A sly, irreverent take on the latest obsessions regarding self-improvement.
New Yorker staff writer Marx (Starting from Happy: A Novel, 2011, etc.), the first woman elected to the Harvard Lampoon, brings her wit and quirky curiosity to the timely topic of mental acuity.
Frothy, funny, and abounding in quizzes, exercises, and questionnaires, the author’s latest romp takes readers to the field of applied brain studies, of great interest to an aging population. “With more baby boomers reported to be afraid of losing their minds than of dying,” she writes, “the worried well—and also a few who aren’t doing so hot—spend more than a billion dollars a year on brain fitness.” She, too, would like to transform her brain “into a spiffy young noggin,” and during her four-month quest for “cognitive rejuvenation,” she engaged in “brain-boosting pursuits” that may or may not have had any positive impact. Along the way, she discovered befuddling controversies. Alcohol, for example, “does not kill brain cells” but does damage dendrites, which conduct messages from one cell to another. According to some experts, rearranging furniture stimulates the brain, as does taking a nap, ingesting ginkgo biloba, not ingesting ginkgo biloba, consuming antioxidants, and creating “top one hundred” lists. “As someone whose favorite sport is sitting,” Marx confesses, “I would just once like to hear some bad news about physical exercise.” Alas, “better thinking” turns out to be a benefit of aerobics. Willing to try some form of meditation, Marx chose “mindfulness,” clicking on a YouTube video featuring clouds, waves, sunsets, “and any number of other pictures that look like the photographs you’ve removed from store-bought frames.” Since bilingual students tend to do better on certain intelligence tests, Marx set out to learn Cherokee from Memrise, “a free website that teaches memorization through crowdsourced mnemonics.”
A sly, irreverent take on the latest obsessions regarding self-improvement.Pub Date: July 14, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4555-5495-9
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Twelve
Review Posted Online: April 28, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2015
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
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