BookOpinion

BOOKOPINION REVIEW: “Eat This Not That” is definitely not one of those “can’t put it down, sit up til midnight with mainstay chocolate” type of books. It’s more of a manual of how to eat sensibly not only just when dining out but also during the holidays (when we all tend to pack on the pounds). David Zinczenko also covers how to shop at the supermarket, what beverages to avoid like the plague, what foods are “mood” foods for stress, fatigue, etc. and even how to guide your children through the endless maze of unhealthy fast foods.

This little book (small enough to pack inside a moderate sized handbag for easy access) is loaded with great tips that are targeted to help you lose belly fat and reshape your body. You can learn to cut empty calories and take advantage of foods that are high in nutrition but also taste good. Yes, even at fast food restaurants.

“Eat This Not That: Thousands of Simple Food Swaps That Can Save You 10, 20, 30 Pounds-or More!” begins with giving you 10 Top Swaps. For example, if you order McDonald’s Big Mac rather than Burger King Whopper with cheese, you save 220 calories and 18 grams of fat. Or if you choose the Panera Chicken Caesar Salad as opposed to Chili’s Chicken Caesar Salad, you save 450 calories and 42 grams of fat! That is a huge difference!

You will discover the eight foods you should eat every day (and substitutions just in case the recommended food is repugnant to you), the twenty worst foods in America (avoid like the plague) and how to eat at your favorite restaurants without packing on the pounds. There is a great little chapter called “The Menu Decoder” that you won’t want to miss that covers everything from seafood to pretzels.

What to eat (and not touch) at the ballpark, preferable snacks for the movies and what to choose from vending machines are also covered in some detail. And you may definitely want to keep “Eat This Not That” handy when shopping for groceries. Eliminating unhealthy choices is a snap when you have all this information right at your fingertips.

The credentials of Davide Zinczenko and Matt Goulding are impressive as well. David, editor-in-chief of Men’s Health magazine has also authored The Abs Diet and The Abs Diet for Women. He has appeared on Oprah, 20/20, Good Morning America and Primetime Live. And Matt is the food and nutrition editor of Men’s Health. It would appear that these guys know what they are talking about.

This book is not a diet book…just intelligently presented information in a format that makes choosing delicious and healthy food simple. I highly recommend this little, easy to digest, book to anyone interested in dropping a few pounds and especially recommend it to parents who want to present their children with better choices not only when eating out but when dining in as well.

– Elizabeth Channery

BOOKOPINION REVIEW: The idea of shrinking my waist (and other body parts) in two weeks is definitely appealing. As someone who has exercised most of my adult life, I was really intrigued with “The 12 Second Sequence” by Jorge Cruise. And I have to tell you, I was really impressed with the indepth explanations, exercise programs and dietary info in this rather revolutionary approach to obtaining a healthy, energetic body.

Cruise believes that the key to becoming fit is resistance training but that it has to be efficient in order to develop lean muscle tissue and burn belly fat. He quickly outlines the three biggest myths about getting fit: 1. The more aerobics myth; 2. The more reps myth; and 3. The more sessions myth. Okay, toss those ideas out the window. The solution, according to Cruise, is Controlled Tension which produces full muscle saturation. This routine combines slow cadence lifting and static contraction with circuit training for a complete, full-body workout. These combined components will allow you to work your entire body in two 20-minute weekly sessions.

How to do the 12 Second Sequence is explained in thorough detail. You are provided with workout logs to ensure that you are indeed working your entire body. And you will discover how to avoid the Fat Trap, control your food portions and which foods actually act as fuel and why they are so crucial to achieving success on this program.

“12 Second Sequence” includes tons of exercises, many of which can be done with no additional equipment. You will learn how to count as you work out, how to breathe properly and at what intensity you should be working. There is also a great section of Frequently Asked Questions as well as a chapter of delicious sounding recipes. Included is an Ideal Foods List and even a Fast/Frozen Foods List for people on the go (who isn’t?) or evenings when you’re just too busy to prepare a home cooked meal.

Cruise is the author of two New York Times bestsellers, “8 Minutes in the Morning” and “The 3-Hour Diet” and coaches clients daily at 12second.com. His guest appearances include: Oprah Winfrey Show, CNN, Good Morning America, Today, Dateline NBC, The View, The Tyra Banks Show and VH1. Quite impressive!

Most things that sound too good to be true…well, you know the adage. But I have to admit, “12 Second Sequence” is worth a try. The program seems to be based on solid science and is recommended by Dr. Mehmet Oz, co-author of “You: On a Diet.” At any rate, if you’re looking for an unorthodox way to get fit or just disgusted with your old routine that may not be working, then you might want to check out this book. I think I will start next week…if you decide to try it also, keep me posted, please! We can compare progress reports!

