Highly informative yet intelligible; provides ample details without attempting to replace treatment by a medical...
This health guide offers an introduction to two conditions that affect tens of millions of Americans.
Gastroenterologist Lamont (C. Diff in 30 Minutes, 2013) does an admirable job of presenting a plain English, authoritative overview of acid reflux (also known as GERD) and heartburn, which together he estimates may strike more than 60 million people in the United States. The author begins with patient cases that show the effects of either GERD or heartburn on four people of different genders and ages. Using these stories at the very beginning of the book enables readers to immediately identify with the patients and understand that these conditions are universal. Each case ends with helpful takeaways that extract key lessons. Subsequent chapters explore the causes of heartburn and acid reflux, how these conditions are diagnosed (including lucid explanations of medical tests and procedures), typical treatments, and a final chapter on severe acid reflux. “Basic treatment of acid reflux,” one of the most helpful chapters, discusses foods that can trigger GERD and heartburn. Also in this chapter is a thorough look at acid-blocking medications, differentiating between H2 blockers and proton pump inhibitors. Here, Lamont indicates possible side effects and covers recent research that may indicate a relationship between taking acid blockers and contracting Alzheimer’s disease. “Coping with severe acid reflux” is an equally enlightening chapter because it candidly addresses medication versus surgery for more serious cases. The author clearly describes various types of surgeries, including the recent LINX device, in simple language. He acknowledges that his intent is to provide general information rather than specific medical advice. There are three strengths to this work: The writing takes complicated subject matter and makes it easy to comprehend; stock illustrations augment the text; and the content is extremely focused. Lamont’s superb credentials should instill confidence in readers. The volume is part of a series of “In 30 Minutes” books, labeled by the publisher as “quick guides for a complex world.” This manual on acid reflux and heartburn fits that mandate nicely.
Highly informative yet intelligible; provides ample details without attempting to replace treatment by a medical professional when warranted.Pub Date: March 7, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-64188-019-0
Page Count: 76
Publisher: i30 Media
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An extraordinary true tale of torment, retribution, and loyalty that's irresistibly readable in spite of its intrusively melodramatic prose. Starting out with calculated, movie-ready anecdotes about his boyhood gang, Carcaterra's memoir takes a hairpin turn into horror and then changes tack once more to relate grippingly what must be one of the most outrageous confidence schemes ever perpetrated. Growing up in New York's Hell's Kitchen in the 1960s, former New York Daily News reporter Carcaterra (A Safe Place, 1993) had three close friends with whom he played stickball, bedeviled nuns, and ran errands for the neighborhood Mob boss. All this is recalled through a dripping mist of nostalgia; the streetcorner banter is as stilted and coy as a late Bowery Boys film. But a third of the way in, the story suddenly takes off: In 1967 the four friends seriously injured a man when they more or less unintentionally rolled a hot-dog cart down the steps of a subway entrance. The boys, aged 11 to 14, were packed off to an upstate New York reformatory so brutal it makes Sing Sing sound like Sunnybrook Farm. The guards continually raped and beat them, at one point tossing all of them into solitary confinement, where rats gnawed at their wounds and the menu consisted of oatmeal soaked in urine. Two of Carcaterra's friends were dehumanized by their year upstate, eventually becoming prominent gangsters. In 1980, they happened upon the former guard who had been their principal torturer and shot him dead. The book's stunning denouement concerns the successful plot devised by the author and his third friend, now a Manhattan assistant DA, to free the two killers and to exact revenge against the remaining ex-guards who had scarred their lives so irrevocably. Carcaterra has run a moral and emotional gauntlet, and the resulting book, despite its flaws, is disturbing and hard to forget. (Film rights to Propaganda; author tour)
Pub Date: July 10, 1995
ISBN: 0-345-39606-5
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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