Review: Sorted: The Active Woman's Guide to Health by Juliet McGrattan

Did Not Finish Sorted: The Active Woman's Guide to Health by Juliet McGrattan.

I was rather excited to get started on this book when I checked it out from the library some weeks ago. After all, this is a book that focuses on women's health and I definitely am one member of this community.

The book starts off by explaining the risks of not moving and that being sedentary is bad for us as it causes damage to our body. It goes on to share the positives of being active and how regular exercise will make us healthier and reduce our risk of getting different types of diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer. In short, the author tries her very best to motivate all women to get moving; to sit less and to move more.

Sadly, this guide book does not work out too well for me. Perhaps it is the font type, or the font size, or the layout, or the wordings, or even my mood, somehow, the content while I know applies to every woman, does not resonate with the inner me. What I mean to say is that this book did not manage to sustain my interest.

While I believe this book is written with the best intention of the author for all female readers, it is not the right one for me. Yes, I am interested in topics like health and exercising and lifestyle generally, but this book somehow does not cut it. I tried. I really did, but at the halfway mark, I decide that it is in my interest to part amicably with this book. So there.

Review: The Longevity Book: The Science of Aging, the Biology of Strength, and the Privilege of Time by Cameron Diaz and Sandra Bark

5 stars for The Longevity Book: The Science of Aging, the Biology of Strength, and the Privilege of Time by Cameron Diaz and Sandra Bark.

This is a book about aging (more specifically, cellular aging) - what it means to age, how the aging process works and how time will affect us physically and emotionally. I am so glad that such a book has been written to share with us the finer details on how to age with health. After all, aging is a topic that will evade none of us. At some point in our lives, all of us will start to contemplate this - what will happen to us when we get older. And this book provides us with a wealth of information and insight on staying healthy and strong in the years to come.

We all want longevity. But how many of us can live healthily enough to enjoy old age? What is the secret to living well, staying healthy, and having the vitality as we age and enter our twilight years? By attempting to better understand our lifestyle choices and how they affect our health at the cellular level, this book helps prepare us for the changes that lie ahead, to make choices that support our health, and to maintain the well-being of our mind, body and spirit. In short, this book reveals the answer on how to live better, longer and stronger so that growing old can be less scary.

In understanding cellular aging, we need to broaden our view that biological age (how healthy we are on the inside) is a more accurate indicator of health than chronological age (the number of years we have been on this planet). Because the aging of our cells is the true measure of how old we really are. Indeed, the way we live will affect the way we age. It is important to work as hard as we can, for as long as we can, if we want to age with health and strength. Because ultimately, how we age and how long we live is not influenced solely by the genes that we inherit from our parents, but also by our lifestyle choices, our environment, and our attitudes.

Equipped with a better understanding of what aging really is, the science of it, the biology of it, and with the passing of time, we can become empowered to live well and healthy and strong in the years to come. The longevity book is a must-read for women of all ages.

Review: E is for Evidence (Kinsey Millhone #5) by Sue Grafton

4 stars for E is for Evidence (Kinsey Millhone book 5) by Sue Grafton.

It is good to know that when I need a good mystery story and am too tired to go in search of one, I can always fall back on author Sue Grafton's tried and tested Alphabet series.

I read the last Kinsey Millhone book, D is for Deadbeat, way back in May 2018. Fast forward three years and I have progressed by one alphabet only, from D to E. Will I ever read enough to reach the last book in the series “Y is for Yesterday"? I don't know. I really don't. But as for now, I am just pleased that I have this series to turn to for a good, down-to-earth mystery story.

E is for Evidence sees the return of Kinsey Millhone, 32-year old private investigator, for more action. Unbeknownst to her, she is tangled up in an insurance fraud and caught up in a web of family politics. To ensure her continued survival in a dog-eat-dog world, Kinsey is now her own client as she goes about collecting evidence to proof her innocence.

As with the first four books in the series, the writing is good and the plot gets better as the story develops and unfolds. There is also this unexpected twist towards the end. To top it off, the narrative is laced with a healthy dose of deadpan humour, one which I appreciate much. 

Besides the protagonist searching for evidence to protect herself, the book itself is evidence of an era past. It mentions, among other things, photo taking and typing; nothing very much special except the way it is done. In the book, taking photographs involve two rows of films, twenty-four exposures each, and typing is, well, done on a typewriter. Who still uses films for photography these days? And I'm equally sure many (youngsters) do not even know what a typewriter is! But still, seeing all these remnants of the past on print evokes a nostalgic sense of things; an era gone but not forgotten. Sure, times have changed and drastically, but for a book that was first published in 1988 and subsequently reprinted with no revision whatsoever, time stands still. That is also the reason why I sometimes prefer old publication to the revised version.

To end off this review.. since we all know that there are many next books in this series, we can do well to know that all's well that ends well. Now, the question is, will it take me another 2 years or three before I am ready for the next book, F is for Fugitive?