The Book Babes

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS START BETWEEN TWO COVERS

The Book Babes salute 2008 with a full agenda and terrific news: Da Capo Press will publish our book, "Between the Covers: The Book Babes' Guide to a Woman's Reading Pleasures," in time for next year's holiday gift-giving. (Get those orders in early.) In the meantime, we'll continue to recommend great book at this blog and through our radio show, which is heard on WMNF 88.5 FM radio in Tampa. And our New Year's salute starts with three favorite new books for body and spirit: 

1. "You -- Staying Young: The Owner's Manual for Extending Your Warranty," by Michael F. Roizen and Mehmet C. Oz (Free Press) -- These two docs  have established a bestselling franchise with sensible advice about taking care of yourself so that they won't have to. New forms of health care coverage are probably on the horizon, given the strain that medical care costs are putting on our economy. So the pressure is on to shape up. This book underlines what we've already been told by other experts: that the soreness and slowing down tonce considered an inevitable part of aging is as much the result of bad habits as it is the passage of time. There's a lot of "research shows" factoids here that may or may not mean a wit in the long run. But what makes this series hold together is how it explains thoroughly and in plain English why the basic maintenance recipe still holds up: Eat less, move more, floss daily.

2. "Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream: A Day in the Life of Your Body," by Jennifer Ackerman (Houghton Mifflin) -- Speaking of bodily functions, this book covers that topic in a more entertaining way than any book we can remember. Starting with the wake-up call and ending when you turn out the light, it shows what dynamic creatures we really are. Our body rhythms, much less our body temperatures, ebb and flow to match the content of our days. Who knew that cognitive function is so compromised for the first 10 minutes after waking that it's the equivalent of being legally drunk?  Or that congestive heart failure, gastric ulcers and sudden infant death syndrome are most likely to kick in between 3 and 4 a.m.? No prescriptions here, but info worth extrapolating: For instance, because dairy cows make more milk while listening to Beethoven, figure that listening to classical music will make your body work better, too.   

3. "The Book of Psalms," a translation with commentary by Robert Alter (Norton) -- We believe in holistic medicine. So the final recommendation here deals with the spirit, and we can't resist mentioning one of Ellen's favorite for holiday giving. This is an ecumenical offering for anyone who loves the sound of the  psalms in the Hebrew Bible but doesn't necessarily know what they're trying to say. Alter's revisions from the King James version may be small, as in the opening lines of the most famous psalm, the 23rd: "The Lord is my shepherd,/ I shall not want./ In grass meadows He makes me lie down,/ by quiet waters guides me./ My life he brings back./ He leads me on pathways of justice/ for His name's sake."  But each passage is annotated to help explain any alterations and the psalm's literary and historical meaning. You don't have to be a religious person to draw solace from these poetic gems.                  

THE HEART(BREAK) OF "ATONEMENT"

FROM ELLEN: I braced myself before attending the film version of Ian McEwan's "Atonement." The book elicited such a strong response that I doubted the movie could duplicate it. I was right, but also wrong, as the scenes, cast and plot so faithfully duplicated what was in my memory. EXCEPT...

The film made me think about what stays and goes after a book is read. For me, the heart of "Atonement" lay in the recognition about halfway through the story that the glorious fury that had erupted between Celia and Robbie was DOA. A lifelong attraction and one single acknowledgment of it jumped the bonds of class and circumstance, only to be snubbed out by a girl too young to understand their complicated feelings for each other -- a child who was also subconsciously jealous of the older sister who had won her man. (Freud is all over this story.) McEwan's portrayal of post-Dunkirk London underlined the sense of lost chances and heartbreak.

The movie version is coy about the outcome until the very end. As good as it is at recreating the novel, it has a more linear design, both emotionally and in fact. On the page McEwan manipulates his material so well that what I remember most is the moment when I saw where the story was headed, and I felt real grief -- sob-worthy grief, in fact. Why? It was not just for the characters, who are fictional, after all. It was also because McEwan evoked in me a sense of how complicated and difficult -- and beautiful -- life and love can be. "Atonement" took me from ecstasy to despair within the space of a few pages. It was personal and cathartic and painful and wonderful. Rather than recreate that moment, the film served to remind me that this is what an exceptional fiction writer can do.

HOLIDAY HOTTIES

It's gift-giving season again, and The Book Babes are cruising the shelves in search of just the right book for each person on their lists. Here are the ones they mention on this month's radio show, which airs from Tampa on WMNF Radio (88.5 FM) at 11:30 a.m. EST on Wednesday, December 19:

MARGO'S PICKS:
"Secret Ingredients: The New Yorker Book of Food and Wine," edited by David Remnick -- This compilation of food writing from past issues of The New Yorker belongs next to the recipe file in the home of two of my favorite cooks. What foodie wouldn't love Calvin Trillin?
"Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain," by Oliver Sacks -- Neurologist Sacks is back with another book about some of his most remarkable patients. These are some whose brain injuries profoundly affect their response to music, offering some clues about how tunes play in our heads. Perfect for my younger sister, a music teacher in Maryland.
"Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules of Writing," by Elmore Leonard -- Who better than the bestselling author of "Get Shorty" to cut to the chase and deliver ten commandments for the aspiring writer. This is perfect for a friend who's struggling to finish her novel.

ELLEN'S PICKS:
"I Am America (And So Can You!)," by Stephen Colbert -- At risk of being a shill for a guy who doesn't need me to sell his book, I'm mentioning this because 1) my nephew Billy, a middle schooler who gets the joke, asked for it, and 2) I'm a Colbert fan, too. In his mock political commentator fashion, Colbert hits all the "right" buttons. But unlike those he imitates, he knows that he's ridiculous.
"The Book of Psalms," a new translation by Robert Alter -- My sister has already received her copy of this handsome new translation, which brings the economy of the Hebrew language and valuable footnotes to biblical verse. (SERVE YOURSELF FIRST: I bought myself a copy, too.)
"Cheating at Canasta," by William Trevor -- This new short story collection shows the Anglo-Irish writer still has the right stuff after all these years. Like Alice Munro, he turns the commonplace into a study of relationships and life's fleeting beauty. My California sister-in-law, who just started seminary, gets this one.