Life is your best medicine

In life we are constantly bombarded with things. Stress, lack of sleep, poor nutrition wear us down. Women are particularly vulnerable to these problems and our state of health shows it. Dr. Low Dog takes a different approach to medicine. She wants us to love our life and to nurture our minds and bodies - thus living life as we should becomes our best medicine.

The medical advice in this book is rather simple and straight forward. There are various tips dropped along the way that can help us achieve better health. Dr. Low Dog practices medicine from a different perspective than most doctors. She is a fully trained, in the conventional way, physician. And yet, she believes in treating the root cause of disease and promotes healthy life styles through nutrition. She prefers this over pharmaceuticals, which are only prescribed if there is no other choice. She wants to help you in the least damaging way.

For me, the book is more than that. Dr. Low Dog shares her journey in life, and specifically what drove her to study medicine. This is an inspiring story of a woman who has suffered poverty and loss and searched for that peace and happiness we all desire. She worked as a massage therapist and herbalist only to realize she didn't know enough. This was the turning point that motivated her to go to medical school. She not only wanted to know more but she also wanted to change medicine. Through her work with Dr. Weil, Dr. Low Dog is influencing future doctors with her experience and wisdom.

The medical advice offered in the book is pretty common sense. Wrapping the advice around Dr. Low Dog's story is what makes this book special.

Book Rating: 4 stars.


The books I select for review are books which I personally select from my local library. I do not receive any reimbursement from authors or publishers or free books. I do provide links to Amazon as a convenience to the readers of this blog. I do earn a small referral pittance which is not even enough to buy a soda.

Life and death in Shanghai

The history books in my high school and college both dedicated a mere 1-2 paragraphs to the Cultural Revolution in China during the 1960s. I was not a History major in college, so I just read the general world history text that skimmed a lot of major world events. It is unfortunate because I really had no idea what the Cultural Revolution was, what it did to China or its people until I read this book. Nien Cheng recounts her life during the Cultural Revolution in her autobiography Life and Death in Shanghai.

Nien Cheng's husband worked for the Shell Corporation in China. His job was to ensure that Shell followed Chinese laws. Nien's husband unexpectedly passed away and Nien assumed her husband's job. She was very good at ensuring compliance with Chinese law, a stressful and difficult job. She loved China and she fully supported her communist government. But very quickly things changed.

Nien worked for a foreign government. She and her husband had travelled the world. They owned very beautiful things and lived in a nice home. As the Cultural Revolution kicked into gear, Nien became a target. Because of her economic standing and employment she was interrogated multiple times and pressed to confess her capitalist sins. Revolutionaries came and destroyed her home. Her daughter was forced to participate in revolutionary activities. And finally, Nien was jailed - locked in a solitary cell for years. She was brought out routinely to be interrogated and asked to confess.

Despite experiencing so much, Nien never confessed wrong doing. Eventually Nien was freed and assigned to live in an apartment not far from her previous home. She finds herself in a changed China. While things appear to have improved on the surface, she senses the same political rumblings. Always looking over her shoulder Nien wonders if her neighbors spy on her in exchange for favors. Very carefully, Nien leaves China and comes to the U.S. - heartbroken and sad for the country and people she so loved but hopeful for freedom.

I read this book cover to cover. I was impressed with Nien's integrity and endurance. Some passages were very long and I wondered how she could survive through so much tragedy. How could anyone? And yet she did. This is an important story. It's one of hope and survival. It's about the truth of the horrors of the Cultural Revolution. It's a must read.

Book Rating: 5 stars

The books I select for review are books which I personally select from my local library. I do not receive any reimbursement from authors or publishers or free books. I do provide links to Amazon as a convenience to the readers of this blog. I do earn a small referral pittance which is not even enough to buy a soda.

21 day sugar detox

I loved the book Practical Paleo by Diane Sanfilippo. That book is organized very well by dividing up various conditions and explaining how to eat Paleo to treat those conditions. There are meals and shopping lists. It has large, beautiful pictures in full color. There are handy infographics. Practical Paleo scored high on diet self-help books. I was super excited to learn that Diane Sanfilippo was coming out with a new book.

Sugar has gotten a lot of press lately. In the past we were told to watch our cholesterol intake by avoiding fats including eggs. Then we were told to load up on healthy whole grains and eat lots of fruits and vegetables. Now the focus is finally turning into something more real. Whole, minimally processed foods, also known as clean eating. In addition the evils of excess sugar consumption are finally being supported by science. Sugar is found in nearly every processed food and in some other surprising items, like vitamins. Over the weekend I read the ingredients on DH's gummy multi-vitamin. High-fructose corn syrup. Yikes! All this excess sugar is thought to be the real culprit behind the rise in diabetes, heart disease, and more. Consuming so much sugar causes us to crave more. It's like a drug addiction.

