The Garden, a novel by Clare Beams, presents a psychologically thrilling tale that explores the deep yearnings of women to become mothers and the intricate ways in which the female body has been subjected to control and manipulation throughout history.
In the year 1948, Irene Willard, having endured five miscarriages in her pursuit to fulfill her husband's desire for a child and currently pregnant again, arrives at a secluded house in the Berkshires that doubles as a hospital. This establishment is run by a duo of doctors dedicated to pioneering a treatment for her condition. With caution, Irene commits to the Halls' methods aimed at 'rectifying the maternal environment', addressing both the physical and psychological aspects.
Amidst this, she stumbles upon an enigmatic walled garden on the property, a space infused with its own mystical forces. As the medical endeavors of the Halls begin to falter, Irene and the other patients are driven to tap into the garden's potential for their own ends. They are forced to confront the immense dangers that come with the promise of extraordinary benefits.
Evoking the atmospheric tension of works by Shirley Jackson and the unsettling themes of Rosemary's Baby, The Garden delves into the realms of motherhood, childbirth, the enigmas of the female anatomy, and the historical efforts to dominate it.
In Dead Weight, Emmeline Clein tells the story of her own disordered eating alongside, and through, other women from history, pop culture and the girls she's known and loved. Tracing the medical and cultural history of anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, and orthorexia, Clein investigates the economic conditions underpinning our eating disorder epidemic, and illuminates the ways racism and today's feminism have been complicit in propping up the thin ideal.
While examining goop, Simone Weil, pro-anorexia blogs, and the flawed logic of our current methods of treatment, Clein also grapples with the myriad ways disordered eating has affected her own friendships and romantic relationships.
Dead Weight makes the case that we are faced with a culture of suppression and denial that is insidious, pervasive, and dangerous, one that internalizes and promotes the fetish of self-shrinking as a core tenet of the American cult of femininity. This is replicated in our algorithms, our television shows, our novels, and our relationships with one another. A sharp, perceptive, and revelatory polemic for readers fascinated by the external forces shaping our lives, Dead Weight is electrifying, unapologetically bold, and fiercely compassionate.
Be A Revolution: How Everyday People Are Fighting Oppression and Changing the World--And How You Can, Too is an eye-opening and galvanizing look at the current state of anti-racist activism across America by Ijeoma Oluo, the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller So You Want To Talk About Race and Mediocre.
In this book, Oluo examines the impact of white male supremacy on our systems, culture, and lives throughout American history and presents a compelling argument for understanding these systems of oppression. More importantly, it addresses the critical question: What can we do about them?
Be A Revolution showcases the efforts of people across America working to create real positive change in our structures. It covers various powerful systems such as education, media, labor, health, housing, policing, and more, highlighting the actions taken to create change for intersectional racial equity.
Moreover, it provides readers with insights into how they can find entryways into change in these areas or contribute to the important work being done elsewhere. Oluo's goal is to educate, inspire action, and shift conversations on race and racism from a place of pain and trauma to a place of loving action. This book is not only an urgent chronicle of an important moment in history but also an inspiring and restorative call for action.
H Is for Hawk meets Joan Didion in the Pyrocene in this arresting combination of memoir, natural history, and literary inquiry that chronicles one woman's experience of life in Northern California during the worst fire season on record. Told in luminous, perceptive prose, The Last Fire Season is a deeply incisive inquiry into what it really means—now—to live in relationship to the elements of the natural world.
When Manjula Martin moved from the city to the woods of Northern California, she wanted to be closer to the wilderness that she had loved as a child. She was also seeking refuge from a health crisis that left her with chronic pain, and found a sense of healing through tending her garden beneath the redwoods of Sonoma County. But the landscape that Martin treasured was an ecosystem already in crisis. Wildfires fueled by climate change were growing bigger and more frequent: each autumn, her garden filled with smoke and ash, and the local firehouse siren wailed deep into the night.
In 2020, when a dry lightning storm ignited hundreds of simultaneous wildfires across the West and kicked off the worst fire season on record, Martin, along with thousands of other Californians, evacuated her home in the midst of a pandemic. Both a love letter to the forests of the West and an interrogation of the colonialist practices that led to their current dilemma, The Last Fire Season, follows her from the oaky hills of Sonoma County to the redwood forests of coastal Santa Cruz, to the pines and peaks of the Sierra Nevada, as she seeks shelter, bears witness to the devastation, and tries to better understand fire's role in the ecology of the West. As Martin seeks a way to navigate the daily experience of living in a damaged body on a damaged planet, she comes to question her own assumptions about nature and the complicated connections between people and the land on which we live.
Eve is an ambitious, eye-opening, myth-busting and groundbreaking history of the evolution of the female body, by a brilliant new researcher and writer, Cat Bohannon. This book delves into questions scientists should have been addressing for decades, such as:
Why do women live longer than men?
