MD

In our society, mental instability is looked at as taboo; something to hide behind and definitely not to address with your family and friends, much less seeing a therapist. It is because of these views that many women don't get the guidance and/or support they need when faced with the frailties of the human psyche. In an entertaining, yet informative approach, Dr. Marilyn Martin gives us SAVING OUR LAST NERVE: THE AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMAN'S PATH TO MENTAL HEALTH.

Combined with exercises, diagrams, case studies, and statistics, SAVING OUR LAST NERVE is a wonderful resource! It helps us to realize that there are numerous resources out there that can help improve our emotional lives. In addition, it shows how to remove and minimize stress in your life in order to live more peacefully. Not only did I like Dr. Martin's teachings, I also enjoyed that she opened each chapter with an African Proverb. This book will definitely come in handy for all those who have ever told someone... "you're working my last nerve" and even for those who want to know how to keep from getting to that point.

Reviewed by Tee C. Royal
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

Saving Our Last Nerve: The African American Woman`s Path to Mental Health, by Marilyn Martin, M.D., M.P.H.

Rating: 5 Stars

Wow, what a great great great and needed piece of work. African American women are busier than ever, faced with more and more responsibilities and challenges. Our stress level has risen tremendously.

Dr. Marilyn Martin has put together a resourceful mental health book. The book is filled with stories (which people can relate to), charts, diagrams, medical terminology, and exercise. She keeps the readers involved and grab their attention while taking the journey through her mental health guide.

This guide shows the African American woman how to cope with their stress, without suppressing it and ignoring it. Marilyn Martin also let's the reader know when it's beyond self and the person need to utilize outside professionals, such as counselors and physicians.

If you have not purchased this guide and you know or are an African American woman, you should do so today. This book can be entertaining as well. Yes, we can learn while entertained and I truly believe Dr. Martin has done this. When you first get the book, you may not intend to read a lot in one sitting, however you will find yourself getting wrapped up in the pages and becoming hungry for more. This is something you need to keep by your bedside to refer to at least once a week.

To Dr Marilyn Martin, M.D., M.P.H. what a job well done.

Tonya Howard, SisterDivas.org

This is an extremely helpful book in understanding mental health issues and appropriate treatment resources for Black women. Anyone who is a Black woman, works with or has relationships with Black women, or wishes to better understand the psyches of Black women will find this book illuminating.

Dr. Martin's language is simple (a compliment) and straightforward and her case illustrations easily remind us of ourselves or women we have known. She is direct yet gentle in describing the resistances of Black women to treatment, the need for treatment, and how to best use treatment (even if the mental health professional is not Black--only 2% of all psychiatrists inthis country are Black), p124

Dr. Martin brings to this book an optimism that life can be better, that "saving that last nerve, requires struggle by both spirit and mind. Simplifying that journey is what this book is all about." (p1) And she accomplishes this goal with simple but accurate descriptions of mental disorders and the internal stresses thus imposed on external stresses.

However, Dr. Martin has a holistic approach to Black women, recognizing not only the stresses and strengths in terms of emotional functioning, but also in terms of physical well-being and enhancing physical well-being).

This book fills an important void in presenting mental health information about Black women and can easily be utilized for both personal and professional purposes.

A very special bonus in this book are the lists of books (fiction as well as non-fiction) and movies assembled by Dr. Martin.

This is such a good book!!! And the sea monster likes oreos just like ME!!!!! and it was such a sweet book about friendship and happiness!

This is a really great book. I really liked it. Mummy got it for my little brother but I liked it too and I'm a girl so its good for any kid. Everyone should read it!!!

Hi, I really liked this book. I read it last year itt was really good. Well, I hope you read it!

This book was very informitive for my wife and I. Since reading the shark Liver Oil book we've been using the Shark Liver Oil gelcaps which we purchased [online] at [local internet comany] . com and have been experiencing great results! For the past two years we virtually never get sick, which allows us to stay on course with our busy lifestyles. This book is a "must read" for everyone and the Shark Liver Oil gelcaps are a "must use".

Shark Liver oil is amazing! This book can lead you to a better life through improved health. I started taking Shark liver oil in August of last year. I usually have serious allergies starting every fall, but not this past fall. Shark liver oil is the only thing I did different in my life and this is the first year in the past 12 years that I made it through a football season with no sinus problems! In addition to the sinus benefits, I have been sleeping and resting better at night. Be sure you get high quality shark liver oil. The best is going to be found through an MLM company not at a health food store. jm1134@home.com.

