Betcha didn’t know that we reviewed books too, did ya? Well it’s true, we love to read the old-fashioned way!  Today we’re reviewing, Vegan in 30 Days, Get Healthy. Save the World by Sarah Taylor. This book is a handy little how-to guide into the practical beginnings of veganism.  My first thought upon receiving the book was, this little book is jam-packed with a bunch of great advice and interesting information!  I think it would be a great book for a newbie vegan.  I like it so much in fact, that I plan to give one lucky reader a copy of the book.  More on that in a bit.

Incidentally, the dedication of the book is really lovely, I had to share it.

For every person who continually strives to do things better and do better things.

Yes, indeed.

One of the best parts about the book is that there is a give and take approach to becoming vegan- the goal being to be a full vegan in 30 days.  The book is broken out into days, removing things and adding things all at the same time- ensuring that the newbie won’t feel deprived.  But this book doesn’t just give you day to day instructions on what to eat, this book incorporates veganism into all other aspects of life.  Taylor takes on topics such as; meeting other vegans, learning how to say “No thank you, I’m vegan,” shopping and what to do in a conversation if someone wants to talk about veganism.  Things that, as a newbie, you may not know or have questions on.

I’m one of those, I-gotta-have-a-plan-because-then-I-will-have-a-goal-to-work-towards-and-that-makes-me-insanely-happy,  kind of person.  I tend to make a plan for something that I want to accomplish and work towards a goal.  Once I reach the goal, I reassess and recommit to a new goal.  This mindset has allowed me to accomplish all manners of things.  This book is set up in a similar manner, so I relate very well to it- and I think that most people would as well.

Here’s an excerpt from the book:

(This is excerpt is Day 27 – Learn how to say “No thank you, I’m Vegan” – page 72.  Taylor is at a dinner party and her friend had just realized that the vegan cake she had made wasn’t really vegan.  Taylor goes on to talk about how to deal with the situation, being a vegan.  And, it’s spot on.  The emphasis is my own.)

In this very touchy situation, many people would argue that  I should have eaten a little bit anyway.  After all, my friend had gone to so much effort, peeling apples with her kids into the wee hours of the night, and no one else wanted a near vegan pie!  I understand this point of reasoning, and if veganism was purely a personal preference for me, I probably would have done just that.  However, because I am a vegan for ethical reasons, I have a personal policy that I will never knowingly eat animal products. I believe that one of my roles is to set an example for others and to live out my values in public.  Therefore, there was never a question in my mind as to whether I would eat the pie.  The question was how to best handle the situation.

Taylor advises that you let your host/hostess know how much you appreciate the thought and kindness behind their actions.  And I couldn’t agree more.  I really like how Taylor provides compassionate solutions to common non-vegan situations.  Here’s some more samples of what you’ll find inside this book:

• Day 13: Take a tour of your local health food store
• Day 15: Try a new recipe
• Day 21: Meet other vegans

So much good stuff packed into 104 little pages!

My only criticism of this books comes in the beginning of the book.  Day 2 is all about knowing the basics of veganism and it’s here that Taylor says, “Honey comes from the nectar of flowers, and is produced by insects (bees), as opposed to animals.  Therefore, vegans differ on whether honey is a vegan product or not.”

Straight from Wikipedia:

Insects (from Latin insectum, a calque of Greek ἔντομον [éntomon], “cut into sections”) are a class within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax, and abdomen), three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae. They are among the most diverse group of animals on the planet and include more than a million described species and represent more than half of all known living organisms.

I want to take this time to remind folks that humans need the bees to survive.  By now I’m sure everyone has heard of this little thing called and ecosystem, right?  Well, we need the bees to pollinate our crops- unless of course Monsanto is developing another genetically modified self-pollinating seed- which, they probably are.  But I digress, on to the rating…

I give Vegan in 30 Days. Get Healthy. Save the World. 4 Goatz for being a great resource for new vegans. I’ll bump that up to 5 Goatz when Taylor realizes that insects are, indeed, animals too.

Have you read Vegan in 30 Days by Sarah Taylor? Rate it below!

Now for the fun part. Remember how I said I love the book so much that I am going to give away a copy?  Well, I am.  So here’s the deal.  I’m giving away one copy of Vegan in 30 days. Get Healthy. Save the World. to one lucky YDV reader.  To enter to win, all you have to do is leave a comment on this article with your tip or suggestion for a new vegan.  Let’s create a great list of awesome tips to help make it easier to go vegan!  The giveaway will last until next Friday (6/11/10) at midnight, plenty of time to get a great tip or advice put together!

My #1 tip for a new vegan?

• Don’t leave your house without a vegan snack in cases of emergency.  You never know when vegan food won’t be available to you, and being prepared will ensure that you never have to go hungry.  I make homemade trail mixes (or cut up veggies/fruit) to take with me when I leave my house.  Then, if I get hungry, I can snack on something vegan and healthy.

So, what’s your tip?

I noticed the other day that my collection of vegan reads is growing.  They are multiplying like bunnies and have now taken over the bookcase by my desk, the other 6 bookcases are already overflowing with no room for more.  My guess is that I’ll have to get a new bookcase, or break down and start building furniture with the larger volumes in my collection.  One time, I went to an art exhibit that had a house built solely out of used phone books.  It was massive and, quite frankly, awesome.  And while I’m not quite there yet, I probably have enough for a small condo.  It’s a start, right?

So I thought it’d be interesting to take a look at some vegan reads out there.  This is by no means a whole list (and some are not books that I actually own – yet!), but it is a good start for someone looking to add to their own collection.  So take a gander at what’s on my shelves, then let me know what’s on yours.  Feel free to add your own favorite titles in the comments!

Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating, by Eric Markus

Vice Cream, by Jeff Rogers

Skinny Bitch, by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin

The Food Revolution: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and Our World, by John Robbins

Diet for a New America: How Your Food Choices Affect Your Health, Happiness and the Future of Life on Earth, by John Robbins

Becoming Vegan: The Complete Guide to Adopting a Healthy Plant-Based Diet, by Vesanto Melina, Brenda Davis

The Garden of Vegan: How It All Vegan Again, by Tanya Barnard, Sarah Kramer

Food for Life: How the New Four Food Groups Can Save Your Life, by Neal D. Barnard

Vegan Planet: 400 Irresistible Recipes With Fantastic Flavors from Home and Around the World, by Robin Robertson, Neal D. Barnard

Veggie Works Vegan Cookbook , by Mark W. Rasmussen

Vibrant Living, by James Levin, Natalie Cederquist

The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen: Meat-Free, Egg-Free, Dairy-Free Dishes from the Healthiest Place Under the Sun, by Donna Klein

Sproutman’s Kitchen Garden Cookbook: 250 flourless, Dairyless, Low Temperature, Low Fat, Low Salt, Living Food Vegetarian Recipes, by Steve Meyerowitz

The Voluptuous Vegan: More Than 200 Sinfully Delicious Recipes for Meatless, Eggless, and Dairy-Free Meals, by Myra Kornfeld

The Raw Secrets: The Raw Vegan Diet in the Real World, by Frederic Patenaude

The Vegan Sourcebook, by Joanne Stepaniak

Ethical Vegetarianism: From Pythagoras to Peter Singer, by Kerry Walters and Lisa Portmess

The Uncheese Cookbook: Creating Amazing Dairy-Free Cheese Substitutes and Classic “Uncheese” Dishes, by Joanne Stepaniak

Vegan Cooking For One, by Leah Leneman

How It All Vegan!: Irresistible Recipes for an Animal-Free Diet, by Sarah Kramer, Tanya Barnard

Lorna Sass’ Complete Vegetarian Kitchen: Where Good Flavors and Good Health Meet, by Lorna J. Sass

Nonna’s Italian Kitchen: Delicious Homestyle Vegan Cuisine, by Bryanna Clark Grogan

The Complete Vegan Cookbook: Over 200 Tantalizing Recipes, Plus Plenty of Kitchen Wisdom for Beginners and Experienced Cooks, by Susann Geiskopf-Hadler, Mindy Toomay

Vegan Vittles: Recipes Inspired by the Critters of Farm Sanctuary, by Joanne Stepaniak and Suzanne Havala

The New Vegan Cookbook: Innovative Vegetarian Recipes Free of Dairy, Eggs, and Cholesterol, by Lorna J. Sass, Jonelle Weaver

The Vegan Gourmet, Expanded 2nd Edition : Full Flavor & Variety With over 120 Delicious Recipes, by Susann Geiskopf-Hadler, Mindy Toomay

The Garden of Vegan: How It All Vegan Again, by Tanya Barnard, Sarah Kramer

An excerpt:

Here were the chute, with its river of hogs, all patiently toiling upward; there was a place for them to rest and cool off, and then through another passageway they went into a room from which there is no returning for hogs.

It was a long, narrow room, with a gallery along it for visitors.  At the head there was a great iron wheel, about twenty feet in circumference, with rings here and there along its edge.  Upon both sides of this wheel there was a narrow space, into which came the hogs at the end of their journey; in the midst of them stood a great burly Negro, bar-armed and bare-chested.  He was resting for the moment, for the wheel had stopped while men were cleaning up.  In a minute or two, however, it began slowly to revolve, and then the men upon each side of it sprang to work.  They had chains which they fastened about the leg of the nearest hog, and the other end of the chain they hooked into one of the rings upon the wheel.  So, as the wheel turned, a hog was suddenly jerked off his feet and borne aloft.

At the same instant the ear was assailed by a most terrifying shriek; the visitors started in alarm, the women turned pale and shrank back.  The shriek was followed by another, louder and yet more agonizing-for once started upon that journey, the hog never came back; at the top of the wheel he was shunted off upon a trolley, and went sailing down the room.  And meantime another was swung up, and then another, and another, until there was a double line of them, each dangling by a foot and kicking in frenzy-and squealing.  The uproar was appalling, perilous to the eardrums; one feared there was too much sound for the room to hold-that the walls must give way or the ceiling crack.  There were high squeals and low squeals, grunts, and wails of agony; there would would come a momentary lull, and then a fresh outburst, louder than ever, surging up to a deafening climax.  It was too much for some of the visitors-the men would look at each other, laughing nervously, and the women would stand with hands clenched, and the blood rushing to their faces, and the tears starting in their eyes.

Meantime, heedless of all these things, the men upon the floor were going about their work.  Neither squeals of hogs nor tears of visitors made any difference to them; one by one they hooked up the hogs, and one by one with a swift stroke they slit their throats.  There was a long line of hogs, with squeals  and life-blood ebbing away together, until at last each started again, and vanished with a splash into a huge vat of boiling water.

It was all so very businesslike that one watched it fascinated.  It was pork-making by machinery, pork-making by applied mathematics.  And yet somehow the most matter-of-fact person could not help thinking of the hogs; they were so innocent, they came so very trustingly; and they were so very human in their protests-and so perfectly within their rights!  They had done nothing to deserve it, and it was adding insult to injury, as the thing was done here, swinging them up in this cold-blooded, impersonal way, without a pretense at apology, without the homage of a tear.