A conversational, persuasive guide to health problems that plague many women.
A short, accessible guide to common ailments, with quick explanations of their causes and possible remedies.
Cullen isn’t a doctor, nutritionist or health expert, but she has a natural curiosity toward healthy, holistic living and a knack for sharing her research. Her book looks at a wide range of everyday health problems that women face, from premenstrual syndrome to liver and kidney dysfunction, and attempts to delineate some easily fixable nutritional and environmental causes. Cullen shows how anyone can avoid these common ailments with medication and/or changes to diet and daily practices. For example, she posits that PMS symptoms can be completely avoided if one becomes more mindful of one’s consumption of xenoestrogens, chemicals in food that imitate estrogen and throw one’s hormonal balance out of whack. Avoiding xenoestrogens, she says, means eschewing animal products produced by factory farming, as such farming methods encourage the use of xenoestrogens in livestock to speed growth and production. The author also discusses natural herbal remedies that have been shown to improve kidney and liver function, among other topics. Although some passages aren’t backed up by statistical research or citations, most of the information presented is basic enough that readers could easily study the topics further with a quick Internet search. Cullen also clearly explains a variety of healthy habits, such as eating whole foods and various herbs while steering clear of chemical-laden convenience foods that contribute to poor nutrition. Most herbal remedies and nutritional fixes are successful on a case-by-case basis; one body may react negatively to gluten, for example, while another might have trouble digesting meat and dairy. But it would be hard to refute this book’s overall notion that most human bodies would benefit from a diet rich in natural, plant-based foods, and an absence of highly acidic, highly processed substances.
A conversational, persuasive guide to health problems that plague many women.Pub Date: Feb. 8, 2014
ISBN: 978-1490439495
Page Count: 210
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: March 17, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A provocative and original examination of the flaws in mental health treatment.
Fay's incisive, wide-ranging debut explores her decadeslong immersion in the mental health system.
Beginning when she was a teenager, Fay was diagnosed with six different mental illnesses, sometimes one by one, sometimes in combination, and often based on the skimpiest of evidence. Therapists and physicians concluded that she was suffering from anorexia, major depressive disorder, anxiety disorder, ADHD, OCD, and bipolar disorder. They prescribed medications accordingly, and Fay dutifully swallowed both the diagnoses and the pills—and then found it nearly impossible to extricate herself from either. The narrative, justifiably soaked with anger but also darkly funny at points, does not follow the course of the usual mental health memoir, in which the subject finally receives and responds to the “correct” analysis of her problems and lives happily-ever-after. Instead, Fay, still troubled, still medicated, stepped out of the loop of therapy and began to refute its basic tenets. The author boldly combines three strands: an account of her trip down the rabbit hole of the mental health system, where she tried valiantly to persuade herself to accept diagnoses that didn’t seem to correspond to her actual life; a dynamic critique of the various incarnations of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which serves as a guidebook for many clinicians; and, unexpectedly but beguilingly, analyses of the ways punctuation can reveal and structure thought. While criticism of the DSM is not new, Fay's position as an insider suffering from the results of its application as a method of analysis gives her a unique perspective. Sharply personal and impeccably detailed, the book is bound to raise questions in the minds of readers diagnosed with any number of disorders about the validity of trying to cram individual experience into what Fay contends are essentially imaginary categories.
A provocative and original examination of the flaws in mental health treatment.Pub Date: March 15, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-306868-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: HarperOne
Review Posted Online: Jan. 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2022
An inspiring memoir that will thrill soccer fans as well as social justice activists.
The soccer superstar discusses her life on and off the field and how she has used celebrity in the service of social justice.
Rapinoe grew up in “an athletic family” in small-town Northern California. Early in childhood, she and her identical twin, Rachael, revealed exceptional physical gifts. Both began playing soccer on a boys team at age 6 and quickly overshadowed peers with their "instinctive hand-eye coordination and physical fearlessness.” Later, they played on an all-female team their father created until both were selected to join a bigger, more competitive one in Sacramento. As their soccer skills developed, the sisters discovered a passion for justice of all kinds. “My sister and I have this in common: nothing riles us up more than bullying, cheating, unfairness,” writes the author. Eventually, this passion for social justice became the cornerstone of Rapinoe's stances on such issues as LGBTQ+ rights, pay equity in sports, and the Black Lives Matter movement. When the author reached college in 2004, she surpassed Rachael as an athlete and received an invitation to play in the FIFA Under-19 Women's World Championship in Thailand. In 2006, she joined the U.S. national team as the "youngest and least experienced player.” A major knee injury put her out of contention for the 2008 Olympic team but also taught her the meaning of patience and humility. After college, she turned professional and, in 2012, publicly came out as a lesbian. After a World Cup victory in 2015, Rapinoe became a vocal advocate for pay increases for female athletes, and in 2016, she took a knee to protest racial injustice. This candid memoir about an outspoken White athlete who has consciously "extend[ed] [her] privilege" to those marginalized people both in and out of the sporting world is sure to engage general audiences and soccer fans alike.
An inspiring memoir that will thrill soccer fans as well as social justice activists.Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-984881-16-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Penguin Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2020
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