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+ Five Wishes: How Answering One Simple Question Can Make Your Dreams Come True
The Daring Book for Girls is the manual for everything that girls need to know—and that doesn't mean sewing buttonholes! Whether it's female heroes in history, secret note-passing skills, science projects, friendship bracelets, double dutch, cats cradle, the perfect cartwheel or the eternal mystery of what boys are thinking, this book has it all. But it's not just a guide to giggling at sleepovers—although that's included, of course! Whether readers consider themselves tomboys, girly-girls, or a little bit of both, this book is every girl's invitation to adventure.
+ Five Wishes: How Answering One Simple Question Can Make Your Dreams Come True
You never know when it is going to happen -- when you will experience a moment that dramatically transforms your life. When you look back, often years later, you may see how a brief conversation or an insight you read in a book changed the entire course of your life.Gay Hendricks had an extraordinary, life-altering experience during a conversation at a party. The gift he received in that meeting became his touchstone for creating the life of his dreams. Now, in this wonderful gem of a book, he passes on to all of us the pivotal insight he gained in that magic moment.
Could reading this book be one of those life-changing moments for you?
+ You: On A Diet: The Owner's Manual for Waist Management
Starred Review. Back for another highly entertaining round of Biology 101, the team behind YOU: The Owner's Manual applies its signature wit and wisdom to food metabolism and nutrition. According to Roizen and Oz, waist measurement, not weight, is the most important factor in mortality related to obesity, and understanding the relationship between chemicals and hormones influencing hunger and those signaling satiety is the key to ending yo-yo dieting. Most diets fail, Roizen and Oz conclude, because body chemistry overrules the best plans and intentions. To restore the body's natural ability to balance hunger and satiety and offset the effects of stress on food choices, they list foods and supplements that fight fat, decrease appetite and combat inflammation that causes disease. Roizen and Oz pack in a lot of material—quizzes, "factoids" and "myth busters" along with diet and exercise plans, recipes and a two-week "rebooting" program—in bite-sized portions, giving readers a chance to absorb and apply what they learn. For those considering medical intervention, they discuss current options for drugs and surgery. (Oct.)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
+ You: Staying Young: The Owner's Manual for Extending Your Warranty (You)
Starred Review. In their newest in the You series, physicians Oz and Roizen and a supporting cast of contributors explain why the body ages and how readers can become anatomical puppeteers, mastering their genes, bad habits, environmental pollution and stress while igniting the body's ability to stay fit, strong and healthy. According to the authors, avoiding such major causes of death as cancer and heart disease increases life expectancy by only just under a decade. With their talent for creating vivid, humorous images (amplified by cartoon drawings), they describe 14 major agers and how readers can use what is known about telomeres (which look like the plastic ends of shoelaces), mitochondria (the body's energy powerhouses) and other components of body functioning to repair and rejuvenate cells. While the hefty amount of detailed information might seem overwhelming, the suggestions in the authors' tool box are straightforward and, frequently, simple: walking a half hour each day; consistently getting enough sleep; relieving stress with yoga, meditation and chi gong; removing toxins from the home; and avoiding accidents, for example. Perhaps most simple—and surprising—is their claim that one of the best predictors of aging is your perception of your own health. With the facts and tools laid out here, readers will be able to articulate, challenge and change those perceptions through positive action. (Oct.)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
+ Become a Better You
Megachurch pastor and bestselling author Osteen follows up Your Best Life Now
with this disappointingly unoriginal Christian self-help book. The
seven subtitular steps to improvement include instructions to develop
good habits, better relationships and an inner life. Osteen balances
mind-over-matter pep talks with claims that God wants to bless faithful
people with successes. The future is always promising, because God
never performs His greatest feats in your yesterdays. At the same time,
in order to receive God's blessing, one must back up prayers with
action, obey, maintain a positive attitude toward life and do the right
thing with the right motives. Some of Osteen's advice is sound; for
example, he suggests that if you are forgiving and kind to colleagues
and friends, they'll cut you slack when you have crabby days. Other
suggestions—like writing down a big goal and posting it on your mirror
or desk—are unremarkable. Laced throughout are anodyne first-person
vignettes; Osteen struggled with frustration when his favorite
restaurant announced a 45-minute wait. The hurried Osteen went to a
nearby burger joint, only to have a brief encounter that changed
another customer's life. Voilà—God turned Osteen's disappointment into
blessing! Though this book is destined for strong sales, it offers
nothing innovative. (Oct. 15) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
+ Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10
If you're looking for a true story that showcases both American heroism
and Afghani humanity, Marcus Luttrell's Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness
Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10
(Little, Brown, $24.99), written with Patrick Robinson, may be the book
for you. In June of 2005, Luttrell led a four-man team of Navy SEALs
into the mountains of Afghanistan on a mission to kill a Taliban leader
thought to be allied with Osama bin Laden. On foot, the team
encountered two adult men and a teenage boy. A debate broke out as to
whether the SEALs should summarily execute the trio to keep them from
alerting the Taliban. Luttrell himself was called upon to make the
decision. He was torn between considerations of morality and his
survival instinct, and he points out that "any government that thinks
war is somehow fair and subject to rules like a baseball game probably
should not get into one. Because nothing's fair in war, and
occasionally the wrong people do get killed."
