An uneven but good-humored attempt to lighten the task of making health decisions. Harris (Economics/MIT; Medicine/Harvard Medical School) focuses on six issues: heterosexual behavior and AIDS; exercise; weight control; cholesterol; smoking; and breast cancer. His stated aim isn't simply to impart information—although there's plenty of that here—but to encourage a way of thinking, an approach to decision-making. While noting that the risks of everyday living aren't entirely under one's own control (both genetics and luck play a part), he urges confronting choices boldly, reducing risks intelligently, and being persistent. Harris presents six minidramas, some serious, some comic, in which characters face decisions affecting their health: Will Dinah have unprotected sex with Caleb? Will Steve stay in his aerobics class? Will Eve enroll in a weight-loss program? What will Gideon order for lunch? How can Andrew quit smoking? Will Ruth have a preventive mastectomy? The characters are fictitious, but the author, who also practices medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, bases their concerns on his experience with thousands of patients. He examines their circumstances and analyzes their choices, wise and otherwise. It's clear that collecting information is the first step in making a wise health decision, but less clear is just how one determines what to do— or not to do—in the face of confusing messages from the media, advertisers, public-health officials, and the scientific establishment. Although he falls short of his objective of teaching an overall approach, the information Harris imparts about the specific issues he raises will facilitate decision- making in those areas. Altogether, much useful advice about handling some of life's major health risks.
Pub Date: Oct. 27, 1993
ISBN: 0-465-02889-6
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Basic Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1993
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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