Another miraculous prescription for mental and physical health, this time with sex as the cure-all. Clinical psychoneurologist and prolific author Pearsall (Ten Laws of Lasting Love, 1993; Making Miracles, 1991, etc.) has discovered—or perhaps invented would be a more accurate word—a new field of medicine that he dubs psychoneurosexuality, or PNS, which explores the relationship among the brain, the mind, the immune system, and sexuality. He begins by explaining the theory of PNS, arguing that it goes beyond Dr. Bernie Siegel's self- healing approach (Love, Medicine and Miracles, 1986) and Dr. David Spiegel's research on the value of social support for sick people (Living Beyond Limits, 1993) to focus on the healing power of an intimate two-person relationship. Such a relationship, he asserts, can help ameliorate all illnesses, but it is especially useful in dealing with old age, heart disease, and cancer. Next, Pearsall attacks what he calls the domination of the ``sex syndicate,'' self-styled experts in the mechanics of sex who in his view have overlooked the power of intimacy and the meaning of love. He concludes with a how-to section on becoming a sexual healer, which involves identifying one's own sexual style, determining one's sexual fitness, and following a weekly three- part sexual workout that consists of ten minutes of shared laughter (he provides a dozen unfunny sex jokes as ``laughrodisiacs''), ten minutes of weeping, and thirty minutes of ``erotorobics'' with one's partner. Couples are urged to take the Pearsall Psychological Inventory, included in the appendix, to discover their potential capacity for sexual healing. There is a real message here about human relationships, but it's swamped by numerous and repetitious lists, the too-cute made-up expressions, and the pseudoscientific jargon. A clear case of overkill.
Pub Date: April 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-517-59440-4
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1994
Categories: GENERAL NONFICTION
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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
Categories: GENERAL NONFICTION
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Noted jazz and pop record producer Thiele offers a chatty autobiography. Aided by record-business colleague Golden, Thiele traces his career from his start as a ``pubescent, novice jazz record producer'' in the 1940s through the '50s, when he headed Coral, Dot, and Roulette Records, and the '60s, when he worked for ABC and ran the famous Impulse! jazz label. At Coral, Thiele championed the work of ``hillbilly'' singer Buddy Holly, although the only sessions he produced with Holly were marred by saccharine strings. The producer specialized in more mainstream popsters like the irrepressibly perky Teresa Brewer (who later became his fourth wife) and the bubble-machine muzak-meister Lawrence Welk. At Dot, Thiele was instrumental in recording Jack Kerouac's famous beat- generation ramblings to jazz accompaniment (recordings that Dot's president found ``pornographic''), while also overseeing a steady stream of pop hits. He then moved to the Mafia-controlled Roulette label, where he observed the ``silk-suited, pinky-ringed'' entourage who frequented the label's offices. Incredibly, however, Thiele remembers the famously hard-nosed Morris Levy, who ran the label and was eventually convicted of extortion, as ``one of the kindest, most warm-hearted, and classiest music men I have ever known.'' At ABC/Impulse!, Thiele oversaw the classic recordings of John Coltrane, although he is the first to admit that Coltrane essentially produced his own sessions. Like many producers of the day, Thiele participated in the ownership of publishing rights to some of the songs he recorded; he makes no apology for this practice, which he calls ``entirely appropriate and without any ethical conflicts.'' A pleasant, if not exactly riveting, memoir that will be of most interest to those with a thirst for cocktail-hour stories of the record biz. (25 halftones, not seen)
Pub Date: May 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-19-508629-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995
Categories: GENERAL NONFICTION
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