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Self-HelpLifestyles

A guide to help you reach a personal peak this year

Review by bookpagedev

Remember the old adage: Good, better, best; never let it rest until your good is better and your better is best ? Well, here are four books that can show you how to move from mediocre to marvelous in 2005. Best-selling author Debbie Ford (The Dark Side of the Light) offers a guide to reaching out and grasping the life we have always dreamed about in The Best Year of Your Life: Dream It, Plan It, Live It. Stop believing that the best year of your life exists somewhere off in the future, she admonishes. According to Ford, the time is here and now, and the choice is yours. As the title indicates, the book is divided into three sections. The Dream It section emphasizes the importance of dreams and desires, and how creating a powerful intent is the first step in creating your best self. The Plan It section offers a structured approach to defining and achieving goals which includes strategic exercises and straightforward examples, such as a 15-question checklist for taking charge of your life. Finally, the Live It section explains how to put those plans into action with zest, integrity and joy. Ford does not shirk from acknowledging that her plan requires effort, commitment and courage. But if you give 100 percent to the process, she ensures that having your best year yet will be more than a pipe dream; it will be your destiny. Linda Stankard continues to be her own work in progress.

Remember the old adage: Good, better, best; never let it rest until your good is better and your better is best ? Well, here are four books that can show you how to move from mediocre to marvelous in 2005. Best-selling author Debbie Ford (The Dark Side of the Light) offers a guide to reaching […]
Lifestyles

Ye Olde Curiosity Shoppe: Silver hell

Review by bookpagedev

Editor’s note: Each month we see lots of books. Some of the curiouser arrivals are featured in this space.
J. Shimon and J. Lindemann grew up in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, home of Aluminum Specialty, the company that manufactured that stalwart of hipster holidays, the aluminum Christmas tree. Shimon and Lindemann, both professional photographers, celebrate the tinsel icons of their youth in Season’s Gleamings: The Art of the Aluminum Christmas Tree. "Although they can be viewed solely as aesthetically stunning objects," the duo write of their subjects, "their existence will always be informed by each viewer’s holiday baggage."

Right. Aluminum trees played a large role in the holidays of my quintessentially 1970s childhood. Sticking all of those branches covered in potentially blinding strips of metal into the tree’s wooden base was a time-consuming chore, only slightly less annoying than maneuvering them back into their sheaths at the end of the season. And who can forget the ordeal of having to rethread limbs that became detached from their silver fringe?

Still, the trees are retro-cool in a future-past, Jetsons kind of way, which is why Shimon and Lindemann quietly prowled yard sales and sneaked into attics and basements, eventually collecting 40 trees. Season’s Gleamings isn’t a decorating guide or history of the trees (though it does include a little background); it’s merely an homage to a space-age ideal.

Editor’s note: Each month we see lots of books. Some of the curiouser arrivals are featured in this space. J. Shimon and J. Lindemann grew up in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, home of Aluminum Specialty, the company that manufactured that stalwart of hipster holidays, the aluminum Christmas tree. Shimon and Lindemann, both professional photographers, celebrate the tinsel […]
MemoirLifestylesFamily & RelationshipsAging

A little something for mom

Review by Linda M. Castellitto

What happens to a mother when her husband, her children's father, dies? In Designated Daughter: The Bonus Years with Mom, D.G. Fulford steps in as "the sibling who would try to take up the empty space that had always been filled by Dad." (Fulford's brother is author and former Chicago Tribune columnist Bob Greene.) Each chapter is co-written by Fulford and her mother, Phyllis; they offer stories that are by turns funny and poignant, and familiar in their glimpses of what it's like to be the surviving spouse or child. They're frank about these "bonus years," and how their changed relationship required some rebalancing—of Fulford's own approach to motherhood, Phyllis' ability to be independent and both women's perspective on what matters and what can be laughed off. Designated Daughter offers a hopeful vision of what mother-daughter relationships can be.

MEMORIES, SUPERBLY WRITTEN
Riding Shotgun: Women Write About Their Mothers, edited by Kathryn Kysar, contains 21 thoughtful explorations of memory, discovery and the mother-daughter bond. The writing in this collection is superb, thanks to the skill and thoughtfulness of the contributors, which include accomplished novelists, poets, journalists and essayists such as Jonis Agee and Sandra Ben&and#237;tez. There are photos, too, lovely in both their familiarity awkward poses in dress-up clothes, mom-and-baby candids and diversity. Riding Shotgun is an honest, memorable collection worth savoring and sharing.

POWERFUL POETRY
Frances Richey raised her son, Ben, on her own. He grew up to become an Army captain and Green Beret who served two tours in Iraq, secret missions in a war his mother does not support. Writing poetry helped Richey, a former corporate executive who has been a yoga and meditation instructor for the last 15 years, cope with her fear for her son. Her poems in The Warrior: A Mother's Story of a Son at War are powerful in their evocation of the emotional battles fought every day by the people who are left behind, worrying and wondering: "My son is always leaving. / Sometimes he looks back / and waves good-bye. Sometimes / he just disappears." and "It was easy to think of warrior / as a yoga posture, until my son / became a Green Beret." One Mother's Day, Richey didn't hear from Ben; she writes about it in "Incommunicado." But this mother's story has a happy ending: Ben, who first deployed in 2004, returned home in 2006.