Luttrell opted to spare the Afghanis' lives. About an hour later, the Taliban launched an attack that claimed nearly a hundred of their own men but also the lives of all the SEALs except Luttrell, who was left wounded.
Not long after that, the Taliban shot down an American rescue helicopter, killing all 16 men on board. Luttrell is sure that the three Afghanis he let go turned around and betrayed the SEALs.
But if nothing is fair in war, neither is anything foreordained. Luttrell was found by other Afghanis, one of whom claimed to be his village's doctor. Once again, Luttrell had to rely on his instincts. "There was something about him," Luttrell writes. "By now I'd seen a whole lot of Taliban warriors, and he looked nothing like any of them. There was no arrogance, no hatred in his eyes." Luttrell trusted the man and his colleagues, who took him back to their village, where the law of hospitality -- "strictly nonnegotiable" -- took hold. "They were committed to defend me against the Taliban," Luttrell writes, "until there was no one left alive."
The law held, and Luttrell survived, returned home and received the Navy Cross for combat heroism from President Bush.
Copyright 2007, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.+ The Wisdom of Menopause: Creating Physical and Emotional Health and Healing During the Change, 2nd Edition
Northrup (Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom), cofounder of the Women
to Women health-care center in Maine, offers a celebratory,
"psychospiritual" approach in her comprehensive guide to menopausal
health and well-being. Beginning with the premise that, though
difficult, the "hormone-driven changes that affect the brain... give a
woman a sharper eye for inequity... and a voice that insists on
speaking up," Northrup details hormonal imbalances, mood swings,
serious illnesses, treatment options and all the other symptoms, side
effects and decisions women face in midlife. Middle-aged herself,
Northrup writes from experience and, more important, from her
professional expertise as a physician who has treated many women and
researched menopause. While much of the health-care material here is
available in other sources, Northrup's approach a description of
symptoms, followed by both traditional and alternative treatment
options along with some anecdotes is particularly useful. Occasionally
she veers off into New Age jargon, but she is a firm believer in the
relevance of tangential influences on physical health, including
emotional and financial well-being. The specific medical advice on
sleep, diet, breast health and the empowerment motif will bring
insight, comfort and confidence to women embarked on "the change."
Agent, Ned Leavitt. (Apr. 3) Forecast: Northrup is a bestselling author
widely held in the same esteem as Gary Null and Deepak Chopra. Among
the competitive field of books on menopause, hers stands out for its
whole-woman approach, which will make it attractive not only to her
core readership but also as a hand-selling favorite among booksellers.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Eighteen years after Pillars of the Earth weighed in with
almost 1,000 pages of juicy historical fiction about the construction
of a 12th-century cathedral in Kingsbridge, England, bestseller Follett
returns to 14th-century Kingsbridge with an equally weighty tome that
deftly braids the fate of several of the offspring of Pillars'
families with such momentous events of the era as the Black Death and
the wars with France. Four children, who will become a peasant's wife,
a knight, a builder and a nun, share a traumatic experience that will
affect each of them differently as their lives play out from 1327 to
1361. Follett studs the narrative with gems of unexpected information
such as the English nobility's multilingual training and the builder's
technique for carrying heavy, awkward objects. While the novel lacks
the thematic unity of Pillars, readers will be captivated by
the four well-drawn central characters as they prove heroic, depraved,
resourceful or mean. Fans of Follett's previous medieval epic will be
well rewarded. (Oct.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
+ Water for Elephants: A Novel
With its spotlight on elephants, Gruen's romantic page-turner hinges on
the human-animal bonds that drove her debut and its sequel ( Riding Lessons and Flying Changes )—but
without the mass appeal that horses hold. The novel, told in flashback
by nonagenarian Jacob Jankowski, recounts the wild and wonderful period
he spent with the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth, a
traveling circus he joined during the Great Depression. When
23-year-old Jankowski learns that his parents have been killed in a car
crash, leaving him penniless, he drops out of Cornell veterinary school
and parlays his expertise with animals into a job with the circus,
where he cares for a menagerie of exotic creatures[...] He also falls
in love with Marlena, one of the show's star performers—a romance
complicated by Marlena's husband, the unbalanced, sadistic circus boss
who beats both his wife and the animals Jankowski cares for. Despite
her often clichéd prose and the predictability of the story's ending,
Gruen skillfully humanizes the midgets, drunks, rubes and freaks who
populate her book. (May 26) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
