Food, Health and Happiness by Oprah Winfrey

I was very excited when I first heard about Oprah's new book.  I am working on losing weight and have joined Weight Watchers to help with my journey.  Food, Health and Happiness sounded like a great additional tool to help with that journey.  I went to my local Barnes and Noble store on the day it released.  Here are my reactions to the book.

First:  Food, Health and Happiness was on display as I walked in door.  It had a 20% off tag on the cover.  I was surprised at the size of the book.  It was much taller and wider than I expected and when I picked it up it was uncomfortable to hold and read.

Second:  I looked at the price.  $35.00 was the cover price so even with 20% off it was still a pricy book.

Third:  I took it over to a table to check out the content.  I read several of the recipes and was very surprised at the ingredients needed for most.  I keep a fairly well stocked kitchen as I have trouble digesting both gluten and soy and have to cook using mostly fresh ingredients.  To fix most of the recipes I checked out I did not have everything needed making my grocery list cost much more.  I am not talking about the main ingredients but the extras needed for the correct taste.  For a family it would be even more expensive.

I went in to buy the book and left without making a purchase.  I came home and checked the online price.  It was less than the 20% off price at both Barnes and Noble and Amazon but still a little steep.  The next week I got a 20% off coupon for Barnes and Noble and decided to look at Food, Health and Happiness again.

The in store price was changed.  It was now 30% off the $35.00 price.  I had a coupon for another 20% off and as a Barnes and Noble member I also go another 10% off.  30% off made it 24.50.  20% off of the 24.50 made it 19.60.  Then my 10% off of 19.60 made the final price 17.64.  Still a lot when you can buy books with Weight Watchers recipes for much less.

I took it back to look through again and decided that it was not worth the price for me.  I have seen the reviews and they are all over the place.  Less than half are 5 star on Amazon and 30% are 1 and 2 star.

In my opinion this is not a book for the average person.  I found it to be a big disappointment and went from making a special trip to buy on the day it come out passing it up after it had significant addition price reductions.