An authoritative, encyclopedic, and illuminating wellness manual.
A physician offers a research-based guide to good health.
This debut by Speidel, a doctor, professor emeritus, and public health expert, is an all-encompassing manual that focuses on “the science that underlies a health-restoring, health-preserving lifestyle and warns against unproven claims.” In a straightforward, unadulterated manner, the author enumerates the “building blocks” of a healthy lifestyle; he covers virtually every aspect in 16 chapters that range from nutrition and weight control to mental health and the prevention of specific diseases. Speidel begins with a useful “Lifestyle Checklist,” describing the various elements of a healthy lifestyle and including a handy, literal checklist of beneficial behaviors, cross-referenced to the book’s subsequent chapters. Each chapter is remarkably comprehensive in scope and detail, providing a wealth of information as well as extensive references to current scientific studies and relevant sources. A nice touch that puts the guide on a more personal level is the occasional sidebar entitled “My Story,” in which Speidel writes anecdotally about some of his own health-related experiences. One good example of the high quality of the volume’s contents is “Optimal Nutrition,” a chapter so thorough that it could easily have been expanded into a separate book. Here, the author addresses the American diet; basic facts about food and nutrition; the risks associated with sugar, carbohydrates, and fats; cholesterol; types of diets and their positive/negative effects; nutrition labels; organic foods; gluten-free items; and more. Many studies are referenced and footnoted, and a “Summary of the essential facts” is appended to the end of this as well as other chapters. Whether it is material on the prevention of cardiovascular disease, the benefits of physical activity, or a look at environmental pollutants and toxins, Speidel takes the same care in clearly presenting unbiased information. He is painstaking and methodical in his coverage of each topic, backing up any claims with research studies; the author even helpfully includes a final chapter that explains how to understand scientific data. While some readers may find the research references overwhelming, most should welcome their veracity. Also notable: The work’s content is exceedingly current (including a section on Covid-19).
An authoritative, encyclopedic, and illuminating wellness manual.Pub Date: Dec. 26, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-952762-00-0
Page Count: 600
Publisher: JJ Webster Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An endearing underdog story that will have readers cheering for the author from a troubled beginning to a sweet, happy end.
The comedian and actor wasn’t kidding around when he titled his memoir.
Scheer, best known for his work on The League, Black Monday, and Veep, begins with some harrowing tales of abuse from his stepfather that he balances by recognizing how they helped make him the successful father, husband, and entertainer he is today. “All the chaos and abuse were so normalized that only in the retelling do I realize just how abnormal they were,” he writes, adding that there were moments when he felt victorious, “like the time I outran a pitchfork he threw at my back.” It’s these triumphs, cut with his self-deprecating humor, that makes Scheer’s memoir so charming and uplifting, despite the often difficult subject matter of his childhood on Long Island. Given his storytelling experience as an actor and a podcaster on How Did This Get Made?—which he co-hosts with his wife, June Diane Raphael, and fellow League actor Jason Mantzoukas—the author manages to make it all entertaining. Even his story about learning that he was lactose intolerant after a serious health scare at Disney World becomes hilarious in retrospect. Scheer also writes about his love of improv, especially with the Upright Citizens Brigade; the auditioning process; and his enjoyment of movies and working at Blockbuster Video. However, the author treats his higher-profile jobs, like his regular gig on VH1’s Best Week Ever, as asides to his life with his wife and family. It’s part of the serious point Scheer wants to make, despite the humor. He chronicles his journey through abuse and into the life he dreamed of to show how he did it: through therapy, self-acceptance, and prioritizing his family.
An endearing underdog story that will have readers cheering for the author from a troubled beginning to a sweet, happy end.Pub Date: May 21, 2024
ISBN: 9780063293717
Page Count: 256
Publisher: HarperOne
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2024
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should...
Greene (The 33 Strategies of War, 2007, etc.) believes that genius can be learned if we pay attention and reject social conformity.
The author suggests that our emergence as a species with stereoscopic, frontal vision and sophisticated hand-eye coordination gave us an advantage over earlier humans and primates because it allowed us to contemplate a situation and ponder alternatives for action. This, along with the advantages conferred by mirror neurons, which allow us to intuit what others may be thinking, contributed to our ability to learn, pass on inventions to future generations and improve our problem-solving ability. Throughout most of human history, we were hunter-gatherers, and our brains are engineered accordingly. The author has a jaundiced view of our modern technological society, which, he writes, encourages quick, rash judgments. We fail to spend the time needed to develop thorough mastery of a subject. Greene writes that every human is “born unique,” with specific potential that we can develop if we listen to our inner voice. He offers many interesting but tendentious examples to illustrate his theory, including Einstein, Darwin, Mozart and Temple Grandin. In the case of Darwin, Greene ignores the formative intellectual influences that shaped his thought, including the discovery of geological evolution with which he was familiar before his famous voyage. The author uses Grandin's struggle to overcome autistic social handicaps as a model for the necessity for everyone to create a deceptive social mask.
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should beware of the author's quirky, sometimes misleading brush-stroke characterizations.Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-670-02496-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2012
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