I know severe allergy is a problem and yet I couldn't help but feel annoyed by the author. It mostly made me glad not to have to think about this kind of thing.
( )

Sandra Beasley is an allergy sufferer, and she has plenty of funny/terrifying anecdotes to share. She's also well-researched on the topic, and provides lots of useful scientific information about how allergies actually work.

I was once a food allergy skeptic. Not that I totally disbelieved in their existence, of course: I was fully aware there people out there who could have up to and including fatal reactions to eating certain foodstuffs. I more fell in along the lines of accepting the need for a peanut-free table in the lunchroom, but thinking that most people were probably overdoing it a little. My skepticism relaxed significantly when I found a best friend (whom I later began dating) with a host of food allergies that could be set off by the slightest fragment of the food in question - soy, pineapple, etc. She takes care to point out when she can't eat something (every time we go out for hibachi, it's a hard-and-fast rule that there are to be no sesame seeds involved for anyone at the table).

After reading this book, though, I'm starting to think that we need to take it a step further. Like, legislating that people are only allowed to drink water in a public place, lest they inadvertently explode someone else standing nearby when they take a bite of Snickers.

Most allergy sufferers would take offense at that joke (and, I assure you, it is a joke), but not for the reason you'd expect. It's not that they're insensitive to jokes about their condition, it's that most only ask others to modify their lifestyles when it's absolutely necessary. The peanut-free table is a good example: It's not calling for a blanket ban on peanuts in schools. It's saying that, because severe reactions are possible even through airborne exposure, kids can't just bring a PB&J over and sit next to the kid with peanut butter allergies. (Some people do call for a blanket peanut-ban in schools, but this seems an unsustainable course as the kid grows up. Best to just invest in a bubble suit now and save everyone the trouble.)

All of this is by way of saying that we as a society can definitely do some (relatively easy) things to make sure allergy sufferers have a little bit easier time. (And no, I'm not just saying this because I want my girlfriend to live. Though that's definitely a factor.) We see a societal good in having AEDs on hand because for a relatively low cost, we can save some lives. Similarly, clearly (and accurately) labeling possible allergens in food is not harmful to the manufacturers. Indeed, they're not losing any more money than they already would have (because the peanut allergy guy probably figured it out on his own after the first purchase). You don't have to ban peanuts from the ballpark, but you don't have to go throwing them in lightly-packaged bags in front of other peoples' faces, you know? ( )

I don't know how I ended up on a list from Crown Publishing to receive Proof and ARCs, but I did. So far I have just given them away or chucked them, because they were NOTHING I would have wanted to read. But, this one looked interesting. I hung on to it to see if it would talk to me.

It was great! I really enjoyed it. And, for an uncorrected proof, I have to say the writing/editing was better than most books I buy off the shelf!

Sandra Beasley is a poet who decided to write a memoir based on her life as a person with severe food allergies since birth. She is smart and knowledgeable, thankfully, but also funny. Her humor, even in the face of trauma (or in hind sight of it) makes what could be a very dry and sorrowful story engaging and entertaining. I recommend this book for just about any one with any interest in the topic, or just a wonderful story from a very talented writer. Certainly if you know anyone with severe food allergies or for sure a parent of a child with severe food allergies this book should be recommended, if not bought out-right and handed to them. ( )

This is an excellent book for any one with food allergies or a family member with food allergies; it really gives you insight into what it is like trying to live with this in a society that doesn’t always understand or care.
I appreciated the inclusion of a lot of scientific and medical facts about the treatment and future treatments for food allergies, though take into account when the book was written, since its release date more has been learned and more treatments are in the works. It’s challenging to gather information on food allergies because there is still so much we don’t know and a LOT of disinformation floating out there.
Even though my allergies didn’t start up until well into adulthood this book really resonated with my own experiences and was very validating and informative. It really does help to know it’s not just you. And I really think it could be helpful for parents of children with allergies to read and she goes into how it effecter her, her thoughts and feelings, especially as she became a teenager. ( )

This was an enjoyable look at a life I thankfully don't have to worry about! Beasley gives a lot of information in a readable and sympathetic manner without coming off as whiny. Lots of good stuff in here! ( )