A pleasant, if slightly repetitive, set of medical-themed essays.
A doctor’s newspaper column sheds light on everyday risks and ailments.
Between 2013 and 2015, debut author Healey wrote a weekly medical advice column for his local paper, the St. Lawrence Plaindealer of Canton, New York. Based on the author’s 38 years of small-town general practice, these short, easily digestible pieces are full of practical advice about common conditions, such as sleep apnea, asthma, dizziness, and back pain. Some topics extend to two- or three-part series. Overall, there’s a clear focus on preventive medicine and screening tests, with essays explaining the risk factors for cancer, how to manage high cholesterol, and the benefits of regular colonoscopies. Healey also warns against hidden dangers in ordinary foodstuffs. Likening sugar to a drug, he pinpoints processed foods—particularly sodas—as a key factor in skyrocketing diabetes rates. This is society’s true “drinking problem,” he observes: “our fluid consumption is fine. We just don’t drink water anymore.” On the flip side, the book highlights areas in which medical intervention is overzealous: doctors overuse CAT and MRI scans, Healey opines, and too frequently prescribe antibiotics to children. Whether he’s writing about poison ivy, traditional breakfast foods, or testosterone therapy, his style is always down-to-earth. For instance, he refers to popular sayings in this good-natured warning about skin cancer: “stop this senseless exposure to the sun. Leave it for mad dogs and Englishmen. Let peaches and cream be the new look.” He also offers glimpses into his own life to make his counsel more relatable, such as his mother’s death from breast cancer, his 92-year-old father’s end-of-life plans, and the fact that he’s married to a nurse. The essays also benefit from mentions of Domestic Violence Awareness Month (October) and Thanksgiving (gratitude, Healey notes, is a factor in healing). The essays are in their original published order, but a selection of the best columns, with redundant material cut out or grouped together, might have made for a better final product.
A pleasant, if slightly repetitive, set of medical-themed essays.Pub Date: Nov. 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5245-5789-8
Page Count: 274
Publisher: Xlibris
Review Posted Online: March 24, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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