I have given this book to people with arthritis, breast, prostate, uterus , stomach cancers. They have read this book. Our company is a distributor of this product and the results have been incredible. The cancers have either lessen or disappeared. Great marriage with kimo!!

I was searching for a book which will help me to choose a proper birth control method. I was frustrated when I searched the internet because I could not get the answers to my questions.
I'm happy that I bought this book. In 1 hour I learned more about birth control than all the sex education classes taught me. I would highly recommend this book to any women who is having sex and does not want to get pregnant.

This book has everything we need to know about the different methods of birth control to statistics on unplanned pregnancies. It is great and I highly recommened it to anyone who is sexually active.

Accessibly written by Kamal K. Dutta, M.D. (a member of the Diplomate American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology), A Simple Guide To Birth Control is an informative, practical, "reader friendly" guide for both sexes about the varieties of available birth control methods, including pills, condoms, spermicides, the NuvaRing, transdermal contraception, contraceptive implants, injectable contraceptives, sterilization, emergency contraceptive pills, and fertility awareness methods. Other than the pregnancy-terminating effects of emergency contraceptive pills, abortion in general is not covered in A Simple Guide To Birth Control. Examining the effectiveness of various methods in both preventing unwanted pregnancy and halting the transmission of sexual transmitted diseases (STDs), A Simple Guide To Birth Control is a superbly presented, easy-to-understand resource which very strongly recommended for anyone who is (or intends to be) sexually active.

I had the pleasure of listening to this author lecture to in class during my senior year of college. Having the opportunity to discuss this book with the author made Slave Counterpoint come to life. Slave Counterpoint makes the topic of Antebellum slavery captivating for those interested in learning about the early days of slavery in the Cheasapeake Bay region. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who has a sharp curiosity about early colonial history and wishes to be engaged in an honest account of events(I would recommend reading this book a couple of chapeter at a time).

I had to read this book for my History of Slavery class, thought by the author. Dr. Morgan gave excellent insight in addition to his book. I would suggust this book to anyone for anytype of reading, pleasure and required.

I have read no better detailed study than this book. Long but worth it due to the rich detail.

Dr. Greek has again put forth the most powerful, insightful, and rational reference work in the scope of human health issues. What entities control the way you approach disease and illness, its treatments, and the prevention of it? Here you will find overwhelmingly documented sources and information on how we can finally equip ourselves to understand why Americans have one of the world's worst health records while simultaneously spending more than any other country on 'treatment'. Where is so much of our money being wasted and whom is pocketing the rest? Can you really handle the truth? You can allocate many, many years researching and trying to uncover the answers on your own and still come up far short, or you can save several tens of thousands of dollars and invest less than [price] in an advanced compilation of documentation, which is written, by the way, in lay person's terms. Your co-workers or friends will never return this book to you if you lend it out though---it is that good, I'll attest to this, as I am on my third copy.

Finally, an antidote to the incessant and self-serving claims of the animal research industry!

Specious Science excels in at least three areas. First, it's a great primer in the fundamental tenets of sound science. Second, it shows how animal-modelled research fails to meet these basic requirements in theory and in practice. Third, it explains how human-focused medical research, which competes with animal experiments for funding, is superior in its scientific rigor, relevancy, and predictive value.

How many times have we heard that a mouse is the "best" model for studying human disease? One look at a mouse should make you skeptical. The Greeks probe deeper and investigate significant differences between humans and animals at the cellular, sub-cellular, and molecular levels - the arenas in which both the agents of and treatments for disease operate. They explain how small interspecies differences in genetic layout lead to substantial divergences in responses among species. In other words, Evolution 101! The animal model, no matter how strenuous or creatively its proponents argue otherwise, fails this lesson.

"Best animal model" is a fairly meaningless term. Extrapolating from one species to another is fated to be inexact and misleading. Our "hit rate" for medical discoveries is higher in every other type of scientifically-grounded medical research, and for this reason, as the book points out, money squandered on the crude and antiquated animal model harms humans.

Specious Science should be required reading for any life science major, or anyone interested in how charities and the Federal Government spends their health research dollars.

Those with a vested interest frequently claim that biomedical research using animals is a necessary evil. Specious Science demonstrates that those who make such claims have wandered from the fact-based rationality that drives real science.

The Greeks use current knowledge of genetics and evolution to explain why animal-modeled science should be viewed with the same skepticism that most educated people view crystal therapy, pyramid power, and faith healing.

Once they have presented a theory for why members of other animal species are not productive models of human disease, the Greeks go on to examine the evidence and demonstrate that their theory is sound. Using the history of medical advancement as their test bed, the authors look at the record and debunk the claims we have all heard about animal research being the source of all cures - claims made by the vested interests that turn out to be spin-doctoring and myth.

