Food Is Medicine by Dariush Mozaffarian
I didn't realize this book was over 400 pages when I requested it from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program. With other books I needed to read and review, plus having a house guest, it took me over a month to read it.
Author Dariush Mozaffarian has an MD in cardiology and also hold a doctorate in public health, and is currently director of the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University, where he is also a professor in the School of Medicine.
Subtitled "Healing Our Bodies, Nourishing Our Minds, and Transforming Our Food System," Food Is Medicine is very thorough. I actually first read the chapter in the exact middle, "What on Earth Should I Eat?" as that was what I was most interested in when requesting the book. I was pleased (and somewhat surprised) to find I'd already gravitated towards most of the recommended foods.
The chapter groups food into three main groups. The highest tier is protective foods: fruits, nuts, seeds, fish, vegetables, plants oils, whole grains, beans, yogurt. The middle group is foods with intermediate health benefits: cheese, milk, poultry, eggs, butter, and unprocessed red meats. The last group is foods the author describes as most harmful: refined grains, starches, sugars, processed meats, other highly processed foods, and trans fat.
What I appreciated most is that the author explains WHY these foods are protective or harmful, in this and other chapters, especially the three preceding this one, on the heart, obesity, and the microbiome (your gut).
Earlier chapters address some of the history of nutrition, from the discovery of vitamins, to the Green Revolution, to the rise of ultra-processed foods. The final six chapters discuss some changes the author feels we need in agriculture, education, regulation, taxation, nutrition security (the opposite of food insecurity), health care, the food industry, and science, to bring about healthier diets for all.
Earlier chapters address some of the history of nutrition, from the discovery of vitamins, to the Green Revolution, to the rise of ultra-processed foods. The final six chapters discuss some changes the author feels we need in agriculture, education, regulation, taxation, nutrition security (the opposite of food insecurity), health care, the food industry, and science, to bring about healthier diets for all.
The book was completed early in 2026, and while even I'd agree that the Make America Healthy Again movement does have some good points about nutrition, this book was either finished before or doesn't address some of the current federal administration's disastrous policies (such as cutting USAID and SNAP) and their current or expected future negative effects.
My copy of this book was an advance reader edition, so it did not yet have an index, but space was allocated for one. (It did have a 40-page bibliography broken down by the chapters.) It was also full of various errors (particularly sentence fragments and run-on sentences), which were hopefully corrected, as it releases on October 20. I'm keeping my copy for its helpful middle chapter.
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I read the next three books for a "No Stress Book Club" meeting this month at MFPOW (Tarleton State University) where the genre of the month was mysteries. I don't typically like to read these, because I find many to be formulaic, and because often the ones that are part of a series don't stand alone. I found a few titles in the e-book collections I have access to that the libraries also own in print:
Mr. Churchill's Secretary (Maggie Hope series #1) by Susan Elia MacNeal
This is the first book in the series that starts in London in 1940. Maggie Hope was born in London to two British citizens killed in a car crash when she was a baby. She's raised in America by a college professor aunt, and is all set to start graduate school in advanced mathematics at MIT, when she has to go to London to sell the house she inherited from her grandmother (her father's and aunt's mother). With war threatening, she can't sell the house, so instead takes in an assortment of roommates, most becoming friends. She also gets a job. Hoping for a position in British intelligence, she has to settle for the typing pool in the prime minister's office - but eventually becomes the chosen secretary for Winston Churchill.
This is a mystery, so soon a couple ensue. I don't want to give the story away, but I will say author Susan Elia MacNeal did do her research. The setting - London in the early years of World War II, including the Blitz - is very much brought to life, as well as everyday life during wartime there, including lots of time going out to clubs and dancing. There are some anachronisms in the book, particularly the matter-of-fact way that LGBQT characters are accepted by Maggie and her friends - something that was not realistic for that time period.
I don't know if other books in this series can stand alone, or if there are frequent references to this first book in them. This book was okay, but I'm not eager to read any more in the series.
The Case of the Bizarre Bouquets (Enola Holmes series #3) and
The Case of the Peculiar Pink Fan (Enola Holmes series #4) by Nancy Springer
These two were also among the suggested books for historical mysteries. I didn't realize until I started reading them that they were "tween" books, featuring a 14-year-old female protagonist who is the (invented) younger sister of Sherlock Holmes. I understand a Netflix movie (or series?) has been made based on these books - but I don't have Netflix. Anyway, they reminded me a bit of the Nancy Drew mysteries I used to read when I was younger.
Set in March and May, 1889, respectively, author Nancy Springer does a good job with the Victorian settings (in London) and clothing (especially with Enola's multiple disguises). I especially liked the way she incorporated the Victorian language of flowers (floriography) into both stories. There's also a secret language of fans that played a part in the Pink Fan story.
I was unable to read the first book in the series, so I'm still not quite sure what happened to Enola's Mum, who apparently abandoned her in late 1888. And that, for me, is the big problem with this series - the books don't entirely stand alone.
