Books Reviews

Master Your Metabolism: The 3 Diet Secrets to Naturally Balancing Your Hormones for a Hot and Healthy Body!

Weight is finally coming off after months of ZERO!!
FINALLY seeing progress again! Wasn't sure to purchase this book or not but the points seemed to fit my situation to a 'T' so I gave it a shot.

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I'm not an organic person and never avoided anything processed before. So this is all a HUGE jump for me.

Let me first sum up my situation: Lost 50 pounds in the last 2 years and still need to drop another 50 pounds. I was eating between 1200 and 1400 calories a day and working out EVERYDAY for 45 minutes cardio/weights. I was doing everything right and everything that went in my mouth went in my food journal. There was no cheating and no excuses. According to my calorie intake and calorie burn I should have dropped 2 pounds a week consistantly. And every week when I got on the scale it was up 2 pounds or didn't move! Total frustration and wanted to just SCREAM!

Then I see this new Jillian Michaels MASTER YOUR METABOLISM and the point of the scale not moving no matter how good you ate and how hard you worked out. HEY what did I have to lose!?

So it has been 10 days on her program and sticking to it faithfully and the weight is just pealing away! Down 8 pounds in just 10 days, like my body has finally said "OK... time to let it go". I haven't changed my workouts, they are still constant. I am following her main guidelines for eating and am consuming WAY more in volume of food and the calories I'm keeping at the 1200-1400. I feel soo full, never craving any junk. And I think, no way I'm going to lose weight because I feel soo bloated but in the morning.... the scale shows another drop!

It works for me and I'm not going to go back! 3 months of perfect work and no results VERSUS changing to a healthier eating plan and more food volume with RESULTS! Took about 5 days before the scale and my body agreed to start releasing the pounds.

Hungry Girl: 200 Under 200: 200 Recipes Under 200 Calories

Buy this book from here now !

Not hungry anymore! This is a seriously good guide for eating fewer calories. I am on to this idea of staying out of restaurants somewhat and mainly eating at home whenever possible. However, I now have the tools with this book to prepare good, delicious foods that aren't going to make me gain weight, but, in acutality, will help me to lose weight, which is the point of all of this. I have to say that I loved the layout of this book and it read so easily. The recipes weren't too complicated and it's just a fun way to lose the pounds. I would recommend this to anyone who wants to make the commitment to cook at home and lose the weight that way. Another I liked and helped too was Goodbye, Fatty! Hello, Skinny! How I Lost Weight And Still Ate The Foods I Loved-Without Dieting. I guess it's just in how you want to approach the diet. Either way, you're sure to lose some weight if you stick to the plan.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (P.S.)

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (P.S.) By Barbara Kingsolver, Camille Kingsolver, Steven L. Hopp

Author Barbara Kingsolver and her family abandoned the industrial-food pipeline to live a rural life—vowing that, for one year, they’d only buy food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it. Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is an enthralling narrative that will open your eyes in a hundred new ways to an old truth: You are what you eat.

Reviews
This is a fascinating informative book about food,
It is possible to live off the land. The Kingsolver family are proof of that. They grew their own food for a year on a farm in Virginia's Applachian mountains. It only cost 50 cents a meal to feed the Kingsolver family of four for a year, and I found that to be amazing. It is much healthier to eat organic foods which are foods produced without chemicals. This is one of the main ideas of this insightful book. I love Camille's Kingsolver's contributions in this book. She is the college age daughter of the primary author. Camille's reflections about food are thoughtful, and her recipes sound delicious. I loved her essay about how she learned to love asparagus. I learned that asparagus is an excellent source of vitamin C, which I did not know before. There is a recipe in here for an asparagus mushroom bread pudding. I never thought of putting these ingredients together. Another interesting recipe in the book is one for zucchini chocolate chip cookies. The recipe sounds so unusual, I am tempted to try it. The recipe for pumpkin soup and sweet potato quesadillas sound yummy too. Everyone in the Kingsolver family contributed in this local food project. Barbara raised and bred turkeys, while her nine year old daughter raised her own chickens and provided the family with eggs for a year. They even made their own cheese.

I also enjoyed the contributions of Steven L. Hopp in this book. He is a professor who teaches environmental science at Emory and Henry College. His short contributions in the every chapter are very insightful. He really compliments the main text written by Kingsolver. I enjoyed reading his thoughts about the popularity of agricultural education in public schools. This is a fascinating and informative book about food. Compelling disussion on food choices

Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities

Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities By Amy Stewart

A tree that sheds poison daggers; a glistening red seed that stops the heart; a shrub that causes paralysis; a vine that strangles; and a leaf that triggered a war. In Wicked Plants, Stewart takes on over two hundred of Mother Nature’s most appalling creations. It’s an A to Z of plants that kill, maim, intoxicate, and otherwise offend. You’ll learn which plants to avoid (like exploding shrubs), which plants make themselves exceedingly unwelcome (like the vine that ate the South), and which ones have been killing for centuries (like the weed that killed Abraham Lincoln's mother).

