Five Minute Review: Four books for regaining health

Health is a holistic concept. It’s also something you cling to for dear life as you drive steadily up life’s hill and down the other side. Running out of gas? These four amazing books will invigorate your body, mind and heart – and perhaps even your place in the world.

The 10 Secrets of 100% Healthy People by Patrick Holford

Can anyone really be 100% happy? Probably not, but surely many of us can be a good sight happier than we are right now. Depression is a leading cause of both mental and physical illness, and it’s no doubt that positive mental conditioning can vastly improve the lives of anyone affected by a dejected demeanour.

Patrick Holford is one of the world’s leading authorities on new approaches to health and nutrition. In his latest book, Holford shares his findings on how we can thrive – not just ‘survive’ – modern life and all its challenges.

Following Britain’s largest-ever health and diet survey (with over 55,000 participants), The 10 Secrets reveals fascinating insights into the prime ways to achieve good health and happiness, offering an easy-to-follow, measurable format for everyone, from the relatively fit to those suffering from health issues.

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Five Minute Review: Four books for perfect parenting

It’s true. Parenting starts at conception. And no, it doesn’t end at retirement (sorry). This lifelong commitment certainly runs the gamut – and until our little ones fly the coop, it’s always nice to reach out for a little guidance along the way. This brilliant collection of books covers many an aspect of parenting from pregnancy through to the birds and the bees. Take heed.

Eating for Two by Kathleen Gandy

This truly beautiful book by award-winning food writer Kathleen Gandy is more cookbook than pregnancy guide, yet it also includes priceless nutritional information for pregnant mums.

Gandy reveals her Top Ten tips for fixing morning sickness and provides a highly motivational shopping list of nutrient-rich superfoods for expectant mums – those foods high in folate, iron, calcium, iodine, protein and vitamins. Gandy also advises mums on foods to avoid – and why.

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It’s an Awesome World with Dallas – WIN!

When American writer Dallas Clayton decided to write a book for his young son, he knew the book’s theme would be on dreaming big. Penning the text in 10 minutes and taking 6 months to complete the illustrations, Clayton may have chosen a big dreams theme for his story, but he surely never dreamed how big his book would become.

Truly one of the most inspiring literacy stories of the past decade, Clayton self-published An Awesome Book a little over a year ago, and began selling it from his website for US$15 a pop. Currently, his sales tally has eclipsed a mind-boggling 35,000 copies – from his website alone, and the book is still going strong.

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Five Minute Review: Four non-fiction stories to stir your heart

Occasionally we love a read that makes us think, that moves us and challenges our understanding of the world and our stance upon it. These four remarkable books may contain subject matter that is diverse – the Sahara desert, the world of endangered animals, the secrets of one of the world’s greatest literary talents and the Holocaust – but all them share something in common – passion and humanity.

Hetty by Hetty E Verolme

This remarkable, true story by Holocaust survivor Hetty Verolme has been rereleased as a ’schools edition’ in Hetty: A True Story. Originally published in 2000 under the title The Children’s House of Belsen, this new edition has been designed specifically for secondary school children, and is a powerful and profoundly moving account of Hetty’s years in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

Hetty was just twelve when she was separated from her parents and taken to the Children’s House, where she became the ‘little mother’ of the camp, taking care of other children. Although her account is sometimes chilling, young adult readers will become uplifted by this incredible story of struggle and immense courage. Read more

Book Review: Stillwater Creek by Alison Booth

Book of the Month: March 2010. It is 1957, recently widowed Ilona Talivaldis and her young daughter Zidra move to the small fictional town of Jingera on the south coast of New South Wales. Ilona is a pianist and her love of music is now shared with a growing number of Jingera residents, the “Jingeroids”, as she establishes herself as a piano teacher and finds a place in her new community. For Zidra the challenge is to find her way through the minefield of playground culture in her small school with its tightly knit groups. She finds her greatest communion with Lorna Hunter, an Aboriginal girl of her own age; and with Jim Cadwaller the slightly older butcher’s son. He has a brilliant academic future ahead of him if his mother will only let him leave Jingera.