Why do women have menopause?
Why are women more likely to get Alzheimer’s?
Why do girls score better at every academic subject than boys until puberty, when suddenly their scores plummet?
Does the female brain really exist?
With boundless curiosity and sharp wit, Bohannon covers the past 200 million years to explain the specific science behind the development of the female sex. Eve is not only a sweeping revision of human history, it’s an urgent and necessary corrective for a world that has focused primarily on the male body for far too long. Bohannon’s findings, including everything from the way C-sections in the industrialized world are rearranging women’s pelvic shape to the surprising similarities between pus and breast milk, will completely change what you think you know about evolution and why Homo sapiens have become such a successful and dominant species, from tool use to city building to the development of language.
A 21st-century update of Our Bodies, Ourselves, Eve offers a true paradigm shift in our thinking about what the female body is and why it matters.
The Country of the Blind is an exploration of the transition from sightedness to blindness through the personal narrative of Andrew Leland. His journey begins in a state of uncertainty, as his condition, retinitis pigmentosa, gradually diminishes his vision. Leland's world becomes increasingly constricted, like looking through a narrow tube, with a complete loss of sight looming on the horizon.
Despite the challenges, Leland's memoir is not just about adjusting to life's alterations; it's a quest to understand the richness of blindness as a distinct culture. He navigates the shifting dynamics within his family and confronts his evolving identity. The Country of the Blind is more than a memoir; it's a historical and cultural odyssey that delves into the experiences, languages, politics, and traditions associated with blindness.
This book represents Leland's commitment to not only endure the changes in his life but to embrace them. With a mix of introspection, humor, and intellectual vigor, The Country of the Blind offers readers a glimpse into a world often unexamined, providing valuable insights from a perspective that is enlightening and profound.
From the host of the #1 podcast Sex with Emily, Emily Morse, comes a revolutionary new book that reframes our relationship to pleasure and teaches us how to have the best sex of our lives. Dr. Emily Morse has been dubbed "the Dr. Ruth of a new generation" (New York Times) and has helped millions of people navigate the world of sex and relationships. In Smart Sex, she condenses all she's learned as a doctor of human sexuality and offers a groundbreaking framework that will change the way you think about sex and pleasure.
In this essential book you'll uncover:
And so much more. Drawing from science, research, and lived experience, and written in a voice that's entertaining and inclusive, Smart Sex will help you radically improve your sex life, your confidence, and your relationships, including your relationship with yourself.
Ultra-Processed People: Why We Can't Stop Eating Food That Isn't Food is an eye-opening investigation into the science, economics, history, and production of ultra-processed food, also known as UPF. Medical doctor and broadcaster Chris van Tulleken takes us through the hard facts about our food intake and its links to various diseases such as metabolic disease, depression, inflammation, anxiety, and cancer. He also discusses the environmental damage caused by the production, distribution, and disposal of UPF.
Van Tulleken reframes the conversation around healthy eating by providing both shocking and empathetic insights into our eating habits. He delves into the concept of the 'third age of eating' characterized by the abundance of ultra-processed eating options and provides guidance on making informed choices amidst this landscape. This book is not just about diet trends or individual willpower; it's about our right to know what we eat and its effects on our bodies and our environment.
In Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity, Dr. Peter Attia offers a new perspective on living a better and longer life by challenging conventional medical thinking on aging and chronic disease prevention. Dr. Attia, a visionary physician and longevity expert, provides an operating manual for longevity, drawing on the latest science to introduce innovative nutritional interventions, techniques for optimizing exercise and sleep, and tools for addressing emotional and mental health.
Mainstream medicine, despite its successes, has struggled to combat aging-related diseases like heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer's disease, and type 2 diabetes, often providing treatment too late. Dr. Attia advocates for a personalized, proactive strategy for longevity, emphasizing the importance of taking action now rather than waiting. This strategic and tactical approach aims to extend lifespan while improving physical, cognitive, and emotional health.
With the right approach, it's possible to outlive our genetic predispositions and enjoy better health with each passing decade.
In this exhilarating novel, two friends--often in love, but never lovers--come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality.
On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn't heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom. These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won't protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts.
Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love.
From acclaimed psychiatrist Dr. Ellen Vora comes a groundbreaking understanding of how anxiety manifests in the body and mind—and what we can do to overcome it. Anxiety affects more than forty million Americans—a number that continues to climb in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
While conventional medicine tends to view anxiety as a "neck-up" problem—that is, one of brain chemistry and psychology—the truth is that the origins of anxiety are rooted in the body. In The Anatomy of Anxiety, holistic psychiatrist Dr. Ellen Vora offers nothing less than a paradigm shift in our understanding of anxiety and mental health, suggesting that anxiety is not simply a brain disorder but a whole-body condition.
