Life Care

Marco the shark gets shivery every time he thinks of the dentist. Dr. Gums is the biggest and scariest shark in the sea. What will Marco do when he gets a toothache?

Mistakes can be fatal—this reality is all too familiar in the healthcare industry. Do you want better clinical outcomes, fewer errors, increased productivity, and highly reliable patient care? High Reliability Healthcare offers some actionable tips from the safest and most reliable industry ever: the nuclear navy. For over seventy-five years, the nuclear navy has operated highly enriched nuclear reactors with sailors in their twenties at the helm and has never experienced an accident.

Over the next ten years, 40 to 60 million people in this country will be admitted to the ICU. Most of these hospitalizations will be sudden, unexpected, and harrowing experiences that can alter patients and their families physically and emotionally, with effects that endure for years. In this rich blend of science, medical history, profoundly humane patient stories, and personal reflection, Dr. Wes Ely describes his mission to prevent patients from being inadvertently harmed by the technology that is keeping them alive.

Almost six million Americans—about one in every ten people over the age of sixty-five—have Alzheimer’s disease or related dementias, and this number is projected to more than double by 2050. What is it like to live with and amid this increasingly prevalent condition—an affliction that some fear more than death? In My Father’s Brain, the distinguished physician and author Sandeep Jauhar sets his father’s descent into Alzheimer’s alongside his own journey toward understanding this disease and how it might best be coped with, if not cured.

Many bemoan the decay of culture. But we all have a responsibility to care for culture, to nurture it in ways that help people thrive. In Culture Care artist Makoto Fujimura issues a call to cultural stewardship, in which we become generative and feed our culture's soul with beauty, creativity, and generosity. We serve others as cultural custodians of the future. This is a book for artists, but artists come in many forms.

Award-winning author and celebrated neurosurgeon Allan J. Hamilton, MD, combines his understanding of the human brain with nearly 30 years' experience training horses to offer wisdom on such universal themes as leadership, motivation, ambition, and humility. The results are showcased in more than 100 thoughtful essays that treat working with horses as a metaphor for personal, professional, and spiritual growth.

Leon loves chocolate bars, Saturday morning cartoons, and his beautiful, golden-haired baby brother. When Jake is born, Leon pokes his head in the crib and says, "I'm your brother. Big brother. My. Name. Is. Leon. I am eight and three quarters. I am a boy." Jake will play with no one but Leon, and Leon is determined to save him from any pain and earn that sparkling baby laugh every chance he can. But Leon isn't in control of this world where adults say one thing and mean another, and try as he might he can't protect his little family from everything.

The last thing Gwen Cooper wanted was another cat. She already had two, not to mention a phenomenally underpaying job and a recently broken heart. Then Gwen’s veterinarian called with a story about a three-week-old eyeless kitten who’d been abandoned. It was love at first sight.

In her former career as an English professor, Theresa Brown had been shielded from the harsh reality of death. That all changed the day she decided to become an oncology nurse. In Critical Care, Theresa writes powerfully and honestly about her first year on the hospital floor. With great compassion and a disarming sense of humor, she shares the trials and triumphs of her patients and comes to realize that caring for a patient means much more than simply treating a disease.

Working in A&E is a challenging job, but nurse Louise Curtis loves it. She was newly qualified as an advanced clinical practitioner, responsible for life or death decisions about the patients she saw, when the unthinkable happened and the country was hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. The stress on the NHS was huge and for the first time in her life, the job was going to take a toll on Louise herself.

All Bleeding Stops gives listeners an intimate look at what goes on inside a trauma center, highlighting injuries sustained in car crashes, shootings, and stabbings—basically anything bleeding, obstructed, or perforated. Having lived and breathed trauma for four decades, Dr. Cohn is an ideal guide to demystify the role of the trauma surgeon and their place in a hospital. The behind-the-scenes look he provides is infused with sobering tales from his career as a military surgeon and in trauma centers across the country as well as his descriptions of high-profile medical stories.

From acclaimed journalist Sophia A. Nelson, the best-selling author of The Woman Code, comes a poignant, powerful, and revealing memoir providing life lessons that emphasize the importance of self-care, self-love, and self-understanding that will lead to freedom, healing from the past, and a better future.

As tens of millions of Americans are living longer lives, longevity is creating challenges that cut across race, class, and gender. Caregivers help older relatives for “free,” but with high costs to themselves. The institutions built to protect older people—like nursing homes and guardianship—too often harm them instead. And epidemics of isolation and loneliness make older people vulnerable to all sorts of harm. In The Measure of Our Age, elder justice expert and MacArthur “genius” grant recipient M.T. Connolly investigates the systems we count on to protect us as we age.

Despite billions of dollars invested in medical research and technological breakthroughs in American healthcare made to prolong and improve the lives of patients, a devastating statistic remains. Two thirds of Americans die in healthcare institutions tethered to machines and tubes at bankrupting costs, despite research that shows 80 percent of Americans would prefer to spend their last days in their homes surrounded by loved ones.

Do you want to be slim, healthy and fit? Are you over 40 and confused about what your exercise plan should look like? Are you discouraged and ready to give up? If so, Strength Training for Life is the perfect book for you! This book will teach you everything you need to know about weight lifting and muscle building for achieving your body's natural potential. It will show you exactly how often and at what pace to exercise and help you design a personalized fitness plan that will show real, visible results!

Are you looking after yourself? For so for many of us, with so much to do and think about, self care - taking care of our mental, emotional, and physical health and well-being - often falls by the wayside. The Self-Care Handbook equips you to make positive, helpful choices for incorporating self-care into your life. It explains how to take responsibility for your own well being and provides ideas and practical advice on how you can better look after yourself.

Look out across the crashing waves! It's a mysterious, beautiful mermaid diving into the ocean. Have you wondered what a mermaid eats? What does a mermaid really look like? Where do they sleep? Wonder no more! Embark on a deep-sea journey to learn all about mermaids.

Jessica Zitter became a doctor because she wanted to be a hero. She elected to specialize in critical care - to become an ICU physician - and imagined herself swooping in to rescue patients from the brink of death. But then during her first code she found herself cracking the ribs of a patient so old and frail it was unimaginable he would ever come back to life. She began to question her choice. Extreme Measures charts Zitter's journey from wanting to be one kind of hero to becoming another - a doctor who prioritizes the patient's values and preferences.

As director of the world's largest abortion clinic and the nation's most prominent abortionist, Dr. Bernard Nathanson presided over 60,000 abortions. As co-founder of the National Abortion Rights Action League, he helped make abortion legal. Then, in a conversion that made headkines and astonished both sides of the abortion debate, he renounced his profession to become a pro-life advocate. But Dr. Nathanson's journey was not over.

Dr. Arline T. Geronimus coined the term “weathering” to describe the effects of systemic oppression—including racism and classism—on the body. In Weathering, based on more than 30 years of research, she argues that health and aging have more to do with how society treats us than how well we take care of ourselves. She explains what happens to human bodies as they attempt to withstand and overcome the challenges and insults that society leverages at them, and details how this process ravages their health. And she proposes solutions.