An inspiring story in which the author demonstrates unequivocally that public health policy can not only save lives; it can...
A New York City–based saga showing how “saving lives in America today means fighting to protect people from the pervasive marketing of cigarettes, junk food, and other unhealthy products.”
The city’s bold public health initiatives during the Michael Bloomberg administration were an unmitigated success, but his policies met with plenty of controversy and contention before becoming worldwide models. In the United States, nearly 4 in 10 people die from chronic diseases like heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. During his terms as mayor, Bloomberg—advised by his forward-thinking Health and Mental Hygiene commissioners, Thomas Frieden and Farley (co-author: Prescription for a Healthy Nation: A New Approach to Improving Our Lives by Fixing Our Everyday World, 2005)—committed to battling this preventable epidemic by revolutionizing public health policy. They led a visionary team of doctors and public health experts in passing breakthrough laws that made healthy behaviors easier: they outlawed smoking in bars and banned cooking with trans fats; they required fast-food restaurants to post calorie counts for their menu items, and they barred them from selling outsized sugary drinks. The author, who succeeded Frieden, provides an enthralling insider’s view of the high-stakes battle between the administration and the powerful corporations who have made billions selling toxic foods, sodas, and cigarettes. It’s not giving anything away to say that the good guys won. As a result, hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers quit smoking, childhood obesity rates slumped, and between 2001 and 2010, life expectancy rose by three years, almost double the nationwide average. In his informed and inspired retelling, Farley provides plenty of behind-the-scenes access to the negotiations, compromises, and brilliant strategies that shaped this now-historic era.
An inspiring story in which the author demonstrates unequivocally that public health policy can not only save lives; it can change the way we view the landscape of food.Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-393-07124-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: July 24, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2015
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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