In her clinical work, Dr. Vora has found time and again that the symptoms of anxiety can often be traced to imbalances in the body. The emotional and physical discomfort we experience—sleeplessness, brain fog, stomach pain, jitters—is a result of the body’s stress response. This physiological state can be triggered by challenging experiences as well as seemingly innocuous factors, such as diet and use of technology.
The good news is that this body-based anxiety, or, as Dr. Vora terms it, "false anxiety," is easily treated. Once the body’s needs are addressed, Dr. Vora reframes any remaining symptoms not as a disorder but rather as an urgent plea from within. This "true anxiety" is a signal that something else is out of balance—in our lives, in our relationships, in the world. True anxiety serves as our inner compass, helping us recalibrate when we’re feeling lost.
Practical, informative, and deeply hopeful, The Anatomy of Anxiety is the first book to fully explain the origins of anxiety and offer a detailed road map for healing and growth.
The Invisible Kingdom is a landmark exploration of one of the most consequential and mysterious issues of our time: the rise of chronic illness and autoimmune diseases.
A silent epidemic of chronic illnesses afflicts tens of millions of Americans. These are diseases that are poorly understood, frequently marginalized, and can go undiagnosed and unrecognized altogether. Renowned writer Meghan O’Rourke delivers a revelatory investigation into this elusive category of “invisible” illness that encompasses autoimmune diseases, post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome, and now long COVID, synthesizing the personal and the universal to help all of us through this new frontier.
Drawing on her own medical experiences as well as a decade of interviews with doctors, patients, researchers, and public health experts, O’Rourke traces the history of Western definitions of illness, and reveals how inherited ideas of cause, diagnosis, and treatment have led us to ignore a host of hard-to-understand medical conditions, ones that resist easy description or simple cures. As America faces this health crisis of extraordinary proportions, the populations most likely to be neglected by our institutions include women, the working class, and people of color.
Blending lyricism and erudition, candor and empathy, O’Rourke brings together her deep and disparate talents and roles as critic, journalist, poet, teacher, and patient, synthesizing the personal and universal into one monumental project arguing for a seismic shift in our approach to disease. The Invisible Kingdom offers hope for the sick, solace and insight for their loved ones, and a radical new understanding of our bodies and our health.
A powerful guide to owning our emotions—even the difficult ones—in order to show up authentically in the world, from the popular therapist behind the Instagram account @sitwithwhit.
Every day, we’re bombarded with pressure to be positive. From “good vibes only” and “life is good” memes, to endless advice, to “look on the bright side,” we’re constantly told that the key to happiness is silencing negativity wherever it crops up, in ourselves and in others. Even when faced with illness, loss, breakups, and other challenges, there’s little space for talking about our real feelings—and processing them so that we can feel better and move forward.
But if all this positivity is the answer, why are so many of us anxious, depressed, and burned out? In this refreshingly honest guide, sought-after therapist Whitney Goodman shares the latest research along with everyday examples and client stories that reveal how damaging toxic positivity is to ourselves and our relationships, and presents simple ways to experience and work through difficult emotions. The result is more authenticity, connection, and growth—and ultimately, a path to showing up as you truly are.
If you're not having fun, you're not fully living. Catherine Price, the author of How to Break Up with Your Phone, makes the case that fun is critical to our well-being and shows us how to have more of it.
Journalist and screen/life balance expert Catherine Price argues that our always-on, tech-addicted lifestyles have made us obsess over intangible concepts such as happiness, while obscuring the fact that real happiness lies in the everyday experience of fun. True Fun—which Price defines as the magical confluence of playfulness, connection, and flow—will give us the fulfillment we so desperately seek.
Using True Fun as your compass, you will be happier and healthier, more productive, less resentful, and less stressed. You'll have more energy, find community, and a sense of purpose.
Weaving together scientific research with personal experience, Price reveals the surprising mental, physical, and cognitive benefits of fun, and offers a practical, personalized plan for achieving better screen/life balance and attracting more True Fun into our daily lives—without feeling overwhelmed.
The Power of Fun is groundbreaking, eye-opening, and packed with useful advice. It won't just change the way you think about fun; it will bring you back to life.
In this important and timely book, workplace well-being expert Jennifer Moss helps leaders and individuals prevent burnout and create healthier, happier, and more productive workplaces.
We tend to think of burnout as a problem we can solve with self-care: more yoga, better breathing techniques, and more resilience. But evidence is mounting that applying personal, Band-Aid solutions to an epic and rapidly evolving workplace phenomenon isn't enough—in fact, it's not even close. If we're going to solve this problem, organizations must take the lead in developing an antiburnout strategy that moves beyond apps, wellness programs, and perks.
