VisibleWomanOnline

Health for the body. Food for the Mind

Despite the plethora of information about the importance of a healthy diet and regular exercise, Americans are getting fatter and fatter, and more and more unhealthy. And not surprisingly, as our waistlines get bigger, so do the attendant problems of obesity: diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, kidney disease, just to name a few. It has become a truism that the current generation of children will be the first to have a lower life expectancy than their parents. All because of preventable diseases.

In What We’re Reading Now for this issue of VisibleWomanOnline, we turn our attention to health. There are so many books out there on health and fitness, but we picked some of our favorites. You, The Owner’s Manual, by Drs. Roizen and Oz tells you all you need to know to maintain healthy lifestyle. Dr. Effie Davis Weir’s 21-Day Detoxification Plan, gives you lots of tips to jump start your way to a healthier lifestyle.

But we haven’t just been working out at the gym and shopping at the farm markets for local produce. We also took the time to laze on the beach, relax, and read a wealth of books this past summer. We are happy to share them with you.

Beyond Ugly
by Constance Briscoe
(Hodder and Stouter Ltd., A division of Hodder Headline, 2008)

For those of you who read Contance Briscoe's Ugly in the Beauty issue, this is the rest of the story. While it doesn't exactly pick up from where Ugly left off, Beyond Ugly tells how Ms. Briscoe made it trough college, her first foray into the world of plastic surgery, her "pupillage" (clerkship in the US) for a prominent lawyer, her unplanned pregnancy, and her first successful appearance in a
courtroom. If you liked Ugly, you'll want to know how it all turned out.

You - The Owner's Manual
by Dr. Michael Roizen & Dr. Mehmet Oz
(Collins, 2008)

Dr. Oz certainly needs no introduction. If you watch his wildly successful show on Fox TV, his popularity with the ladies is evident as each, without exception, race to the stage with excitement when they are chosen as his "assistance of the day". But Dr. Oz is doing a lot more than setting pulses racing. Written with Dr. Roizen, You-The Owner's Manual offers up practical, commonsense approach to health, much as he does on the show. If you want to learn more about your
body and how to keep it healthy, this book should be first on your list.

The 21-Day Detoxification Diet
by Effie Davis Weir, PhD
(Creative Print Co. 2010)

Dr. Weir lays out all you need to get on track to good health. Packed with solid advice on food choices, nutrition guidelines, healthy, mouth-watering "detox" recipes, and an easy-to-follow diet plan, the richly illustrated 21-Day Detoxification Diet will give you all the information you need to make wise dietary choices.

Eddie Signwriter
by Adam Schwartzman
(Pantheon Books, 2010) $25.95

Ghana is Eddie’s place of birth, where he first falls in love, meets Nana Oforiwaa, and is introduced to sign painting by his uncle, thus becoming an apprentice.  Just as Eddie is coming into his own, Nana Oforiwaa dies. Tormented by the circumstances of her death, Eddie leaves his family and everything about Ghana for Paris, where his silence is a mystery to the friends he makes and loses.  Schwartzman has a fluid and poetic way of conveying
Eddie’s feelings, the landscape, smells and moods of Ghana and Paris as Eddie
finally finds his way to happiness.

Paper Puzzle
by Harold Michael Harvey
(Publish America, 2010) $19.99

Award-winning journalist and award-winning trial lawyer Harold Michael Harvey’ s first novel, Paper Puzzle, takes place in his home town of Macon, Georgia. Jimmy Royal and Clay Moore are reporters from different sides of the racial track. However, when one of their lives is threatened they come together to uncover decades of injustice. 

Getting to Happy
by Terrry McMillan
(Viking, 2010)

We all know how it turned out for Terry, but what happened to Bernadine, Savannah, Gloria and Robin? In this sequel to Waiting to Exhale we learn that they have moved on with their lives in interesting ways.

A Same Kind of Different As Me
by Ron Hall & Denver Moore
(Thomas Nelson Punlishers, 2010)

A true story about a modern day slave, an international art dealer and the unlikely woman who brings them together, Keep a box of tissues on hand.

Some Sing, Some Cry
by Ntozake Shange & Ifa Bayeza
(St. Martin's Press, 2010)

Some Sing, Some Cry is a colorful historical journey of the Mayfield’s migration from Charleston during the Reconstruction to Harlem’s pre-Renaissance period and beyond.

When Ma Bette, a former slave, and her grand-daughter, Eudora, leave
Charleston, it is the beginning of a life of strife.  As the Mayfield girls - Elma, Lizzie,
Cinnamon, and Madison come into the world, they do so with dreams of their own and the determination to do it their way in spite of the advice of family.  Shange and Bayeza have written a glorious and righteous story about one family’s transcendence above racial injustices to create a musical legacy.  In the words of one of the vivid characters, Madison, “Slavery leaves telling marks lasting generations, still every word out of our mouths is a song.”