Staff Picks

The author, an infectious disease doctor, does a masterful job presenting the harm caused by ultra-processed foods (UPFs) to our physical and mental health, as well as the environment. This book motivated me to change my diet and see the need for marketing restrictions and warning labels on UPFs.

 

Publisher's description:

A manifesto to change how you eat and how you think about the human body.

It’s not you, it’s the food.

In a fast-paced and eye-opening narrative van Tulleken explores the origins, science, and economics of Ultra-Processed Food to reveal its catastrophic impact on our bodies and the planet. And he proposes real solutions for doctors, for policy makers, and for all of us who have to eat. A book that won’t only upend the way you shop and eat, Ultra-Processed People will open your eyes to the need for action on a global scale.

 

This book about breathing was so engaging. The author takes us on his own journey about helping himself to breathe better. He shows us the ways in which our lives can be improved by breathing properly and provides the history behind so many breathing issues. Breathing is so much more than our nose, it is the structure of our mouths, the changes that happened to our bone structure from diet, orthodontist practice. I appreciated the author's exercises about ways to improve our own breathing and have been constantly practicing to "shut my mouth" and breath through my nose.

 

Publisher's description: 

No matter what you eat, how much you exercise, how resilient your genes are, how skinny or young or wise you are, none of it matters if you're not breathing properly. There is nothing more essential to our health and wellbeing than breathing: take air in, let it out, repeat 25,000 times a day. Yet, as a species, humans have lost the ability to breathe correctly, with grave consequences. Science journalist James Nestor travels the world to figure out what went wrong with our breathing and how to fix it. Why are we the only animals with chronically crooked teeth? Why didn't our ancestors snore? Nestor seeks out answers in muddy digs of ancient burial sites, secret Soviet facilities, New Jersey choir schools, and the smoggy streets of Sao Paulo, Brazil. He tracks down men and women exploring the science behind ancient breathing practices like Pranayama, Sudarshan Kriya, and Tummo and teams up with pulmonary tinkerers to scientifically test long-held beliefs about how we breathe. Modern research is showing us that changing the ways in which we breathe can jump-start athletic performance, halt snoring, rejuvenate internal organs, mute allergies and asthma, blunt autoimmune disease, and straighten scoliotic spines. None of this should be possible, and yet it is. Drawing on thousands of years of medical texts and recent cutting-edge studies in pulmonology, psychology, biochemistry, and human physiology, Breath turns the conventional wisdom of what we thought we knew about our most basic biological function on its head. You will never breathe the same again.

 

 

For fans of Born to Run and other tales of modern adventure as well as anyone who can't do without their own rigorous undertakings, this intriguing book looks at the way doing hard things makes us better people.

 

Publisher's description:

Discover the evolutionary mind and body benefits of living at the edges of your comfort zone and reconnecting with the wild. In many ways, we're more comfortable than ever before. But could our sheltered, temperature-controlled, overfed, underchallenged lives actually be the leading cause of many our most urgent physical and mental health issues?Journalist Michael Easter seeks out off-the-grid visionaries, disruptive genius researchers, and mind-body conditioning trailblazers who are unlocking the life-enhancing secrets of a counterintuitive solution: discomfort. Easter's journey to understand our evolutionary need to be challenged takes him to meet the NBA's top exercise scientist, who uses an ancient Japanese practice to build championship athletes; to the mystical country of Bhutan, where an Oxford economist and Buddhist leader are showing the world what death can teach us about happiness; to the outdoor lab of a young neuroscientist who's found that nature tests our physical and mental endurance in ways that expand creativity while taming burnout and anxiety; to the remote Alaskan backcountry on a demanding thirty-three-day hunting expedition to experience the rewilding secrets of one of the last rugged places on Earth; and more. Along the way, Easter uncovers a blueprint for leveraging the power of discomfort that will dramatically improve our health and happiness, and perhaps even help us understand what it means to be human.