Stillwater Creek is told from the perspective of six of the districts residents, including Elona and Zidra. The others are Cherry Bates the publican’s wife, George Cadwaller the butcher, Jim Cadwaller his son, and Peter Elliot, a local farmer. Their stories weave in and out of the narrative and all become intertwined as the book reaches a tumultuous climax.

It is a book crammed with many underlying themes. All the characters have secrets and the issues of unhappy childhood and of displacement are particularly explored. Read more

Book Review: Raising Confident Happy Children

What do we want for our children other than a lifetime of health? Confidence and happiness, of course. As parents, it’s probably all we could ever wish for, most especially because these two elements form the basis for so much else – like fulfilment, achievement, success (whatever your definition of ’success’ may be).

Written by Anthony Gunn, a psychologist and father of two who specialises in empowering people, this book is a little different to the plethora of parenting books on the market. Instead of sucking dry the chronically limited time most parents have – forcing us to wade through great hulking tomes of psychobabble - this pocket-sized guide really is for parents on the go.

Yet it doesn’t skimp on substance.

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Book Review: The Chase by Samantha Brett

The Chase is a fast paced, entertaining book, which purports to tell you ‘Everything you need to know about men, dating and sex,’ from ‘Australia’s Number 1 sex, dating and relationships columnist,’ Samantha Brett.

Cautionary tales, interviews and relationship theories are interspersed with highlighted tips and alerts; as well as a number of regimes and challenges, including her 30 day ex detox diet. Readers of Samantha Brett’s regular blog, Ask Sam will be familiar with many of the basic premises of the book but this is more cohesive and finished version. The Chase has evolved out of her columns and has been augmented by interviews with, and questionnaires from, hundreds of men. Read more

Some Girls Do: Australian women writers share the story of their teenage years

Your teenage years are a roller coaster ride of hormones and uncertainty – a time when you know everything and nothing; a time when you are waiting for life to begin. The 51 short pieces in Some Girls Do are true stories from some of Australia’s most well know women writers about their teenage years. They range from simple tales about first crushes to heartbreaking stories of loss and abuse.

The collection opens with Kathy Lette’s humorous piece on breast size. Like Goldilocks, her problem has always been having too little or too much; she’s still waiting for just right. In sharp contrast Bessie Bardot describes the anguish of her father’s sudden disappearance, and not discovering his fate until many years later. There are stories from girls who fit in and girls who do not. Girls whose issues are small in the greater scheme of things, and girls who experience tragedy on a Shakespearean scale. Read more

Five Minute Review: Four books to get away from it all

Back to the grind and already keen to get away from it all? These fantastic reads will take you away to another place, without leaving the comfort of your chaise lounge or beach towel.

She Played Elvis by Shady Cosgrove

Not much like a good old road trip to take one away from it all, and this memoir voyage across the United States from Seattle to Memphis will certainly take you on a journey worthy of a king. The king of rock ‘n’ roll, that is.

After living in Australia, Shady and her Australian boyfriend return to the States in an attempt for the author to rediscover her homeland, and the very meaning of ‘home’. As part of this inward journey, the couple decide to traverse America from Seattle to Memphis, Tennessee for the 25^th anniversary memorial of Elvis Presley’s death.

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Young Adult Fiction Review: Gamers’ Quest

Although I love young adult and teen fiction, I must admit, it was a stretch for me to open the cover of Gamers’ Quest, a novel featuring computer-generated artwork on its cover. I ain’t a gamer and I certainly ain’t a teen, nor a be-pierced, sword-wielding maniac. What is this going to do for me? How will I possibly relate?

I guess, like any well-written and highly imaginative story, it doesn’t matter how old you are or if your game interests extend to how many grocery items you can fit in one plastic-free bag and… Sudoku. Gamers’ Quest entertained me. Not only that, I had the unique opportunity to enter a world I am increasingly edging out of, while my children increasingly edge in. Put it this way – I felt cool reading this book. And I also felt rather savvy – checking out the content of the very books my kids will soon read.

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