The secret to good health, for readers searching for such a secret.
A physician shows us the remarkable world of the human microbiome.
Gundry, the director of the International Heart and Lung Institute in California, has written multiple bestsellers, including The Plant Paradox, Unlocking the Keto Code, and The Longevity Paradox. “All disease begins in the gut,” wrote Hippocrates more than 2,000 years ago, and Gundry agrees. With his Gut Check program, “all diseases can be cured in the gut, too.” The author claims that “about 90 percent of the people who followed the program saw their health restored.” Gundry demonstrates the importance of the trillions of microorganisms in your colon (“gut buddies”) that, when healthy, keep your bowel tightly sealed but secrete chemicals that suppress disease and fend off aging. Our gut buddies eat what we eat, and few readers will be surprised to learn that the modern diet is toxic, leading to an unhealthy microbiome, a leaky gut, and disease. Gundry holds a low opinion of many “conventional” conceptions of a healthy diet. The author concludes with an extremely detailed diet that will keep your bowel in top shape. No alternative practitioner, Gundry is a former cardiac surgeon, and he backs his statements with nearly 70 pages of journal references. Many describe diseases cured in laboratory animals, and readers will find few cures for their own disease (and a legal disclaimer at the beginning of the book). Readers will have better luck consulting Gundry or physicians “trained by me” at his clinics or his “subscription-based telemedicine service” and app. Though the idea that all disease results from a faulty microbiome is not universally accepted in the medical community, Gundry’s fierce conviction, enthusiasm, and entrepreneurial skill have won him a loyal following that this book is unlikely to diminish.
The secret to good health, for readers searching for such a secret.Pub Date: Jan. 9, 2024
ISBN: 9780062911773
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Harper Wave
Review Posted Online: Oct. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.
A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting.
To call Elon Musk (b. 1971) “mercurial” is to undervalue the term; to call him a genius is incorrect. Instead, Musk has a gift for leveraging the genius of others in order to make things work. When they don’t, writes eminent biographer Isaacson, it’s because the notoriously headstrong Musk is so sure of himself that he charges ahead against the advice of others: “He does not like to share power.” In this sharp-edged biography, the author likens Musk to an earlier biographical subject, Steve Jobs. Given Musk’s recent political turn, born of the me-first libertarianism of the very rich, however, Henry Ford also comes to mind. What emerges clearly is that Musk, who may or may not have Asperger’s syndrome (“Empathy did not come naturally”), has nurtured several obsessions for years, apart from a passion for the letter X as both a brand and personal name. He firmly believes that “all requirements should be treated as recommendations”; that it is his destiny to make humankind a multi-planetary civilization through innovations in space travel; that government is generally an impediment and that “the thought police are gaining power”; and that “a maniacal sense of urgency” should guide his businesses. That need for speed has led to undeniable successes in beating schedules and competitors, but it has also wrought disaster: One of the most telling anecdotes in the book concerns Musk’s “demon mode” order to relocate thousands of Twitter servers from Sacramento to Portland at breakneck speed, which trashed big parts of the system for months. To judge by Isaacson’s account, that may have been by design, for Musk’s idea of creative destruction seems to mean mostly chaos.
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781982181284
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.
The chef, rapper, and TV host serves up a blustery memoir with lashings of self-help.
“I’ve always had a sick confidence,” writes Bronson, ne Ariyan Arslani. The confidence, he adds, comes from numerous sources: being a New Yorker, and more specifically a New Yorker from Queens; being “short and fucking husky” and still game for a standoff on the basketball court; having strength, stamina, and seemingly no fear. All these things serve him well in the rough-and-tumble youth he describes, all stickball and steroids. Yet another confidence-builder: In the big city, you’ve got to sink or swim. “No one is just accepted—you have to fucking show that you’re able to roll,” he writes. In a narrative steeped in language that would make Lenny Bruce blush, Bronson recounts his sentimental education, schooled by immigrant Italian and Albanian family members and the mean streets, building habits good and bad. The virtue of those habits will depend on your take on modern mores. Bronson writes, for example, of “getting my dick pierced” down in the West Village, then grabbing a pizza and smoking weed. “I always smoke weed freely, always have and always will,” he writes. “I’ll just light a blunt anywhere.” Though he’s gone through the classic experiences of the latter-day stoner, flunking out and getting arrested numerous times, Bronson is a hard charger who’s not afraid to face nearly any challenge—especially, given his physique and genes, the necessity of losing weight: “If you’re husky, you’re always dieting in your mind,” he writes. Though vulgar and boastful, Bronson serves up a model that has plenty of good points, including his growing interest in nature, creativity, and the desire to “leave a legacy for everybody.”
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4478-5
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
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