– Elizabeth Channery

BOOKOPINION REVIEW: Reviewing “How Not To Look Old” by Charla Krupp was a bit of a departure for me. I generally prefer fiction or very controversial political issues to write about. However, being a baby boomer and rapidly approaching the big “6-0”, I thought I would give this work a brief scan…which turned out to be a thorough read. For any female approaching 40, 50, 60, 70s and on and on and on, “How Not To Look Old” is a great eye opener.

Charla Krupp, a former beauty director at Glamour, senior editor at InStyle and beauty editor at People: Style Watch, definitely carries the credentials to gently assist us through the mire of what to wear, flattering hair styles, sagging skin, make up, etc. etc. etc.

Every chapter addresses different issues prominent for aging women. Tips like cut some bangs, unmatch your wardrobe and how to manage your wrinkles are but a few of the excellent topics that Krupp covers, and in great detail. For example, did you know that too long hair parted down the middle is aging? How about obvious lip liner? Wearing granny jeans? Thick black eyeliner?

Granted, most of the above are pretty obvious no no’s but Krupp goes much further than that in her desire to update the aging woman’s appearance. She offers advice on products that work and those that don’t, how to clean out your closet (throw out the elastic waist pants, ladies) and how to shop for shoes.

You will also find a fairly extensive list of shops located throughout the U.S. to assist you in finding that perfect cut, manicure or makeup application. And if you are concerned about where to shop, are on a budget (who isn’t?) or just unsure about what to purchase, check out the “Your Go-To List” with not only phone numbers but email addresses of some of Charla’s top picks.

“How Not To Look Old” is extremely definitive and should be beneficial to any woman of any age. It’s not about vanity but it’s not about aging gracefully either. It’s just about being sensible. I do recommend this book to anyone who wants a fun, educational read and who is serious about getting radical about their appearance. Her suggestions are great, practical and honest. So if you are prepared for a change in image, attitude and confidence, check out this book. My only point of disagreement – I refuse to give up my nude panty hose!

– Elizabeth Channery

Which type of book tells a more complete story about a presidential candidate? Autobiographical or biographical?

While opinions may vary as to what makes a good biography or expose, there is no doubt that there’s plenty of reading material on the candidates making a run for the White House.

BookOpinion has come up with a presidenitial candidate book list highlighting several different writing styles…some glossy and some not always favorable to the subject. While some of the other candidates have books out as well, we chose these books on the merits of being provocative and best sellers - three Democrats and three Republicans in no particular order.

The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream by Barack Obama

NEW YORK TIMES REVIEW (excerpt): Barack Obama, the junior senator from Illinois and the Democratic Party’s new rock star, is that rare politician who can actually write — and write movingly and genuinely about himself.

His 1995 memoir, “Dreams From My Father,” written before Mr. Obama entered politics, provided a revealing, introspective account of his efforts to trace his family’s tangled roots and his attempts to come to terms with his absent father, who left home when he was still a toddler. That book did an evocative job of conjuring the author’s multicultural childhood: his father was from Kenya, his mother was from Kansas, and the young Mr. Obama grew up in Hawaii and Indonesia…

Mr. Obama’s book, “The Audacity of Hope” — the phrase comes from his 2004 Democratic Convention keynote address, which made him the party’s rising young hope — is much more of a political document. Portions of the volume read like outtakes from a stump speech, and the bulk of it is devoted to laying out Mr. Obama’s policy positions on a host of issues, from education to health care to the war in Iraq.

But while Mr. Obama occasionally slips into the flabby platitudes favored by politicians, enough of the narrative voice in this volume is recognizably similar to the one in “Dreams From My Father,” an elastic, personable voice that is capable of accommodating everything from dense discussions of foreign policy to streetwise reminiscences, incisive comments on constitutional law to New-Agey personal asides.

A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton by Carl Bernstein

Excerpt from Chapter One (Amazon.com): Hillary Rodham’s childhood was not the suburban idyll suggested by the shaded front porch and gently sloping lawn of what was once the family home at 235 Wisner Street in Park Ridge, Illinois. In this leafy environment of postwar promise and prosperity, the Rodhams were distinctly a family of odd ducks, isolated from their neighbors by the difficult character of her father, Hugh Rodham, a sour, unfulfilled man whose children suffered his relentless, demeaning sarcasm and misanthropic inclination, endured his embarrassing parsimony, and silently accepted his humiliation and verbal abuse of their mother.

