Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Title: High Performance Health
Sub-title: 10 Real Life Solutions to Redefine Your Health and Revolutionise Your Life
Author: James W.Rippe
Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: W Publishing Group (May 29, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0849901820
ISBN-13: 978-0849901829

The credentials of the author are very good. He is a board certified cardiologist, he is the author of several books including “Healthy Heart for Dummies” and is also the editor of “Irwin and Rippe’s Intensive Care Medicine” and “Lifestyle Medicine”. He is also the founder and director of Rippe Lifestyle Institute. This book is based on research on thousands of patients treated at that institute and also at Celebration Health, owned and operated by Florida Hospital, the largest hospital in USA.

The book has 2 parts. Part 1: Diagnosis and Understanding has 10 chapters and Part 2: Action Plan has 2 chapters. I am giving below the chapter titles for your information:

1. You will protect what you love
2. Achieve your best health now
3. Mastering the basics
4. Build your high performance health team and environment
5. Transform your life through high performance thinking
6. Revitalize your health through emotional well-being
7. Stop to rest and heal when your body and spirit need it
8. Overcome the seven main barriers to high performance health
9. Use high performance health as a springboard to high performance living
10. Find your purpose and embrace your destiny
11. Ten steps to achieving high performance health
12. A personal journey to high performance health

You may be able to browse through the book and read some excerpts online or at your nearest brick-and-mortar bookstore.

I found his approach quite holistic though he doesn’t use that word, which has been overused and abused and also has come to acquire a connotation with alternative medicine. The book has a very engaging style and is highly readable. The author comes through as a sincere and caring human being. The editor Mary Abbott Waite deserves to be congratulated and well deserves the thanks of the author, which he offers in a special Author’s note. The reader would benefit from the appendices and notes. A companion workbook available may also be worth taking a good look at.

Dr.Rippe could have added more value by integrating the alternative medical (and non-medical healing) systems also in to his holistic approach to health. Modern medicine has its limitations as he surely knows.

I strongly recommend this book from Dr. Rippe.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Title: The Monk’s Son
Author: W.R.Wilkerson III
Publisher: Ciro’s Books (www.cirosbooks.com)
ISBN: 978-0-9676643-1-6
Genre: Fiction / Religion / Novel
No. of pages: 280
Presentation: Paperback

About the book: (from the back cover)

“From great hell comes Paradise”

When Brother Dominic finds a baby hidden in a field, the real world crashes into the peaceful cloisters of an English Abbey. It is 1940 and German bombs threaten the country side.

The foundling, Steven, grows up in the abbey. Over time, the monks take in other abandoned children, including sixteen-year-old Michael, a defiant artist who upsets the community’s tranquility. The boy’s friendship challenges the monks’ sacred vows and takes Steven to the brink of death.

Michael leaves the serenity of the abbey and plunges into the turmoil of ‘60s London. But disastrous sexual encounters and his battle with the drug called Paradise drive his life to take darker and darker turns. Steven, meanwhile, is nurtured and strengthened by his faith and the abbey community. He takes his final vows and dons the monk’s habit.

When at last Michael’s world spirals out of control, he returns to the monastery in despair. His reunion with Steven brings them together in ways that they would never have thought possible.

My impression: The story is beautifully written, is gripping and the style quite fluid which holds your attention through out. The author succeeds in painting a vivid canvas of the events. The novel has many facets that appeal to different people, like orphanage, art, religion, philosophy, and the darker sides such as homosexuality, drugs etc.

My Recommendation: Strongly recommended.
Title: Eric, Jose & The Peace Rug
Author: Dr. Helen B. Mcintosh
Illustrator: Carol Blumenaus
Publisher: The Peace Rug Company (www.peacerug.com)
ISBN: 978-0-9763949-8-3
Genre: Children / Story / Psychology
Presentation: Paperback

About the book (from the back cover):

Not only do Eric and Jose not get along – they hate each other. Theirs is a “simple-to-understand” story of conflict resolution, learning to talk to each other about the problem, talking through a plan to make things better, learning to be friends, and even teaching others “how” to become friends, including you the reader with a step-by-step plan that adults and children can understand.

My impression: The book, meant for children of all ages (especially school children) is beautifully illustrated and the story line is simple and direct. The message is clear and direct. If you want friends, you must be willing to listen to them and you should be willing to change. The message is equally valid for adults too as pointed out by the author.

The colorful illustrations add a tremendous value to the story and the book.

My Recommendation: Strongly recommended to all children, parents, other adults and schools etc.

Saturday, June 09, 2007

Title: On Shapes and More

Author: Roni Rosenthal-Gazit

Illustrated by: Jehanne Silva-Freimane

Publisher: StoryTime World - publishing house

ISBN-10: 0-9792800-0-1

ISBN-13: 978-0-9792800-0-9
Genre: Children/Picture Book


This little book aims to teach children shapes such as triangles, circles, squares etc., by relating them to some every day objects which they can relate to. The text is presented in a nice rhyme-like manner which goes well with the colorful illustrations.


I enjoyed going through the little colorful book that teaches the shapes and how they relate to every day objects in life. Congratulations to the author-illustrator and publisher team for a very useful project to help the children learn the connections between maths (and science) and life in a fun-to-read and fun-to-do manner. Parents can encourage children and help them extend the knowledge of shapes to more every day objects in and around the house.

There are a few blank pages at the end of the book for the child to try out his / her own hand at drawing.

I would have preferred that the pages of the book were laminated to withstand the rough and tough use expected from active and energetic children. As printed, the pages are good enough for a few readings and a few trials of shapes from the children's hands.