A deeply personal, health-related self-portrait and a basic but useful set of self-care reminders.
An octogenarian offers what he sees as the secrets to his longevity and recovery from serious illness in this inclusive guide.
Seasoned nonfiction writer Bautista suffered a major heart attack in 1996, a diabetes diagnosis in 2006, and a kidney disease diagnosis in 2011. Fearing that he would die, the author decided to embark upon a life-changing regimen of health education and reparative lifestyle changes, in addition to seeking medical intervention. After the trauma of his initial illnesses and recoveries, he became emboldened to share his knowledge regarding self-care. The result is this instructional volume, focused on healthy living and disease prevention, which features condensed chapters that address a variety of maladies and potential treatment methods. After introductory material that extensively details how the author survived a trio of health threats, he offer distressing, relevant chapters on various types of diabetes and their associative complications (in Bautista’s case, it was debilitating double vision), and insulin resistance prevention. He briefly touches on interventions, such as pancreatic islet transplants and angioplasty. He also explores kidney and heart disease variations and the possible ways to treat them with a targeted diet and exercise plan and visits with a medical professional. The best moments in Bautista’s book occur when he puts a personal spin on his health advice; for example, he writes candidly about his harrowing experience with sudden cardiac arrest and heart failure (which he calls “one of the most frightening and devastating events in my life”), and updates readers on the “current situation” regarding his biventricular pacemaker. Finally, he lists numerous methods aimed at strengthening the heart muscle, detoxifying the body, and increasing the intake of beneficial nutrients through an exhaustive list of dietary plans.
Perhaps the most powerful takeaway that readers will get from Bautista’s book is his urgent assertion that these diseases may be slowed or stopped by adhering to a strictly tiered program of caloric intake, lifestyle changes, and consistent exercise. That said, many of his recommendations are, for the most part, quite basic and will strike many readers as familiar and pedestrian; however, they nevertheless serve as healthful, body-positive reminders on a wide range of issues. To its detriment, though, the book has a tendency to repetitively urge readers to stay hydrated, eat a plant-based diet, and pursue a moderate exercise regimen. While these are all important for maintaining a healthy lifestyle, their reiteration over the course of the book is distracting and has the effect of diluting the author’s message. Some readers may also question the validity of Bautista’s facts or advice, due to his limited medical expertise, but many will find it difficult to find fault with reminders to vigilantly pursue preventative strategies, such as laboratory screenings, complete blood panels, and everyday steps that one can take to feel good, be healthy, and ensure vitality. As a result, many readers are sure to find a good deal of worthwhile information in these pages.
A deeply personal, health-related self-portrait and a basic but useful set of self-care reminders.Pub Date: April 27, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-73585-794-7
Page Count: 414
Publisher: LibroCasa LLC
Review Posted Online: July 11, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.
A former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.
Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. “I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed about, it eventually became all about the nightly hustle to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. She shares stories of growing up in an abusive household in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and prison time for robbery as nonchalantly as she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. The book also includes Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-27827-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022
A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.
The iconic model tells the story of her eventful life.
According to the acknowledgments, this memoir started as "a fifty-page poem and then grew into hundreds of pages of…more poetry." Readers will be glad that Anderson eventually turned to writing prose, since the well-told anecdotes and memorable character sketches are what make it a page-turner. The poetry (more accurately described as italicized notes-to-self with line breaks) remains strewn liberally through the pages, often summarizing the takeaway or the emotional impact of the events described: "I was / and still am / an exceptionally / easy target. / And, / I'm proud of that." This way of expressing herself is part of who she is, formed partly by her passion for Anaïs Nin and other writers; she is a serious maven of literature and the arts. The narrative gets off to a good start with Anderson’s nostalgic memories of her childhood in coastal Vancouver, raised by very young, very wild, and not very competent parents. Here and throughout the book, the author displays a remarkable lack of anger. She has faced abuse and mistreatment of many kinds over the decades, but she touches on the most appalling passages lightly—though not so lightly you don't feel the torment of the media attention on the events leading up to her divorce from Tommy Lee. Her trip to the pages of Playboy, which involved an escape from a violent fiance and sneaking across the border, is one of many jaw-dropping stories. In one interesting passage, Julian Assange's mother counsels Anderson to desexualize her image in order to be taken more seriously as an activist. She decided that “it was too late to turn back now”—that sexy is an inalienable part of who she is. Throughout her account of this kooky, messed-up, enviable, and often thrilling life, her humility (her sons "are true miracles, considering the gene pool") never fails her.
A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2023
ISBN: 9780063226562
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
SEEN & HEARD
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