YOU: LOSING WEIGHT: THE OWNER’S MANUAL TO SIMPLE AND HEALTHY WEIGHT LOSS by Mehmet Oz and Michael Roizen, published May 2011.
Doctors Oz and Roizen reveal 99 of the best weight-loss strategies in a compact, informative 115 pages. The authors divide the 99 tips across sections on food, mind, activity and exercise, lifestyle and more. This comprehensive approach aims to counteract competitors’ false weight-loss promises through programs like crash dieting and gimmick dieting. Tips are usually no more than a paragraph in length, so the authors often get quickly to the point rather than becoming preachy or bogged down by technical jargon.
Some of the suggestions may seem to be common knowledge, but some are not as obvious. For example, Tip 17, “Add Some Pepper,” reveals that red pepper eaten early in the day serves as a “catalyst for decreasing overall calorie intake and for increasing metabolism.” The book is filled with healthful and savory recipes and contains lists of foods to avoid or to use in moderation. Tips 47 through 63 detail the “Do the You Workout,” a 20-minute workout that “will strengthen and stretch your entire body — all without any equipment!”
The book closes with 14-Day You, a two-week nutritional guide for every meal of the day to help everyone get started on a new and more healthful diet. The Bangor Public Library owns two copies of “You: Losing Weight,” including one copy published in large print.
MARRIED WITH SPECIAL-NEEDS CHILDREN by Laura Marshak and Fran Pollock Prezant, published 2007.
Marshak and Prezant examine how having a child with special needs can stress a marriage and change the relationship. Common disagreements and pitfalls are covered, including differing coping mechanisms and expectations of a child and how different parenting styles affect the marriage and child care.
The authors provide a wide range of strategies for handling or preventing these and other common disagreements. Advice and guidance also touches on the importance of continuing a romance through troubled and trying times. Quotes throughout the book from parents who have been through similar circumstances relay special insight into what others have found difficult, what solutions worked best for them, and what they wished they’d done differently.
A resource list near the end of the book provides contact information for dozens of national organizations to look to for guidance and assistance in caring for children with special needs.
Patrick Layne is a reference and ILL librarian at Bangor Public Library.