In this eye-opening, paradigm-shifting, and practical guide, Jennifer Moss lays bare the real causes of burnout and how organizations can stop the chronic stress cycle that an alarming number of workers suffer through. The Burnout Epidemic explains:
As the pandemic has shown, self-care is important, but it's not a cure-all for burnout. Employers need to do more. With fascinating research, new findings from the pandemic, and interviews with business leaders around the globe, The Burnout Epidemic offers readers insightful and actionable advice that will empower them to help themselves—and their employees—feel healthier and happier at work.
What to Expect When You’re Not Expected to Expect Anything Anymore Did you see the title and flame-filled cover of this book, and did your weary, sweaty, confused, and exasperated soul scream, That one! That is the book for me!!? If so, I’d first like to extend my deepest sympathies, an ice pack, and some of these very helpful edibles. If it’s three in the morning as you’re reading this, as it may well be, you likely want those more than a book. But since I can’t really give you the other stuff, I can at least offer you this book.
Perimenopause and menopause experiences are as unique as all of us who move through them. While there’s no one-size-fits-all, Heather Corinna tells you what can happen and what you can do to take care of yourself, all the while busting myths and offering real self-care tips—the kind that won’t break the bank or your soul—and running the gamut from hot flashes to hormone therapy.
With big-tent, practical, clear information and support, and inclusive of so many who have long been left out of the discussion—people with disabilities; queer, transgender, nonbinary, and other gender-diverse people; BIPOC; working class and other folks—What Fresh Hell Is This? is the cooling pillow and empathetic best friend to help you through the fire.
Navigating adult ADHD in your relationship—simple, effective strategies to strengthen your commitment. Communicating and thriving in a neurodiverse relationship is possible. ADHD & Us gives couples the tools and strategies they need to connect as well as overcome the unique challenges they face on the road to long-term happiness and satisfaction.
Drawing from Anita Robertson's years of practice counseling couples with ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder), this honest and straightforward guide helps couples better understand adult ADHD and how it affects relationships, while also providing the tools necessary for both partners to feel understood and respected. Learn how to avoid common conflicts, appreciate your differences, and meet each partner's needs. Together, you can make it happen.
This relationship guide for people with adult ADHD includes:
Five pillars of success—Learn about the five relationship pillars—praise, acknowledgement, games, growth mindset, and positive acceptance—and how they are essential in a successful relationship.
A practical approach to adult ADHD—Build communication skills and deepen your connection using engaging exercises that allow both partners to share in safe and constructive ways.
Modern and inclusive guidance—With expert advice based on the most-up-to-date understandings of adult ADHD, this book is designed for use in all kinds of relationships.
Overcome the challenges of dealing with adult ADHD and thrive together with this simple, actionable guide.
Survivor Song thrusts us into a chillingly prescient tale of suspense and terror. Massachusetts is overwhelmed by a rabies-like virus, spread by saliva and with a terrifyingly short incubation period. The infected are driven to bite and infect as many others as they can before succumbing to the disease. Amidst the chaos, hospitals are inundated, and society crumbles as the government's emergency protocols falter.
Dr. Ramola "Rams" Sherman, a soft-spoken pediatrician, receives a frantic call from Natalie, a pregnant friend whose husband has been killed by an infected neighbor. Bitten herself, Natalie's only hope is to reach a hospital for the rabies vaccine. The clock is ticking for her and her unborn child.
What follows is a desperate odyssey through a landscape twisted into a barely recognizable terrain of danger and terror. Survivor Song is an all-too-plausible novel that not only races through the pages but shakes readers to their core, showcasing Paul Tremblay's mastery of the horror genre.
Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art is not just a book about breathing; it is a journey into the scientific, cultural, spiritual, and evolutionary history of this most fundamental practice. Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Big Magic and Eat Pray Love, describes it as a long overdue look at the importance of this simple act.
Journalist James Nestor takes readers around the world to uncover the mysteries of breath. From ancient burial sites and secret Soviet facilities to New Jersey choir schools and the streets of SĂŁo Paulo, Nestor seeks out those who are uncovering the hidden science behind ancient breathing practices such as Pranayama, Sudarshan Kriya, and Tummo.
As it turns out, the way we breathe affects everything from athletic performance to the health of our internal organs. Nestor's exploration reveals that slight adjustments to our breathing can have profound impacts on our health, including halting snoring, asthma, autoimmune diseases, and even correcting scoliotic spines.
With insights drawn from medical texts spanning thousands of years and cutting-edge studies in pulmonology, psychology, biochemistry, and human physiology, Breath challenges the conventional wisdom about the biological function that we thought we knew so well. After reading this book, you might just find yourself breathing in a whole new way.
COVID-19 has demonstrated clearly that businesses, nonprofits, individuals, and governments are terrible at dealing effectively with large-scale disasters that take the form of slow-moving train-wrecks. Using cutting-edge research in cognitive neuroscience and behavioral economics on dangerous judgement errors (cognitive biases), this book first explains why we respond so poorly to slow-moving, high-impact, and long-term crises.
