inkerly's reviews
457 reviews

As someone on my healthy sustainable-living journey I picked up this  book to find sustainable alternatives to the mass-produced & expensive, nutritionally-defunct commercial foods. The author is a funny Mom who has lived a thousand lives with the recipes she's re-created and failed humorously at. A lot of the recipes in this book are not vegan friendly so I won't try them but I like knowing that there are foods worth replicating at home rather buying store-bought. Some of the storytelling was long-winded though.

3.9ish stars

I’ve been following Glucose Goddess on Instagram for awhile now and was happy to find that she wrote a book with all of her insights. This was a very insightful book about how to be healthier, happier, and more energized by doing one thing: controlling your glucose spikes.

This book should be a must read for everyone . Many people think that managing your glucose spikes is something only diabetics need to worry about. In reality 80% of Americans are “metabolically unhealthy” and struggle with insulin resistance, a result of having  glucose spikes. Acne, chronic Inflammation, and fatigue are all symptoms of insulin resistance and a high sugar diet. Left unchecked, these  can worsen and lead to diseases like Diabetes, PCOS, Non alcoholic Fatty Liver disease, Alzheimer’s, and even cancer.

The first step is facing the truth: Sugar is a problem. The way we consume it is in excess and we’ve been led to believe there’s good and bad sugars. While we need carbs for fuel and energy, a diet high in carbs and sugar can wreak havoc on our bodies. Whether it’s “natural sugar” or “processed sugar”, a mango or an Oreo, they all release into our bloodstream the same. I was a victim of the same mentality and for years didn’t understand why I had chronic acne, fatigue, and period pains. I believed a good diet was fruit or overnight oats for breakfast, rice and beans for dinner, and popcorn/raisins/fruit sorbet as a “snack” inbetween. Little did I know I was having glucose (and fructose and sucrose!) spikes all day. The Glucose Goddess’s Instagram page and several other influencers pages helped me to realize that. But this book educates you in a simple easy to understand way and provides solutions for this. 


So I like the purpose of the book, it’s teachings and it’s advice (in the very end 50-70 pages filled with tips, meal ideas, and FAQs about the tips). However I felt this book was missing  the quantitative data to back what the author was preaching. A lot of her evidence is verbal testimonials from her clients(?). But this is largely anecdotal and we don’t get to see what steps they took to reduce their glucose spikes and blood sugar. 
Instead the most visual evidence we get are these  glucose spike graphs that are hand drawn by the author . And they only have two data points , 30 mg/dl and 60mg/dl.  Does a glucose of  30mg/dl mean an automatic sugar spike? Or 60 mg/dl? Where is the data exactly coming from, the clients of hers, another researcher’s, the author’s own results from a Continuous Glucose Monitor? Without knowing where the source of the glucose reduction numbers came from I  had some doubts. The author apparently has a degree in biochemistry and studied health and wellness for years so I don’t understand why real data couldn’t be included in this book. Especially when you’re making a case as polarizing as “sugar is sugar, fruit juice is just as bad as Diet Coke”. I’ve done enough research outside this book to know her claims are true but that was just something that I thought could be improved. 

Also although this book is called “Glucose Revolution” the author brought up a very good (and overlooked) point that sugar can manifest in four main forms: starches, glucose, fructose, sucrose , and that a CGM only looks at your glucose spikes . It does not look at your fructose spikes (caused by eating too much fructose-heavy foods) or sucrose spikes (sucrose = fructose+glucose). It wouldve been nice if she could dove into that more. Still a good book that I would recommend.

reading slump. i listened to the dramatised 1-hr version first but i vow this year to read her full autobiography

Stopped after Ch 2? 3? 4? I picked this book up thinking itt would be a quick Christmas read but it felt longer than i thought...idk. Will resume this in 2025

Stopped after Ch 1. Again, it just didnt grab my attention and i had other books to read. I will pick this back up in 2025

Stopped after Ch 1. Nothing pulled me in and it felt long-winded ....i know i should've kept reading but 600 pages is a lot to invest in when the 1st chapter isn't doing much. I will come back to this book eventually,

As a black booktube girlie, seeing another black booktube girlie publish and release her own book was inspiring, and I wanted to support all the way. This book is set in 1920s Harlem, New York where humans and reapers - vampire-like "undead" creatures created from a failed science experiment - live together as foes. Reaper Layla Quinn and notorious reaper-killer's daughter Elise Saint were once best friends now turned bitter enemies.  But a shocking reaper attack forces the two to band together to investigate and stop more murders from wreaking havoc on New York.

This had a good premise. I think what prevented me from enjoying this as much as I could've is, there was a lot going on. The writing felt very stilted and heavy with backstory. I understand it's set in 1920s, but it doesn't have to be written like it's from the 1920s lol. And the history around how reapers came to be was confusing (Are only black people reapers? Is it only in the U.S.A?) That said, it got better as time went on and Layla and Elise were paired together. I liked their dynamic, even though they were both toxic for each other (Elise, looking at you). But I'll give credit where it's due:  the mystery they were trying to solve is unlike anything I've read in a book, and I think for her first book Dennings did a good job weaving it out. I can definitely see a sector of people fangirl over this book. I also liked that other themes - Racism, classism, and toxic family dynamics were heavily brought up throughout the book. 

The big reveal of the evil guys was not surprising, and the explanation of their master plan was HELLA confusing. Layla being a dumbass in the last few chapters because apparently she was able to figure out these plans, but then when she had the chance to thwart it, she fell for their trap willingly?  Smh. Also, while I appreciated the enemies-to-lovers arc between Elise and Layla,  I'm surprised there was no commentary on their sexuality or the taboo of their lesbian love in the time period they are in.  The ending feels half-satisfying, half-incomplete and my only thought is, the sequel will have to do a lot of explaining.  But I'm up for it.

I stopped reading a few months ago. I think I’m on Chapter 3 or Part 2. In any case I liked the start of it but life got in the way and bad timing. Goal is to finish this book before 2025

The writing was not for book. HOWEVER. I want to finish the book. I think I know what my rating would be but I’ll come back to this and form my opinion after I’ve read