Let's Get Physical!

January is a time for new beginnings, or so I always hear. If you are thinking of making a lifestyle change for the new year, whether it be eating healthy, getting in shape or improving your mental health there's a book for that!

Here are a few books that will help you get back into good physical shape again. Most of these books offer a nutritional guide and also mind/body wellness.

The 4-Hour Body by Timothy Ferris
This is not just another diet and fitness book. If you are looking for a healthy lifestyle change you have to read this book and then take action.  Unfortunately, reading the book will not get you the desired results you'd like. The 4-Hour Body is a result of more than a decade of research and focuses on one main question, " What are the tiniest changes that will produce the biggest result?" The answer is in this book. You've got to read it, get physical and follow the advice to find amazing results. You'll look better, feel better and most importantly you'll enjoy it.

Thinner, Leaner, Stronger by Michael Matthews
If you want to be toned, lean and strong as quickly as possible without crash dieting, spending hours in the gym or purchasing expensive supplements you need to read this book.  

Young and Slim For Life by Frank Lipman
Dr. Lipman share the 10 key steps to help you live your best life! He breaks through the common myths around, aging and dieting and zeroes in on what you need to do in order to feel great!

So if you are ready to jump start your new year. I encourage you to pick up one of these great books and get physical!

Lift : Fitness Culture, from Naked Greeks and Acrobats to Jazzercise and Ninja Warriors by Daniel Kunitz

Lift : Fitness Culture, from Naked Greeks and Acrobats to Jazzercise and Ninja Warriors by Daniel Kunitz


In Lift, Daniel Kunitz has two main goals, to trace the culture of fitness throughout history and to explore the impact that this culture had on politics, technology, philosophy, women's rights, and many, many other aspects of life. He does so with a blend of journalism, history, and memoir. The memoir sections are some of the most interesting, focusing on Kunitz own exploration of what is called New Frontier Fitness, that is a functional approach to fitness rather than one aimed at body-weight and waistlines that We are all likely more familiar with. 

 While I knew that many cultures highly prized and idealized many forms of fitness, it was fascinating to read how fitness could in turn shape technology, politics, and other aspects of various societies. I especially enjoyed the easy, anecdotal writing style  as it would have been easy to get mired down in technical jargon of exercise and history. His message, informed by his own journey in CrossFit, that fitness is currently not decided by a scale or mirror, but by functional movement will likely ring true to many. If you are at all interested in history or in fitness, this is a fascinating read, full of memorable stories. 

Run The World

New Years always starts with resolutions. Most athletes start the year by planning how to improve their performance. Some would like to run faster, some would like to lift more weight and some just want more energy. There are quite a few books out there that are excellent and can help people achieve their goals.

There is a misconception that athletes must eat meat in order to improve their performance. But that is not so. There is a really good book that was published in 2013 that outlines good nutrition for athletes. It's called The Runner's World Cookbook. I read it and was impressed by all the good pointers on how to improve my athleticism. The great thing about this book is that it's filled with lots of good recipes that are geared towards meat lovers, vegans, vegetarians and gluten free folks.




Runner's World Cookbook
613.7 Runn

Here is another good book that is completely plant-based:

No Meat Athlete
641.5636 Fraz 

Now the hardest thing for you might be keeping true to your New Year's resolutions and sticking with them. I have learned that a good support system and small monthly victories can do wonders for ones self-esteem. 

January's In the Queue

It's time to warm up with a hot new book from January's In The Queue.

Fiction
Death of a Ghost by M.C. Beaton
Hamish Macbeth wants to prove there's no ghost haunting a ruined Scottish castle, so he and Charlie Carson spend the night. He learns there is no ghost, but there is a body.
Clownfish Blues by Tim Dorsey
Serge A. Storms follows up on his hit movie by paying homage to his favorite classic TV show, Route 66, and uncovers a large-scale underworld operation to rig the state lottery. 
Eleventh Grave in Moonlight by Darynda Jones
As Charley struggle to make peace with her goddess powers and her daughter's destiny, she is accosted by dark forces which wish her banished to another dimension.

Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough
This psychological thriller has a to-die-for twist ending. Louise, the secretary of a successful psychiatrist, is drawn into her boss' picture-perfect life, but soon uncovers a complex web of intrigue and dangerous flaws.

Her Every Fear: A Novel by Peter Swanson
This scintillating, edgy novel investigates the darkest corners of the human psyche. Ever since Kate Priddy was kidnapped and nearly killed, she's been prone to panic attacks. She is relieved when her cousin offers to swap apartments--until the police question her about her new neighbor's murder. Her cousin is the prime suspect, and the police want Kate's help to find the killer.
The Believer: A Novel by Joakim Zander
An intricately plotted and brilliantly conceived novel turns the hottest political topics into a complex, resonant thriller.