With much scholarship and research, the Greeks have uncovered the roots and behind-the-scenes stories of the discoveries that have changed medicine through time into a science. They explain the lost chances and delays that a faith in the animal model has repeatedly caused. They expose the fatal catastrophes that have resulted when scientists have chosen to value animal data over human, and they have explained the surprising histories of the medical miracles that have arisen from doctors trying to help human patients.

The book also points out recent breakthroughs and advances in medicine that are stemming from human biology, genetics, epidemiology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics. We learn that computers are screening chemicals at astonishing rates and predicting their efficacy and toxicity as drugs at a rate and degree of accuracy that will embarrass everyone with a stake in the archaic practice of animal experimentation.

Together, Specious Science and their earlier work, Sacred Cows and Golden Geese, present a cogent and compelling argument that explains why animal experiments continue and why they continue to retard real medicine progress and result in continued human suffering.

Anyone wishing to understand the science of medicine and the debate surrounding the theory of animal models will find this book essential reading.

Let's say you spent a decade or two poring over self-help literature from the likes of Tony Robbins, Deepak Chopra, Brian Tracy, and even the venerable Napolean Hill (as I have done). You've studied eastern traditions and mystical western writings. You've pondered the big questions, but what you want most is to find moment-to-moment meaning in your daily routine. And by the way, it wouldn't hurt if you made a million bucks, mastered the piano, climbed K2 -- or achieved whatever that goal is, that is your own "ultimate intrinsic desire."

If so, then you might want to take a look at this little book.

Read through it once and you may discern (as I did) that you don't need Robbins' 3-day, $1200 seminar. (Sorry, Tony). You don't need a nine-day zen meditation retreat. You don't even need to read another self-help book. You can go on to other pursuits, feeling confident that you are stringing together a succession of days that will add up to a glorious life lived.

I keep "Strategies" on my desk and refer to it often. The daily list of 11 points at the back, which I reread with each morning's coffee, has helped me to achieve far more than I ever dreamed. I am confident it will do the same for anyone else who reads and understands, as it already has done for hundreds of thousands of others since 1973.

Thank you, Dr. Kiev.

This book cuts right to the chase of accomplishing your goals! Each page is full of stunning insights into life, and he writes it with such clarity, he doesn't need to ramble. No nonsense self help - don't waste your life reading self-help books, get out there and work! Accomplishing your goals will make you feel better, not endless navel-gazing, and journal writing. But, don't think Kiev's writing style is flat, dry, or downbeat. Not at all. He's practical, yet optimistic, uplifting. You can open any page and find terrific insights.

I carry this book in my pocketbook at all times, for a daily reminder that is grounded in reality, and inspirational.

Long before we were informed about our "inner children" or "creeping codependence", Dr. Ari Kiev wrote this small, yet powerful masterpiece. What so many authors of this type of book take hundreds of pages to say, Kiev does succinctly and with great depth. Topics covered include goal setting, self-reliance, and relationships with self and others.

This book is one you will come back to again and again. It's message is timeless, unpretentious, and relevant to everyday life. It deserves to be on the bookshelves of every thinking man and woman. Once you get a few pages into it, you will find you can't put it down, but more than that, the investment you will have made in absorbing the wonderful content will pay dividends many times over.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book about Sugarloaf Mountain. As a hike leader with a local trail club, it was most helpful before leading a recent hike on the mountain. But more than that, I just loved reading it. The history, especially, was interesting to me, but the rest was very good as well. If you have ever been to (or wish to visit) this wonderful little slice of nature amidst all the suburban sprawl, you should read this book.

Choukas-Bradley and Brown's book is superbly written and provides a wealth of compelling information. Perhaps even more importantly, it reminds us of the value of our connection to sacred places in nature, something so threatened in our modern culture. This book has really increased my appreciation and enjoyment of Sugarlaf Mountain and all the natural beauty that surrounds it.

As a regular visitor to Sugarloaf Mountain, I was pleased to learn so much more about it from reading this book. I normally shy away from nature and history books but the writing in "Sugarloaf: The Mountain's History, Geology and Natural Lore" is so good that it just drew me in. I literally couldn't put the book down!

I especially loved the chapter describing each season on Sugarloaf. With such obvious love for and knowledge of the mountain, the author vividly describes the different aspects of each season in exquisite detail.

I highly recommend this book!