Diane Sanfilippo holds your hand as she guides you through a 21 day sugar detox. There are three plan options that you select based on your current lifestyle. Once you decide to start, you follow a plan leading up to the start of the detox. In other words, you don't stop cold-turkey. You have food in place to help with the cravings. Then you follow the meal plan using the recipes in the book.

The detox is written from a Paleo perspective. I can understand this because those healthy whole grains actually turn into sugar in the body and can undermine your detox. For people who are not Paleo, this is quite a transition and I think a challenge. For people who are Paleo or mostly Paleo, the sugar detox is probably the next step in cleaning up their diet. I tried a few of the recipes, in particular the smoothies. These were definitely not sweet, and for me almost unpalatable. I ended up adding about 1 tablespoon of honey in order to swallow them down. Which tells me my taste buds preferred some sugar. It also told me that I probably need to detox.

The book has a lot of the same good qualities as the Practical Paleo book. Clear, well-reasoned instructions, lots of hand-holding, menu plans, and shopping lists. The book is laid out well with excellent photography. The book is a smaller book, so it is easier to hold in the hands.

I read this book a while ago. I do like it, though it is heavy on Paleo. I will probably take a look at it again.

Book rating: 4 stars


The books I select for review are books which I personally select from my local library. I do not receive any reimbursement from authors or publishers or free books. I do provide links to Amazon as a convenience to the readers of this blog. I do earn a small referral pittance which is not even enough to buy a soda.

River of time series

Confession time.  I devoured a young adult romance series in about a week. Well, at least the first three books in the series. The River of Time series is written by Lisa T. Bergren, which includes Waterfall (book 1), Cascade (book 2), and Torrent (book 3). The author has since added Bourne and Tributary (book 4) and DELUGE (book 5). I have not yet read Deluge because I did not know about it till now. It is going on my to-read list now!

So what is it about? In Waterfall, Gabi and Lia are sisters stuck at an archeological dig over the summer with their mother. Gabi decides to explore a part of the dig in a cave and places her hand a top a hand print on the cave wall. Suddenly she finds herself in 14th century Italy complete with warring knights and castles. Lia somehow is transported back in time but is separated from Gabi. Gabi and Lia must find a way home to their own time, but adventure and love are in the past.

In Cascade, Gabi, Lia, and their mother return again to the past only to discover that months have passed since they last left. In that time tensions between the Florentines and Sienese have reached a breaking point and war is on the horizon. Gabi and Lia, both known as "she-wolves", rise to the occasion to help win the battle. Meanwhile Gabi falls more deeply in love with Marcello and must make a decision about whether to stay.

In Torrent, the girls decide to save their father from an untimely demise and bring him into the past. Meanwhile, there is more adventure and romance for Gabi and Marcello. Gabi must make the decision whether to marry Marcello or not. Can she forever give up the future? There are lots of twists and turns in the story and it moves pretty fast. And yes, Lia also finds some romance. This was supposed to be the final book of a trilogy, but the author has added two more books.

Bourne and Tributary are two novellas the author added to help tie up loose ends. Parts of Bourne are told from Lia's point of view and the rest by Gabi. We get to see Lia and Luca come closer together. In Tributary, we get Lia and Luca's point of view. Lia, who is younger than Gabi, also must deal with all the experiences she has had that would traumatize anyone. Both stories have more action and adventure.

If you can ignore the silly time traveling device and the fact that Gabi and Lia seem to be able to understand medieval Italian, the stories are very good. There is just the right mix of adventure, medieval warfare, and romance (nothing too naughty here because it is classified as a teen Christian romance). I would finish one book, close the cover and state, "I need the next book now!" I would call these books a guilty pleasure.

Book Rating: 5 stars

The books I select for review are books which I personally select from my local library. I do not receive any reimbursement from authors or publishers or free books. I do provide links to Amazon as a convenience to the readers of this blog. I do earn a small referral pittance which is not even enough to buy a soda.

The Tell

I find it interesting how body language and movement can reveal clues about our personality. I selected this book by Matthew Hertenstein because I wanted to learn how to understand people better through their body language.

The subtitle is "The little clues that reveal big truths about who we are." Those seemingly innocuous things that predict big things like sexual orientation, autism, and lying. Some people have wondered if little things can really predict certain behaviors and outcomes. Hertenstein reveals that our initial observations and impressions of people are surprisingly accurate. He examines various situations and people through the lens of recent studies to tell us this truth. He, of course, wraps each chapter with cautions about the limitations of the studies and warns about making wide spread judgements about groups of people.