Yet as harsh, provocative, and abusive as Rodham was, he and his wife, the former Dorothy Howell, imparted to their children a pervasive sense of family and love for one another that in Hillary’s case is of singular importance. When Bill Clinton and Hillary honeymooned in Acapulco in 1975, her parents and her two brothers, Hughie (Hugh Jr.) and Tony, stayed in the same hotel as the bride and groom.

Four Trials by John Edwards and John Auchard

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY REVIEW: In his campaigns for the U.S. Senate (successful) and the Democratic presidential nomination (struggling), Edwards has defiantly celebrated his earlier career as a trial lawyer. Following that instinct, Edwards has chosen to cast his campaign memoir as an account of four of his courtroom experiences. Four Trials is brimming with Clintonian empathy for regular folks, and Edwards is at his best in his endearing portraits of the victims he represented in medical malpractice and personal injury lawsuits. He also displays a keen understanding of the psychology of a jury, which he calls “a microcosm of democracy.” Edwards weaves in recollections of his youth as the son of a mill worker, his rise to prominence as a lawyer, his dedicated family life and the death of his son in a car accident. But he mostly sticks to the details of the cases; he omits almost entirely his years in the Senate and his plans for the presidency. Edwards can tell a good yarn, and at times this book works as a courtroom drama. But it suffers from shoddy, platitudinous prose. The book is chiefly of interest for the way it manifests Edwards’s strategy to present himself as an advocate for the downtrodden to his new jury, the American electorate.

From Hope to Higher Ground: 12 STOPS to Restoring America’s Greatness by Mike Huckabee

BOOKLIST REVIEW: One of the longest-serving governors in the nation, Huckabee offers an optimistic outlook on the state of the nation. This is no Pollyanna view; Huckabee is candid about the nation’s problems; as governor of Arkansas, he had a front seat from which to observe Hurricane Katrina and the disastrous recovery efforts. Part 1 of his book is a description of his small-town origins and the kinds of civic and church involvement and activities that bind communities. The second part of the book lists 12 action steps to avoid cynicism, the nation’s number-one problem. Among his recommendations: don’t believe bad reports without documentation, listen to more music and less talk radio, do volunteer work, and have regular conversations with people of other ethnic, religious, or political backgrounds. Republican Huckabee is from Hope, the same small town that produced former president Clinton.

Faith of My Fathers: A Family Memoir by John Mccain and Mark Salter

AMAZON.COM REVIEW: Books by politicians are not often worth reading, but John McCain’s Faith of My Fathers is an astonishing exception to the rule. The Republican senator from Arizona has a remarkable story to tell–better than just about any of his peers–and he tells it well, with crisp prose and an unexpected sense for narrative pacing. The first half of the book concerns his naval forbears: his grandfather commanded an aircraft carrier in the Second World War, while his father presided over all naval forces in the Pacific during the Vietnam War. They were the first father-son admirals in American history. Young John McCain knew he had enormous shoes to fill and rebelled against many of the expectations set for him. At the Naval Academy, he was nearly expelled, graduating fifth from the bottom of his class. He never became an admiral, but achieved fame another way: as a naval aviator in 1967, he was shot down over North Vietnam and spent several years in POW camps, where he was beaten, tortured, and nearly allowed to die. McCain describes the awful details of his imprisonment and tells how he stayed mentally strong during seemingly endless months of solitary confinement and how he communicated in code with fellow captives. Faith of My Fathers concludes with McCain’s release and contains no information about his subsequent political career. It is, nonetheless, a complete and compelling memoir of individual heroism–one that will interest both political and military history buffs.

Rudy!: An Investigative Biography of Rudolph Guiliani by Wayne Barrett

From the inside flap: Rudy Guiliani. New York City’s Mayor. America’s Number One Cop. A municipal superhero who needs no phone booth. A politician of astonishing complexity whose full story has never been told. Until now. Guiliani has assumed mythic proportions, the can-do emblem of the new urban politics. He has been heralded as the ultimate turn-around artist - projecting himself as the reformer who single-handedly salvaged a crime-ridden and blighted New York. From his days in the Eighties as the Michael Milken-busting U.S. Attorney of Manhattan to his current purge of hundreds of thousands from his city’s welfare rolls, Giuliani has targeted rich and poor with the same relentless certitude.This investigative biography starts with the college kid who confided his presidential dream to his girlfriend and practiced future campaign speeches in front of her at home. It analyzes his substantial impact as U.S. Attorney, badly wounding the Mafia, ransacking the white collared halls of Wall Street and forever changing the face of New York politics. It looks at his celebrated crime reduction and other achievements through a new lens, highlighting the single-mindedness that has made Giuliani one of America’s most important and controversial figures.

