Awakenings: a guide to living a vegan lifestyle

by Lucy Watson

A truly vegan lifestyle is more than just the food you eat, it's the shoes on your feet, the clothes in your wardrobe, the contents of your cupboards and your make-up bag. Whether vegan for moral, ethical or environmental reasons Lucy Watson demystifies how to live a holistic vegan life, whether it's something you've been practising for years or is a way of life you're just discovering.

Simple, practical and full of beautiful images Awakenings is perfect for anyone looking to reduce their environmental impact and make ethical choices that don't impact on animals.

Genres: Nonfiction

192 pages, Paperback

Published December 10, 2020

Reviews

[Kerry Hemmings · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve deliberately taken my time reading this book whilst on my first few months of eating completely vegan. Living a vegan lifestyle is a process and can be very overwhelming, something I learned from reading this book. Take your time, learn, adapt, implement, don’t try and do it all at once. I’m taking it day by day and have found this book by Lucy Watson a really helpful guide to all aspects of veganism.
I’ll be keeping this book for a long time as I know I will want to refer back to it during my journey. A must have reference for anyone wanting to move to a vegan lifestyle.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not really the target audience of this book, but it’s a really good intro to veganism book - worthwhile read for anyone curious about going vegan in an easy to read format.

[Helen Macklon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really helpful and basic starting point for giving a good overview of vegan lifestyles.

[Beth Bridges · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book for someone who is just beginning to dip their foot into the pool of Veganism.

It has a wide breadth of topics such as food, morals, clothing and Lucy relates her personal experiences to each of these.

As a well-researched Vegan, I found it empowering but not particularly helpful. It mainly just retold research and information I was previously aware of, which reassured my knowledge.

[Sally white · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lovely insight into how to gradually get closer to a vegan lifestyle - not too pressuring but more informative

[Apolline · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the book I was looking for! I'm doing veganuary and transitioning from a vegetarian to a vegan diet 🌱 this book will be one of my guide for the year to come 🌸

[Barry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been vegan for 27 years, so if you were thinking of a suitable present for me would you buy me a 'how to go vegan' book? Seriously. So, this book has been on a shelf since Christmas and was destined to go unread, but yesterday I decided to give it a go and at least read it.

First things first, it's written by a reality TV star-cum-social media influencer called Lucy Watson. Lucy's claim to fame was starring in 'Made in Chelsea' - a structured reality TV show focussing on the lives of exceptionally privileged young people here in the UK. I never watched an episode, and even the adverts showing these 'beautiful' people and their manufactured drama made me want to puke. Everything an ordinary working class, class conscious bloke despises. So the book was already 2-0 before I picked it up.

And then I gave it a chance, and what we have hear is an exceptionally practical guide to going vegan. It covers Lucy's journey and her relationship to animals growing up on a farm. She's frank and honest about some of the decisions she made and how she reflected on accusations of hypocrisy. Of course, she's had a relative jet set privileged lifestyle (which she acknowledges) but she is never talking down to her audience. When she describes her journey and how she came to her decision to go vegan, I realised she wasn't to dissimilar to me. I've read plenty of cookbooks and celebrity vegan bloggers and quite a few seem quite elitist at times, or provide advice which is impossible for ordinary people. Lucy is never like that. She's passionate, but reflective. She doesn't give a free pass to part time veganism, but recognises that many people are on a journey.

When I read it, I couldn't find a single criticism of her advice, or of her reflections (which is really rare in the vegan community!) and by the time I got to the end of the book, I'd forgotten all my preconceived notions of whatever her 'reality character' was like and recognised someone with privilege but who comes across as a really nice person.

For those who are already vegan there is nothing new in here. What she does cover are the ethics of consuming and using animals and addresses some of the contradictions she faced. She spends much of the book talking about cosmetics, wearing animal products, even travelling and things like pets and animals used for work or entertainment. She reflects on the things that are difficult (is it ethical to feed a cat vegan food when they are an obligate carnivore?) or living with non-vegan partners.

Aside from the ethics there are some really good practical tips (like how to spot cruelty free cosmetics and what are good apps for finding vegan restaurants) which are second nature for me, but maybe not so for new vegans.

She also has a handful of recipes in the book and although they don't say how many they serve, they do look quite tasty and importantly simple and cheap and avoiding replacement products - important for new vegans. I can see she's released a couple of cookbooks so maybe that is where she is going, and although I have a bookshelf about to collapse due to the number of cookbooks I have, I may take a look at hers.