There's also a graphic novel series based on the Enola Holmes books, by Serena Blasco, originally written in French and translated by Tanya Gold. My local public library had Enola Holmes: The Graphic Novels - Book Two, which included The Case of the Peculiar Pink Fan and the two following it. The print is quite small and difficult for me to read, but the fan story followed the original novel closely. The illustrations are quite colorful and detailed. Each story ends with a six- to eight-page section called "Secret Notebook" (that was not in the original novels), where Enola further explains some of the details of the story. For example, for the Peculiar Pink Fan, this included the secret language of fans, ha-has, the simple secret code a character uses in the story, and why hair was cut in orphanages in the Victorian era (and what was done with it).
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There's also a graphic novel series based on the Enola Holmes books, by Serena Blasco, originally written in French and translated by Tanya Gold. My local public library had Enola Holmes: The Graphic Novels - Book Two, which included The Case of the Peculiar Pink Fan and the two following it. The print is quite small and difficult for me to read, but the fan story followed the original novel closely. The illustrations are quite colorful and detailed. Each story ends with a six- to eight-page section called "Secret Notebook" (that was not in the original novels), where Enola further explains some of the details of the story. For example, for the Peculiar Pink Fan, this included the secret language of fans, ha-has, the simple secret code a character uses in the story, and why hair was cut in orphanages in the Victorian era (and what was done with it).
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The Patchwork Players by Jennifer Chiaverini
This book is #24 in the Elm Creek Quilts series, of which I've read at least half. I didn't start recording what I read until May 2007, and I know I read some of the early books in this series before then. Author Jennifer Chiaverini states on her website that she wrote the books to stand alone, and that is true. However, it would probably help to have read at least book #3, The Cross-Country Quilters (published in 2001), as the main character in this book, Julia Merchaud, was one of the five main characters in that earlier book, and there are many references to them. I couldn't remember if I'd read that book or not. That's more evidence the books in the series can stand alone - especially since Julia's backstory from that book is recapped in this one.
In the earlier book, Julia is an aging actress who's just landed the lead role in a new television series called "A Patchwork Life" - and she's supposed to know how to quilt. So her agent sends her to a summer session of the Elm Creek Quilt Camp to learn. In this book, set five years later, Julia's series has been very successful - but it's about to film the last season. Julia's co-stars, writers, etc. are already lining up new opportunities. Julia doesn't want her series to end, so she arranges to have as many of the cast and crew as possible attend a special fall session of Elm Creek Quilt Camp, under the pretense of teaching some them the basics of quilting, for more realistic acting, writing, etc. What she really wants is for all them to feel so connected that they'll stay with the series for a few more seasons.
Well, things don't go quite as Julia plans, and it's her own fault. Actually, I found Julia rather annoying - a wealthy woman who thinks she can buy and coerce others to get what she wants. She does learn her lesson by the end of the book, though.
I read this book during a rough time in my extended family, and it was the kind of non-demanding read I needed during that time. As was this next book:
The Foursome by Christina Baker Kline
I'd finished reading all the books I needed to review for LibraryThing Early Reviewers (as well as the ones to discuss at the No Stress Book Club), and was looking for some lighter reads, as life in late October was stressful. I went to my local public library and looked at the new adult fiction shelf for historical fiction, or books by authors I recognized. This book fits both categories.
The foursome of the title were the famous conjoined "Siamese Twins" Chang and Eng Bunker - and their wives, sisters Sarah "Sallie" and Adelaide Yates respectively.
Author Christina Baker Kline is a distant cousin of the sisters. In a Q&A about the book, she notes, "Because the lives of the Bunker wives were so sparsely documented, I took creative liberties to imagine their voices, emotions, and perspectives within the known historical context." In the same Q&A, she explains how she handled sexual intimacy in the book - something I think she did quite well.
The story is told entirely from the point of view of Sallie, Eng's wife, the older sister. In the author's note (also available online), Kline said she originally planned to alternate between the sisters in telling the story, until she learned in her research that Sallie (who died before her sister but after their husbands) was buried separately from Eng, Chang, and Adelaide, on the land she'd resided on since 1853, and owned since Eng's death. That "quiet act of defiance" inspired Kline to write from Sallie's viewpoint.
The story is told entirely from the point of view of Sallie, Eng's wife, the older sister. In the author's note (also available online), Kline said she originally planned to alternate between the sisters in telling the story, until she learned in her research that Sallie (who died before her sister but after their husbands) was buried separately from Eng, Chang, and Adelaide, on the land she'd resided on since 1853, and owned since Eng's death. That "quiet act of defiance" inspired Kline to write from Sallie's viewpoint.
The Bunkers lived in North Carolina before, during, and after the Civil War, and were slaveholders. The book explores the issue of slavery, through Sallie's growing misgivings about it, as well as the possibility that the brothers might have fathered children with enslaved women.