Best Sellers
Right Behind You by Lisa Gardner
Death's Mistress by Terry Goodkind
Bone Box by Faye Kellerman
Born of Vengeance by Sherliyn Kenyon
My Not So Perfect Life by Sophie Kinsella
Robert B. Parker's Revelation by Robert Knott
A Million Little Things by Susan Mallery
Never, Never by James Patterson
Echoes in Death by J.D. Robb
Below the Belt by Stuart Woods

Nonfiction
Three Days in January by Bret Baiere
Baier explores the three days between Eisenhower's prophetic "farewell address" on January 17, 1961, and John F. Kennedy's inauguration on January 20 as the means of assessing Eisenhower's presidential career.

The Telomere Effect by Elizabeth H. Blackburn
Blackburn's groundbreaking novel helps people increase their life and health spans. Readers will learn how chronic stress eats away at our telomeres and how thinking you are young and vital keeps you that way!

My Life, My Love, My Legacy by Coretta Scott King
This is a love story, a family saga, and the memoir of an independent-minded black woman. Coretta Scott King discloses her complete life story in this beautiful biography of a brave leader who stood committed, proud, forgiving and nonviolent in the face of terrorism every single day of her life.

Women in Sports

The library is highlighting our Sports and Fitness collection this month so pick up a few items today.
Women in sport have come a long way baby!  Title IX, which gave women equal opportunities in sports, was established in 1972.  Before Title IX, 1 in 27 women played sports.  Today, 2 in 5 women play sports!  Women's Sports Foundation's first president Donna de Varona, who herself was an Olympic gold medal swimmer, said "since 1972, thanks to increased funding and institutional opportunities, there has been a 545% increase in women playing college sports and a 990% increase in women playing high school sports."  You go girl! 

Try a few of the following books geared towards women:

She's Tough: Extreme Fitness Training for Women
Kylie Hatmaker
613.7045 Hatm

Roar: How to Match Your Food and Fitness to Your Unique Female Physiology of Optimum Performance, Great Health, and a Strong, Lean Body for Life
Stacy T. Sims
613.711 Sims

Core Performance Women: Burn Fat and Build Lean Muscle
Mark Verstegen
613.7045 Vers


And if you need more proof that women athletes are here to stay, go no further than the 2016 Olympics where U. S. female athletes won 61 medals including 27 gold!  That's more than the U. S. men who won a total of 55.

Literary Biographies: Shirley Jackson, A Rather Haunted Life

Shirley Jackson is one of my favorite authors. She is a writer who continued in the American Gothic tradition of Hawthorne and Poe, but kept her work uniquely her own: the horror, either psychological or supernatural, blended with postwar, suburban mundanity.

Jackson was a significant figure in 20^th century American literature, though often kept on the edges of mainstream literary canon. How many people have read the short story The Lottery, with its unflinching portrait of brutality and rituality in small American towns? Or how many people have seen either the 1963 or 1999 film adaptation of The Haunting of Hill House?

Last year we were lucky enough to see Let Me Tell You published -- a volume of Jackson’s previously unpublished and uncollected stories and nonfiction writings. This year, on the centenary of her birth, we get a biography from book critic and author, Ruth Franklin.

Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life is a meticulous, critical, empathetic work – not only a glimpse into Jackson’s motivations for her novels and stories, but also an exploration of the woman herself: someone who had a successful writing career but who struggled with marital issues, substance abuse, and personal and social anxieties.

Neil Gaiman writes of the new biography, “Ruth Franklin is the biographer Jackson needed: she tells the story of the author in a way that made me want to reread every word Jackson ever wrote.” I agree and would highly recommend it. It is nice seeing Jackson get her much-deserved due at the hands of a skilled biographer.

Below are a few other literary biographies I would recommend:

The Real Jane Austen / Paula Byrne

My Wars Are Laid Away in Books / Alfred Habegger

Beatrix Potter / Linda Lear

Flannery / Brad Gooch

And make sure to check out the New York Times Literary Biographies Reading List for even more suggestions.

Glenn Gould: A Life Off Tempo by Sandrine Revel

Glenn Gould: A Life Off Tempo by Sandrine Revel

I have long listened to the many, wonderful variations of classical composers done by Glenn Gould on piano. My first exposure to him was when I was flipping through classical vinyl records at a thrift shop when I stumbled across his Bach variations for 50 cents. Naturally, I grabbed it, took it home for a listen, and became an instant fan of Gould’s. From then on, he was one of the artists whom I always looked for when record hunting. But, I knew very little about the man until I picked up Glenn Gould: A Life Off Tempo by Sandrine Revel.

The story is not a straight forward one, with Revel intermixing typical documentary convention with surrealist interludes. These little interruptions could have detracted from the odd yet compelling story of Gould and make for fascinating breaks as we follow this quirky genius as he grows up from a boy to the intense and difficult classical musician we all know. The muted, cool colors on water color paper are wonderful to look at, each page beautifully done. The wonderful artwork does an excellent job of supporting the story of the intense, difficult musician. This is definitely one of the better graphic novel biographies that I have read and I would recommend it for any fan of classical music, of Gould himself, or of graphic novel non-fiction.