Book Giveaway Time!
DON’T KILL THE BIRTHDAY GIRL
Tales from an Allergic Life
By Sandra Beasley
Hello everybody!
I am really excited to introduce author Sandra Beasley who has just released DON’T KILL THE BIRTHDAY GIRL: Tales of an Allergic Life wherein she discusses her personal experiences with severe food allergies and the cultural impact these types of allergies have on our society. This book is a terrific read and I am so pleased to have the opportunity to speak to Sandra about her work. Plus, I have two copies to giveaway to lucky readers of this here Blog. Huzzah!
Here is the official trailer for DON’T KILL THE BIRTHDAY GIRL:
You can get your own copy of Don't Kill the Birthday Girl at amazon.com (link) or your local bookstore.
Sandra was kind enough to answer a few of my nosey questions:
- How would you describe your relationship with food currently?
Like most Americans, my relationship with food is fickle. Some days I eat to celebrate, some days I eat just to fuel what needs to get done, some days I eat to comfort myself (and then regret it). The writing of Don't Kill the Birthday Girl forced me to take a close look at my dietary habits, and I've since tried to reign in both my portion sizes and my guilt trips.
There are a lot of small ways in which my allergies have forever altered my relationship to food, things I don't even think to recognize as unusual. When I hear about some prized out-of-the-way dive for BBQ or catfish, I don't think "Wow, I'd like to try that." I think "Okay. A dive means a small staff, a limited menu. Would the cook would be on hand? Would the grill be safe? Could I find out more about how my food was prepared than usual, or less?" I'm not sure I'll ever experience the pure adventure of trying a new food the way others do. But I'd like to keep an open mind about it.
- What is the one food allergy that drives you personally the craziest for having it?
Dairy. Not so much for the foods I cannot eat--having never had cheese or ice cream, I don't miss them--but rather because of the severity of the allergy, in which even the slightest accidental contact can be life-threatening. I mourn for every date night, family trip, or wedding celebration that I lost out on because of an accidental exposure to a minute amount of milk that meant I spent the rest of the night in Benadryled sleep and/or an ER.
- What is your favorite food you can enjoy freely?
French fries. They are my "safe" food, the one least likely to be adulterated by a restaurant's cooking practices, unless that restaurant happens to also deep fry a lot of shrimp or mozzarella sticks. I adore the complete spectrum: shoestring, steak, and curly varieties; fries dashed with Old Bay or truffle oil; the charming renegade potato forms of home fries or tater tots or sweet potato fries. Mmmm.
- What is your favorite meal of the day?
Breakfast, in this surreal time of being able to work from home and having it be an unhurried experience. I like the simplicity and repetition of having fresh orange juice (in one of my red- or blue- flowered vintage juice glasses), a cup of coffee (in my Square Books mug), a handful of almonds and a ripe banana. Other mornings I like the meditation time attached to the 20 minutes it takes me to simmer and slow-stir my way toward a bowl of salted steel-cut oatmeal with walnuts and cranberries.
- How do you handle people who make fun of kids’ food allergies as a result of “helicopter parenting” or parenting that is too lenient and child-centric?
That’s just ignorance talking. Once you see someone (especially a child) go through the terror and physical wretchedness of an allergic reaction, you never again doubt the severity of food allergies. Even boyfriends who have thought they understood my allergies didn't really "get it" until they saw me go from being fine one moment to being incapacitated the next. You learn a lot about someone in how they respond to those crisis moments.
- What got you interested in writing originally?
Poetry was and remains my first love as a writer. I love the vividness of poetry's imagery, and the force of its conceits. I love the strategic elegance of a good line break, like a breath you hold just for one extra second before letting go. I was so fortunate in being encouraged to write from early on--even back in elementary school I had weekly workshops with Rose MacMurray, "The Poetry Lady" of Fairfax County Schools in Virginia. Encouraging children to write is the greatest gift you can give them. So many useful life skills are cultivated along the way, from heeding detail to having confidence in one's voice.
- What have been your favorite books lately?
I'm excited about a brand-new poetry collection from Matthew Guenette called American Busboy, which talks (in a very hyperbolic and funny way) about the experience of working at a grimy, high-volume restaurant called THE CLAM SHACK! (Exclamation mark is really part of the name.) If that sounds like a perverse book selection for someone who could never eat in such a seafood place, well, it is. But you have to have a perverse sense of humor if you're going to embrace a poem called "National Ice Cream Sandwich Day" that proclaims "The restaurant needed / a spanking all morning, / & would need a good spanking / all summer long." Fun stuff.
I also just finished Molly Birnbaum's Season to Taste: How I Lost My Sense of Smell and Found My Way, a memoir in which the author recounts her journey as a chef-in-training who loses her sense of smell in a car accident--and by association, her tasting palate--and struggles to recover her connection with food. I really enjoyed the book, in part because of Birnbaum's craft (the dialogue, scenes, and dishes are beautifully rendered) and in part because I recognized a kindred spirit wrestling to weave her own story together with science and real-time research. Anyone who enjoys my book will enjoy hers, I suspect, and hopefully vice versa.
From the publishers of DON’T KILL THE BIRTHDAY GIRL: Tales of an Allergic Life:
Sandra Beasley, an award-winning poet and a former editor for The American Scholar, intertwines her personal experience as “Allergy Girl” with a cultural history and sociological study of food allergies in Don't Kill the Birthday Girl: Tales from an Allergic Life (Crown; July 12, 2011). Beasley has lived with severe food allergies since infancy, including allergies to dairy, egg, soy, beef, shrimp, pine nuts, cucumbers, cantaloupe, mango, pistachios, cashews, and mustard. She is one of more than twelve million Americans diagnosed with food allergies, a figure that includes almost six percent of young children.
For anyone who suffers from allergies, or cares for someone who does, Don't Kill the Birthday Girl provides a lifeline of insight. Beasley explores the ways in which food shapes not only our bodies, but our sense of self and our relationships. She writes, “My job is to center on staying safe in this world, but my job is also to never assume the world should revolve around keeping me safe. We have more important things to worry about. The gifts are wrapped and the piñata, waiting. We have a party to get to.”
If you want more information about Sandra’s work, be sure to check out her website: www.SandraBeasley.com and follow her on Twitter @SandraBeasley
So here is the exciting part—I have two copies to give away! If you are interested; all you have to do is just hit me up either by posting on this Blog or reaching out to me via Twitter @BrooklynFitChik (Continental U.S. only and no P.O. boxes please.)
I will randomly pick the lucky winners next Monday, August 29th at Noon (Eastern) and contact both of them directly. Good luck!
Ox Ox,
BFC
Brooklyn Fit Chick
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