The women at the heart of this story come from all walks of life. In 1990 a study of 2000 Australian women, aged between 45 to 55, was undertaken to provide a 'wide-frame snapshot of women's health in this phase of life (menopausal transition)'. It was designed to last for five years. One of the … Continue reading Secrets of Women’s Healthy Ageing | Cassandra Szoeke #AWWnonfiction
At the beginning it's sea was rich and wondrous. We'd snorkel and fish and swim and beach-comb. Ignorance can be bliss sometimes. Until this last month or so I had never really thought about where my smoked salmon came from. Other than somewhere in or around Tasmania, that is. I was proudly buying local product … Continue reading Toxic | Richard Flanagan #AUSnonfiction
My nana used to call it the 'change of life'. It was a change alright. If you take a quick glance at the health section in most Australian bookshops, you will notice that suddenly there are quite a few books about older women's health, specifically perimenopause and menopause, being published. I can only assume it's … Continue reading The M Word | Dr Ginni Mansberg #AWWnonfiction
Back in 2013, Mr Books and I embarked on the original 5:2 Fast Diet. It was easier and harder than we thought. We both lost the weight that we wanted to, we enjoyed the fasting days (weird but true) and we ate a much healthier diet throughout the whole week as a result of what … Continue reading The Fast 800 | Michael Mosley #Health
I started reading perimenopause/menopause books back in 2015 after noticing changes to the way I was experiencing my body. Five years later, I'm still waiting. Still wondering, and wishing it was all over. Most of my friends seem to be there. Many of my friends didn't even know it was about to happen; it just … Continue reading The Feel Good Guide to Menopause by Dr Nicola Gates #AWW
The World Was Whole by Fiona Wright is a difficult book to review. It's a personal collection of Wright's essays, anecdotes and snippets. They are revealing and specific, almost like reading someone's private journal. Yet, all these sketches are written with such emotional intelligence and compassion that they become universal, finding their own connection with … Continue reading The World Was Whole by Fiona Wright
I picked Midwinter Break from my TBR pile to read for Cathy @746Books #ReadIreland18 month. It is a staff pick at work thanks to one of my colleagues, so I was looking forward to it. But I failed to engage.There was lots to like about the story. I enjoyed the time that Stella and Gerry had wandering … Continue reading Midwinter Break by Bernard MacLaverty
No, The Wonder Down Under is not a travel guide about Australia. It's full title is The Wonder Down Under: A User's Guide to the Vagina. And it was utterly fascinating and illuminating from start to finish.Nina Brochmann & Ellen Stokken Dahl are medical students (probably fully fledged doctors by now) from Oslo who worked … Continue reading The Wonder Down Under by Nina Brochmann & Ellen Stokken Dahl
I didn't expect to read one of my Top Ten Tuesday Autumn Reads so quickly, but a curious reaction at work today prompted me to devour Kate Grenville's The Case Against Fragrance in one sitting.I've known for quite some time now that certain garden chemicals, cleaning products as well as regular old dust particles can … Continue reading The Case Against Fragrance by Kate Grenville
Writing a book about your experience with the IVF program comes with many emotional pitfalls and landmines. It crashes into the brick wall of other people's preconceived and often strongly held opinions.The trick, obviously, is to connect emotionally to your reader very early on.I find that books like this, about topics like this, are a … Continue reading Avalanche by Julia Leigh
The big five-oh is fast approaching and books like this now have a curious appeal.Suddenly finding yourself experiencing perimenopausal symptoms and not knowing what to do with them can be rather startling if not frightening at times.Considering how much medical knowledge we have about pretty much every other aspect of our physical lives, I am … Continue reading The Middlepause: On Turning 50 by Marina Benjamin
I have always been fascinated by the workings of the brain.Not only the physical, measurable stuff about what our brain can do and how, but also the psychology of our minds - the stuff that's harder to measure."It's all in your head" or "you're imagining things" are two of the phrases we dread to hear … Continue reading Cure: A Journey Into the Science of Mind Over Body by Jo Marchant
Being Mortal was nothing like what I expected it to be.I thought it was going to be a philosophical discourse on the nature of aging. Instead I quickly discovered an anecdotal journey through the US aged care system.However, interspersed amongst the anecdotes were loads of interesting facts and discussions about aging through the times and … Continue reading Being Mortal by Atul Gawande
So, yes. I am a woman of a certain age. I don't quite know how I got to this age so quickly. I still think of this age as being my mother's age, not mine. Nevertheless, here we are. For the past couple of years I have been in the over 45 age bracket! Me! … Continue reading You’re Still Hot To Me by Jean Kittson
It’s Monday which means it’s time to plan my reading week. I read The Brain That Changes Itself by Norman Doidge a number of years ago. In fact my memory of reading this book is very specific and linked to a very strong sensory experience – I read a chapter every Wednesday afternoon whilst my youngest booklet … Continue reading It’s Monday!
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