1) Although I used to review books by request and post reviews here, unfortunately, I found that due to the extensiveness of my allergies, I couldn't test the recipes (for cookbooks, of which most of the titles were) to see if they actually worked or not! Imagine reviewing a cookbook without making any of the recipes--yikes! ;) Because I can't try out recipes, it's not possible to review cookbooks in a manner that would help people with food allergies know whether or not books are useful and whether or not the recipes resulted in tasty foods.

2) When I discovered food allergy errors in books, I found it difficult to know what to say to authors, because I was supposed to be providing a positive review for them here. This put me in an uncomfortable position, and led to my writing reviews that were not always necessarily as critical as they should have been. In other words, I always tried to find the positive in every book, even ones that went against what I firmly believe (such as being about cures or treatments).

3) Other authors have since asked me to review their books, but since I no longer review books, it was unfair to not list theirs here and to only list the titles of authors who had contacted me prior to my no longer doing reviews. In other words, it seems out of fairness that it must be a case of "all or nothing."

4) I don't use allergy cookbooks, and have been informed by other FAST members that they generally find the recipes (1) don't fit in with their own specific diets, (2) don't really come out right, and/or (3) they taste bad. Many people have complained that they felt they wasted money on purchasing allergy cookbooks.

I'm also a writer and food allergy cookbook author, and understand the incredible challenge in getting the word out about allergy titles, especially since it is a small, niche market. This is being done with much regret, but it is nevertheless a necessary action to take.

I hope that the reviews were helpful while they were offered here.

I'm, in return, incredibly grateful to those authors who entrusted me with reviewing their books, and who felt honored by having me review them. That is never something I would have expected, and it was truly an honor for me!

Thank you for your understanding.

I am now offering a one-time mailing list press release for authors as hopefully a compromise between having absolutely no reviews and having reviews online. Please click here for more information.

(6/07; updated 9/07)