Next, the book shares research-based strategies for how organizations and individuals can adapt effectively to the new abnormal of the COVID-19 pandemic and similar disasters. Finally, it shows how to develop an effective strategic plan and make the best major decisions in the context of the uncertainty and ambiguity brought about by COVID-19 and other slow-moving large-scale catastrophes. Gleb Tsipursky combines research-based strategies with real-life stories from his business and nonprofit clients as they adapt to the pandemic.
A thrilling story of scientific detective work and medical potential that illuminates the newly understood role of microglia—an elusive type of brain cell that is vitally relevant to our everyday lives.
Until recently, microglia were thought to be merely the brain's housekeepers, helpfully removing damaged cells. But a recent groundbreaking discovery revealed them to be capable of terrifying Jekyll and Hyde behavior. When triggered—and anything that stirs up the immune system in the body can activate microglia—they can morph into destroyers, impacting a wide range of issues from memory problems and anxiety to depression and Alzheimer's.
Under the right circumstances, however, microglia can be coaxed back into being angelic healers, able to repair the brain in ways that help alleviate symptoms and hold the promise to one day prevent disease.
A fascinating behind-the-scenes account of this cutting-edge science, The Angel and the Assassin also explores the medical implications of these game-changing discoveries.
Award-winning journalist Donna Jackson Nakazawa began her investigation with a personal interest—when diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder years ago, she was convinced there was something physical going on in her brain as well as her body, though no doctor she consulted could explain how the two could be interacting in this way.
With the compassion born of her own experience, she follows practitioners and patients on the front lines of treatments that help to “reboot” microglia—from neurofeedback and intermittent fasting to transcranial magnetic stimulation and gamma light flicker therapy. She witnesses patients finding significant relief from pressing symptoms—and at least one stunning recovery—offering new hope to the tens of millions who suffer from mental, cognitive, and physical health issues.
Proving once and for all the biological basis for the mind-body connection, the discovery of the true role of microglia stands to rewrite psychiatric and medical texts as we know them.
Successful Aging: A Neuroscientist Explores the Power and Potential of Our Lives by Daniel J. Levitin delves into the intricacies of our brains as we age. Levitin challenges the conventional wisdom about aging, advocating for a focus on health span rather than life span. Drawing from developmental neuroscience and the psychology of individual differences, he presents the later years of life as a distinct and valuable stage, replete with its own benefits and opportunities.
The book provides a wealth of resilience strategies and cognitive enhancing techniques that readers can apply to their daily lives, regardless of age. Levitin's work is a call to shift cultural perspectives and embrace the accumulated wisdom and experience of older individuals. With its actionable insights and engaging narrative, Successful Aging serves as an inspirational guide for a proactive and fulfilling approach to our advancing years.
Chloe Brown is a chronically ill computer geek with a goal, a plan, and a list. After almost—but not quite—dying, she's come up with seven directives to help her Get a Life, and she's already completed the first: finally moving out of her glamorous family's mansion. The next items?
But it's not easy being bad, even when you've written step-by-step guidelines on how to do it correctly. What Chloe needs is a teacher, and she knows just the man for the job.
Redford 'Red' Morgan is a handyman with tattoos, a motorcycle, and more sex appeal than ten-thousand Hollywood heartthrobs. He's also an artist who paints at night and hides his work in the light of day, which Chloe knows because she spies on him occasionally. Just the teeniest, tiniest bit.
But when she enlists Red in her mission to rebel, she learns things about him that no spy session could teach her. Like why he clearly resents Chloe's wealthy background. And why he never shows his art to anyone. And what really lies beneath his rough exterior…
Lost Connections offers a radical new way of thinking about depression and anxiety. Award-winning journalist Johann Hari presents a challenge to the conventional understanding of mental health, suggesting that the real causes of depression and anxiety are largely rooted in the way we live today. Hari's thorough investigation leads him to discover nine different causes of depression and anxiety, which are not primarily biological, but rather are connected to social and environmental factors.
Hari's journey takes him to a variety of places, from the tunnels beneath Las Vegas to an Amish community in Indiana, and to a Berlin uprising, all of which provide a vivid and dramatic illustration of the new insights into mental health. These insights pave the way for solutions that are markedly different from the traditional approaches, offering real hope for those affected by these conditions.
Lost Connections not only transforms our understanding of depression and anxiety but also prompts a broader debate on the subject, emphasizing the need for collective efforts to end the epidemic of mental health issues.
OB/GYN, writer for The New York Times, USA Today, and Self, and host of the show Jensplaining, Dr. Jen Gunter now delivers the definitive book on vaginal health, answering the questions you've always had but were afraid to ask--or couldn't find the right answers to. She has been called Twitter's resident gynecologist, the Internet's OB/GYN, and one of the fiercest advocates for women's health...and she's here to give you the straight talk on the topics she knows best.
