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LifestylesHealth & Fitness

A new you for the New Year

Review by bookpagedev

Guides for shaping up after the holidays For millions of Americans, the increasing obesity rate isn’t just a news story it’s a personal matter. And after rounds of turkey, pie and cookies consumed during holiday celebrations, many people put losing weight at the top of their New Year’s resolutions. To help out, we’ve gathered four of the biggest diet books of the year. With expert advice from the authors of these best-selling books, you and your family can be on the road to health and fitness in no time flat.

Advice for teens Adults aren’t the only ones at risk of being overweight. Increasing rates of diabetes and heart disease in teenagers prove that they too need to be aware of the benefits of a healthy, balanced diet. Phil McGraw’s son, Jay McGraw, takes on this timely topic in his new book, The Ultimate Weight Solution for Teens: The 7 Keys to Weight Freedom. As the “teen expert” on the Dr. Phil show and the author of the best-selling Life Strategies for Teens, Jay McGraw understands the specific challenges faced by teenagers. The Ultimate Weight Solution for Teens is filled with the personal stories of young adults who have struggled with weight issues (McGraw interviewed more than 10,000 teens while researching the book). He encourages teens to set goals, avoid “bully thinking” (“I’m a failure,” “I’ll never lose weight”), choose a fun method of exercise, find a group of supportive friends and family, and think about how changing their environment can change their eating habits. Each chapter highlights one of McGraw’s seven keys, and includes space for readers to answer questions and find their own solutions to common weight loss problems. The conversational tone and interactive nature of this sensible book make it a must-have for teens and parents alike.

Doctor’s orders Jay McGraw’s book for teens was inspired by his father’s latest bestseller, The Ultimate Weight Solution: The 7 Keys to Weight Loss Freedom (Free Press, $26, 320 pages, ISBN 0743236742). Talk-show host Dr. Phil McGraw applies his no-nonsense attitude to weight loss, reminding readers that losing weight isn’t quick or easy. He believes that in most cases, being overweight is the result of lifestyle choices, and that if people are willing to alter their routines to create a healthier lifestyle, losing weight is all but guaranteed. The Ultimate Weight Solution encourages people to take control of their weight with a common-sense approach to portion sizes, exercise and attitude. Dr. Phil promises that a total commitment to all seven keys will lead to success, and hundreds of people have taken the challenge. This inspiring book which claims that willpower and calorie-counting aren’t necessary for success is a great guide for those who want to slim down.

Going Greene So you’ve got the weight off now what? Another Oprah favorite, personal trainer Bob Greene, is weighing in with two new installments in his Get with the Program! series. Get with the Program! Getting Real about Your Weight, Health, and Emotional Well-Being (Simon &and Schuster, $12, 224 pages, ISBN 0743238044) offers indispensable advice on maintaining a healthy weight along with motivational, personal anecdotes from Greene’s own clients. Greene divides his plan into four phases, which readers can complete at their own pace. Phase One puts you in the right mindset by changing your attitude about diet and exercise. After you’ve made your commitment to staying in shape, Phase Two teaches you how to jump-start your metabolism with exercise. Phase Three seeks out the reasons behind overeating and tries to resolve them, and Phase Four unifies the three previous phases, reinforcing what you’ve learned and helping you step up your exercise and dieting to build muscle. Another excellent resource for people who want to stay in shape is The Get with the Program! Guide to Fast Food and Family Restaurants (Simon &and Schuster, $12.95, 168 pages, ISBN 0743256212). This pocket-sized reference reminds readers of the rules for healthy eating, then lists low-fat menu options at more than 50 chain and fast-food restaurants like Applebee’s, Schlotzsky’s Deli, McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King. (Here’s a hint super-sizing is a no-go.) While that Big Mac is always a temptation, Greene’s guide proves that resolute dieters can accompany friends and family to their favorite restaurants without sabotaging their weight-loss goals.