This book is a meditation. Rosen offers contempletive fragments of both Taoist philosophy and the words of and about Elvis that bring to the reader a compelling cache of connections between American myth and ancient understanding. It is material to be read and read again, both as a mediataive handbook for individual contemplation, and as a key step towards fulfilling a critical need for consciousness of a national psychology.

NOT JUST FOR ELVIS FANS ...

David Rosen's book reads like a meditation. He begins with two questions: "Why does Elvis' popularity persist?" and "What does that say about our culture?" He then tries to address these questions through a series of devotions centered around Taoist concepts. There are 42 devotions, one for each year of Elvis' life.

Dr. Rosen is clear that his objective is not to diagnose Elvis - as trying to define such a mythic figure would be like (in Lao Tzu's words) trying to "pin a butterfly: the husk is captured, but the flying is lost" (p. 145). Like the Tao, Elvis is a mystery full of contradiction. He is elusive. And Rosen tells us that the contradictory images of Elvis are not only what keep him alive for us - they have the potential to be the source of our own healing. The book is a compassionate work that seeks to restore this cultural icon - not through revision (e.g., trying to show that Elvis was on some path of enlightenment and made it) but rather through understanding that in the archetypal Elvis lies our own struggle with our dual nature. (Rosen focuses mainly on the double-edged quality of the King archetype - how it can function either as a channel to the divine or a destructive mechanism for the one who tries to live it out in human form.) What I like about this approach is that it emanates from a belief in the possibility of redemption - for Elvis and for us. For while "wholeness" (a Jungian ideal) may not have been achieved by Elvis in his lifetime, we can, in a sense, make him whole by finding meaning in his suffering (something he was not able to do himself) and by living according to what we learn.

Rosen uses technical terms derived from depth psychology (particularly Jung and Winnicott), e.g., archetypes, true self, false self, creative soul, shadow, and persona, but doesn't provide much explanation (although the uninitiated reader should be able to understand the concepts generally on the basis of context). As this is not a scholarly work but a meditation I think his approach makes sense. However, as a psychotherapist, I would like to have seen more text devoted to the process of individuation which Elvis, according to Rosen, was not able to complete. (Personally, I think Elvis' individuation is a failure only if we think of individuation as a completely linear process. As Rosen writes, Elvis vacillated between positions of insight and self-destruction - and this is likely what accounts for our ambivalence toward him: he is both the talented hero/rebel deserving of admiration and an obnoxious caricature who evokes disdain or pity. Perhaps there is wholeness in that.) For example, toward the end of the book, he writes "... Elvis felt there was little he could do to change. Of course, he could have done something, if he'd only been willing. He could have channeled his rage into killing his false self, then undergone a symbolic death of his self-destructive self and rebirth of his creative true self ..." (p. 145). But this is the first mention of Elvis' rage and it isn't altogether clear how this process could have transformed Elvis. Such a quick treatment may give the reader the false impression that Dr. Rosen thinks this is an easy achievement (perhaps owing to his modesty, he does not mention that he has written extensively on this process in another book, Transforming Depression: Healing the Soul through Creativity, although it is in his bibliography). And if we focus too much on Elvis' failed transformation, it is easy for us to miss one of Rosen's main points: that our awareness of our own weakness and vulnerability is the fountainhead of empathy. Elvis had this awareness (at least some of the time) along with a great capacity to care for others.

The quotes are interesting and fun, from myriad cultural sources - including Elvis himself - ranging from the popular (John Lennon, Bono, Bruce Springsteen) to the religious (Lao Tzu, Thomas Merton, and Martin Buber); however, my favorite passages were those in which Dr. Rosen speaks from his own experience.

Overall, The Tao of Elvis is a loving tribute to a cherished cultural figure who was, like all of us, a flawed human being.

NOT JUST FOR ELVIS FANS ...

David Rosen's book reads like a meditation. He begins with two questions: "Why does Elvis' popularity persist?" and "What does that say about our culture?" He then tries to address these questions through a series of devotions centered around Taoist concepts. There are 42 devotions, one for each year of Elvis' life.

Dr. Rosen is clear that his objective is not to diagnose Elvis - as trying to define such a mythic figure would be like (in Lao Tzu's words) trying to "pin a butterfly: the husk is captured, but the flying is lost" (p. 145). Like the Tao, Elvis is a mystery full of contradiction. He is elusive. And Rosen tells us that the contradictory images of Elvis are not only what keep him alive for us - they have the potential to be the source of our own healing. The book is a compassionate work that seeks to restore this cultural icon - not through revision (e.g., trying to show that Elvis was on some path of enlightenment and made it) but rather through understanding that in the archetypal Elvis lies our own struggle with our dual nature. (Rosen focuses mainly on the double-edged quality of the King archetype - how it can function either as a channel to the divine or a destructive mechanism for the one who tries to live it out in human form.) What I like about this approach is that it emanates from a belief in the possibility of redemption - for Elvis and for us. For while "wholeness" (a Jungian ideal) may not have been achieved by Elvis in his lifetime, we can, in a sense, make him whole by finding meaning in his suffering (something he was not able to do himself) and by living according to what we learn.