+ A Thousand Splendid Suns
Starred Review. Afghan-American novelist Hosseini follows up his bestselling The Kite Runner
with another searing epic of Afghanistan in turmoil. The story covers
three decades of anti-Soviet jihad, civil war and Taliban tyranny
through the lives of two women. Mariam is the scorned illegitimate
daughter of a wealthy businessman, forced at age 15 into marrying the
40-year-old Rasheed, who grows increasingly brutal as she fails to
produce a child. Eighteen later, Rasheed takes another wife,
14-year-old Laila, a smart and spirited girl whose only other options,
after her parents are killed by rocket fire, are prostitution or
starvation. Against a backdrop of unending war, Mariam and Laila become
allies in an asymmetrical battle with Rasheed, whose violent
misogyny—"There was no cursing, no screaming, no pleading, no surprised
yelps, only the systematic business of beating and being beaten"—is
endorsed by custom and law. Hosseini gives a forceful but nuanced
portrait of a patriarchal despotism where women are agonizingly
dependent on fathers, husbands and especially sons, the bearing of male
children being their sole path to social status. His tale is a
powerful, harrowing depiction of Afghanistan, but also a lyrical
evocation of the lives and enduring hopes of its resilient characters. (May) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
+ Clapton: The Autobiography
Readers hoping for sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll won't be
disappointed by the legendary guitarist's autobiography. As he retraces
every step of his career, from the early stints with the Yardbirds and
Cream to his solo successes, Clapton also devotes copious detail to his
drug and alcohol addictions, particularly how they intersected with his
romantic obsession with Pattie Boyd. His relationship with the woman
for whom he wrote Layla culminated in a turbulent marriage he describes
as drunken forays into the unknown. But he genuinely warms to the
subject of his recovery, stressing its spiritual elements and eagerly
discussing the fund-raising efforts for his Crossroads clinic in
Antigua. His self-reckoning is filled with modesty, especially in the
form of dissatisfaction with his early successes. He professes
ambivalence about the famous Clapton is God graffiti, although he
admits he was grateful for the recognition from fans. At times, he
sounds more like landed gentry than a rock star: bragging about his
collection of contemporary art, vigorously defending his hunting and
fishing as leisure activities, and extolling the virtues of his quiet
country living. But both the youthful excesses and the current calm
state are narrated with an engaging tone that nudges Clapton's story
ahead of other rock 'n' roll memoirs. (Oct. 9) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
+ I Am America ( And So Can You! )
Starred Review. Realizing that it takes more than thirty minutes
a night to fix everything that's destroying America, Colbert bravely
takes on the forces aligned to destroy our country—whether they be
terrorists, environmentalists, or Kashi brand breakfast cereals. His
various targets include nature ( I've never trusted the sea. What's it
hiding under there? ), the Hollywood Blacklist (I would have named
enough names to fill the Moscow phone book), and atheists ( Imagine
going through life completely duped into thinking that there's no
invisible, omniscient higher power guiding every action on Earth. It's
just so arbitrary! ). Colbert also provides helpful illustrations and
charts (Things That Are Trying to Turn Me Gay) [and] a complete
transcript of his infamous speech at the 2006 White House
Correspondents' Dinner [...] all of which add up to a book that is sure
to be a bestseller and match the success of Colbert's former Daily Show boss Jon Stewart's America (The Book). (Oct.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
+ Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia
At the age of thirty-one, Gilbert moved with her husband to the suburbs
of New York and began trying to get pregnant, only to realize that she
wanted neither a child nor a husband. Three years later, after a
protracted divorce, she embarked on a yearlong trip of recovery, with
three main stops: Rome, for pleasure (mostly gustatory, with a special
emphasis on gelato); an ashram outside of Mumbai, for spiritual
searching; and Bali, for "balancing." These destinations are all on the
beaten track, but Gilbert's exuberance and her self-deprecating humor
enliven the proceedings: recalling the first time she attempted to
speak directly to God, she says, "It was all I could do to stop myself
from saying, 'I've always been a big fan of your work.'" Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
+ Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food
Bob Greene, author of The Best Life Diet:"I found the techniques for adding vegetables to meals extremely creative and the recipes fantastic! Deceptively Delicious is a must have for your healthy kitchen."
--Anderson Cooper, CNN Anchor, Anderson Cooper 360 and best-selling author of DISPATCHES FROM THE EDGE: A memoir of War, Disasters and Survival
Deceptively Delicious is a book anyone wanting easy, healthy meals will find indispensable. Page after page, you'll find yourself saying, "what a great idea!"
Adam Aulenback
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