A PRESIDENTIAL TRIBUTE TO MOM
Former president Jimmy Carter is no stranger to author-dom: He's written more than 20 books, including An Hour Before Daylight, Our Endangered Values and Beyond the White House. A Remarkable Mother is both a biography of his mother, the indomitable Miss Lillian, and a memoir of his relationship with her over the course of her life (she died in 1983 at age 85). Lillian was born in Georgia, the fourth of nine children. Carter recounts stories of her formative years in the rural South, her work as a nurse during World War I, and her volunteer work for the Peace Corps. It's interesting to read about Miss Lillian's role as "America's first mama": She visited the White House often, accompanied her son on official state missions and "played a key role in [Carter's] crucial support from African Americans." Photos help tell the story of Miss Lillian, who is shown with family and foreign dignitaries alike. She is talking and smiling in nearly every one.

MOMS IN STYLE
Each of us makes choices about our personal style from how we look and the objects we treasure to the career paths we follow. According to fashion and interior designer Carrie McCarthy, and Danielle LaPorte, a writer and communications strategist, identifying and embracing a particular style philosophy can help us be more mindful of and deliberate with our life choices. In their book Style Statement: Live by Your Own Design, they share their own statements and feature portraits of women who embody various style statements; descriptions of characteristics common to those styles; and questions to help readers determine and interpret their own preferences for certain colors, flowers, foods, art forms and the like. Think Color Me Beautiful, but for your life, not just your makeup colors.

From longtime fans who've seen Breakfast at Tiffany's countless times to those who discovered the gorgeous gamine via a Gap commercial, Audrey Hepburn has seemingly endless appeal. What Would Audrey Do? Timeless Lessons for Living with Grace and Style offers advice for emulating the icon's style and approach to life. Author Pamela Keogh gives oversized sunglasses and ballet flats their due, but she goes beyond signature fashion to ponder whether Audrey would have a MySpace page, sit for an interview with Oprah or admit she learned lessons from her strict mother (no, probably, yes). WWAD? offers thought-provoking and fun anecdotes, quizzes and decorating tips, but it also contains plenty of biographical detail. Keogh also describes Audrey's work with UNICEF, for which she served as an ambassador until her death in 1993 at age 63. WWAD? is a well-rounded read for the Audrey aficionado, or anyone who wants to live life with a bit more panache.

GROAN AND BEAR IT
Any woman who's suffered through a mom-induced blind date will find herself laughing—and cringing—in sympathy with the writers who contributed to Have I Got a Guy for You: What Really Happens When Mom Fixes You Up. The essay collection, edited by Alix Strauss (author of the short story collection The Joy of Funerals), contains 26 stories by women who've experienced some rather interesting fix-ups thanks to their well-meaning, but misguided, mothers. Standouts include "Letters to Gelman," about a mom's sudden and complete obsession with the producer of "Live with Regis and Kathie Lee," and "Dentists + Dragons," in which the writer's suitor, a dentist and screenwriter wannabe, drags her to a Dungeons & Dragons convention and presents her with a skimpy costume. There are positive outcomes here, too. One date becomes a good friend; another becomes a husband; and plenty of women emerge from their dates creeped out but wiser.

What happens to a mother when her husband, her children's father, dies? In Designated Daughter: The Bonus Years with Mom, D.G. Fulford steps in as "the sibling who would try to take up the empty space that had always been filled by Dad." (Fulford's brother is author and former Chicago Tribune columnist Bob Greene.) Each […]
Lifestyles

Decorating by the stars

Review by bookpagedev

Ever wondered how your favorite Hollywood celebrity decks his or her Christmas halls? Catch the Tinseltown holiday scoop with Christmas Style by Debi Staron and Bob Pranga, a Los Angeles-based decorating duo also known as “Dr. Christmas.” With a foreword by entertainment reporter Leeza Gibbons (whose home is featured in the book), this flamboyant decor guide includes full-page color photos of gorgeous Southern California interiors, all beautifully adorned with glittering holiday trees, sparkling lights, exquisite ornaments, lush greenery and festive foods. Christmas Style also includes sections on movie-star themed Christmas trees (“The 12 Dames of Christmas”), pictures of the authors’ celebrity-autographed ornaments, and a primer on how to select, trim and dismantle Christmas trees. Alison Hood still waits up for Santa every Christmas Eve and eats way too many cookies while keeping watch at the hearth.