Menacing botanical illustrations and splendidly ghastly drawings create a fascinating portrait of the evildoers that may be lurking in your own backyard. Drawing on history, medicine, science, and legend, this compendium of bloodcurdling botany will entertain, alarm, and enlighten even the most intrepid gardeners and nature lovers.

Reviews
The cold nature of mother nature,
This is a thorough book, but don't take that the wrong way! It's full of charm and a sense of history, but it's really a book for the imagination. You will marvel at so many perilous things nature and pre-FDA entrepreneurs have in store for the unfortunate victims in this book. I don't want to ruin the surprises, but there's a lot of misfortune in this book!

Plenty of illustrations and stories, this makes a great lounge book for hosts who want a guest to have something to do for a few idle minutes.

The writing is intelligent and the topic is novel. I really appreciate that this is a carefully crafted and well thought out project, and you should come away wanting to meet the creative author.

But if anyone in your house wants to poison you, you better not leave this out!

Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time

Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time By Greg Mortenson, David Oliver Relin

Anyone who despairs of the individual’s power to change lives has to read the story of Greg Mortenson, a homeless mountaineer who, following a 1993 climb of Pakistan’s treacherous K2, was inspired by a chance encounter with impoverished mountain villagers and promised to build them a school. Over the next decade he built fifty-five schools—especially for girls—that offer a balanced education in one of the most isolated and dangerous regions on earth. As it chronicles Mortenson’s quest, which has brought him into conflict with both enraged Islamists and uncomprehending Americans, Three Cups of Tea combines adventure with a celebration of the humanitarian spirit.

Reviews
A blueprint for making a difference, After four trips over the past three years to Pakistan and Azad Kashmir, and after founding Kashmir Family Aid (www.kashmirfamily.org) to aid victims of the Oct 8, 2005 earthquake, I whole-heartedly endorse Greg Mortenson and his work. This book adds new life to the over-wraught dictum that "one CAN make a difference." Beyond that, if one wants to truly get inside the rural Pakistani's heart and soul, this is mandatory reading.

My personal experience has been that once I met these people (and yes, had tea with them in their tiny homes, or in the quake region, in their tents), it was difficult to want to leave to return to the West. It's a hard thing to explain but Mortenson's book will absolutely do the job. A powerful thread within his story: It would be impossible not to love these people after getting to know them one-on one.

These remote village people are simple, strong and proud. Their lives are spent nurturing their families and working hard in a politically and environmentally tortured region. BUY THE BOOK, get inside the people of this place and then send Greg Mortenson your donation.

My Life in France

My Life in France By Julia Child, Alex Prud'Homme

Julia Child singlehandedly created a new approach to American cuisine with her cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking and her television show The French Chef, but as she reveals in this bestselling memoir, she was not always a master chef.

Indeed, when she first arrived in France in 1948 with her husband, Paul, who was to work for the USIS, she spoke no French and knew nothing about the country itself. But as she dove into French culture, buying food at local markets and taking classes at the Cordon Bleu, her life changed forever with her newfound passion for cooking and teaching. Julia’s unforgettable story – struggles with the head of the Cordon Bleu, rejections from publishers to whom she sent her now-famous cookbook, a wonderful, nearly fifty-year long marriage that took them across the globe – unfolds with the spirit so key to her success as a chef and a writer, brilliantly capturing one of the most endearing American personalities of the last fifty years.

Reviews
Delicious read, With every word I sensed I was there. I could smell the air, feel the cold and want a blanket. I lusted to be able to taste the foods she talked about. I laughed when she described her first attempts at food preparation. I loved that she was pragmatic and yet extravagant about cooking utinsels. Her husband was very encouraging of her endeavors. Together they shared a life and a love, but it was more, they shared a passion for travel and the tastes of other cultures. My mouth salivated as she toured the markets. Her French was horrible by her own admission but her genuine interest in the culture won out with shop owners. It is a delicious read.

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association From American Psychological Association (APA)

This book is a must for researchers in the social sciences. However, I should have gotten the (cheaper) paperback version. I'm usually a bit of a snob when it comes to paperbacks, but since this is a reference book that I probably won't use much, the hardcover was an unnecessary extravagance.

The APA manual is what it is. A necessary evil for those of us in academia doing research. That being said though, there is a new edition that is apparently only available on the APA web site at this time. It incorporates the updated eletronic citation references so may be worth buying it vice this edition at this time.