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LET'S BE LESS STUPID

Name: LET'S BE LESS STUPID
Author: Patricia Marx
ISBN: 978-1-4555-5495-9

AN ATTEMPT TO MAINTAIN MY MENTAL FACULTIES

by Patricia Marx ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 14, 2015

A sly, irreverent take on the latest obsessions regarding self-improvement.

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New Yorker staff writer Marx (Starting from Happy: A Novel, 2011, etc.), the first woman elected to the Harvard Lampoon, brings her wit and quirky curiosity to the timely topic of mental acuity.

Frothy, funny, and abounding in quizzes, exercises, and questionnaires, the author’s latest romp takes readers to the field of applied brain studies, of great interest to an aging population. “With more baby boomers reported to be afraid of losing their minds than of dying,” she writes, “the worried well—and also a few who aren’t doing so hot—spend more than a billion dollars a year on brain fitness.” She, too, would like to transform her brain “into a spiffy young noggin,” and during her four-month quest for “cognitive rejuvenation,” she engaged in “brain-boosting pursuits” that may or may not have had any positive impact. Along the way, she discovered befuddling controversies. Alcohol, for example, “does not kill brain cells” but does damage dendrites, which conduct messages from one cell to another. According to some experts, rearranging furniture stimulates the brain, as does taking a nap, ingesting ginkgo biloba, not ingesting ginkgo biloba, consuming antioxidants, and creating “top one hundred” lists. “As someone whose favorite sport is sitting,” Marx confesses, “I would just once like to hear some bad news about physical exercise.” Alas, “better thinking” turns out to be a benefit of aerobics. Willing to try some form of meditation, Marx chose “mindfulness,” clicking on a YouTube video featuring clouds, waves, sunsets, “and any number of other pictures that look like the photographs you’ve removed from store-bought frames.” Since bilingual students tend to do better on certain intelligence tests, Marx set out to learn Cherokee from Memrise, “a free website that teaches memorization through crowdsourced mnemonics.”

A sly, irreverent take on the latest obsessions regarding self-improvement.

Pub Date: July 14, 2015

ISBN: 978-1-4555-5495-9

Page Count: 208

Publisher: Twelve

Review Posted Online: April 28, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2015

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
TIRED TOWN
by Patricia Marx ; illustrated by Roz Chast

- BOOK REVIEW
STARTING FROM HAPPY
by Patricia Marx

- BOOK REVIEW
DOT IN LARRYLAND
by Patricia Marx and illustrated by Roz Chast

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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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

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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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.