A sober exploration of weight-loss pills that actually work.
A current overview of the drugs available for weight loss.
Journalist Hari, author of Chasing the Scream and Lost Connections, begins with a vivid description of his fascination with junk food, along with the oft-told story of the food industry’s post–World War II breakthrough in manufacturing calorie-dense, fatty, salty, chemically enhanced edible products, many not found in nature but irresistible to consumers. “The average American adult weighs twenty-three pounds more than in 1960,” writes the author, “and more than 70 percent of all Americans are either overweight or obese.” Unfortunately, diets rarely work. Weight-loss drugs, touted for decades, were mostly worthless; the few that worked turned out to be toxic. Following the history lesson, Hari reveals that the wildly popular drugs—Ozempic, Mounjaro, Wegovy—are effective. Six months after starting Ozempic, the author was thinner, fitter, and more confident, but also uneasy. He felt full soon after beginning a meal, food lacked its usual appeal, and he felt nauseous more than before. As he relates, 5% to 10% of users stop because the side effects aren’t worth it. However, the drugs have been treating diabetes for 18 years, so the odds of a patient developing a serious side effect seem small. In addition to his personal story, Hari chronicles his travels around the world interviewing users, researchers, physicians, and the drug’s developers, pausing for thoughtful essays on why we eat and overeat, why dieting almost never works, and how the world may change when these drugs become affordable after the patent expires in 2032. In a mildly optimistic conclusion, Hari argues that our first priority should be to eliminate the superprocessed quasi-foods that we can’t resist—unlikely, of course, so the author offers a digestible survey of the possibilities of pharmaceuticals.
A sober exploration of weight-loss pills that actually work.Pub Date: May 7, 2024
ISBN: 9780593728635
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
An above-average celebrity memoir from an intriguing spirit.
The longtime Hollywood actor looks back.
“What does it mean to be a ham?” asks the author, rhetorically. “Was I a ham? I was naturally and inordinately theatrical. I liked to carry on. I liked attention. I liked extravagant speech. I liked to emote. I liked to talk.” All of these qualities are abundantly evident in Kilmer’s memoir, which is as much a spiritual journey as it is a chronicle of his life and career. The author recounts the depth of his Christian Science faith, his formative years in a family of privilege in Los Angeles, his teenage romance with fellow actor Mare Winningham (“my first real girlfriend”), his training and rebellion at Juilliard, and his decision to leave Broadway for Hollywood. There, he writes, “I was not yet a burgeoning talent but ‘Cher’s lover,’ ” when she was in her mid-30s and he in his early-20s. After scoring big with Tom Cruise in Top Gun, Kilmer turned down Blue Velvet and Dirty Dancing: “Neither part spoke to me.” He played Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone’s The Doors, which he considers “one of the proudest moments of my career.” Marlon Brando and Sam Shepard went from being idols that Kilmer worshipped to becoming friends. He was slated to star as Batman in three films but jumped ship after Batman Forever, which he considers “so bad, it’s almost good.” He married and divorced British actor Joanne Whalley and wooed Daryl Hannah (“kind of the female me, only better”), and he wrote and starred in a one-man show as Mark Twain. When he was hospitalized for surgery due to his throat cancer, he prayed, he read Twain and Christian Science’s Mary Baker Eddy, and he “didn’t wrestle with my angels. I sang and danced with them.” Kilmer was never a shrinking violet, and he still refuses to wilt.
An above-average celebrity memoir from an intriguing spirit. (photos)Pub Date: April 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9821-4489-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 11, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
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
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