Guides for shaping up after the holidays For millions of Americans, the increasing obesity rate isn't just a news story it's a personal matter. And after rounds of turkey, pie and cookies consumed during holiday celebrations, many people put losing weight at the top of…
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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

LifestylesHealth & Fitness

Shaping up

Review by bookpagedev

Yoga remains a popular pursuit for people of all ages, and veteran sportswriter and journalist John Capouya is among the committed devotees. With his Real Men Do Yoga: 21 Star Athletes Reveal Their Secrets for Strength, Flexibility and Peak Performance, the author provides a readable and well-illustrated guide to yoga practice. The ostensible “guy hook” here comes by way of testimonials from high-profile jocks such as Tennessee Titans running back Eddie George, New York Mets pitcher Al Leiter, all-star forward Kevin Garnett of the Minnesota Timberwolves and many others, all of whom endorse yoga as a serious adjunct athletic regimen that enhances flexibility, improves balance, helps prevent injury, increases breath support and relieves stress. “Regular” guys chime in as well truck drivers, restaurateurs, architects, etc. giving witness to yoga’s role in general fitness and mind-body awareness. Besides a rundown of basic yoga poses and how to achieve them, the text also offers sport-by-sport workouts, material on meditation (for the guy who strives to go “deeper within”), and a chapter on yoga’s positive impact on one’s sex life. Capouya’s own New York City-based yoga guru Michael Lechonczak serves as consultant to this earnest volume.

Yoga remains a popular pursuit for people of all ages, and veteran sportswriter and journalist John Capouya is among the committed devotees. With his Real Men Do Yoga: 21 Star Athletes Reveal Their Secrets for Strength, Flexibility and Peak Performance, the author provides a…
Lifestyles

Parties with panache

Review by bookpagedev

As host of programs “Surprise Gardener” and “Outer Spaces” on Home and Garden Television, Susie Coelho knows how to make a space look effortlessly beautiful, even if for most people there’s nothing effortless about it. In her new book, Styling for Entertaining, Coelho shares her expertise with the entertainment-impaired who need guidance on how to throw a stylish party.

This TV host (and former wife of the late Sonny Bono) suggests simple steps, starting with the seemingly obvious question of what the occasion is. “Defining the occasion gives meaning to your plans,” Coelho writes, “so think through what you’re celebrating and why.” Once it’s clear what the party is about, Coelho guides readers through the rest of the planning process. She advises compiling items and colors that serve as a springboard for designing an inspired party. Coelho fills her pages with sumptuous color photos to show exactly what she means by “Italian Trattoria” or “Candy Cane Christmas” theme parties. Her hints are practical enough for mere mortals not blessed with the enigmatic entertaining gene.

Coelho lays out several spectacular and spectacularly manageable party concepts, such as an Asian fusion party complete with homemade spring rolls, fortune cookies and a Chinese checkerboard used as a serving tray. Few could think of such clever concepts on their own, and that’s what Coelho is there for.

All Amy Scribner wants from Santa is less traffic on the Washington, D.C., Beltway.

As host of programs "Surprise Gardener" and "Outer Spaces" on Home and Garden Television, Susie Coelho knows how to make a space look effortlessly beautiful, even if for most people there's nothing effortless about it. In her new book, Styling for Entertaining, Coelho shares her…
Lifestyles

Bring us some figgy pudding

Review by bookpagedev

The Christmas Almanac, edited by Natasha Tabori Fried and Lena Tabori, has a little bit of everything you could possibly want to know about the holiday season. Need a holiday bedtime story for the little ones or a refresher course in making paper snowflakes? Want to know the difference between a Balsam Fir and a Douglas Fir, or find out what Santa is called in other countries? Stuffed like Santa’s overflowing pack with a miscellany of stories, poems, carols, recipes, holiday trivia, and more, this treasure trove, complete with fanciful Victorian-inspired illustrations, holds a little something for kids of all ages. But remember, just because you now have access to a recipe for figgy pudding doesn’t mean you have to run out and find beef suet and currants and launch into production. The recipe will be there, the book can be turned to time and again, and Christmas comes but once a year, so keep it simple and enjoy! Linda Stankard admits to making her own mincemeat one jangled Christmas.

The Christmas Almanac, edited by Natasha Tabori Fried and Lena Tabori, has a little bit of everything you could possibly want to know about the holiday season. Need a holiday bedtime story for the little ones or a refresher course in making paper snowflakes? Want…
Lifestyles

On Santa’s knee

Review by bookpagedev

If you think Santa is a jolly old elf, consider this statistic: “Seventy-five percent of children from eleven months old to age three scream and cry at the sight of Santa.” Ed Butchart learned this fact the hard way during his 13 years as a professional Santa, donning his red suit and listening for weeks on end as children divulged their Christmas hopes and dreams. Butchart spills a few secrets of his own in the funny and inspiring memoir The Red Suit Diaries, a behind-the-scenes peek at the life of a shopping mall Santa. Of the thousands of children placed on his knee each season, Butchart finds that some are screamers, some are kickers, some are “Mama climbers,” and some are perfectly adorable. Despite the trials, he manages to keep his Christmas spirit intact, using his position to reflect the love and joy inherent in the season.

