A lighthearted approach to the serious matter of urological health.
Everything you wanted to know about human plumbing but were afraid to ask.
In this amusing handbook, debut author Ruiz argues that it’s well past time for society to get over its discomfort regarding the urinary system. She not only provides critical information about it, she also encourages readers to be proactive participants in keeping it healthy. The author includes her own journey as a urologist’s wife, constantly fielding questions from strangers and loved ones alike—at first, somewhat gingerly, but eventually embracing her role as “a human conduit between the patient and the highly skilled doctor.” She employs an accessible style with colorful phrases scattered throughout; for instance, she uses a baseball analogy to detail the various urology subspecialties—her husband specializes in reconstructive surgery—and describes a weak urine flow thusly: “his pee stream was sounding more like a slow skipping rock across a very large pond.” Other topics include penile prostheses, prostate health, vasectomies, kidney stones, and hormone replacement therapy. Of particular note are chapters covering diabetes, the effects of anesthesia, a neighbor’s alarming case of parasites, and pelvic floor therapy. In this last instance, Ruiz discovered that the muscles at play are the same that one uses for holding in flatulence, and she says that a genteel doctor she interviewed “actually made the word ‘fart’ sound as though it were the harp in an orchestra.” Impressively, the book has already been translated into 13 languages; this may allow the author to break taboos globally for the sake of improving health. That said, there’s occasional confusion between possessives and plurals (“I knew he was fixing penis’s, I just never realized he was an expert with vagina’s too”) and a few other errors in the text (“vas deference”; “urinary track”). However, in the larger context of flawed health care systems, it’s notable that Ruiz mentions issues surrounding access to medical services in the second chapter, as seeing a specialist isn’t necessarily simple for underserved populations.
A lighthearted approach to the serious matter of urological health.Pub Date: April 22, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-952114-31-1
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: July 22, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Sedaris at his darkest—and his best.
In which the veteran humorist enters middle age with fine snark but some trepidation as well.
Mortality is weighing on Sedaris (Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002, 2017, etc.), much of it his own, professional narcissist that he is. Watching an elderly man have a bowel accident on a plane, he dreaded the day when he would be the target of teenagers’ jokes “as they raise their phones to take my picture from behind.” A skin tumor troubled him, but so did the doctor who told him he couldn’t keep it once it was removed. “But it’s my tumor,” he insisted. “I made it.” (Eventually, he found a semitrained doctor to remove and give him the lipoma, which he proceeded to feed to a turtle.) The deaths of others are much on the author’s mind as well: He contemplates the suicide of his sister Tiffany, his alcoholic mother’s death, and his cantankerous father’s erratic behavior. His contemplation of his mother’s drinking—and his family’s denial of it—makes for some of the most poignant writing in the book: The sound of her putting ice in a rocks glass increasingly sounded “like a trigger being cocked.” Despite the gloom, however, frivolity still abides in the Sedaris clan. His summer home on the Carolina coast, which he dubbed the Sea Section, overspills with irreverent bantering between him and his siblings as his long-suffering partner, Hugh, looks on. Sedaris hasn’t lost his capacity for bemused observations of the people he encounters. For example, cashiers who say “have a blessed day” make him feel “like you’ve been sprayed against your will with God cologne.” But bad news has sharpened the author’s humor, and this book is defined by a persistent, engaging bafflement over how seriously or unseriously to take life when it’s increasingly filled with Trump and funerals.
Sedaris at his darkest—and his best.Pub Date: May 29, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-39238-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
PROFILES
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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