Ever wondered how your favorite Hollywood celebrity decks his or her Christmas halls? Catch the Tinseltown holiday scoop with Christmas Style by Debi Staron and Bob Pranga, a Los Angeles-based decorating duo also known as “Dr. Christmas.” With a foreword by entertainment reporter Leeza Gibbons (whose home is featured in the book), this flamboyant decor […]
Lifestyles

Where the heart is

Review by bookpagedev

If the idea of going home for the holidays sends a chill down your spine, you might find relief in bringing along The Dysfunctional Family Christmas Songbook by John Boswell, best-selling author of What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School, and Lenore Skenazy, a New York Daily News columnist and contributor to Mad magazine. This irreverent hymnal of 19 satirical “alternative” Christmas lyrics, all set to the music of the old standard carols, is guaranteed to raise a reaction whether it’s to tickle the familial funny bone, or to make Aunt Hilda bop Cousin Bobby with the Christmas ham. So, get happy, raise a cup of cheer and warble out such favorites as: “O Holy Fight” (sung to the tune of “O Holy Night”), the saga of one family’s sadly divided politics; and “Come Meet the Family” (sung to “O Come All Ye Faithful”), a “celebration of Christmas aggravation.” Alison Hood still waits up for Santa every Christmas Eve and eats way too many cookies while keeping watch at the hearth.

If the idea of going home for the holidays sends a chill down your spine, you might find relief in bringing along The Dysfunctional Family Christmas Songbook by John Boswell, best-selling author of What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School, and Lenore Skenazy, a New York Daily News columnist and contributor to Mad […]
LifestylesEnvironmentCrafts, Hobbies & Home

Green like me

Review by Deanna Larson

Quirky actor and environmentalist Ed Begley Jr. ("Living with Ed") was riding his bike to the Vanity Fair Oscar party long before green was cool. In Living Like Ed: A Guide to the Eco-Friendly Life Begley outlines his frugal but fun earth-hugging approach to living "simply so others could simply live." Just six compact sections – home, transportation, recycling, energy, garden and kitchen, and personal care – contain his simple to saintly changes for carbon-happy neophytes, from vegan shoes, solar cooking and recycled countertops, to solar heaters, electric bikes and "Ed's Transportation Hierachy." Each section features cost comparisons and amusing "real life" commentary by his Pilates-toned wife Rachelle. A guy with a wind turbine mounted on his roof has his share of granola-head friends, and sidebars about their innovative green products prove fascinating, if not consummate salesmanship to a captive audience. Sure, earnest Ed racks up a few carbon miles on studious arguments like what constitutes a true zero-emission vehicle, but he's so self-effacing and down-to-earth on a topic dominated by self-righteousness that it's hard to resent his halo.

Eco-conversion

Doug Fine (Not Really an Alaskan Mountain Man) may have been "raised on Gilligan and Quarter Pounders" but he demonstrates amazing resourcefulness trading his comfortable Thai-takeout-and-Netflix lifestyle to become an off-the-grid ranching goatherd in Farewell, My Subaru: An Epic Adventure in Local Living. Fine traveled from Burma to Tajikistan as an environmental writer and NPR correspondent, but finally settled down after buying the Funky Butte Ranch in southern New Mexico. He decides to eat locally, use less oil and power his life with renewable energy, but the following months test Fine's humorous resolve to "prove that green Digital Age living was possible." He survives drought, biblical floods and crackpot UN-hating neighbors as he gradually becomes "solarized" and converts a gas-guzzling monster truck into a vehicle that belches the disconcerting aroma of Kung Pao chicken. Along the way, readers will root for this dry sharp wit and his rosy green dream. Will his tiny "herd" of two rambunctious goats purchased on Craigslist turn Fine into the Mimbres Valley's ice cream man? Will this new singleton finally find love and satisfaction while raising organic rainbow chard and reducing his carbon footprint? Fine's funny struggle to become a better world citizen will entertain both the eco-aware, and those who doze peacefully in their home's formaldehyde fumes.

Green is the new black

Hemp shoes and a hair shirt? Mais non, says Christie Matheson in Green Chic: Saving the Earth in Style. Rejecting a recycled tire home for the pashmina mantle of ultra-hip BFF of Mother Earth, Matheson's recommendations for the elegant yet earth-friendly good life include beeswax candles, linen napkins, a cashmere sweater, lobster on the Maine coast and sleeping on organic cotton sheets at boutique hotels plus other wine and food, beauty, fashion, travel and party ideas. While the slightly snobby tone ("I don't mean tacky spider plants but nice ones. . . only drink coffee that is shade-grown, Fair Trade certified and organic. . .") targets the young and beautiful crowd too sexy to muss their fingernails planting trees, the book is useful for anyone scared to give up their luxuries while saving the planet.

Here's what you do

Lithe goddess Renee Loux (Living Cuisine, "It's Easy Being Green") radiates "personal and planetary health" in Easy Green Living: The Ultimate Guide to Simple, Eco-Friendly Choices for You and Your Home. Elevating the green conversation with serious science, Loux uncovers eco-disasters lurking throughout the home, from nonstick cookware and aluminum baking sheets to foam pillows, paint, dandruff shampoos and plastic sippy cups. Her illustrated tome features plenty of footnotes and charts about hazardous chemicals to bolster the argument but also provides hundreds of nontoxic, earth-friendly options for every room of the house, plus "Green Thumb Guides" to buying healthful cleaning, personal products and cosmetics, as well as recipes for homemade biodegradable cleaning solutions. Certain tips (baking soda not bleach cleanser, vinegar for dirty kettles) are common as mud, but other facts (bleached filters give coffee lovers a mouthful of dioxins with their daily java) make readers grateful Loux became a green detective.