Linda Stankard admits to making her own mincemeat one jangled Christmas.

 

If you think Santa is a jolly old elf, consider this statistic: "Seventy-five percent of children from eleven months old to age three scream and cry at the sight of Santa." Ed Butchart learned this fact the hard way during his 13 years as…

Lifestyles

Lights, camera, Christmas!

Review by bookpagedev

For a book guaranteed to brighten your perspective, try Holiday Lights! Brilliant Displays to Inspire Your Holiday Celebration, by David Seidman. This glittering celebration of holiday light displays across America captures the wonder and whimsy of these annual eye-catching creations. Seidman’s text is augmented with photos of holiday night magic, from remote trailers illuminated by a single strand of colored lights to whole city blocks brilliantly alight. These images are visually stunning, but Holiday Lights isn’t just a pictorial journey it also includes practical advice on setting up your own displays and taking “ooh and ahh” photos of lights at night. The book ends with a list of the most bedazzling holiday spectacles across the country and information on light suppliers and other resources.

Linda Stankard admits to making her own mincemeat one jangled Christmas.

For a book guaranteed to brighten your perspective, try Holiday Lights! Brilliant Displays to Inspire Your Holiday Celebration, by David Seidman. This glittering celebration of holiday light displays across America captures the wonder and whimsy of these annual eye-catching creations. Seidman's text is augmented with…
LifestylesFashion

Height of fashion

Review by MiChelle Jones

If you were in London at just the right time this fall, you were able to see both Queen Elizabeth's wedding gown at Buckingham Palace and the opening of the Victoria and Albert Museum's latest fashion exhibition. The queen's gown was designed by British couturier Norman Hartnell for her 1947 wedding, a much-heralded dash of splendor after the austere war years. But it was another designer, Christian Dior, who ushered in what was dubbed the New Look of postwar fashion that year. Dior's full-bodied skirts and use of luxurious fabrics are the jumping-off point of The Golden Age of Couture: Paris and London 1947-1957, the companion volume to the V&A show, edited by senior curator Claire Wilcox.

Ultra-sophisticated photographs by Richard Avedon, Cecil Beaton, Louise Dahl-Wolfe, the Seeberger brothers, John French and others highlight pieces by Dior, Balenciaga, Chanel, Balmain and Jacques Fath. Eight chapter-length essays cover the development of the French couture system, the industry before and during the Second World War, fabrics, the imagery of couture, the inner workings of fashion houses and more. Sidebars discuss the photographers, designers, the New Look itself, and such clever marketing ploys as traveling collections of exquisitely outfitted fashion dolls.

AMERICAN ORIGINALS
To mark his 40th anniversary in fashion, the eponymous Ralph Lauren, also available in a really expensive $400-edition, tracks the designer's career from his days as a tie salesman to his emergence as lifestyle merchant. This is no small feat, as shown in an illustrated timeline studded with Lauren's accomplishments first with a shop in Bloomingdale's, first American designer with a freestanding store and later with a store outside the U.S., first to launch a full home collection, first official outfitter of Wimbledon. Lauren has always managed to infuse his clothing and home fashions with the kind of backstory that inspired him, one of Joe DiMaggio, Frank Sinatra, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Cary Grant, Fred Astaire, Mickey Mantle, FDR, and JFK. This oversized volume is full of beautiful photographs (even Lauren's family photographs are magazine-quality) from fashion shoots, progressing from the earliest Polo shirts to the latest Purple Label suits. A visual index at book's end lists the photographers (Bruce Weber, Patrick Demarchelier, Carter Berg, etc.) and the names that go with the famous faces (Linda Evangelista, Tyra Banks, Naomi Campbell, Penelope Cruz, Tyson Beckford, Jane Gill, Valentina Zelyaeva).

There's couture and then there's what people really wear, as documented in New York Look Book: A Gallery of Street Fashion, a collection of the monthly columns by New York magazine fashion writer Amy Larocca and photographer Jake Chessum. These are literally person-on-the-street interviews and shoots, of a perfectly coordinated Jerry Hall-esque mother of four, design firm partners in outfits worthy of Andre 3000 (navy RL blazer, striped scarf, houndstooth trousers), a stylish tot in a vintage pram, and, at the other end of life, a natty retiree in taupe suede shoes. A few celebrities show up as well Oleg Cassini; Helen Mirren in long, charcoal pleated skirt and pale pink cardigan, red glasses hanging around her neck; John Waters in turquoise Levi's; and Cynthia Rowley. There is a delightful contrast between youthful experimentation and the self-assuredness of the older subjects.