Rosen uses technical terms derived from depth psychology (particularly Jung and Winnicott), e.g., archetypes, true self, false self, creative soul, shadow, and persona, but doesn't provide much explanation (although the uninitiated reader should be able to understand the concepts generally on the basis of context). As this is not a scholarly work but a meditation I think his approach makes sense. However, as a psychotherapist, I would like to have seen more text devoted to the process of individuation which Elvis, according to Rosen, was not able to complete. (Personally, I think Elvis' individuation is only a failure if we think of individuation as a completely linear process. As Rosen writes, he vacillated between positions of insight and self-destruction - and this is likely what accounts for our ambivalence toward him: he is both the talented hero deserving of awe and a caricature who evokes disdain or pity. Perhaps there is wholeness in that.) For example, toward the end of the book, he writes "... Elvis felt there was little he could do to change. Of course, he could have done something, if he'd only been willing. He could have channeled his rage into killing his false self, then undergone a symbolic death of his self-destructive self and rebirth of his creative true self ..." (p. 145). But this is the first mention of Elvis' rage and it isn't altogether clear how this process could have transformed Elvis. Such a quick treatment may give the reader the false impression that Dr. Rosen thinks this is an easy achievement (perhaps owing to his modesty, he does not mention that he has written extensively on this process in another book, "Transforming Depression: Healing the Soul through Creativity," although it is in his bibliography). And if we focus too much on Elvis' failed transformation, it is easy for us to miss one of Rosen's main points: that our awareness of our own weakness and vulnerability is the fountainhead of empathy. Elvis had this awareness (at least some of the time) along with a great capacity to care for others.

The quotes are interesting and fun, from myriad cultural sources - including Elvis himself - ranging from the popular (John Lennon, Bono, Bruce Springsteen) to the religious (Lao Tzu, Thomas Merton, and Martin Buber); however, my favorite passages were those in which Dr. Rosen speaks from his own experience.

Overall, "The Tao of Elvis" is a loving tribute to a cherished cultural figure who was, like all of us, a flawed human being.

The Tao Of Healing: Meditations For Body And Spirit, Second Edition, is a beautiful book, both in its content and its presentation. Haven Trevino says it is his "adaption of the Tao Te Ching, or 'Way of Life,' which first appeared around 600 B.C." Lao Tzu is believed to be the author of Tao Te Ching, which has been translated innumerable times. Trevino, a lifelong student of the Tao Te Ching, chose to use Lao Tzu's wisdom on the art of healing. Seriously ill himself, Trevino says his translation taught him that "beneath our shells of pain and darkness lives a light that transcends description, and all it takes to reunite us is our intention to do so. This light, or love, is who we truly are, and true healing is remembering this simple truth." Love and ancient wisdom permeates Trevino's verses. Each verse is meant to be quietly savored and reflected upon as it gently brings insight and inspiration to the student. Lao Tzu and Trevino both clearly understand human frailties. Gerald Jampolsky, M.D., well-known for his own writing on spiritual healing, wrote the preface to Trevino's book. He says that "reading this book is like listening to the heart of the universe sing an ancient melody of truth and wisdom." He adds it is "about giving and receiving, loving and forgiving, and simply being." Readers, whether healers or in need of healing, will find in The Tao Of Healing the enlightenment they need for their journey.

Sandra Smith, Reviewer

I found this small volumne at my local bookstore when they were going out of business. I spent several hours browsing through the volumnes and this was the one that spoke to me. At first glance I did not realize that it was yet another translation of the Tao Te Ching. When reading the introduction while waiting in line I thought, oh silly me! I have several other versions but none seems so sweetly honest. Perhaps it is because the author wrote this book during the last stages of a terminal illness. Perhaps it resonates because my father recently completed his journey here on earth. Enough simple yet profound wisdom to last a lifetime. Highly recommend.

I have owned this book for 7 years and it still continues to offer solace in times of sorrow or frustration. It is written in poetic form and each page offers beautiful insights as to how to percieve the pain of life in a way that provides growth and acceptance and love. Very deep and beautiful.