Make a few simple changes without moving next door to Al Gore with "lists" for green living such as 365 Ways to Live Green: Your Everyday Guide to Saving theEnvironment. This small guide covers day-to-day ideas that make a difference while one is eating meals, maintaining home and garden, raising kids and pets, traveling to work or celebrating.

Organizations are resource guzzlers, so the illustrated True Green @ Work: 100 Ways You Can Make the Environment Your Business is a DIY manual for workers wanting to reduce their company's carbon footprint. The brief guide suggests simple tips (refillable pens and washable mugs) and more complicated and worthy efforts (industry advocacy and telecommuting) along with a smidgen of the truly nutty, like cultivating a worm farm on the break room countertop and requesting that a high-rise office building turn off the lights when the last worker leaves.

Planet in peril

Right now, half of the world's population is thirsty because they can't find clean water to drink. Blue Planet Run: The Race to Provide Safe Drinking Water to the World is the latest large-scale project by former Time and National Geographic photographer Rick Smolan and Jennifer Erwitt (Day in the Life, America 24/7). The "carbon neutral" oversized coffee-table book (with a foreword by Robert Redford) documents Blue Planet Run, a nonstop, around-the-world relay race held in 2007 to bring attention to the global water crisis (all book royalties will fund safe drinking water projects). It's also a thought-provoking visual tour of these global water issues by the world's top photojournalists, from the immense social impact of China's Three Gorges Dam to residents of a New Delhi slum fighting over the hose from a government water tanker truck and portraits of land purchased by oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens so the water underneath it could be sold to gasping Texas towns.

Entrepreneurial spirit and free-market forces are the answer to problems plaguing the planet, according to Earth: The Sequel: The Race to Reinvent Energy and Stop Global Warming. Aiming to "harness the great forces of capitalism to save the world from catastrophe," Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund, and writer Miriam Horn profile green energy innovators and investors in the "world's biggest business." They include Soviet ∧#233;migr∧#233; Alla Weinstein, who worked with the Makah tribe of the Pacific Northwest to harness ocean power, and Herculano Porto who helped halt the dangerous charge on the "Amazonian frontier" by changing the way people could profit from clearing rain forests. Reading like the best creative nonfiction, Earth: The Sequel makes a fascinating case for this "emerging new energy economy."

Quirky actor and environmentalist Ed Begley Jr. ("Living with Ed") was riding his bike to the Vanity Fair Oscar party long before green was cool. In Living Like Ed: A Guide to the Eco-Friendly Life Begley outlines his frugal but fun earth-hugging approach to living "simply so others could simply live." Just six compact sections […]
LifestylesCrafts, Hobbies & Home

Fresh spring plantings to spruce up your garden

Review by Kelly Seaman

Learn to Garden: A Practical Introduction to Gardening opens with a pair of chapters titled "The Garden You Want" and "The Garden You've Got," and can equip the new gardener with the skills needed to transform the one into the other. There are answers to questions a novice might be terribly curious about but afraid to ask: Why in the world is she tipping that nursery plant upside down to look at what's inside the pot? Why did he pick this plant instead of that one? How do I plant this tree now that I've brought it home? The book's how-to photo spreads are particularly welcome. Pruning, for example, is often a daunting business even for gardeners with experience. I like the way a series about thinning an overgrown shrub shows a newly vigorous plant in the final "after" shot; it's reassuring to see that it all can come out well in the end. Although revised for North America, Learn to Garden retains its native British accent. Think of it as putting a U.K.-trained expert at the reader's disposal.

PLAN ON IT
Sunset's Big Book of Garden Designs by Marianne Lipanovich offers a fine mix of show and tell. Photographs, watercolor-style illustrations and color-coded planting maps work together with compact commentaries on the designs and annotations to the garden plans. Those notes include plot measurements, plant names and the number of each variety required – all the information you'd need to recreate a design just as the book presents it. But you don't have to stop there. The designs are also well suited to be a springboard for your own reinterpretations of them. That adaptability makes the Big Book of Garden Designs useful for both the newcomer in search of straightforward guidance and the experienced plantsman or plantswoman able to ring the changes on a design.

LOOK AT THIS!
There are few quicker ways to make garden writers cranky than to heap praises on the lovely illustrations that accompany a piece they've written, especially if they didn't even have a hand in composing the captions. With Stafford Cliff's 1000 Garden Ideas: The Best of Everything in a Visual Sourcebook, though, we probably needn't worry about upsetting the author and book designer by privileging the pictures. The hundreds of photographs here, which depict multiple versions of almost any garden element you could imagine, were taken in gardens around the world, nearly all of them by the designer's own camera. That gives the project a remarkable coherence; in spite of its size, this collection couldn't be farther from the jumble of images you might find searching online for ideas for your garden. It's a visual education merely to think through one of Cliff's layouts – added value to a fabulous wish book. I dare you to look a page and not point and say, "That one, please."