THE WELL-DRESSED HOME
British interior designer Kelly Hoppen's loft home is in a converted girls' school; that aesthetic of cozy spaces within wide-open expanses fills her latest book, Kelly Hoppen Home: From Concept to Reality. Teaming again with writer Helen Chislett and photographer Vincent Knapp, Hoppen offers a practical guide to designing one's abode, regardless of preferred style. Using her home as well as those of clients for case studies, she explains each space with floor plans, photographs and detailed room boards featuring fabric swatches and images of the room's elements. A beautiful presentation of Hoppen's signature style neutral palettes with light and dark contrasts, peppered with a splash of color or show-stopping piece Kelly Hoppen Home is also a useful project manual for expressing one's own vision.

If you were in London at just the right time this fall, you were able to see both Queen Elizabeth's wedding gown at Buckingham Palace and the opening of the Victoria and Albert Museum's latest fashion exhibition. The queen's gown was designed by British couturier…

SportsLifestylesFilmArts & Culture

Killer gifts for guys

Review by Martin Brady

Real men the ones who like to read will welcome the arrival of The Annotated Godfather: The Complete Screenplay. Film historian Jenny M. Jones takes control of this project in marvelous fashion. We get the entire shooting script of the original film, plus deleted scenes, cool sidebars on how the film was adapted from the book, behind-the-scenes tidbits on cast and crew, continuity goofs and obvious bloopers, and a series of introductory essays that consider the enormous production undertaking. There are tons of screenshots and production stills here as well, which, along with the text, combine to make readers feel like they're almost experiencing the actual film. But what emerges most is the genius of Francis Ford Coppola, who comprehensively used both right- and left-brain functions to brilliantly bring the novel to life through a mix of canny screenwriting, zealous attention to endless details and a courageous approach to dealing with his bottom-line-conscious financial bosses and the powerful ensemble of players and creative talent under his reins.

GIMME THE BALL
This one was overdue. After their previous (and fabulous) showcases for football and baseball, Sports Illustrated now gives us The Basketball Book. The format is gloriously similar: hundreds of astonishingly good color and black-and-white photos from the SI archive, interlaced with informative essays and profiles by topnotch journalists. The focus here, however, is a tad skewed, and up for criticism. Unlike the prior series entries, which focused only on the men's pro game, the coverage here includes the college game and also the WNBA. Nothing wrong with that in theory, but certainly the college game (both male and female) is deserving of its own volume, and here it gets overwhelmed by the imposing shadow of the NBA. Plus, the WNBA coverage smacks of tokenism, with only a handful of its major players represented.

On the plus side, there is something about basketball photography that seems even more dynamic than its sporting counterparts, possibly because the photographers can get so close to the action. The results are often breathtaking, both in style and historical importance: an overhead view of Shaquille O'Neal jamming one through the hoop; a coral-tinged portrait of a brooding Wilt Chamberlain (c. 1965); a dramatic shot of an outstretched Dennis Rodman lunging desperately for a loose ball; a delightful photo of basketball twins Tom and Dick Van Arsdale during their college playing days at Indiana; and movingly meditative facing-page glimpses of Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen looking like African gods. There's trick photography here as well for example, a multiple exposure of John Stockton all over the court at once, and a fascinatingly fun bi-fold center insert that lines up 29 of the great ones by height in descending order (ladies included), from Manute Bol (7'7 ) to Muggsy Bogues (5'3 ). The browsing extras are endless: decade-by-decade rundowns of the best players, college and pro; a declension of famous on-court strategies as devised by coaches from Nat Holman to Bobby Knight; and satisfying visual sidebars.

DETAILS MAKE THE MAN
Some of us guys may not dress as sharply as we'd like to, yet there's something to be learned by all in Details Men's Style Manual: The Ultimate Guide for Making Your Clothes Work for You. Daniel Peres and the editors of the award-winning Details magazine first offer some handy reminders about the rules of style, then run down a list of the classic items each guy should have (a classy overcoat, two white shirts, a simple black belt, etc.). The remainder of the coverage offers descriptions and attractive photos of contemporary clothing items, from shirts, pants and blazers to shoes, accessories and (yes) underwear. Thrown in along the way are tidbits of menswear history, regional considerations and tips on how to pack smartly. There's even a how-to on tying a bowtie, something most of us guys are clueless about.

Real men the ones who like to read will welcome the arrival of The Annotated Godfather: The Complete Screenplay. Film historian Jenny M. Jones takes control of this project in marvelous fashion. We get the entire shooting script of the original film, plus deleted scenes,…

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