On The Shelf

Healthy New Albany Bookshelf Reviews

Mental Wellness

by Pat Thomas

With an emphasis on how the brain and body impact each other, this new guide from DK Publishing gives readers a multitude of tools to support their mental health. Discover more about the gut-brain connection, ways that nutrition can boost mental well-being, and the brain benefits of exercise and movement. Dive deeper into how alternative therapies can be used alone or in conjunction with conventional mental health. Written by a team of experts in their fields, this is an ideal starting point for those wishing to embrace a holistic, full-body approach to their mental wellness.

The Well Plated Cookbook

by Erin Clarke

Author of the popular blog Well Plated, Erin Clarke brings her approachable, nourishmentminded mentality to comfort food in this cookbook of fast, healthy recipes. Full of realistic meal ideas for busy days, helpful tips to keep the recipes working for you and even rebooted desserts to keep life sweet. These clearly written, beautifully photographed recipes will have your mouth watering for something healthy.

The Feel Good Effect

by Robyn Conley Downs

Struggling to maintain a new habit is something we can all identity with (New Year’s resolutions, we’re looking at you), but creating a new, lasting habit might just come down to some neuroscience, psychology and small mindset shifts. More than another book about changing habits for productivity, The Feel Good Effect was written to help readers optimize feeling good and being well. Grounded in research and real-life experiences, Downs has created a practical approach to challenge your own assumptions about success and rewire your brain to make small shifts for more wellness and joy.

Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics: A 10% Happier How-To Book

by Dan Harris

We’ve all heard the researchbacked health benefits to incorporating meditation into our lives, but if the idea of clearing your mind stresses you out, give this book a try. Written by ABC News anchor Dan Harris, this is a truly approachable guide to meditation. Drawn to meditation after suffering a panic attack while on national TV, Harris has since become an outspoken evangelist for mindfulness. Written with humor and honesty, this book is part road trip story, part practical meditation advice and wholly enjoyable.

Fitness for Everyone: 50 Exercises for Every Type of Body

by Louise Green

On a mission to change the idealistic standards of fitness culture, Louise Green has written an exercise book for all body types and abilities. After Green experienced the life changing impact of having a plus-sized woman as a trainer, she left her career and began pursuing inclusive fitness as her life’s work. Her new book has 50 achievable exercises, simply explained and photographed with real-life models of different physical abilities. Including modifications for each exercise as well as sample combinations and complexes, Fitness for Everyone has a starting point for everyone’s fitness path.

This Is Your Mind on Plants

by Michael Pollan

Building on ideas from The Botany of Desire and How to Change Your Mind, Michael Pollan once again explores

our human relationship with plants, this time the psychoactive ones. Humans have been using plants as medicine – and mind-altering agents – for millennia, but when and why did we begin to categorize these drugs as either acceptable or unacceptable? Centered on three plant-derived drugs – caffeine, opium and mescaline – Pollan’s new book weaves together science, cultural history and the author’s personal experiences to delve into the human desire to change our consciousness.

Clean: The New Science of Skin

by James Hamblin

If you walk down the personal care aisles of any drug store, you’ll be met with endless products to cleanse, moisturize and make yourself smell nice. But what if all of those products were really disrupting the work of an elaborate system already in place to keep your skin healthy? Doctor and journalist James Hamblin has a theory that our skin microbiome may be more important than we realize, and that over-cleansing may be the cause of some of our skin woes. Written with humor and clarity, Clean takes a look at the skin care industry, the history of western hygiene, probiotic and immunological research, and even the idea of not bathing at all.

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