Bestselling author and life motivator Greene (The Life You Want, 2010, etc.) plumbs the secrets to looking and feeling younger.
Together with a team of medical experts, the author explores the building blocks of youthfulness and how to turn back the clock on aging to recapture the vigor of a healthy mind and body. In the introduction, the 50-something author references the grueling training and reserve that was necessary when he bicycled cross-country on a multi-city book tour. What he took away from that experience was improved “mental and emotional clarity,” along with a physical soundness he’d never believed he could achieve. Reinvigorated, Greene shares his wellspring of knowledge on how to combine the latest advances in anti-aging science with a practical daily regimen. He introduces a four-part system galvanizing the benefits of regular exercise, healthful nutrition, skin care and restorative sleep. The author presents several theories on why we age and what can be done to reverse its effects on our minds and bodies. Exercise is as much a key component, Greene stresses, as mindful eating, and he presents a detailed fitness program along with pages of recommended “superfoods” touted to boost energy and longevity. Cautionary advice on the dangers of “killer compounds” like saturated and trans-fats, sodium and refined sugar is blatantly conventional, but can serve as a helpful reminder when combined with recommendations on skin care, sunscreen and an 11-point plan to maximize the benefits of sleep. The closing chapter provides a sensible food plan featuring recipes for Sweet Potato and Turkey Shepherd’s Pie, Blueberry Oatmeal Pancakes and Slow-Cooked Lamb. Together with stress control and the power of a positive attitude, Greene firmly demonstrates that it’s never too late for anyone to look and feel their best. Timely, accessible and compelling guidance from a veteran health-and-wellness guru.
Pub Date: May 2, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-316-13378-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2011
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Skloot's meticulous, riveting account strikes a humanistic balance between sociological history, venerable portraiture and...
A dense, absorbing investigation into the medical community's exploitation of a dying woman and her family's struggle to salvage truth and dignity decades later.
In a well-paced, vibrant narrative, Popular Science contributor and Culture Dish blogger Skloot (Creative Writing/Univ. of Memphis) demonstrates that for every human cell put under a microscope, a complex life story is inexorably attached, to which doctors, researchers and laboratories have often been woefully insensitive and unaccountable. In 1951, Henrietta Lacks, an African-American mother of five, was diagnosed with what proved to be a fatal form of cervical cancer. At Johns Hopkins, the doctors harvested cells from her cervix without her permission and distributed them to labs around the globe, where they were multiplied and used for a diverse array of treatments. Known as HeLa cells, they became one of the world's most ubiquitous sources for medical research of everything from hormones, steroids and vitamins to gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, even the polio vaccine—all without the knowledge, must less consent, of the Lacks family. Skloot spent a decade interviewing every relative of Lacks she could find, excavating difficult memories and long-simmering outrage that had lay dormant since their loved one's sorrowful demise. Equal parts intimate biography and brutal clinical reportage, Skloot's graceful narrative adeptly navigates the wrenching Lack family recollections and the sobering, overarching realities of poverty and pre–civil-rights racism. The author's style is matched by a methodical scientific rigor and manifest expertise in the field.
Skloot's meticulous, riveting account strikes a humanistic balance between sociological history, venerable portraiture and Petri dish politics.Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4000-5217-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should...
Greene (The 33 Strategies of War, 2007, etc.) believes that genius can be learned if we pay attention and reject social conformity.
The author suggests that our emergence as a species with stereoscopic, frontal vision and sophisticated hand-eye coordination gave us an advantage over earlier humans and primates because it allowed us to contemplate a situation and ponder alternatives for action. This, along with the advantages conferred by mirror neurons, which allow us to intuit what others may be thinking, contributed to our ability to learn, pass on inventions to future generations and improve our problem-solving ability. Throughout most of human history, we were hunter-gatherers, and our brains are engineered accordingly. The author has a jaundiced view of our modern technological society, which, he writes, encourages quick, rash judgments. We fail to spend the time needed to develop thorough mastery of a subject. Greene writes that every human is “born unique,” with specific potential that we can develop if we listen to our inner voice. He offers many interesting but tendentious examples to illustrate his theory, including Einstein, Darwin, Mozart and Temple Grandin. In the case of Darwin, Greene ignores the formative intellectual influences that shaped his thought, including the discovery of geological evolution with which he was familiar before his famous voyage. The author uses Grandin's struggle to overcome autistic social handicaps as a model for the necessity for everyone to create a deceptive social mask.
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should beware of the author's quirky, sometimes misleading brush-stroke characterizations.Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-670-02496-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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