 

The author of Dopesick returns to the subject of the opioid epidemic and how the pharmacy industry and politicians alike play a role in this ongoing national tragedy. As New York Times reporter Jan Hoffman notes in her review, "Macy, no longer struggling with why, has moved on to an even more impenetrable question: How the hell do we extract ourselves from this quicksand?" Readers who were fascinated and outraged by Empire of Pain, Patrick Radden Keefe's chronicle of the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma, will want to check out this new title, which Kirkus Reviews calls "A profoundly disconcerting book that, with luck, will inspire reform to aid the dopesick and punish their suppliers."

 

Publisher's Description:

Nearly a decade into the second wave of America's overdose crisis, pharmaceutical companies have yet to answer for the harms they created. As pending court battles against opioid makers, distributors, and retailers drag on, addiction rates have soared to record-breaking levels during the COVID pandemic, illustrating the critical need for leadership, urgency, and change. Meanwhile, there is scant consensus between law enforcement and medical leaders, nor an understanding of how to truly scale the programs that are out there, working at the ragged edge of capacity and actually saving lives. Distilling this massive, unprecedented national health crisis down to its character-driven emotional core as only she can, Beth Macy takes us into the country’s hardest hit places to witness the devastating personal costs that one-third of America's families are now being forced to shoulder. Here we meet the ordinary people fighting for the least of us with the fewest resources, from harm reductionists risking arrest to bring lifesaving care to the homeless and addicted to the activists and bereaved families pushing to hold Purdue and the Sackler family accountable. These heroes come from all walks of life; what they have in common is an up-close and personal understanding of addiction that refuses to stigmatize—and therefore abandon—people who use drugs, as big pharma execs and many politicians are all too ready to do. Like the treatment innovators she profiles, Beth Macy meets the opioid crisis where it is—not where we think it should be or wish it was. Bearing witness with clear eyes, intrepid curiosity, and unfailing empathy, she brings us the crucial next installment in the story of the defining disaster of our era, one that touches every single one of us, whether directly or indirectly. A complex story of public health, big pharma, dark money, politics, race, and class that is by turns harrowing and heartening, infuriating and inspiring, Raising Lazarus is a must-read for all Americans.

 

Many menstruating people my age have a memory of our mothers handing us the American Girl Doll puberty guide, The Care and Keeping of You: The Body Book for Younger Girls by Valorie Schaefer, when we turned 12 to help us deal with puberty. That book was very important to me and many others growing up, and I'm so grateful that there are newer, way more informative and inclusive books these days that provide a more up-to-date knowledge framework. This book has a great tone--not too dry, not too flippant--that makes the reader feel as if a close friend is telling them this valuable information about menstruation. I found the various illustrations throughout to also be fun and helpful visuals. Overall, this is a wonderful resource for menstruating tweens.

 

Publisher's description:

A frank, funny, age-appropriate guide for pre-teens about getting your period, from Dr. Melissa Kang and Yumi Stynes. Getting your period for the first time can be mortifying, weird and messy--and asking questions about it can be even worse. Packed with honest advice on managing Aunt Flo like a boss, this book will induct pre-teens into the secret society of menstruation: from demystifying what cramps feel like, to whether you can feel it coming out, to what you should do if your pad leaks onto your dress. With Yumi's sisterly wisdom and Dr. Kang's medical advice, case studies, first-person accounts and questions from real teens, this book for pre-teens (9-12 years) is guaranteed to make you feel special about getting your period.

 

If you're looking for a book that will immediately change your life--this is it! Breathing is something we do thousands of times each day, but Nestor's research and insights about how we breathe can fundamentally change the way we live, and how a simple repetitive act can alter our health.

 

Publisher's description: 

No matter what you eat, how much you exercise, how resilient your genes are, how skinny or young or wise you are, none of it matters if you're not breathing properly. There is nothing more essential to our health and wellbeing than breathing: take air in, let it out, repeat 25,000 times a day. Yet, as a species, humans have lost the ability to breathe correctly, with grave consequences. Science journalist James Nestor travels the world to figure out what went wrong with our breathing and how to fix it. Why are we the only animals with chronically crooked teeth? Why didn't our ancestors snore? Nestor seeks out answers in muddy digs of ancient burial sites, secret Soviet facilities, New Jersey choir schools, and the smoggy streets of Sao Paulo, Brazil. He tracks down men and women exploring the science behind ancient breathing practices like Pranayama, Sudarshan Kriya, and Tummo and teams up with pulmonary tinkerers to scientifically test long-held beliefs about how we breathe. Modern research is showing us that changing the ways in which we breathe can jump-start athletic performance, halt snoring, rejuvenate internal organs, mute allergies and asthma, blunt autoimmune disease, and straighten scoliotic spines. None of this should be possible, and yet it is. Drawing on thousands of years of medical texts and recent cutting-edge studies in pulmonology, psychology, biochemistry, and human physiology, Breath turns the conventional wisdom of what we thought we knew about our most basic biological function on its head. You will never breathe the same again.