One interesting chapter deals with autism. He began to notice certain behaviours in his infant son that suggested he had autism. He tried to obtain confirmation from various professionals, but they all told him it was to early to tell. Convinced that his son might have or might develop into full autism, he began therapy right away despite what others told him. Research tells us the sooner an autistic child receives therapy the better. He believes that by starting intensive therapy before the age of 2, his son no longer exhibits autistic characteristics. Such an idea certainly deserves more in depth study. There were, of course, caveats that this may not work for other children and some doubt his son was autistic in the first place.

The book is full of anecdotes and discussions of studies that were interesting, but not compelling. The book lacked the depth that I was interested in. It certainly was not a how-to manual on how to read people, as the title suggests.

Book Rating: 3 stars

The books I select for review are books which I personally select from my local library. I do not receive any reimbursement from authors or publishers or free books. I do provide links to Amazon as a convenience to the readers of this blog. I do earn a small referral pittance which is not even enough to buy a soda.

Pilgrim's Wilderness

Imagine living in a small town next to national forest. One morning a large family rolls into town looking for a place to live far away from everyone and everything. Some might describe this family as charming, quaint, old-fashioned, religious, and conservative. Others may call them strange, extremists and out-there. One such family did roll into one of the most remote towns, McCarthy Alaska.

The patriarch of the family called himself Pilgrim. His wife and each of his 15 children had similar Bible-inspired names. The family was initially welcomed to McCarthy, a town who welcomes those looking for space and freedom. Pilgrim eventually buys a piece of private land located smack in the middle of the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. This land was also located next an old, abandoned mine also in the park. He builds a couple of cabins and relocates his family there to live. The problem is there was no decent road to his property. The existing road was not maintained by the park service and had deteriorated to the point where it was not passable by vehicles. So Papa Pilgrim got a backhoe and fixed it. That one action launched a series of conflicts between the national park service, environmentalists, and locals over property rights.

Tom Kizzia, a reporter who followed the story for many years, writes this very interesting story about Pilgrim and his family. As the story unfolds, we learn that Papa Pilgrim is not as innocent as he appears. He has a very interesting past ranging from murder, to roaming the world as a hippie, to converting to his own version of Christianity. The unraveling of Papa Pilgrim and the Hale family begins and ends in Alaska.

The story is really made up of two parts. The first is the story of Papa Pilgrim and the Hale family. The second is the property rights for in-holders in National Parks. The first story takes precedence over the second, the second only being mentioned as the tipping point. The story of the Hale family is an interesting, sad story. It's not because the family homeschooled their children or professed a certain belief. Many people do the same. It's the evil actions of one man that a whole family was damaged. This part of the story reads like a true-crime novel.

The author does an excellent job telling this story. But he is not completely objective, and admits as much. He is a strong environmentalist and takes a position against in-holders. An interesting position since he also owns a small cabin in the park. I wanted to read more about in-holders in National Parks and the issues they face. Perhaps Papa Pilgrim did have a right to build a road. We will never know how that all would have been concluded because Pilgrim was arrested and the family left their land. This may not have been the book for such a discussion on property rights, but it made me curious for more.

Book Rating: 4 stars

The books I select for review are books which I personally select from my local library. I do not receive any reimbursement from authors or publishers or free books. I do provide links to Amazon as a convenience to the readers of this blog. I do earn a small referral pittance which is not even enough to buy a soda.

Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians

Brandon Sanderson is known for a few things. First, he was the author selected to complete Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. A daunting task for anyone.  He is also known for his own series Mistborn and the The Way of Kings . He has written a few young adult novels, Rithmatist and Steelheart . I've only tried Rithmatist and it just did not hook me enough to read more than the first chapter. But then I learned that Sanderson had written a series for younger children. The first book is called Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians.

Alcatraz is an extremely unlucky kid. Alcatraz's parents have died and he is moved from one foster home to another. He has a tendency to break nearly everything he touches. On his birthday Alcatraz received a mysterious bag of sand from his grandfather. He doesn't think much about it until the bag is stolen. Alcatraz, his grandfather, and some other quirky characters must get the sand back from a group of Evil Librarians.

Alcatraz is a quirky, sarcastic, fun character. Most of the action in the story is fun and weird. He learns to accept himself and his tendency to break things - weird skill, to be sure. But the story is more about a boy that is sad and discovering that he is truly special and important.

This book is perfect for boys or girls who love sarcastic, funny books. One boy came into the library asking specifically for something like this. He LOVED the series. I've only read the first book myself, but I may pick up the rest when I work through my "to-read" list.

Book Rating: 4 stars

The books I select for review are books which I personally select from my local library. I do not receive any reimbursement from authors or publishers or free books. I do provide links to Amazon as a convenience to the readers of this blog. I do earn a small referral pittance which is not even enough to buy a soda.