A useful, accessible primer for readers hoping to keep themselves looking their best.
A comprehensive self-help guide that gives readers the lowdown on the full spectrum of options for maintaining a youthful appearance.
Plastic surgeon Terry Dubrow (The Acne Cure, 2003) of E!’s TV series Botched and Good Work, and his wife, Heather, an actress and cast member of Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Orange County, offer a comprehensive beauty and anti-aging manual. The book progresses from the least to most drastic approaches to enhancing one’s appearance. Early chapters, for example, offer preventative and reparative advice on makeup, hair care, and skin care; one explains the common ingredients in skin care products, detailing the conditions for which each is suited. From there, the focus shifts to noninvasive aesthetic treatments, such as facials and dermal fillers, and then to plastic surgery. The book clearly outlines the benefits and limitations of each procedure and offers detailed suggestions about choosing a doctor and what to expect during recovery. The final section synthesizes the preceding information to address specific conditions or concerns, ranking topical and nonsurgical treatments according to efficacy and risk. This guide assumes that readers will be familiar with both authors as television personalities and benefits from a conversational, approachable prose style. The information presented is clear and concise and will be valuable to anyone looking to treat or prevent the telltale signs of growing older. The authors advocate a pared-down approach to makeup, but the early sections might have been strengthened by some basic tutorials in this area, including photos or illustrations. Still, the book’s candid discussion of which well-known products and procedures simply don’t work is useful, as are its product recommendations, which range from drugstore bargains to high-end merchandise. It even includes several lesser-known Korean and Japanese brands now available stateside, highlighting an emerging trend in beauty and skin care. Overall, the Dubrows present a refreshing, less-is-more perspective on maintaining a youthful appearance and have crafted a solid information resource.
A useful, accessible primer for readers hoping to keep themselves looking their best.Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-939457-55-4
Page Count: 252
Publisher: Ghost Mountain Books
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Without a hint of bathos or self-pity, and a pleasure to read for its author’s intelligence, wit, humanity, and conviction.
A remarkable first-person account of surviving cancer on one’s own terms.
Gearin-Tosh (English/Oxford Univ.) received the news that he had incurable multiple myeloma in March 1994 and for the next year kept a journal of his efforts to research his deadly disease, assess his options, and find a benign treatment regimen. This journal, supplemented by numerous letters to and from doctors, colleagues, and friends, form the basis for the first part of Living Proof. He relates how, after consulting a number of doctors in both England and the US, he opts not to undergo the brutal chemotherapy recommended by orthodox medicine. (“If your friend touches chemotherapy, he’s a goner” was the warning passed along by someone who had consulted Dr. Ernst Wynder on his behalf.) His research leads him to examine alternative medicine therapies, and he adopts a program utilizing Chinese breathing exercises, acupuncture, regular coffee enemas, and a stringent diet that relies heavily on raw fruits and vegetables supplemented with vitamins and minerals. Gearin-Tosh’s fiercely intelligent account ends in 1995, but the second section, which he wrote six years later, sets this apart from the usual cancer-survival narrative. Prefaced by tributes from two physicians, it includes the author’s analysis of the situation cancer patients are likely to find themselves in and his advice to them. He argues persuasively against being rushed into treatment by doctors’ survival statistics, advocates active involvement in one’s own therapy, and urges resistance to the notion that personal temperament or instincts have no place or value in cancer treatment. Also included is a lengthy medical case history, wryly titled “The Case of the .005% Survivor,” written by his doctor and directed to physicians, giving extensive details about his treatment. An afterword directs readers to a Web site where Gearin-Tosh’s medical records will be kept up-to-date.
Without a hint of bathos or self-pity, and a pleasure to read for its author’s intelligence, wit, humanity, and conviction.Pub Date: April 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-7432-2517-1
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2002
A well-drawn, comprehensive account of a troubling subject.
A British historian trains an eye on the vast history of human experience with illicit drugs.
Beginning roughly in the 18th century, the author relates how opium, cocaine, heroin, cannabis, and many other substances that have bedeviled modern society began their once-innocuous trajectories. Most were first used for healing purposes (“Heroin” was the brand name used by Bayer to market a cure to calm respiratory ailments) or as a means of sedation. Marijuana had medical applications; cocaine was distributed to miners and plantation workers in hot climates to maintain their productivity. As the title implies, what all these substances have in common is their ability to transport the user to a more pleasant state of mind. The author views this human desire for peace, serenity, and “paradise” as a natural impulse and rues the fact that since the early 20th century it has instead been defined as criminal. He points out that prohibition of narcotics arose not from concern for drug use but as a means of criminalizing or marginalizing such specific minorities as youths, blacks, and Asians. Punitive treatment of drug users has not been especially effective, he avers, even though prison sentences for using or supplying drugs remain draconian. Because tough punishments and crackdowns drive up risk and therefore price, they actually end up serving as business incentives for drug suppliers. Davenport-Hines (Gothic, 2000, etc.) offers few specific remedies, although he discusses the example of the Netherlands, where legal, affordable marijuana has reduced dependence on harsher narcotics and addiction-related crime. Making narcotics similar to alcohol in availability by restricting children’s access and closely regulating purchases will ultimately be most helpful to individuals and to society as a whole, he argues. But this is not so much a polemic as a compelling sourcebook whose sheer heft of information, supported by the author’s intelligent take on drug history, grants it the power to persuade.
A well-drawn, comprehensive account of a troubling subject.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-393-05189-7
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2002
GENERAL HISTORY | SELF-HELP | WORLD | HISTORY
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