REVOLUTIONARY COMPOST
If you think compost is what happens in that pile around the back, Barbara Pleasant and Deborah Martin would like you to reconsider. They're out to encourage you to blend "gardening" and "composting" so thoroughly that the distinction between the two vanishes. The Complete Compost Gardening Guide glories in the details – where to get good sawdust and coffee grounds, the pluses and minuses of a whole range of animal manures, what plants grow best in what sorts of compost – as it provides countless tips for making and using compost in dozens of different ways. Even if you don't sign up for the whole composting lifestyle, there's enough good information here for any gardener to extract a crop of wisdom.

Kelly Seaman will soon be searching for signs of spring in her New Hampshire garden.

Learn to Garden: A Practical Introduction to Gardening opens with a pair of chapters titled "The Garden You Want" and "The Garden You've Got," and can equip the new gardener with the skills needed to transform the one into the other. There are answers to questions a novice might be terribly curious about but afraid […]
LifestylesFamily & Relationships

Beauty on a budget

Review by Sarah White

Crafts of all sorts have made a huge resurgence right along with the DIY trend, and women who knit, sew or are otherwise crafty will want to incorporate some of that into their wedding (and save a little money in the process). Khris Cochran's The DIY Bride: 40 Fun Projects for Your Ultimate One-of-a-Kind Wedding provides inspiration and projects for save-the-date cards, invitations, jewelry and accessories, ceremony decorations, programs, favors and more. Cochran, who founded the website DIYBride.com, also provides a cost comparison to show how much a similar item would cost if purchased in a store, allowing busy couples to decide whether it would be better to buy or make certain projects. A hair ornament for a flower girl, for example, costs about $5 to make but would cost about $40 to buy. The DIY Bride provides clear instructions and suggests whether a project could be completed by the couple themselves, with the help of the wedding party or with members of the family, offering clever ideas and the potential for fun invitation-building parties with friends.

It's the money, honey

Bringing all the pieces of a dream wedding together can be difficult no matter how organized a couple is. Staying on budget can be even trickier, as there's always one more detail (and expense) to add. Rich Bride, Poor Bride: Your Ultimate Wedding Planning Guide aims to help couples stick to their priorities and their budgets. Based on the WE television show "Rich Bride, Poor Bride," this general wedding planning guide contains tips from couples and wedding planners who have seen everything. The book emphasizes the importance of having a wedding planner, since their experience with vendors allows couples to stay on budget and keeps them from having to deal with last-minute details. But even for those who don't hire a planner, Rich Bride, Poor Bride offers advice from the pros that will be useful in getting to the ceremony with finances and sanity intact.

Minding p's and q's

There's a lot of tradition behind the wedding ceremony, and while some of that can be tossed aside in favor of what makes the couple happy, it's useful to have a guide to explain how things should be done. Simple Stunning Wedding Etiquette: Traditions, Answers, and Advice from One of Today's Top Wedding Planners by Karen Bussen, follows in the footsteps of Bussen's other books by pairing useful information with beautiful photos. From handling pushy parents to wording the wedding invitation, from talking about prenuptial agreements to canceling the event, this guide covers the basics of etiquette for the modern wedding. It also covers wedding showers, putting together a non-traditional ceremony and planning the reception. Simple Stunning Wedding Etiquette serves as a reminder that the right thing to do in almost any situation is the thing that makes the people who are important to you most comfortable.

Fresh from the oven

Martha Stewart provides some do-it-yourself inspiration in her new book with Wendy Kromer, Martha Stewart's Wedding Cakes: More Than 100 Inspiring Cakes. While there may not be many brides who have both the skills and interest necessary to make their own cakes, all brides will benefit from learning how cakes are put together and what to consider before ordering one. Stewart and Kromer suggest basing your choice on the style of wedding, the season, a stylistic element of the wedding or the wedding's location. Brave souls who do want to go it alone will find recipes for several of the cakes and a section explaining how to bake, decorate and transport them. For everyone else, the 100 color photos and detailed descriptions of fillings, icing and embellishments serve as a great jumping-off point for a discussion with a professional cake baker.

Crafts of all sorts have made a huge resurgence right along with the DIY trend, and women who knit, sew or are otherwise crafty will want to incorporate some of that into their wedding (and save a little money in the process). Khris Cochran's The DIY Bride: 40 Fun Projects for Your Ultimate One-of-a-Kind Wedding […]
Lifestyles

What’s new in getting old

Review by bookpagedev

<b>What’s new in getting old</b> Not many Americans have missed the message that retirement now means a Jupiter-sized nest egg, a fourth or fifth career and purpose-driven leisure. That pressure takes its toll on the collagen, but Mark Victor Hansen (co-creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series) and beloved 94-year-old TV host Art Linkletter ( Kids Say the Darndest Things! ) tout 60 as the new forty and implore baby boomers to think outside the casket in <b>How to Make the Rest of Your Life the Best of Your Life</b>. Longer and healthier lives mean a new set of expectations and challenges, so the duo urge readers to refire instead of retire and sage instead of age. These inspirational quips ( don’t regret, re-great! is another) and obvious recommendations ( maintain vibrant health! Defy expectations and have a hot sex life! ) get a bit old, so to speak, but the pair also inject some literary Botox into many myths and misconceptions about aging to smooth away worry, and offer some unusual ideas to ponder. The controversial calorie restriction approach to longevity is interesting, along with their advice on unleashing your innate creativity or inner Grandma Moses, and becoming a seniorpreneur to stay solvent, keep the synapses firing and stave off Alzheimer’s.

