Good Calories. Bad Calories:

Good Calories. Bad Calories: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom on Diet, Weight Control, and Disease By: Gary Taubes
Non-fiction: Science, Food 460 pages
Book Count: 9

This book starts with the idea that much of what the public is taught about healthy eating is the product of bad science.  Not that the test done on diet were all that bad (although do to the inability of doing double blind test on what people eat there are limitations to using normal scientific protocols in the tests.) But that people have consistently interpreted the results of tests to fit their hypothesis/the current ideas on food. (Some he argues do to blindness, some to save face, some to save their job, and some because the test wasn't even testing what they thought it was. He also goes into detail on why they did this.) To argue this point he deals with the actual raw data relating to diet from the last century.  This makes this book very dense reading with a lot of footnotes, bibliography entries, and a large index.  They author's main point is that carbs and especially the highly processed carbs of the modern diet are the reason that people in Western and Westernized countries are getting fatter and dealing with weight related health problems like heart problems and diabetes. Because there are not large number of large scale studies that have looked at the possibility that a low-carb diet can help one lose weight or improve health or that compare the low-fat, low calorie diet with a low-carb one (At least not when this was written) when he deals with proving why he thinks this he has to use more individual cases and observations.   But, after dealing with the problems in the use of low-fat, calorie reducing diets, his theory comes across as something that at least looks promising.

Note to friends: Yes, I have lost weight, twice the amount that I ever lost on a traditional diet, also I am not hungry, and I'm only working out because I have more energy now. :)

15-Minute Low-Carb Recipes:

15-Minute Low-Carb Recipes By: Dana Carpender
Non-Fiction: Cooking 245 pages
Book Count: 8

Yes, more diet books. . .  I would apologize, but as most of my friends reading this are also dieting, enjoy. This book has a wide variety of quick meals, drinks, desserts and condiments all with info on their carbs, fiber and protein.  The ingredient list for most every thing can be found at the grocery store of a good sized town.  (Even many of the odder things I've seen at places like Wal-mart.) The most carb filled recipes have around 15 net carbs (total carbs minus fiber and/or other non-digested carbs.)  

Darth Vader and Son:

Darth Vader and Son By Jeffrey Brown
Fiction: Graphic Novel, Humor 64 pages
Book Count: 7

This book is a series of comics about what would it be like if Darth Vader had actually raised Luke and Lei. In the comics Luke is 4. It's cute and funny with lots of Star Wars jokes included.

TCIGT: Low-Carb Meals:

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Low-Carb Meals By: Lucy Beale and Sandy G. Couvillon, M.S., L.D.N., R.N.
Non-fiction: food, 364 pages
Book Count: 6

This book is not for any particular type of low-carb diet and so has a range of meals with between a couple to 30 net carbs per dish.  It also has sections for things that are less low carbs with ideas and cheats to make some of them lower; however, it also has some just  messing with the serving size, things like a corn and black bean "salad" with a serving size of a couple of spoon fulls (they note that it is more of a salsa but put it in with salads like that is going to be one of your veggies for a meal.) It also has meal plan ideas and all the normal sidebars that this type of book normally has.