An enthusiastic and sensible approach to getting in shape.
Storm, in her self-help debut, presents a complete program to help people eat a healthy diet, get fit and change their body—and their life.
In 1991, a car accident forced Storm to give up her career as a professional dancer. Debilitating pain led her to put on more than 50 pounds, and she despaired of ever returning to her former fitness level. But Storm’s spirit was undaunted, and she eventually found her way back to health and happiness as a champion in-line speed skater. In this book, she shares tips on how readers can transform themselves. Using a personable, if tough-love, approach, Storm walks readers through the steps required to “regain control” over their bodies. They include adopting a new attitude about fitness (“think yourself thin”), embracing a healthier approach to eating (“living within your jeans”) and sticking to an exercise program. She also covers sleep habits and personal hygiene. Throughout, the author encourages readers to set realistic goals and to focus on overall health, not just on losing weight. She’s also careful to point out that people have different body types and fitness levels and should tailor their regimen to their specific needs. The book includes easy-to-read charts and callouts, with plenty of space for readers to record their body measurements and goals. Storm provides mental exercises to help readers adopt new attitudes about their bodies and fitness (such as “Wash Away the Ugly”), as well as straightforward advice on deciding what to eat while following a “booty budget.” Storm’s relentless perkiness may not appeal to some readers, with quips such as, “if you change your mind, you will change your life.” Occasionally, her tips are obvious; is advice on how to take a shower really necessary? Overall, however, Storm offers healthy, holistic strategies for getting fit that offer an alternative to fad diets and unachievable goals.
An enthusiastic and sensible approach to getting in shape.Pub Date: Nov. 14, 2012
ISBN: 978-1479131983
Page Count: 238
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Dec. 24, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.
The chef, rapper, and TV host serves up a blustery memoir with lashings of self-help.
“I’ve always had a sick confidence,” writes Bronson, ne Ariyan Arslani. The confidence, he adds, comes from numerous sources: being a New Yorker, and more specifically a New Yorker from Queens; being “short and fucking husky” and still game for a standoff on the basketball court; having strength, stamina, and seemingly no fear. All these things serve him well in the rough-and-tumble youth he describes, all stickball and steroids. Yet another confidence-builder: In the big city, you’ve got to sink or swim. “No one is just accepted—you have to fucking show that you’re able to roll,” he writes. In a narrative steeped in language that would make Lenny Bruce blush, Bronson recounts his sentimental education, schooled by immigrant Italian and Albanian family members and the mean streets, building habits good and bad. The virtue of those habits will depend on your take on modern mores. Bronson writes, for example, of “getting my dick pierced” down in the West Village, then grabbing a pizza and smoking weed. “I always smoke weed freely, always have and always will,” he writes. “I’ll just light a blunt anywhere.” Though he’s gone through the classic experiences of the latter-day stoner, flunking out and getting arrested numerous times, Bronson is a hard charger who’s not afraid to face nearly any challenge—especially, given his physique and genes, the necessity of losing weight: “If you’re husky, you’re always dieting in your mind,” he writes. Though vulgar and boastful, Bronson serves up a model that has plenty of good points, including his growing interest in nature, creativity, and the desire to “leave a legacy for everybody.”
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4478-5
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
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
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