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Reviewer's Choice
Choiceless: A Silenced Birthmother Speaks
Beth Jaffe
bethjaffe.com
Precocity Press
https://www.precocitypress.com
9798994147641, Price: $24.00
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Choiceless-Silenced-Birthmother-Beth-Jaffe/dp/B0GHWK62TJ
Choiceless: A Silenced Birthmother Speaks offers many insights about the adoption process, but comes from an unusual perspective - that of a birth mother who gave up her child for adoption. Beth Jaffe considers the losses involved in making such a decision, the forces at work that made adoption the only logical choice for her child's best life, and the long-term impact of this decision on her own life.
Hardship, trauma, and heartbreak are part of this story, which may trigger sensitive readers on different levels. Despite this cautionary note, Choiceless moves into essential, often undiscovered territory in speaking about the motivations, expectations, and influences of adoptive processes which sharply define issues of attachment, motherhood, and masks of silence.
From signing away her rights to defying the notion that one of those promises involved staying silent forever, Jaffe explores many often-unstated impacts of adoption and family experience in a manner that refutes any notion of a birthmother's experiences being something that should be judged or set aside: "I signed away certain rights when I accepted my plight as a birthmother, but I never agreed to lies of omission around people who happened to die."
She also pinpoints issues in the adoption system that should be addressed to help smooth pathways for birth mothers, children, and everyone involved: "A woman who gives birth should naturally have access to the official birth certificate to prove she is the original mother. If an adoptee becomes rich and famous, imposters pretending to be birthmothers can come out of the woodwork. Allowing women to have access to their records would stop that mess."
Issues of rights, mending broken hearts, support systems, failures and successes, and fury all meld in a statement of adoption experience and plans which swirl around the passions, broken promises and the lifelong impact of a adoption system: "I'm furious your adoption wasn't as advertised. The adoption agreement I remember accepting verbally is not the one in writing, the official one on file, the one I signed. That written legal abomination was not what I agreed to. And I highly doubt the paperwork your parents signed had any mention of verbal agreements either. I'm sure as hell their written paperwork didn't include any obligation for them to write to me, love me, be open to meeting me, or make sure you were always connected to me."
Librarians and readers with any degree of interest in the social, legal, and psychological ramifications of adoption will want to place Choiceless at the top of their reading lists. It's especially highly recommended for women's groups, book clubs, social workers, and anyone holding an interest in the experiences, potential pitfalls, and processes of the current adoption system. It will give rise to many important discussions about expectation, choice, outcome, and the lasting impacts of all these processes on birthmothers and adopted children alike.
The Cookbook Shelf
5 Ingredient Indian
Chetna Makan
Hamlyn
c/o Octopus Books
https://www.octopusbooks.co.uk
9780600639763, $32.99
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Chetnas-5-Ingredient-Indian-Delicious-Recipes/dp/0600639762
5 Ingredient Indian: Delicious Ingredients Made Easy shows that Indian fare at home can be easy to produce, requiring a minimum of special ingredients and time. These meals, made for entertaining, utilize spice blends as their foundation, with introductory color-coded pages of such blends allowing cooks to create them from common kitchen spices. Full-page color photos of finished dishes such as Herby Pulao (a rice/herb/spice-infused dish) and various fish curries make the dishes especially appealing, even for newcomers to Indian fare. If one Indian cookbook were to be chosen for beginning cooks, 5 Ingredient Indian should be at the top of the list.
The Health/Medicine Shelf
Headaches: Why You Have Them, What You Can Do About Them
Egilius L.H. Spierings, MD, PhD
Fulton Books
https://fultonbooks.com
9798887319223, $29.95 Hardcover/$19.95 Paperback/$9.99 eBook/$18.01 Audiobook
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Headaches-Have-Them-What-About/dp/B0F365GPKS
Headaches: Why You Have Them, What You Can Do About Them will appeal to those suffering from chronic headaches of any kind, who want a guide to alleviating and eliminating them. It comes from a pharmacologist and neurologist who provides more medical information than the usual headache guide, placing headache research and insights into a broad perspective that will additionally attract physicians, researchers, and medical students.
The many causes of headaches, from pregnancy and stress to concussion and face pain, are discussed in light of overall health, creating important connections between health conditions and different kinds of headaches. From blood tests that can identify sources of fatigue and headaches to understanding their results, Dr. Spierings creates a broad inspection of the topic that reveals how some headache sources are more difficult to treat than others.
By analyzing and surveying the history of different headache triggers, Dr. Spierings offers readers the opportunity to better understand not only the process of identifying and alleviating headaches, but physician responsibility and choices in treating them: "We have plenty of medications at our disposal and should make every effort to find the one that the patient tolerates well with no or minimal side effects. This, by the way, applies to the treatment of any condition, and we should consider it the standard of care. Excellent tolerability is what we can and should expect from any treatment, whatever it is."
More so than most books on the subject, Headaches: Why You Have Them, What You Can Do About Them provides medical professionals and students, in particular, with important overviews, treatment options, and insights that will help them better communicate with their patients.
Many a library undoubtedly has a book or two about headaches, but few incorporate the broader picture about their treatment options as does Headaches: Why You Have Them, What You Can Do About Them, making this a standout in headache literature.
The Automotive Shelf
All the Ferraris
Serge Bellu
Cassell
c/o Octopus Books
https://www.octopusbooks.co.uk
9781788406413, $60.00
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/All-Ferraris-Ferrari-Complete-Models/dp/1788406419
All the Ferraris is the Ferrari bible, a complete guide to over 600 models, and the only Ferrari book needed for the enthusiast seeking a comprehensive guide to all of the models and Ferrari history. This oversized presentation is packed with color photos of every model Ferrari has ever produced, alongside history, details of their craftsmanship, and archival documents.
A chronological arrangement makes it easy to look up specific models - or readers can simply absorb the entire progression of Ferrari creations over the years as historian Serge Bellu creates a powerful survey of Ferrari's changing designs, technology, and trends.
The Fantasy/SciFi Shelf
The Monster Hunter Files V. 2
Larry Correia and Jason Cordova, editors
Baen Books
www.baen.com
9781668073179, $28.99 HC, $9.99 Kindle, 368pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Monster-Hunter-Files-2-ebook/dp/B0GF3BNXD9
The Monster Hunter Files V. 2 gathers original stories based on Larry Correia's Monster Hunter premise, which involves the Monster Hunter International group keeping the world safe from supernatural threats. This gathering of stories from the "archives" of the group's exploits focuses on mythological good-versus-evil battles between forces, uncommon heroes, and confrontations that are not in other Monster Hunter stories. From missing baby vampires to undercover operations gone awry, The Monster Hunter Files V. 2 is a powerful collection of adventures that will delight newcomers to the premise and prior Correia fans alike.
James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief
Diane C. Donovan, Editor
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