Does eating sugar cause yeast infections?
Does pubic hair have a function?
Should you have a vulvovaginal care regimen?
Will your vagina shrivel up if you go without sex?
What's the truth about the HPV vaccine?
So many important questions, so much convincing, confusing, contradictory misinformation! In this age of click bait, pseudoscience, and celebrity-endorsed products, it's easy to be overwhelmed--whether it's websites, advice from well-meaning friends, uneducated partners, and even healthcare providers. So how do you separate facts from fiction? OB-GYN Jen Gunter, an expert on women's health--and the internet's most popular go-to doc--comes to the rescue with a book that debunks the myths and educates and empowers women.
From reproductive health to the impact of antibiotics and probiotics, and the latest trends, including vaginal steaming, vaginal marijuana products, and jade eggs, Gunter takes us on a factual, fun-filled journey. Discover the truth about:
Plus:
... And so much more. Whether you're a twenty-six-year-old worried that her labia are "uncool" or a sixty-six-year-old dealing with painful sex, this comprehensive guide is sure to become a lifelong trusted resource.
Repair your vagus nerve and experience amazing health and wellness benefits.
Your vagus nerve is the largest and most important nerve in your body. It carries messages to and from your brain, gut, heart, and other major muscles and organs. However, common issues like inflammation, stress, or physical trauma can interfere with the nerve’s ability to function.
Luckily, there are tons of quick-and-easy ways to activate and exercise the nerve, strengthening its function and restoring your body to good health.
Packed with easy-to-follow exercises and activities, this book will show you how to unlock the power of the vagus nerve to heal your body and get back to a state of balance.
It Starts with the Egg provides a practical and evidence-backed approach for improving egg quality and fertility. Fully revised and updated in 2019, this book reveals the latest scientific research showing that egg quality significantly impacts the time it takes to get pregnant and the risk of miscarriage.
Poor egg quality is recognized as the single most important cause of age-related infertility, recurrent miscarriage, and failed IVF cycles. Based on a vast array of scientific research, this book offers a comprehensive program for enhancing egg quality in just three months. It includes specific advice tailored to various fertility challenges, such as endometriosis, unexplained infertility, diminished ovarian reserve, PCOS, and recurrent miscarriage.
With concrete strategies like minimizing exposure to common environmental toxins, choosing the right vitamins and supplements to protect developing eggs, and leveraging nutritional advice shown to boost IVF success rates, It Starts with the Egg provides practical solutions to help you get pregnant faster and deliver a healthy baby.
Midnight in Chernobyl is the definitive account of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster, a story that is more complex, more human, and more terrifying than the Soviet myth. Journalist Adam Higginbotham uses his extensive research, including hundreds of hours of interviews, letters, unpublished memoirs, and documents from recently-declassified archives to bring the disaster to life through the eyes of those who witnessed it firsthand.
The explosion of Reactor Number Four on April 26, 1986, triggered one of the twentieth century's greatest disasters. For thirty years, Chernobyl has been a symbol of the horrors of radiation poisoning and the risks of dangerous technology. The true story of the accident, obscured by secrecy, propaganda, and misinformation, has long remained in dispute.
This masterful nonfiction thriller is an indelible portrait of human resilience and ingenuity, and the lessons learned when mankind seeks to bend the natural world to his will—lessons that, in the face of climate change and other threats, remain not just vital but necessary. Midnight in Chernobyl brings us closer to the truth behind this colossal tragedy and is a powerful investigation into how much can go wrong when a dishonest and careless state endangers its citizens and the entire world.
A dazzling new novel of friendship and redemption in the face of tragedy and loss set in 1980s Chicago and contemporary Paris.
In 1985, Yale Tishman, the development director for an art gallery in Chicago, is about to pull off an amazing coup, bringing in an extraordinary collection of 1920s paintings as a gift to the gallery. Yet as his career begins to flourish, the carnage of the AIDS epidemic grows around him. One by one, his friends are dying and after his friend Nico's funeral, the virus circles closer and closer to Yale himself. Soon the only person he has left is Fiona, Nico's little sister.
Thirty years later, Fiona is in Paris tracking down her estranged daughter who disappeared into a cult. While staying with an old friend, a famous photographer who documented the Chicago crisis, she finds herself finally grappling with the devastating ways AIDS affected her life and her relationship with her daughter. The two intertwining stories take us through the heartbreak of the eighties and the chaos of the modern world, as both Yale and Fiona struggle to find goodness in the midst of disaster.
Expert, practical advice for complete mental and physical maternal health Kate Rope's Strong as a Mother is a practical and compassionate guide to preparing for a smooth start to motherhood. This book is your key to becoming the Sanest Mommy on the Block.
It will prepare you with humor and grace for what lies ahead, provide the tools you need to take care of yourself, offer permission to struggle at times, and give professional advice on how to move through it when you do. This book will become a cherished resource, offering you the same care and support that you are working so hard to provide to your child.
