I haven’t read most of these yet, but they all sound pretty good.

This one sounds amazing. Everyone on Amazon is raving about how inspiring it it – this guy has no limbs and he has a super positive attitude! How can we not learn from this book:

These days, as a newly licensed Brain Gym instructor and consultant, the topic of neuroplasticity is definitely on my mind!:

Another science-based book that shows us how to “turn back the clock”:

One of my readers’ favorite topics (finding love), this one nevertheless puts a positive spin on being single:

We might have to label this one a guilty pleasure, but it’s supposed to be good!:

Another sorta-celebrity one that got some good customer reviews on Amazon:

One of the authors of this one has a previously reviewed book on my site.

This one sounds funny and inspiring. She’s apparently a very popular Christian bible study author that I had not even heard of:

This one sounds great too:

Enjoy!

You can tell the two women (or shall I say skinny bitches) who wrote Skinny Bitch: A no-nonsense, tough-love guide for savvy girls who want to stop eating crap and start looking fabulous! had a ton of fun doing it. Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin can be rude and obnoxious, opinionated and sometimes too crass for my tastes, but the book is, first of all, laugh-out-loud funny. I started only a few pages in. Though the writing style is informal, you forget when they talk technical, only to be surprised at reading something like, “Whenever you see the words ‘fat-free’ or ‘low-fat’, think of the words, ‘chemical shit-storm’”. Unexpected, to say the least.

Another unexpected thing about this book is its hard-line on veganism. That’s right. If you want to be a skinny bitch, they say, you better not only cut out the stuff you know is junk food (bad fats and sugars, for example), but stop eating meat and cheese and in fact, animal products of all sorts. Probably half the book deals with the nutritional and ethical problems of eating industrially farmed animal products. It quotes extensively from a gruesome book called “Slaughterhouse” and contains appalling descriptions from slaughterhouse workers regarding their abusive treatment of animals. I never thought too badly of milk, especially since I drink low-fat and the cows don’t die from it, but this book has made me cut down and begin drinking more almond milk instead. But give up cheese? (Or switch to soy-cheese, as the bitches recommend?) That will require baby steps. And to think of my kitcheree without cumin seeds fried in ghee and a dallop of yogurt on top? Or to never again enjoy the simple delights of bread and butter? They’re pulling me away kicking and screaming now. Smart Balance just wouldn’t be the same.

The first topic the skinny bitches get into is the truth about carbs, that carbs are good for you if you eat the right ones; whole grains and potatoes are no problem. It’s only the highly refined sugar and flour products that you should avoid. And also artificial sweeteners; they present some damning research on aspartame. I like how they point out that even certain fats are good for you, that you should eat certain plant based oils and foods like avocados and nuts (just not to excess).

Speaking of aspartame and the fact that it is still FDA approved as an acceptable sweetener, the skinny bitches excel at explaining why you cannot trust the government when it comes to healthy eating. In a chapter titled, “Have No Faith: Governmental Agencies Don’t Give a Shit About Your Health,” they explain, among other things, how we are deceived by the USDA Dietary Guidelines. More than half of the members of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee were affiliated with food industries including, “the American Meat Institute, National Livestock and Beef Board, the American Egg Board, the National Dairy Promotion and Research Program, the National Dairy Council, Dannon Company (yogurt), Mead Johnson Nutritionals (milk-based infant formulas), Nestle (milk-based formulas, ice cream, condensed milk), and Slim-Fast (milk-based diet products).” And the group of physicians who sued the government over the guidelines further pointed out that they are racist, because most non-whites are lactose-intolerant.

A sampling of other chapter titles: The Myths and Lies about Protein (like that most of us, even vegetarians, eat too much), Pooping (“Basic math girls, how much are you putting in your mouth, and how much is coming out your ass?”), and Don’t Be a Pussy (herein they psych you up to overhaul your diet in the coming month).

Well who knows really, when it comes to diet. Different specialists will tell you different things. Macrobiotic adherents will tell you not to eat much fruit. The skinny bitches say go crazy on it. Ayurvedic specialists say what you should eat depends on your constitution; what’s healthy for one person may not be healthy for another. You hear bad things about soy sometimes, but the skinny bitches are all about the soy products. The best most protective behavior would seem to be to eat a variety of healthy plant based foods, and in case any of them are of questionable goodness, at least you’ll only be eating them in small amounts.

Skinny Bitch is a practical how-to book. The bitches don’t give you all the reasons to change your diet and then leave you hanging. They include all sorts of product recommendations for things like natural sweeteners and fake meats and healthier “junk” food, for websites and cookbooks, as well as four weeks of breakfast, lunch and dinner menus. They list vitamins and minerals, what each does and what foods you can find them in. And also food additives to stay away from, what they really are and where they come from.

