenty from these chapters.

As someone who writes whole green travel books, the information provided in chapter 4, which is about travel, did not impress me.  Information was way overgeneralized: for example listing "vegan" dishes.  Let me give you an example to try to clarify.  Under the Eastern Europe section dishes such as pierogis are listed as animal free-the problem is that if you went somewhere such as Hungary where lard is used often it is unlikely that unless you go to a vegan or vegetarian restaurant you are going to end up with truly animal free food.  Unless I missed something while I was in Paris, listing Paris as a top 5 vegan dining destination in the world also has me scratching my head.

The manners section dealt with how to handle situations.  The problem is the solutions offered don't work in real life, nor will they stop a bully in real life.  Sometimes if someone is bullying you about your food choices you just have to stand up to them.  As for some of the other so-called annoying scenarios I'm not bothered by someone asking where vegans get their protein: I just assume they have had limited nutritional information  and are legitimately curious.

Things get better again in chapter 6, which supplies recipes to which I say a 7 out of 10 is about accurate.  There are a nice variety of recipes from simple to fancier to suit all types of cooking styles, interests and abilities.  There were some recipes that made me say I want to try that.  But being the owner of many vegan and vegetarian cook books I have felt more excited about a recipe collection than the one in this book.