It will help you prioritize your emotional health, set boundaries and ask for help, make choices about feeding and childcare that feel good to you, get good sleep, create a strong relationship with your partner, and make self-care an everyday priority. Trust your instincts and actually enjoy the hardest job you will ever love. This book is here to take care of you.
Smart, edgy, hilarious, and unabashedly raunchy New York Times bestselling author Samantha Irby explodes onto the printed page in her uproarious first collection of essays. Irby laughs her way through tragicomic mishaps, neuroses, and taboos as she struggles through adulthood: chin hairs, depression, bad sex, failed relationships, masturbation, taco feasts, inflammatory bowel disease, and more.
Updated with her favorite Instagramable, couch-friendly recipes, this much-beloved romp is a treat for anyone in dire need of Irby's infamous, scathing wit and poignant candor.
The best-selling book on the topic—now in 15 languages. This practical guide to understanding the cranial nerves as the key to our psychological and physical well-being builds on Stephen Porges’s Polyvagal Theory—one of the most important recent developments in human neurobiology.
Drawing on more than thirty years of experience as a craniosacral therapist and Rolfer, Stanley Rosenberg explores the crucial role that the vagus nerve plays in determining our psychological and emotional states and explains that a myriad of common psychological and physical symptoms—from anxiety and depression to migraines and back pain—indicates a lack of proper functioning in the vagus nerve.
Through a series of easy self-help exercises, the book illustrates the simple ways we can regulate the vagus nerve in order to initiate deep relaxation, improve sleep, and recover from injury and trauma.
Additionally, by exploring the link between a well-regulated vagus nerve and social functioning, Rosenberg’s findings and methods offer new hope that by improving social behavior, it is possible to alleviate some of the symptoms at the core of many cases of autism spectrum disorders.
Useful for psychotherapists, doctors, bodyworkers, and caregivers, as well as anyone who experiences the symptoms of chronic stress and depression, this book shows how we can optimize autonomic functioning in ourselves and others, and bring the body into the state of safety that activates its innate capacity to heal.
Why We Sleep is a groundbreaking exploration of sleep, examining how it affects every aspect of our physical and mental well-being. Neuroscientist and sleep expert Matthew Walker charts the most cutting-edge scientific breakthroughs and, with his decades of research and clinical practice, provides actionable steps towards getting a better night's sleep.
Walker explains how we can harness sleep to improve learning, mood, and energy levels; regulate hormones; prevent cancer, Alzheimer's, and diabetes; slow the effects of aging; and increase longevity. He also delves into the importance of dreaming, how caffeine and alcohol affect sleep, and why our sleep patterns change across a lifetime.
The book is a revolutionary exploration of the vital importance of sleep, transforming our appreciation of the extraordinary phenomenon that safeguards our existence.
For those battling autoimmune disease or thyroid conditions—or just seeking healthy life balance—the voice behind the popular blog Feed Me Phoebe shares her yearlong investigation of what truly made her well.
After she was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease in her early twenties, Phoebe Lapine felt overwhelmed by her doctor’s strict protocols and confused when they directly conflicted with information on the bestseller list. After experiencing mixed results and a life of deprivation that seemed unsustainable at best, she adopted 12 of her own wellness directives—including eliminating sugar, switching to all-natural beauty products, and getting in touch with her spiritual side—to find out which lifestyle changes truly impacted her health for the better.
The Wellness Project is the insightful and hilarious result of that year of exploration—part memoir and part health and wellness primer (complete with 20 healthy recipes). It’s a must-read not just for those suffering from autoimmune disease, but for anyone looking for simple ways to improve their health without sacrificing life’s pleasures.
Too many Americans are taking too many drugs—and it's costing us our health, happiness, and lives.
Prescription drug use in America has increased tenfold in the past 50 years, and over-the-counter drug use has risen just as dramatically. In addition to the dozens of medications we take to treat serious illnesses, we take drugs to help us sleep, to keep us awake, to keep our noses from running, our backs from aching, and our minds from racing. Name a symptom, there's a pill to suppress it.
Modern drugs can be miraculously life-saving, and many illnesses demand their use. But what happens when our reliance on powerful pharmaceuticals blinds us to their risks? Painful side effects and dependency are common, and adverse drug reactions are America's fourth leading cause of death.
In Mind Over Meds, bestselling author Dr. Andrew Weil alerts readers to the problem of overmedication, and outlines when medicine is necessary, and when it is not. Dr. Weil examines how we came to be so drastically overmedicated, presents science that proves drugs aren't always the best option, and provides reliable integrative medicine approaches to treating common ailments like high blood pressure, allergies, depression, and even the common cold. With case histories, healthy alternative treatments, and input from other leading physicians, Mind Over Meds is the go-to resource for anyone who is sick and tired of being sick and tired.