In a strange decision, a lot of the book is taken up with photos of the author, her home interior, pets, food etc. I don't know how I feel about it - it's clearly padding and has nothing to do with the subject matter. In a way it's advertising her and her lifestyle, but the photos are well presented and in a way I found them quite relaxing and charming rather than cynical. It's not really for me, but it does present an ethical lifestyle and one of peace and happiness (maybe I have fallen into a 'structured reality' trap.).

In any case her socials show she is quite cool and an active advocate for animal liberation. She comes across as likeable so I am glad I never saw her TV show. And since I don't need to have a book about going vegan I have been able to give my copy away online to an aspiring vegan so I'm glad to regift this.

Really good book to understand the ethics of veganism, how to approach and transition and some good practical guidance to living more ethically.

[Maisie Mansell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book and I think it’s a great introduction to veganism but I think in my opinion a lot of it was common sense. It was written in a very brief and chatty way which I think would be perfect for someone who is wanting to transition towards a vegan lifestyle. I thought the lists of ingredients in food and cosmetics was very good as sometimes ingredients can be a bit of a minefield to navigate. I would be interested to see if she still has her cat on a dry, vegan diet. In the book she said she would be open to feeding her cat meat if they weren’t thriving, and this book being written 5 years ago I would wonder how the cat is doing… as humans can totally thrive on a vegan diet but cats are obligate carnivores so this wouldn’t have been something I’d even be willing to attempt with my cats. Also I wonder in the travel section if she would still use Tel Aviv as an example of a great travel spot for vegan food, given the genocide Israel is committing towards Palestinians as we speak I would hope she would take that out of recent copies. Especially when the book is partly about caring about the environment and the planet. This all being said it was a good intro to veganism for people who are less familiar and it words it in a very palatable way for non vegans

[Isabel Lewis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good little introduction to veganism if you're still at the start of your journey. It's quite repetitive in places but it does cover the basics of all areas of a vegan lifestyle. There are some nice lifestyle shots included but it feels like they're just there as page fillers and there's no correlation to what you're reading about. I can't put my finger on what it is exactly but this just didn't meet my expectations.

[Leanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really good as an introduction to veganism but wouldn’t recommend if you’re relatively well versed in that world as it gets quite repetitive in some places. I really liked the message and the cause that the book promotes but I found it a bit simplistic in parts, which obviously works well for people who know nothing about veganism, but not so well for people who are looking to further their research.

[Emily Cartwright · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lucy’s privilege unfortunately screams through the pages of this book. It is a very honest and useful guide to becoming a vegan, but very much according to her experiences of existence. Some of it I found repetitive but it also raises some more obscure and interesting debates, e.g. pets. It was a nice read to remind myself of and reinstil my beliefs, particularly for the bits not regarding diet / food.

[Lucy Hudson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up at the library yesterday, started and finished it within 2 hours. I'm sure this is a good book for anyone thinking about going vegan or transitioning from vegetarian to vegan. If you've already been vegan for at least a few months, you probably know everything that's said here. Would be improved with more personal anecdotes or stories in my opinion!

[Kaitlyn Sullivan Micali · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Title Says It All

I finished this within a day of me purchasing it. Some of the information was quite interesting, although I wish there could have been more personal stories from the author and her experience going vegan.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nothing new to me as a vegan of nearly 3 years but I loved the way she presented the information in a clear and concise manner.
My only critique and why I've dropped a star off is because on the part about supplements lacks to mention how vital iodine is to a healthy Vegan diet.

[Jasmine Day · Rating 3 out of 5]

Provided a general perspective on veganism and was a simple read. It was repetitive at times and could have explored the topics discussed in a lot more detail.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Only criticism is that it felt a bit narcissistic.. there was no need for the pictures of her flat, pets etc. Otherwise it was very informal and reinforced my reasons for being vegan

[Sharon Robertson · Rating 1 out of 5]

To much first person speaking and the language used was dry not very convincing in my opinion.

[Roan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a lovely, simple book on veganism that is really helpful!

[Clare Mephan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love this book, it’s very well written and interesting! She isn’t preaching, she words this all very well and she is very knowledgeable on this. I enjoyed it and defo recommend it.

[Ana Lídia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very easy read and especially good for basic research as well as if you have only just started looking into vegan lifestyle

[Hannah Hersant · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book with some really nice notes and thoughts on veganism, with some good and practical tips and advice too! Lovely pictures however, they really consumed a lot of the pages

[Adrianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic book to help with living a better life and making better choices. Well articulated

[Tyne Connolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*