North Shore Book Notes: 64 ways to eat healthy

Jan 20, 2010

Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual By Michael Pollan. Penguin Books, New York, 2009. 140 pages. $11.

Nutrition, writes the talented journalist Michael Pollan, is a science in its infancy. Nutrition science is where surgery was in the 1650s. But what we do know, he says in his brief eater’s manual “Food Rules,” is quite enough to make Americans healthy. Cultural wisdom, from America and abroad and supported by the science we do have, can and should be our teacher. So what Pollan gives us is Grandma’s sage advice supplemented by his years spent studying and writing about food.

It all boils down to these seven words, says Pollan: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. He’s given us this directive before but this time he adds 64 rules to clarify the three main parts of his directive. 

This pocket-sized eater’s manual makes healthy eating seem doable. But Pollan, like all of us, understands the challenges. The same culture that cautions us to slow down and chew our food also flashes TV images of hot cheesy pizza at us at 10 p.m., mere hours after our last meal of the day. We have all we can do to stop from punching the speed dial and indulging in a late night binge of beer and pizza and maybe that perfect combination of fat and salt and sugar, a Snickers bar. Few people are immune to the genius of food marketing and processed food manufacturing.

Source: Wicked Local Manchester

Book Notes | Donald Miller Interview, Part 1

In this edition of Books Notes, I interview Donald Miller about his new book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. Don is the author of Blue Like ...

The 39 Clues Book 2: One False Note

Scholastic Inc.

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THIS JUST IN! Amy and Dan Cahill were spotted on a train, hot on the trail of one of 39 Clues hidden around the world. BUT WAIT! Police report a break-in at an elite hotel, and the suspects ALSO sound suspiciously like Amy and Dan. UPDATE! Amy and Dan have been seen in a car . . . no, in a speedboat chase . . . and HOLD EVERYTHING! They're being chased by an angry mob?!?

When there's a Clue on the line, anything can happen.

Schaum Note Spellers Book 1 (Schaum Method Supplement)

Alfred Publishing Co., Inc.

List Price: $6.95
Price: $6.95

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The Schaum NOTE SPELLER has the unqualified testimonial of thousands of teachers who pronounce it The Best. Musical facts, beginning with line and space numbers are taught. Students learn by doing, since this book is in workbook form. This saves valuable lesson time, and immediately shows any mistakes in the beginner's thinking. Book 1 of 2.

I Can Read Music: A Note Reading Book for Violin Students (Volume 1)

Summy-Birchard Inc./Warner Bros. Publications Inc.

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These easy-to-read, progressive exercises by Joanne Martin develop a student's reading skills one stage at a time, with many repetitions at each stage. I CAN READ MUSIC is designed as a first note-reading book for students of string instruments who have learned to play using an aural approach such as the Suzuki Method, or for traditionally taught students who need extra note reading practice. Its presentation of new ideas is clear enough that it can be used daily at home by quite young children and their parents, with the teacher checking progress every week or two.

Book by Book: Notes on Reading and Life

Henry Holt and Co.

List Price: $14.00

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A Pulitzer Prize–winning critic’s often surprising meditation on those places where life and books intersect and what might be learned from both

Once out of school, most of us read for pleasure.Yet there is another equally important, though often overlooked, reason that we read: to learn how to live. Though books have always been understood as life-teachers, the exact way in which they instruct, cajole, and convince remains a subject of some mystery. Drawing on sources as diverse as Dr. Seuss and Simone Weil, P. G. Wodehouse and Isaiah Berlin, Pulitzer prize–winning critic Michael Dirda shows how the wit, wisdom, and enchantment of the written word can inform and enrich nearly every aspect of life, from education and work to love and death.

Organized by significant life events and abounding with quotations from great writers and thinkers, Book by Book showcases Dirda’s considerable knowledge, which he wears lightly. Favoring showing rather than telling, Dirda draws the reader deeper into the classics, as well as lesser-known works of literature, history, and philosophy, always with an eye to what is relevant to how we might better understand our lives.

HP-Compaq Genuine 202954-001 6 GB 4200 RPM IDE Note Book Hard Drive. New Pull. In Stock.

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HP-Compaq Genuine 202954-001 6 GB 4200 RPM IDE Note Book Hard Drive. New Pull. In Stock.

Book Notes: An Interview with Seth Godin

Recently, I had the opportunity to read an “advance readers copy” (ARC) of Seth Godin’s new book, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? Admittedly, I am a fan. I have read most of Seth’s books. However, this is my favorite so far. In fact, I would go so far as to say this is the most important book I have read in the last year. In a minute, I will tell you how to get a free copy.

A 3D Rednedring of Seth Godin’s new book, Linchpin Cover

Seth’s previous books have been about creating infectious ideas, developing remarkable products, and building engaged tribes. However, this is a book about becoming an indispensable person. But to do that, you have to be willing to let go of your average life and be willing to become extraordinary. In this book, Seth explains how.

Recently, I had the privilege of interviewing Seth about his new book. My questions are in bold. His answers will give you a little sample of what you can expect in the book. Also, you can read more interviews and blogs posts about the book here.

Q: You begin the book by explaining the “take-care-of-you bargain” that corporations have cut with their workers. Can you explain this bargain and why it is no longer working?

The deal says, “do what I say and I will pay you, give you benefits and even a comfortable retirement.” It’s only been two hundred years or so that there’s been a deal like this. Before that, you farmed or you hunted, but no one showed up and said, “you work for me.” Perhaps priests and army officers had a similar deal, but that was mostly it.

So that’s what we grew up with. Go to school and do what you’re told. Apply for a job in the placement office. Have a resume like everyone else’s. Go to work and follow the manual, ask for instructions, do what you’re told.

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