In summary, Skinny Bitch is a fun and informative book on having a healthy diet. As they say in red-letter caps on the back cover, “Stop being a moron and start getting skinny!”

Woman Heal Thyself: An Ancient Healing System for Contemporary Women by Jeanne Elizabeth Blum is the topic for my first book review because of its great potential to help women and because I have found it so helpful that I use the system each month.

The ancient healing system referred to in the subtitle is traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), and specifically a set of acupressure/acupuncture points known as the Forbidden Pregnancy Points. Pressing these points on a pregnant woman can disturb or even terminate the pregnancy. However, Blum discovered that if a woman massages them during her menstrual period, she can bring her energy system into balance and, in the following month, enjoy the elimination of a whole gamut of PMS and menstrual symptoms.

I first read this book almost two years ago. For several months, in addition to the menstrual cramps I have always had, I was also suffering from angry moods and breast soreness in the week or two before my period. After following the instructions in the book and working my acupressure points for about twenty minutes a day, the very next month I had no breast soreness at all and very little negative emotion. The cramps were also less severe.

Blum cured herself of much more severe symptoms, including a very heavy menstrual flow and endometriosis. Her clients have also employed the system to ease menopause symptoms, reverse early menopause, and to promote fertility.

Blum presents different options: you can massage three different sets of acupressure points (27 points total), one set per day for the length of your period, or you can do one simpler set of ten points and repeat it each day of your period. While I originally began with the more complex program, hoping for maximum benefits, I have recently achieved similar success with the simpler set. I switched in order to memorize the simpler set, thus eliminating the need to lug the book with me if I am travelling. I admit that, from the beginning, I have almost never had the patience to work each point for the recommended 2-5 minutes, which is probably why I have not completely eliminated the cramps, although they are less severe.

Besides the practical “how-to” of the Forbidden Pregnancy Points, much of the book is devoted to the theory of TCM and how to apply it to thinking about your particular health issues. The basic idea is that the acupressure points are located along twelve main channels of energy, called meridians, each governing a corresponding organ. Organs are classified as (and occur paired together as) yin or yang, and the organ pairs are each associated with one of the five elements: earth, metal, water, wood, and fire. For example, kidney and bladder are both organs of the water element, kidney the yin and bladder the yang. Energy flows from one meridian to the next according to a cycle of the elements. Blum says, “If you want to grow a tree, water it; if you need to burn a fire, put wood on it; for good soil, add ashes; from rich earth comes metal; to carry water, use a metal container.” In other words, from water you get wood, from wood, fire; from fire, earth; from earth, metal; from metal, water, thus completing the cycle. This is the “birthing cycle,” the direction energy should flow in the body. If instead you have an energy imbalance, you enter the reverse “destructive cycle” where earth destroys fire, fire destroys wood, wood soaks up water (“destroying” it) etc. It is fascinating reading, but it gets more complicated and is, I think, too difficult for the amateur to apply. The important thing to remember is that energy imbalances, in time, manifest as physical health problems.

But where do these energy imbalances come from? Blum emphasizes that negative emotional experiences and thought patterns create energy imbalances, especially if we experienced them from a young age. If we were abused, or even simply discouraged from expressing emotions, those emotions lodge in our bodies, disturbing the healthy energy flow, eventually creating physical disease or addictions. The chapter “emotions and the body” is full of stories of people’s emotional experiences, how each affects organ energy flows, and what characteristics result from the corresponding incorrect energy flow.

The strongest parts of the book (in addition to the “how-to”) were Blum’s discussions of discovering how to use the Forbidden Pregnancy Points, of healing her own serious physical problems stemming from her traumatic childhood, and of healing clients with various issues. Also interesting were discussions of common problems such as depression, anxiety, and compulsive behavior. There is a theoretically useful section on “Diagnostic Reference for Ailments A-Z”, listing the acupressure points to work for a large variety of physical, emotional and mental problems. The problem is that, when referring to points not along the same energy meridian as, and nearby, Forbidden Pregnancy Points, the diagrams in the book are insufficient; one would have to look elsewhere to be able to accurately locate the points on their body. The final section of the book presents additional tools for healing, which I believe vary in their utility. For example, in the chapter on diet and fasting, Blum relays diet recommendations she was given for her kidney problems; I am skeptical that this would be a healthy diet for everyone.

Overall, Woman Heal Thyself gives us a concrete monthly practice for balance and relief from menstrual problems, as well as a way to address and heal deeper issues that plague us.