- Alexander

Read some of the customer reviews about “Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time” at Amazon.com and you may literally want to “STOP what you are doing”  and read the review as one poster suggests.

Not only is the book inspirational, but its reviews are as well.

“Three Cups of Tea” is currently #3 on NY Times bestseller list (paperback nonfiction). BookOpinion highlights three reviews of the book beginning with this from USAToday:

Mountaineer builds schools in ‘Three Cups of Tea’

A surprise best seller this season is a non-fiction book, set in Pakistan and Afghanistan, that was published 21 months ago to limited notice. “Three Cups of Tea” by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin has climbed the lists, thanks to word-of-mouth recommendations and a tireless author with an inspiring story.

“Tea” describes how Mortenson, an American mountaineer, found a new cause: building schools, mostly elementary and especially for girls, in 1993 during a failed attempt to climb the K2 peak on Pakistan’s border.

In a Pakistani village, the former U.S. Army medic met children without paper or pencils. He promised to build them a school.

His book, written with Relin, a journalist, describes how he did that and more in the belief that “education can overcome the despot leaders, dictators and clergy who use illiteracy to control impoverished society.”

The non-profit foundation (ikat.org) he started in his hometown of Bozeman, Mont., has contributed to the construction of 58 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Via e-mail on his way to Pakistan, Mortenson, 49, says he pushed to have the book’s subtitle changed. In hardcover, it was One Man’s Mission to Fight Terrorism … One School at a Time. In paperback, it was revised to One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace.

“The public is interested in peace, just as much as fighting terrorism,” he says. “So far, no politician seems to have their finger on that pulse.”

Read Full Review/USAToday

Publishers Weekly: Some failures lead to phenomenal successes, and this American nurse’s unsuccessful attempt to climb K2, the world’s second tallest mountain, is one of them. Dangerously ill when he finished his climb in 1993, Mortenson was sheltered for seven weeks by the small Pakistani village of Korphe; in return, he promised to build the impoverished town’s first school, a project that grew into the Central Asia Institute, which has since constructed more than 50 schools across rural Pakistan and Afghanistan. Coauthor Relin recounts Mortenson’s efforts in fascinating detail, presenting compelling portraits of the village elders, con artists, philanthropists, mujahideen, Taliban officials, ambitious school girls and upright Muslims Mortenson met along the way. As the book moves into the post-9/11 world, Mortenson and Relin argue that the United States must fight Islamic extremism in the region through collaborative efforts to alleviate poverty and improve access to education, especially for girls. Captivating and suspenseful, with engrossing accounts of both hostilities and unlikely friendships, this book will win many readers’ hearts.

Bookmarks Magazine: While critics agree that “Three Cups of Tea” should be read for its inspirational value rather than for its literary merit, the book’s central theme, derived from a Baltistan proverb, rings loud and clear. “The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger,” a villager tells Greg Mortenson. “The second time, you are an honored guest. The third time you become family.” An inspirational story of one man’s efforts to address poverty, educate girls, and overcome cultural divides, “Three Cups,” which won the 2007 Kiriyama Prize for nonfiction, reveals the enormous obstacles inherent in becoming such “family.” Despite the important message, critics quibbled over the awkward prose and some melodrama. After all, a story as dramatic and satisfying as this should tell itself.

Authors of the YOU books, Dr. Michael F. Roizen and Dr. Mehmet C. Oz want you to know that your genes shouldn’t be a liability when it comes to aging. “YOU: Staying Young,” the latest in a collection of books by Roizen and Oz spells out precisely the steps to take for a high quality life until the day you die.

Forget about going under the knife, taking collagen injections, HGH shots and all the other temporary fixes. Read “YOU: Staying Young.” The YOU doctors spell it out this way:

Most of us tend to have the same view of the way people age: As we grow older, we start losing things. We lose some hair, lose our minds, lose our balance, lose our eyesight, lose a little of this and a lot of that until we eventually wither away into a hunched-over senior who takes 3-inch steps and eats dinner at 4:00 pm. But to think that a life of frailty is an inevitable outcome of aging is a mistake. And the fact that we don’t take control of it is because we have excuses.

We live in a society where making excuses is as easy as making a sandwich. Nowhere is that more apparent than when it comes to your own health. The reason why we are frazzled with stress? Blame the boss. The reason why we are sick? Blame the sniffling kids. The reason why our society’s waistbands are stretching and snapping at alarming rates? Blame Auntie’s alfredo sauce.