The Facts of Life is a poignant and beautifully drawn graphic memoir by Paula Knight. This visual exploration delves deep into the stigma-inducing health issues of miscarriage, childlessness, and chronic medical conditions.
Set in the 1970s, best friends Polly and April collect hazy knowledge about the “facts of life”—sex, reproduction, and gender norms—through the gossip of older girls, magazines, and books, along with the everyday behavior of their families and teachers. As the years pass, they each choose paths they believe will enable them to “have it all.”
April’s dreams of motherhood come true quickly, while Polly enthusiastically builds a career. However, her desire and hope to start a family become less firmly ingrained, influenced by her struggles with chronic illness. Polly's journey with her partner Jack is fraught with debates on parenthood, heartbreak of repeated miscarriages, and the effects of illness on their ability to have a child.
Throughout this journey, Polly is forced to reexamine what family can mean in a society that often associates family—and womanhood—with children. The Facts of Life is a funny, sometimes painful narrative that explores what it takes to be a woman, a partner, and a mother... or not.
Combining cutting-edge neuroscience with the latest discoveries on the human microbiome, The Mind-Gut Connection offers a practical guide that conclusively demonstrates the inextricable, biological link between mind and body. Dr. Emeran Mayer, professor of medicine and executive director of the UCLA Center for Neurobiology of Stress, provides a revolutionary and provocative look at this developing science, teaching us how to harness the power of the mind-gut connection to take charge of our health and listen to the innate wisdom of our bodies.
The Mind-Gut Connection describes the importance of a predominantly plant-based diet for gut and brain health, the role of early childhood in gut-brain development, and the impact of excessive stress and anxiety in gastrointestinal ailments and cognitive disorders. It also details how to "listen to your gut" and pay attention to the signals your body is sending you, providing insights on diet, the microbiome, and much more.
Depression is not a disease. It is a symptom.
Recent years have seen a shocking increase in antidepressant use the world over, with 1 in 4 women starting their day with medication. These drugs have steadily become the panacea for everything from grief, irritability, panic attacks, to insomnia, PMS, and stress. But the truth is, what women really need can’t be found at a pharmacy.
According to Dr. Kelly Brogan, antidepressants not only overpromise and underdeliver, but their use may permanently disable the body’s self-healing potential. We need a new paradigm: The best way to heal the mind is to heal the whole body.
In this groundbreaking, science-based and holistic approach, Dr. Brogan shatters the mythology conventional medicine has built around the causes and treatment of depression. Based on her expert interpretation of published medical findings, combined with years of experience from her clinical practice, Dr. Brogan illuminates the true cause of depression: it is not simply a chemical imbalance, but a lifestyle crisis that demands a reset. It is a signal that the interconnected systems in the body are out of balance – from blood sugar, to gut health, to thyroid function – and inflammation is at the root.
A Mind of Your Own offers an achievable, step-by-step 30-day action plan—including powerful dietary interventions, targeted nutrient support, detoxification, sleep, and stress reframing techniques—women can use to heal their bodies, alleviate inflammation, and feel like themselves again without a single prescription.
Bold, brave, and revolutionary, A Mind of Your Own takes readers on a journey of self-empowerment for radical transformation that goes far beyond symptom relief.
Are you truly in danger or has your brain simply "tricked" you into thinking you are? In The Worry Trick, psychologist and anxiety expert David Carbonell shows how anxiety hijacks the brain and offers effective techniques to help you break the cycle of worry, once and for all.
Anxiety is a powerful force. It makes us question ourselves and our decisions, causes us to worry about the future, and fills our days with dread and emotional turbulence.
Based in acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), this book is designed to help you break the cycle of worry. Worry convinces us there's danger, and then tricks us into getting into fight, flight, or freeze mode—even when there is no danger.
The techniques in this book, rather than encouraging you to avoid or try to resist anxiety, show you how to see the trick that underlies your anxious thoughts, and how avoidance can backfire and make anxiety worse.
If you’re ready to start observing your anxious feelings with distance and clarity—rather than getting tricked once again—this book will show you how.
Seventeen-year-old Greg has managed to become part of every social group at his Pittsburgh high school without having any friends, but his life changes when his mother forces him to befriend Rachel, a girl he once knew in Hebrew school who has leukemia. Greg's life is one of careful invisibility among his classmates, and he spends most of his time making mediocre films with his only friend, Earl.
Greg's mother insists he rekindle a friendship with Rachel, who is struggling with her illness. This new connection brings both awkwardness and genuine human moments. As Rachel decides to stop treatment, Greg and Earl set out to make a film for her, which leads to unexpected personal growth and emotional revelations for the boys. The story navigates the complex terrain of adolescence, illness, and self-discovery with a blend of wit and sensitivity.
Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.
Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning author John Green's most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.