 

Producer Victoria Shepherd documents an interesting psychological phenomenon through ten case histories in this new book based on her BBC Radio 4 documentary series. Although the cases themselves are fascinating, Publisher's Weekly, in a starred review, is careful to note, "Shepherd opts for empathy over prurience, highlighting the humanity of her subjects and lucidly drawing out the dream logic by which their delusions operate." This thought-provoking work should appeal to fans of such Oliver Sacks titles as Hallucinations and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.

 

Publisher's Description:

The extraordinary ways the brain can misfire
- The King of France--thinking he was made of glass--was terrified he might shatter...and he wasn't alone.
- After the Emperor met his end at Waterloo, an epidemic of Napoleons piled into France's asylums.
- Throughout the nineteenth century, dozens of middle-aged women tried to convince their physicians that they were, in fact, dead.

For centuries we've dismissed delusions as something for doctors to sort out behind locked doors. But delusions are more than just bizarre quirks--they hold the key to collective anxieties and traumas. In this groundbreaking history, Victoria Shepherd uncovers stories of delusions from medieval times to the present day and implores us to identify reason in apparent madness.

Find A History of Delusions in our online catalog.

Hayden's graphic memoir follows her throughout her life as a young woman, through the birth of her children, and finding peace after her breast cancer diagnosis. Told in witty and honest verses, Hayden explores the ups and downs of life, living with cancer, death, family, and so much more.

 

Publisher description: 

When Jennifer Hayden was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 43, she realized that her tits told a story. Across a lifetime, they'd held so many meanings: hope and fear, pride and embarrassment, life and death. And then they were gone. Now, their story has become a way of understanding her story. Growing up flat-chested and highly aware of her inadequacies… heading off to college, where she "bloomed" in more ways than one… navigating adulthood between her mother's mastectomy, her father's mistress, and her musician boyfriend's problems of his own-not to mention his sprawling family. Then the kids come along… As cancer strikes three different lives, some relationships crumble while others emerge even stronger, and this sarcastic child of the '70s finally finds a goddess she can believe in. For everyone who's faced cancer personally, or watched a loved one fight that battle, Hayden's story is a much-needed breath of fresh air, an irresistible blend of sweetness and skepticism. Rich with both symbolism & humor, The Story of My Tits will leave you laughing, weeping, and feeling grateful for every day.

Find The Story of my Tits in our online catalog. 

My choir director assigned this book for us to read and discuss (online, right now). I am so glad she did. This is an amazing book; I had no idea of the intricacies of breathing. While I certainly know how to breathe to sing, this book will add to my knowledge, and, hopefully, allow me to sing better. The author posits that we have lost the ability to breathe properly and it's to our detriment. He includes info on years of medical texts (ancient and modern) and recent cutting edge studies in not only pulmonology but psychology, biochemistry, and human physiology. Non-singers will appreciate the engaging way the author discusses the research, including reading about how he experimented on himself with various breathing techniques. I highly recommend this book.

 

Publisher Description:

No matter what you eat, how much you exercise, how skinny or young or wise you are, none of it matters if you're not breathing properly. There is nothing more essential to our health and well-being than breathing: take air in, let it out, repeat twenty-five thousand times a day. Yet, as a species, humans have lost the ability to breathe correctly, with grave consequences. Journalist James Nestor travels the world to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it.

 

Living gluten-free is not a whole lot of fun, but at least April has managed to make it funny. Gluten Is My Bitch is a brutally honest, entertaining look at what living a gluten-free life entails.  This book is full of tips for the newbie as well as the celiac veteran, all done with an amazing amount of levity.