Dreamseller
Author: Brandon Novak
MY DREAM LIFE
Deep down inside I knew that by virtue of the life I had been leading, jail was inevitable and a debt long overdue. But the most disheartening part of this ordeal occurred as the police led me into Central Booking. I had a clear view of the nearby skate park called the Brooklyn Banks, a famous skate spot that I had been shredding since I was eight years old. I could almost see a young version of myself, laughing with my friends, learning new tricks, skating under the warm evening sun.
Library Journal
As a teen, Novak joined the premiere skateboarding team and toured the world. Unfortunately, he also indulged in "recreational" drug use that led to debilitating heroin addiction and the abandonment of his career. Eventually repudiating the abject life of a junkie, he entered rehab and subsequently recovered with the help of fellow star skateboarder Bam Margera. This would be most powerful for an audience weaned on the X-Games; also a forthcoming film of the same name.-Lynne Maxwell
Kirkus Reviews
Pro skateboarder loses everything to drugs, sees little light at the end of the tunnel afterward. Readers will learn more about Novak's impressive skateboarding career in the '90s by reading Tony Hawk's foreword than by reading the book itself. This is an addiction memoir, and the genre's format is by now practically set in stone: modern-day opener into which rude reality intrudes, then flashback to start of life of addiction, leading up to getting clean and ultimately vindication. While Novak and co-author Frantz don't stint on the stock scenarios, they break the mold by not pretending that a junkie's chaotic life can or should be represented in such a cut-and-dried fashion. Novak begins on August 11, 2003: "I am a twenty-five-year-old junkie, sleeping in an abandoned garage in one of the worst parts of Baltimore City." By the end of that day, he has hustled money from his mother, stolen furniture and turned a trick with a man twice his age to get his fix. The narrative settles into a rhythm after the recidivist Novak is checked into detox by a sponsor of nearly limitless patience. Following that, his account only occasionally darts backward into a happier youth, when he was touring the world as part of the famous Powell Peralta team, skating with the likes of Hawk, Buck Lasek and Steve Caballero. He served as a courier for a dealer while still on the team and crawled into the depths from there. The story of his inveterate addiction is only competently delivered, with Novak and Frantz providing reams of unnatural-sounding dialogue for the totemic figures-understanding counselor, abused mother, tough guardian-angel fellow junkie-who try to halt his slide into self-destruction. The book'ssaving grace is the conclusion, which rejects the easy self-congratulation of too many addiction memoirs in favor of a closing memento mori. Dutifully constructed and sometimes surprising, but only occasionally insightful.
Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease: The Revolutionary, Scientifically Proven, Nutrition-Based Cure
Author: Caldwell B Esselstyn
Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease challenges conventional cardiology by posing a compelling, revolutionary idea-that we can, in fact, abolish the heart disease epidemic in this country by changing our diets. Drawing on the groundbreaking results of his twenty-year nutritional study, Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr., a former surgeon, researcher, and clinician at the Cleveland Clinic, convincingly argues that a plant-based, oil-free diet can not only prevent and stop the progression of heart disease, but also reverse its effects.
Furthermore, it can eliminate the need for expensive and invasive surgical interventions, such as bypass and stents, no matter how far the disease has progressed. Dr. Esselstyn began his research with a group of patients who joined his study after traditional medical procedures to treat their advanced heart disease had failed. Within months of following a plant-based, oil-free diet, their angina symptoms eased, their cholesterol levels dropped significantly, and they experienced a marked improvement in blood flow to the heart. Twenty years later, the majority of Dr. Esselstyn's patients continue to follow his program and remain heart-attack proof.
Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease explains the science behind these dramatic results, and offers readers the same simple, nutrition-based plan that has changed the lives of his patients forever. In addition, Dr. Esselstyn provides more than 150 delicious recipes that he and his wife, Ann Crile Esselstyn, have enjoyed for years and used with their patients. Clearly written and backed by irrefutable scientific evidence, startling photos of angiograms, and inspiring personal stories, Prevent andReverse Heart Disease will empower readers to take charge of their heart health. It is a powerful call for a paradigm shift in heart-disease therapy.
What People Are Saying
Dean Ornish
Pioneering research demonstrating that the progression of even sever coronary heart disease can often be reversed by making changes in diet and lifestyle. (Dean Ornish, M.D., founder, president, and director of Preventive Medicine Research Institute and author of Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease)
Mehmet Oz
A hard-nosed scientist shows us his secrets for successfully cleaning the rusting arteries of so many patients. (Mehmet Oz, M.D, coauthor of You: The Owner's Manual and You: On a Diet)
Michael Roizen
Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, Jr., is certainly the father (and the mother) of the now proven hypothesis that you can reverse severe arterial disease... even if you only want to try this plan five days a week, this book is a must purchase. (Michael Roizen, M.D., coauthor of YOU: The Owner's Manual and You: On a Diet)
T. Colin Campbell
One of the most outstanding projects in health research of the past century. It's relevant, it's caring, it's innovative, it's extremely well executed and it's very, very useful. (T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D., author of The China Study)
Table of Contents:
Foreword T. Colin Campbell viiiIntroduction x
The Heart of the Matter
Eating to Live 3
"Someday We'll Have to Get Smarter" 13
Seeking the Cure 19
A Primer on Heart Disease 29
Moderation Kills 35
Living, Breathing Proof 46
Why Didn't Anyone Tell Me? 57
Simple Steps 67
Frequently Asked Questions 76
Why Can't I Have "Heart Healthy" Oils? 82
Kindred Spirits 87
Brave New World 94
You Are in Control 101
The Joy of Eating
Simple Strategies 113
Advice from Ann Crile Esselstyn 119
Breaking the Fast 127
Feasting on Salads 138
Sauces, Dips, Dressings, and Gravies 157
Vegetables, Plain and Fancy 173
Soups, Thick and Delicious 186
Sandwiches for All Occasions 207
The Main Course 219
Wonderful, Easy Desserts 265
Acknowledgments 287
Notes 289
Safe Food 292
Resources 294
Publications on Heart Disease by the Author 300
Index 301
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