<b>What’s new in getting old</b> Not many Americans have missed the message that retirement now means a Jupiter-sized nest egg, a fourth or fifth career and purpose-driven leisure. That pressure takes its toll on the collagen, but Mark Victor Hansen (co-creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series) and beloved 94-year-old TV host Art […]
Self-HelpLifestyles

Ars poetica

Review by bookpagedev

Sometimes broad black humor is required, and sometimes the suffering is too delicate for anything other than the most quietly astute words. Blue Peninsula: Essential Words for a Life of Loss and Change is an unusual hybrid of health memoir and favorite poems book, detailing former teacher, researcher and editor Madge McKeithen’s struggle with her son Ike’s mysterious illness. McKeithen is consoled by compulsively reading poem after poem ripped from magazines and books and tucked into thick medical files that she ferries from clinic to clinic while trying to figure out what is happening to her son. I became a poetry addict, she writes, poems became almost all I could read. Blue Peninsula features excerpts of works by Billy Collins, Donald Hall, e.e. cummings, Louise GlŸck, Mark Doty, Sharon Olds, Czeslaw Milosz and many others; their precise, concentrated wisdom becomes at times near lifesaving for McKeithen as she faces her son’s uncertain future and herself as mother, diagramming the words and her own procession through isolation, frustration, sorrow and small slivers of light. Do I have it in me to reach for Peace, Hope, even Delight? McKeithen asks, referencing the Emily Dickinson poem that gives the book its title.

Sometimes broad black humor is required, and sometimes the suffering is too delicate for anything other than the most quietly astute words. Blue Peninsula: Essential Words for a Life of Loss and Change is an unusual hybrid of health memoir and favorite poems book, detailing former teacher, researcher and editor Madge McKeithen’s struggle with her […]
Self-HelpLifestyles

Best foot forward

Review by Linda Stankard

Choosing Happiness: Life and Soul Essentials by Stephanie Dowrick has a title that implies a premise that runs through all four books: that happiness is a choice, not something to merely be hoped for, stumbled upon or given to a lucky few. In fact, no one can give you happiness, Dowrick asserts. People, situations, events outside yourself will affect you, but ultimately, you are responsible for your own happiness. A former psychotherapist and a spiritual retreat and workshop leader, Dowrick explains that by making choices that are right for you and your values, happiness becomes more a way of living that can also . . . . encompass the times when things do not go right or well. She ends each of her seven chapters with a summary section, listing Essential Insights and Essential Actions, such as these from chapter four, Building Self-Respect: Insight Self-respect and respect for others live back to back. What's more, self-respect brings peace of mind, as well as happiness. Action Encourage yourself as you would a good friend. Focus on your strengths. She divides each chapter into brief segments with subtitles such as Workplace Values, The ”Too Busy' Excuse, and Better Than Fighting which make it easy to dip back in for a quick refresher on a particular topic. You'll be glad this book is in your knapsack as you explore the many hills and valleys of the happiness trail.

IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO START
Dowrick would undoubtedly concur with author and PBS personality Loretta LaRoche, who writes early on in Kick Up Your Heels . . . Before You're Too Short to Wear Them that in order to thrive we need to increase our spiritual path by learning to forgive the past, love the present, and create a future that resonates with our deepest values. LaRoche's book focuses on how to age with gusto, or as her subtitle puts it, how to live a long, healthy, juicy life. She cites many role models of juicy living such as Lily Tomlin, who at age 61 was doing a two-hour, one-woman show on Broadway portraying a dozen characters in a demanding act of physicality and stamina, and other actors, writers, physicians, etc., who dive into new projects with passion and enormous curiosity. If you want to wind up dried up, however, LaRoche wryly offers numerous Ways to Wither : Don't sit down to eat. Walk around the house or office while you multitask. Leave the cell phone on at every meal as if you were a trauma surgeon. Staying vibrant requires other choices and LaRoche supplies plenty of Juicy Tidbits of advice. Get lots of massages, she urges. It's a great way to get touched without having to do anything but lie there and enjoy yourself. Or simply watch some fun, sexy movies starring juicy older men and women. Aging beats the alternative, and while You can't stop the inevitable . . . you can reinvent yourself in many ways. With warmth and humor, LaRoche helps light the happiness trail past the 50-year demarcation line.

