Wellness books have a way of piling up in my house. While I value wellness books and often agree to review them, when I get the chance to read I’m somehow more prone to pick up a thriller or to see what’s going on in the world of tween vampires. So I’ve been a little tardy turning my attention to these four newish books. Here’s a quick look.

 

Your Mind is What Your Brain Does for a Living

By Steven Jay Fogel with Bruce Rosin

 

This is a useful book that starts out simplistically. The author claims he lived most of his young life not realizing that feelings aren’t facts or that much of what he did was unconsciously influenced by early programming, especially of the parental kind. Duh. But if you’re either 1. entirely non self-reflective so this is news to you, too, or 2. patient enough to keep reading, better stuff awaits past the intro. The author talks about what happens chemically in the brain to keep unwanted behavioral patterns in place, such as hormones secreted when we please our parents. A scary thought, that. Much of the book focuses on how to override our programming. Fogel also likes frog in hot water stories. That is, the apocryphal idea that if you heat a pot of water very slowly, a frog will acclimate until she’s boiled alive. If you’ve spent too much time in soul-sucking, dead end relationships, this might not seem so apocryphal. Fogel and Rosin concoct an engaging, conversational tone, with lots of personal stories of Fogel’s marriage and family to illustrate his points.

 

The Happy Life Checklist: 654 Ways to Find Your Bliss

By Amy Spencer

 

This bright little book will find at least one way to cheer up just about anybody. Spencer, a writer, felt a certain satisfaction finishing everything on her to-do list. But did that make her happy? No. She realized she wasn’t making time for all the little things that make her happy because they weren’t on her list. So she started adding them. The more she thought of small ways to be happy, the longer the list got. Her book is divided into 10 sections on subjects such as vitality, love, grace and confidence. A few examples I like:

Try a sport you’re certain you’d be terrible at.

Make up a secret handshake with someone you love.

Learn to say something positive in another language.

Be the welcoming face in the crowd.

 

Your Best Brain Ever: A Complete Guide and Workout

By Michael S. Sweeney with 58 brain health boosters by Cynthia R. Green, PhD

 

This is a really fun book about the brain and how to improve the functioning of yours. It starts out with some basic explanation of the brain. Most of the book alternates between exercises to improve your brain power – such as memories games, activities where you race a clock, eye exercises – and anecdotes about cases of people with weird brain problems. If your brain has a short attention span, this book is great because you can pick it up in the middle and read a self-contained page. And who doesn’t like a story about weird brain-related experiences?

 

Whole Health: A Holistic Approach to Healing for the 21^st Century

By Mark Mincolla, PhD

 

This is an in-depth book by a man who does natural healing based on Chinese medicine and EMF, which is Electromagnetic Muscle Testing. It’s full of information on Chinese medicine and energy healing. This would be a very valuable book to someone wanting to gain this knowledge. At this point in my life, having to learn these entirely new organizing principles of health makes my eyes cross, so I can’t really judge. But if this is your thing, I suspect it’s quite a good resource. The appendixes are full of interesting items, such as a long list of recommended supplements and dietary restrictions for everything from HIV to PMS to preventing your hair from turning gray.