Editors' Picks: Week of Jan 20, 2020
By kileyturner
Looks Can Kill
A leader in sports medicine reveals the prevalence of anabolic steroids and appearance-enhancing drugs for recreational use, and explodes the myths and silence around these dangerous drugs of choice for the Instagram era.
From fitspiration vlogs touting "fit" as the new skinny to magazines imploring men to get "shredded" and "massive" in the gym, fitness stars and elevated body-image standards are driving a burgeoning industry meant, ostensibly, to make us all more healthy. But are those images …

Wellmania
Bridget Jones meets AJ Jacobs in Wellmania, an in-depth, laugh-out-loud exploration of the best and worst of the wellness industry.
"I laughed so hard, I choked on a doughnut reading this book. I'm so glad Brigid Delaney tried all of this crazy stuff so I never have to." —Jen Mann, New York Times bestselling author of People I Want to Punch in the Throat
Cold pressed juices, “clean” eating, colonic vacations, mindfulness apps, and Paleo: healthcare trends and miracle diets seem to be becomin …

Beauty in a Box
One of the first transnational, feminist studies of Canada’s black beauty culture and the role that media, retail, and consumers have played in its development, Beauty in a Box widens our understanding of the politics of black hair.
The book analyzes advertisements and articles from media—newspapers, advertisements, television, and other sources—that focus on black communities in Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, and Calgary. The author explains the role local black community media has played in …

Gender, Health, and Popular Culture
Health is a gendered concept in Western cultures. Customarily it is associated with strength in men and beauty in women. This gendered concept was transmitted through visual representations of the ideal female and male bodies, and ubiquitous media images resulted in the absorption of universal standards of beauty and health and generalized desires to achieve them. Today, genuine or self-styled experts—from physicians to newspaper columnists to advertisers—offer advice on achieving optimal he …

Fit at Mid-Life
A uniquely feminist approach to how women can break free from what society thinks and get active in their forties, fifties, and beyond.
What if you could be fitter now than you were in your twenties? And what if you could achieve it while feeling more comfortable and confident in your body than ever before?
In this empowering, accessible book, bloggers and professors Samantha Brennan and Tracy Isaacs offer a new approach to fitness?one that champions strength, health, and personal accomplishment …

A Frenchwoman's Guide to Sex after Sixty
A Frenchwoman’s advice for how women—and men—of a certain age can enjoy love, sex, and desire in their sixties and seventies and beyond.
With wit and a soupçon of irreverence, Marie de Hennezel shows that there is no age limit for erotic joy. Through interviews with countless older French women and men, de Hennezel uncovers a plethora of tips for enjoying a rich and satisfying sex life after age sixty. She suggests that perhaps the most important point is to have a positive self-image—to …