Spiritus Mundi

Before we go any further...What is Whole30? Essentially, it's an elimination diet that only allows you to eat "real" food: fruit, veggies, meat, and a few other odds and ends. You can have things like salt and oil to cook with, which helps a lot, too. The point is that you're avoiding added sugar, carbs and dairy (and, yes, alcohol too), completely getting them out of your system.  It's called Whole30 because you eliminate all of those "fake foods" for 30 days, but it's really like Whole50 if you do it right. That's because after the first 30 days, you're supposed to gradually add back in the foods you've been avoiding. If you really want to see how your body reacts to sugar (does it make you tired? overly emotional?), dairy (are there digestive problems? does your skin change?), and carbs (do you feel bloated? are you more or less full through the day?), you have to add them back in one at a time. For instance, you add dairy back

Reviews Without Spoilers is a series in which I review the books I've read without giving away any more than the inside cover plot summary would. I think we all enjoy reading stories that show the strength of the human spirit, despite terrible circumstances. That's probably why war stories are so popular. Personally, I've read dozens of wartime novels and even taken a graduate class on the poetry of World War I. Despite all of that, I wasn't a fan of The Summer Before the War . For some historical background, the summer of 1914, right before World War I began, was supposedly perfect. The weather was wonderful, and there was somehow an infectious air of simple joy in England. Maybe that's just the way that summer of innocence was remembered after the fact, but the notion that such beauty can preface such tragedy gives me chills. I had expected this novel to center on that summer and its beauty, but, in reality, the summer only lasted for the first 100 pages