Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom by Christine Northrup

Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom by Christine Northrup
Dr. Northrup, an OB/GYN, illuminates the tricky connection between mind and body in this superb book on women's health. She opens in a rather new-agey way which nonetheless struck close to home, as she talked about chakras and the diseases connected with them. Chakras are pretty new to me, but her descriptions closely fit my experiences. As a Western medicinal background, she advocates combining emotional therapies with traditional medicine, never saying, "Just get over yourself and the problem with go away."

The next section covers specific areas of women's health – cycle problems, childbirth, menopause, to name just a few. Each section includes potential problems and cures ranging from least to most invasive, nutritional therapy through surgery. Also included are the specific energy issues from the first section. All of them include both personal stories and research from studies, both of which I find very helpful.

After the health problems, she turns to how to create “vibrant health”, including diet, sex and exercise. Mindfulness is key. I found her coverage of exercise particularly nice, since she acknowledged that she herself did not exercise when her children were small, and discussed how she made time for it and got her children to accept her exercising. I am now recommending this book to every woman I know, especially to those suffering from health problems that are difficult to identify or cure. It’s a tome, but you can easily skim the introduction and then flip to your specific problem. Unless you get sucked into it, as I did.

-Idun

American Fascists

by Chris Hedges

In 1935, American novelist Sinclair Lewis wrote in his book It Can't Happen Here: "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross." And more than 20 years ago, Harvard Divinity School student Hedges was warned by a professor – who worked with dissidents like Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Germany's Confessing Church during the mid-1930s -- that someday he and his classmates would be battling “Christian fascists” like the legion of televangelists then gaining prominence over the airwaves. In this new book, Hedges demonstrates how far the United States has moved in that direction courtesy of “Dominionists” who straddle the line between politics and religion in their efforts to transform the country into their vision of a "Christian nation." To that end, Hedges reports from the front lines (he has been a journalist for many years), attending proselytization training sessions, programs dedicated to the Apocalypse, conferences about “conversion therapy” for gays, the recently opened Creation Museum, and political-religious rallies that combine symbols of war and patriotism with faith. The words of the leaders of the theocratic movement provide the most damning evidence in support of his thesis. --Inanna