The top health excuse, however, revolves around the biggest four-letter word of them all, the GENE. We blame our genes for just about everything–for baldness, for fatness, for illness and for every other health-related problem we can think of. In our minds, that means that our mom, pop, and the rest of the family tree are all on the hook for the ultimate health question of them all–how long and how well we will live?

Watch and listen to the doctors explain a little bit about the YOU series success and about the new book.

The science of aging has seen some interesting developments even in just the last three years. Here’s a bit of a Q&A with the doctors we found on Amazon:

Q: What is the single most important thing someone can do to combat aging?

A: To understand that you get to control your rate of aging if you want to. It isn’t that hard and doesn’t take that long. In fact, even if you have had burgers for breakfast or fried your brain cells with stress by noon, you’re not necessarily destined to wear husky pants, forget birthdays, and spiral into a state of complete upheaval. That’s right: You get a do-over in life if you want it. Repeat after us: not hard, not long.

Q: Is there one food, vitamin, mineral, exercise, or lifestyle change that does more to combat aging than any other?

A: Our top choices in terms of ease and impact:

• Walk 30 minutes a day and call someone after you do it. No excuses, walk every day. If you do it, you’ll have the courage, health, and attitude to adopt other changes too.
• Take 2 grams of omega-3 fats every day in form of either walnuts, fish oil, or DHA supplements.

Q: What is one of the most surprising contributors to aging that we can easily remove from our lifestyles?

A: Inflammation of our teeth. Remove it with daily flossing and brushing and seeing a dental professional regularly. You won’t just save your teeth; you’ll also go a long way in saving your heart and arteries. Another? Our lack of turmeric–curry and mustard (mustard on stadium hot dogs does not qualify). Both of those ingredients make your memory better.

This from Publishers Weekly:

In their newest in the YOU series, physicians Oz and Roizen and a supporting cast of contributors explain why the body ages and how readers can become anatomical puppeteers, mastering their genes, bad habits, environmental pollution and stress while igniting the body’s ability to stay fit, strong and healthy…With their talent for creating vivid, humorous images (amplified by cartoon drawings), they describe 14 major agers and how readers can use what is known about telomeres (which look like the plastic ends of shoelaces), mitochondria (the body’s energy powerhouses) and other components of body functioning to repair and rejuvenate cells.

Use the BookOpinion.com price comparison search to find the best prices on “YOU: Staying Young.”

Long before Orange County, Calif. became “The OC”, a young Steve Martin used Disneyland and other county landmarks as backdrops for honing his stage and comic skills.
Martin’s book, “Born Standing Up“, is his memoir of the first half of his life…including an Orange County from a different era.

Martin and excerpts from “Born Standing Up” were recently featured in an article in the OC Register:

Take a tour of comedian Steve Martin’s Orange County
The comedian and writer grew up in Garden Grove, worked at Disneyland as a kid and cut his teeth as a performer at Knott’s.

By Peter Larsen

If we are shaped by the places we go and people we know in our childhoods, then Steve Martin is an absolute product of Orange County in the ’50s and ’60s.

Young Steve Martin worked at the magic shop at Disneyland. (courtesy Steve Martin)

From the well-known outlines of the actor-comedian-writer’s life we already knew that Martin grew up in Garden Grove, worked at Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm as a teen, and launched his career as a comic in the long-gone folk clubs here some 40 years ago.

But with the recent arrival of “Born Standing Up” (Scribner, $25), Martin’s memoir of the first half of his life, the details of his years here – the significant places on the map of his life – are revealed in the star’s own words and memories…

Full story/OC Register

Janet Maslin of The New York Times writes that “Born Standing Up” is a “lean, incisive new book about the trajectory of [Martin’s] life in comedy…”Born Standing Up” does a sharp-witted job of breaking down the step-by-step process that brought Steve Martin from Disneyland, where he spent his version of a Dickensian childhood as a schoolboy employee, to both the pinnacle of stardom and the brink of disaster…tightly focused…”Born Standing Up” is a surprising book: smart, serious, heartfelt and confessional without being maudlin.”

This from Jerry Seinfeld in GQ: “Absolutely magnificent. One of the best books about comedy and being a comedian ever written.”

Time Magazine’s Richard Corliss reviews: “The writing is evocative, unflinching and cool. When Martin takes a scalpel to his life, what you feel is the precision of the surgeon more than the primal scream of the unanaesthetized patient…”Born Standing Up” is neither fanfare nor confession. It gives off a vibe of rigorous honesty. With lots of laughs.”

Having lived “behind the Orange Curtain”, Steve Martin’s “Born Standing Up“ is an inspiring break-out story, also reminding me of the sweet smell of orange blossoms that once permeated the air.

- Alexander