This is not simply a useful and informative book about the innumerable uses for good old baking soda, saving tons of money, and in the process not harming the environment. It is also entertaining and sometimes downright funny--it would be a great gift for anyone, including yourself. I expect that Vicki Lansky had a blast putting this book together, and her enthusiasm is evident in the text.
From BooklistYou might wearily expect that a book with a title like this one is just another Hints from Heloise clone (which is not necessarily a bad thing), but in this case it's far better than that. For, besides an incredible accumulation of recipes and other uses for baking soda, this book contains an entertaining history of the baking soda industry and the story of how and why this wonderful substance came to be invented. Baking soda, Lansky says, is a wildly successful instance of a product developed to fill one specific need (i.e., "for an affordable, clean, consistent leavening agent") being found to have myriad other uses. Charming as this background is, the promised 500-plus uses of baking soda constitute the book's raison d'etre. Lansky easily fulfills the promise without resorting to list extenders of any kind, in the end producing a thoroughly enjoyable, useful little volume. Mike Tribby