|
| Best Selling Nonfiction
Sign up to read newsletters | View current newsletters
| |
Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction
by David Sheff
Published 2008 by Houghton Mifflin Company
Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780618683352
Find this book in our catalog.
Jacket Notes:
Sheffs story tells of his teenage sons addiction to meth in this real-time chronicle of the shocking descent into substance abuse and the familys gradual emergence into hope.
REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 04/30/2007
Expanding on his New York Times Magazine article, Sheff chronicles his son's downward spiral into addiction and the impact on him and his family. A bright, capable teenager, Nic began trying mind- and mood-altering substances when he was 17. In months, use became abuse, then abuse became addiction. By the time Sheff knew of his son's condition, Nic was strung out on meth, the highly potent stimulant. While his son struggles to get clean, his second wife and two younger children are pulled helplessly into the drama. Sheff, as the parent of an addict, cycles through denial and acceptance and resistance. The author was already a journalist of considerable standing when this painful story began to unfold, and his impulse for detail serves him personally as well as professionally: there are hard, solid facts about meth and the kinds of havoc it wreaks on individuals, families and communities both urban and rural. His journey is long and harrowing, but Sheff does not spare himself or anyone else from keen professional scrutiny any more than he was himself spared the pains-and joys-of watching a loved one struggling with addiction and recovery. Real recovery creates-and can itself be-its own reward; this is an honest, hopeful book, coming at a propitious moment in the meth epidemic. (Aug.)
|
Losing It: And Gaining My Life Back One Pound at a Time
by Valerie Bertinelli
Published 2008 by Free Press
Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9781416568186
Find this book in our catalog.
Jacket Notes:
Popular actress, Jenny Craig spokeswoman, and America's sweetheart Bertinelli reveals in this courageous and candid memoir her complicated past and how she took control of her own life to gain self-esteem and happiness. of b&w photographs.
|
Women & Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny
by Suze Orman
Published 2007 by Spiegel & Grau
Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780385519311
Find this book in our catalog.
Jacket Notes:
This groundbreaking book from bestselling author and personal finance expert investigates the complicated and perilous relationship women have with money, and offers solutions to bring about fundamental change. (Consumer Finance)
REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 03/05/2007
Bestselling author (2005'sThe Money Book for the Young, Fabulous & Broke , etc.) and host of her own CNBC show, Orman encourages women to "giveto yourself as much as you giveof yourself" in her ninth financial advice book, sure to resonate with legions of readers who will appreciate her straightforward advice and supportive tone. Aiming squarely for a female audience, Orman guides readers through the very basics of finances. She explores why women have dysfunctional relationships with money and notes the ways they undervalue themselves or "treat themselves as a commodity whose price is set by others," while also sharing the story of her own evolving relationship with her finances. Though her explanation of the "8 qualities of a wealthy woman" (harmony, balance, courage, etc.) is more inspirational than practical, she also presents a concrete five-month "save yourself plan" for financial repair, starting with setting aside checking and savings accounts, fixing one's credit rating, saving for retirement, setting up a will and purchasing home insurance. This encouraging guide will not intimidate women who are foundering financially.(Feb.)Correction: Due to the publisher's error, we misidentified Sidney Wanzer in our review of his book,To Die Well (Reviews, Feb. 18). He the former head of the Harvard Law School Health Services.
|
In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto
by Michael Pollan
Published 2008 by Penguin Press
Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9781594201455
Find this book in our catalog.
Jacket Notes:
From the author of the bestselling "The Omnivores Dilemma" comes this bracing and eloquent manifesto that shows readers how they might start making thoughtful food choices that will enrich their lives and enlarge their sense of what it means to be healthy.
REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 11/26/2007
In his hugely influential treatise The Omnivore's Dilemma, Pollan traced a direct line between the industrialization of our food supply and the degradation of the environment. His new book takes up where the previous work left off. Examining the question of what to eat from the perspective of health, this powerfully argued, thoroughly researched and elegant manifesto cuts straight to the chase with a maxim that is deceptively simple: "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants." But as Pollan explains, "food" in a country that is driven by "a thirty-two billion-dollar marketing machine" is both a loaded term and, in its purest sense, a holy grail. The first section of his three-part essay refutes the authority of the diet bullies, pointing up the confluence of interests among manufacturers of processed foods, marketers and nutritional scientists-a cabal whose nutritional advice has given rise to "a notably unhealthy preoccupation with nutrition and diet and the idea of eating healthily." The second portion vivisects the Western diet, questioning, among other sacred cows, the idea that dietary fat leads to chronic illness. A writer of great subtlety, Pollan doesn't preach to the choir; in fact, rarely does he preach at all, preferring to lets the facts speak for themselves. (Jan.)
| |
|
| |