WHERE THE HAPPY FOLKS ARE
In The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World, NPR correspondent Eric Weiner shares his experiences and insights as he traverses the globe on a quest for a people exhibiting signs of contentment, peace, serenity . . . in other words, happiness. Although a self-proclaimed grump (note the coincidental irony in the pronunciation of his last name) Weiner's writing is rich with deadpan humor: "Clearly, some words can elicit instant joy. Words like 'I love you' and 'you may already be a winner.' Yet other words 'audit' and 'prostate exam,' " he notices, "clearly have the opposite effect."

As he ventures from places like Bhutan, where "Happiness is other people," to less enchanting nations like Moldova, where unfortunately for its inhabitants, "Happiness is somewhere else," Weiner also comes to the conclusion that happiness is a choice. Despite living in a brutal climate and utter isolation he finds Iceland to be a delightfully quirky little nation where everything wise and wonderful about it flows from its language. "When they greet each other, Icelanders say komdu soell, which translates literally as 'come happy.' When Icelanders part, they say vertu soell, go happy. They could have faced the terrible dark and easily chosen despair and drunkenness," he writes with his characteristic comic flair, "but these sons and daughters of Vikings peered into the unyielding blackness of the noon sky and chose another option: happiness and drunkenness. It is, I think, the wiser option." As you settle down for the night along the trail, The Geography of Bliss will be a joy to pull from your knapsack.

GO IN GOOD SPIRITS
Designed like a workbook, the Field Guide to Happiness: Finding Happiness in its Natural Habitat by Barbara Ann Kipfer, Ph.D., will help light your way as you learn to write your way to a happier state of being. Kipfer, who listed 14,000 Things to Be Happy About in a previous book, explains in her introduction that by noting the things that make you happy and setting yourself on a course to ”choose' happiness you can virtually re-script the plot of your life. Her book offers more than 200 suggestions for creating lists, journals, diaries, memory books, and/or mind maps such as Make a List of What You Have Endured in Life That Has Made You Wise, or writing a journal entry about things that make you laugh. Completing even a few of these exercises should make you feel grateful for all you have to be happy for and lift even the most downtrodden spirit. So grab your knapsack, head for the bookstore and happy trails to you!

Choosing Happiness: Life and Soul Essentials by Stephanie Dowrick has a title that implies a premise that runs through all four books: that happiness is a choice, not something to merely be hoped for, stumbled upon or given to a lucky few. In fact, no one can give you happiness, Dowrick asserts. People, situations, events […]
LifestylesHealth & Fitness

Keep your New Year’s resolutions all year long

Review by Deanna Larson

Self Magazine's 15 Minutes to Your Best Self by Lucy Danzinger et al. presents multiple New Year's resolutions in one gorgeous little package. This brilliant compilation of 573 hip tips helps even the most harried but health-conscious woman catch up on topics like health, nutrition and fitness, style and beauty, happiness, sex, money, relationships and home by tackling them in tasks that only last from one to 15 minutes. Need to buy shoes for this summer's marathon but want to save time in the store? Wet the bottom of your foot, step on a paper towel and the imprint will tell you what kind of foot you have. Got another minute? Soothe morning moods, make your sex life brighter, figure out if you have a cold or allergies, and make even veggies healthier. Got three minutes? Become sun smart or find your ideal dog or yoga style. Ten minutes? Find the right winter boots. Fifteen minutes? Check for skin cancer and discover secret ways to save. The book also includes amusing to don't lists on various subjects and 10 things lists on topics from eating your way to slender happiness to looking stylish every time you leave the house.

BUT WHAT TO EAT?
If you've resolved to work more healthy foods into your lifestyle, get all the inspiration you need in 101 Foods That Could Save Your Life. This fascinating look at food as therapy is an A-Z guide to common nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables, herbs, and grains with uncommon powers. Author David Grotto, R.D. L.D.N., contributing writer to Prevention magazine and president of Nutrition Housecall, a family nutrition consulting firm, bases his research on ancient medicine and scientific studies. He reveals the history, lore and uses for super foods that have boosted health and helped heal diseases and chronic complaints for centuries, including avocado (helps decrease gingivitis), cherries (anti-inflammatory, relieves arthritis pain), cardamom (helps heal ulcers), cumin (more effective than some diabetes medications), sardines (more calcium than a glass of milk) and wasabi (shown to inhibit growth of breast cancer cells). Simple, healthful and imaginative recipes by guest chefs and nutritionists make it easy to incorporate the foods into daily meals, including Cranberry Pear Salad with Curried Hazelnuts, Spicy Japanese Mint Noodles, Steamed Artichokes with Lemon Wasabi Sauce and Carob-Walnut Cake. The book includes vitamin and mineral counts, buying and storage tips and fun facts that make remembering items you've previously overlooked at the supermarket easier.

Prevention magazine is must-reading for a healthy lifestyle, and their new Prevention's 3-2-1 Weight Loss Plan: Eat Your Favorite Foods to Cut Cravings, Improve Energy and Lose Weight is the right antidote to eating endless bowls of cabbage soup. Written by Joy Bauer, M.S., R.D., C.D.N. (Yahoo.com's nutrition and weight-loss expert and Self magazine's monthly weight-loss columnist and author of the best-selling Joy Bauer's Food Cures), the book contains dependable information, backed by scientific research, designed to help dieters adopt good nutrition principles for a lifetime and drop pounds without hunger or cravings. The 3-2-1 plan of three meals, two snacks and one sinfully delightful treat each day is presented in three phases: changing habits, losing weight and maintenance. Each phase has its own health and nutrition information that includes meal plans broken out by calories, treat and snack lists and dozens of healthful recipes, plus illustrated workout routines using a mat and dumbbells. Every aspect of achieving a healthy weight is covered, from why bother to how to keep it off, making the book an excellent companion for those longing to finally shed a lifetime of excuses, fads and excesses.

TRAINING WITH THE STARS
Celebrity trainers are a dime a dumbbell, but Steve Zim manages to put a Hollywood gloss on ordinary workout circuits in The 30-Minute Celebrity Makeover Miracle. Zim (6 Weeks to a Hollywood Body), is a fitness expert on the Weekend Today show, and runs a gym in Southern California, where everyone wants to be a star whether in the next box-office blockbuster or their own life. Our microwave culture calls for instant results, however, so Zim designed a combined cardio-weight training program that promises to raise metabolism, burn fat faster and sculpt muscles in just 30 minutes a day, three times a week for 10 weeks. Of course, you don't get Taye Diggs' biceps or Nicole Kidman's colt-like legs without some serious sweat and this program does require a huge dollop of dedication. Walking, marching and jogging phases blend intense workout circuits of strength training using dumbbells and a balance ball (illustrated with black-and-white photos) interspersed with cardio moves, and Zim also presents a brief but good nutrition plan. While those easing into activity could be discouraged by this program, Zim's promises of Hollywood looks on a mere mortal's schedule will certainly motivate those who find themselves in a fitness rut.

More than 40 percent of women ages 55-74 are unable to lift 10 pounds, according to celebrity trainer Kacy Duke (whose clients include Julianne Moore, Denzel Washington, Bruce Willis and Gwen Stefani). That women accept this as a natural part of aging is B.S. according to Duke, who busts out the sistah moves to get self-esteem as well as weak muscles whipped into shape in The Show it Love Workout: Celebrate the Body You Have, Get the Body You Want, co-written with health and fitness writer Selene Yeager. Presenting her signature Woman Warrior Workout with its I Am, I Can, I Do philosophy, Duke's refreshingly up-front advice refashions a workout into a three-part boot camp for emotions, body image and diet, as well as physical self.

I Am looks at the power of the mind-body connection (Duke highlights a study that demonstrated merely thinking about exercising a muscle actually made it stronger). I Can gets the motivation mojo working and I Do focuses on movement after the mental foundation has been established. Pictures of Duke doing the workout moves appropriate for each stage (some brandishing a staff) are also included along with sensible nutrition advice (go on, call Dr. Godiva when needed) and some healthful recipes. The daily get through anything guide at the back keeps the newly-fit on track with short workouts for stressors like the post-baby blues, getting dumped or fired, having a bad day or feeling bored. The entire program can be done in a living room or the gym, and Duke excels at encouraging women to find what they love whether that's a treadmill, gymnastics or flamenco dancing and pushing beyond comfort to a new belief, motivation and strength.

Self Magazine's 15 Minutes to Your Best Self by Lucy Danzinger et al. presents multiple New Year's resolutions in one gorgeous little package. This brilliant compilation of 573 hip tips helps even the most harried but health-conscious woman catch up on topics like health, nutrition and fitness, style and beauty, happiness, sex, money, relationships and […]
Self-HelpLifestyles

Ready for takeoff

Review by bookpagedev

White-knuckle flyers and their struggles while suspended in those big aluminum tubes in the sky inspired Chicken Soup for the Soul Presents The Fearless FlightKit. Compiled by pilots Ron Nielsen and Tim Piering, the kit contains a pocket-sized guide to bring onboard that explains every sound and sensation during takeoff and landing. The Real Life Fearful Flyer Stories booklet details the sagas of ordinary people who are also licking their panic habits. Finally, the kit’s 30-minute “Flight Harmonizer” CD grounds fearful thoughts before and during flight with a mesmerizing blend of voices, sounds and music. Some intonations soothe (“Your seatbelt is firmly attached. You are safe.”); others lead flyers into New Age territory (“It’s about taking off in all areas of your life”). Obsessing about crashes and other terrifying possibilities will be almost impossible while this gentle symphony swirls through your ears.

But the most persuasive aspect of the kit is the confession of Fearless FlightKit creator Nielsen, who flies commercial aircraft and also has a degree in counseling. “I really believe in the power of self-disclosing,” says Nielsen, who was nearly grounded by his own fear of flying during his Air Force training. “My expertise comes from my own fears in life.”

White-knuckle flyers and their struggles while suspended in those big aluminum tubes in the sky inspired Chicken Soup for the Soul Presents The Fearless FlightKit. Compiled by pilots Ron Nielsen and Tim Piering, the kit contains a pocket-sized guide to bring onboard that explains every sound and sensation during takeoff and landing. The Real Life […]

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