Book Reviews

I've reviewed a number of books for the Nursing Standard over the years and a selection is listed here. Unfortunately the full review is not accessible without charge on their site.

Militant Lactivism? Attachment Parenting and Intensive Motherhood in the     UK and France           After a mother in a café in Bristol was asked to stop breastfeeding in public, militant lactivists took to the streets. They view long-term breastfeeding as inherent to their maternal identities and attachment.            Published in print: 07 August 2013 Read More: http://rcnpublishing.com/doi/abs/10.7748/ns2013.08.27.49.30.s41

Panic on a Plate – How Society Developed an Eating Disorder Why is it that in Western societies, where the problem of finding enough to eat has largely been solved, we obsess about food? This insightful, witty and timely book attempts to answer that question. Published in print: 13 March 2013 Read More: http://rcnpublishing.com/doi/abs/10.7748/ns2013.03.27.28.28.b1479

Heat of the Moment – 25 Extraordinary Stories from Olympic and Paralympic History ‘Faster, higher, stronger’ is the Olympic motto. In the run-up to the London 2012 games, sports writer Andrew Longmore has put together a compelling collection of essays about the Olympians and Paralympians who remind us why the games matter. Published in print: 11 April 2012 Read More: http://rcnpublishing.com/doi/abs/10.7748/ns2012.04.26.32.31.b1344

When Chicken Soup Isn’t Enough – Stories of Nurses Standing Up for Themselves, their Patients, and their Profession The title refers to the many self-help books in the United States that purport to feed the soul. Editor Suzanne Gordon says reassuring platitudes such as ‘chicken soup for the soul’ provide little solace for nurses facing a myriad of challenges to providing quality patient care. She argues that nurses need to stand up for themselves, their colleagues, patients and the general public in an effort to provide  it. Published in print: 11 May 2011 Read More: http://rcnpublishing.com/doi/abs/10.7748/ns2011.05.25.36.30.b1204

Teach Us to Sit Still – A Sceptic’s Search for Health and Healing This is a personal account of the author’s search for a cure to severe, debilitating pelvic pain. He describes the fruitless encounters with orthodox and alternative practitioners before eventually finding relief by ‘confronting the contradictions in his character’ and learning to deal with the ‘headache in his pelvis’ through relaxation and meditation. Published in print: 09 February 2011 Read More: http://rcnpublishing.com/doi/abs/10.7748/ns2011.02.25.23.30.b1164

Holistic Guide to Health and Self-Awareness Jacqueline Blackett offers a self-declared ‘simplistic approach’ primarily for the black and minority ethnic population to the identification and treatment of a number of health-related problems. Published in print: 31 May 2006 Read More: http://rcnpublishing.com/doi/abs/10.7748/ns2006.05.20.38.37.b475

What Seems to be the Trouble? Stories in Illness and Healthcare Patricia Greenhalgh, is a GP and professor of primary health care. Her timely monograph feeds into the emphasis of the centrality of the patient in the NHS and the direction that medicine has taken towards patients telling their stories. In his foreword, Sir Kenneth Calman, vice chancellor of Durham University and former chief medical officer, suggests that the book reflects ‘her wish to go beyond the technical nature of decision making based on protocols and check lists, in order to view the individual and the context of the problem in a more holistic way’. Published in print: 08 November 2006 Read More: http://rcnpublishing.com/doi/abs/10.7748/ns2006.11.21.9.30.b543

MMR and Autism – What parents need to know Controversy about MMR vaccine will have escaped few. This book sheds much needed light on the speculation that it may cause inflammatory bowel disease and autism in children. Published in print: 25 August 2004 Read More: http://rcnpublishing.com/doi/abs/10.7748/ns2004.08.18.50.29.b135

Reclaiming Childhood – Freedom and Play in an Age of Fear This topical book questions the notion that the modern world is damaging children. Helene Guldberg, an associate lecturer in child psychology at the Open University, challenges some bleak myths about children – that they are depressed, obese and exposed to junk culture. She thinks children are losing out on positive experiences because they are cocooned by a fearful, adult world. She aims to present a ‘more honest, positive perspective’ Published in print: 22 April 2009 Read More: http://rcnpublishing.com/doi/abs/10.7748/ns2009.04.23.33.30.b897

Bodies Susie Orbach, psychotherapist and author of Fat is a Feminist Issue, describes how the westernised body has become the ideal, and body uniformity the expected and the accepted. Our bodies are no longer something secure or ordinary, but a new focus in our lives – something to be remade. Published in print: 18 November 2009 Read More: http://rcnpublishing.com/doi/abs/10.7748/ns2009.11.24.11.30.b987

Defeating Autism – A Damaging Delusion Author Michael Fitzpatrick is a GP whose son has autism. He has been no more immune to the controversies surrounding autism than other parents. He has also tried some of the ‘treatments’ discussed in the book. Published in print: 21 January 2009 Read More: http://rcnpublishing.com/doi/abs/10.7748/ns2009.01.23.20.30.b859

Standing up to Supernanny Jennie Bristow is a journalist whose writing focuses on parenting issues and intergenerational relations. Her new book addresses the parenting crisis – an issue that has long puzzled me. This so-called crisis has existed since the mid-1990s and has resulted in parents lacking confidence in how to bring up their children. Published in print: 10 March 2010 Read More: http://rcnpublishing.com/doi/abs/10.7748/ns2010.03.24.27.30.b1028

Trick or Treatment? Alternative Medicine on Trial This comprehensive and readable book attempts to establish the truth about complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Acupuncture, homeopathy, chiropractic therapies and herbal medicine are assessed in depth. Thirty other CAMs are analysed in the appendix. The authors claim that all are found wanting and that none is backed by an evidence base that matches existing standards of medical research. Published in print: 10 December 2008 Read More: http://rcnpublishing.com/doi/abs/10.7748/ns2008.12.23.14.30.b846

Well-Being - Individual, Community and Social Perspectives The 14 chapters of this academic book were developed from a series of seminars funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, the aim of which was ‘to provide an alternative to, and to complement, the overwhelming harm-based focus of much social scientific research into health’. Published in print: 05 December 2007 Read More: http://rcnpublishing.com/doi/abs/10.7748/ns2007.12.22.13.30.b701 Working with Adult Abuse - A Training Manual for People Working with Vulnerable Adults

Coming from a social worker background, Jacki Pritchard draws on a variety of definitions, including the Department of Health’s No Secrets guidance from 2000. Categories include physical, sexual, emotional/psychological, financial/material, neglect/acts of omission and discrimination. Published in print: 07 November 2007 Read More: http://rcnpublishing.com/doi/abs/10.7748/ns2007.11.22.9.30.b689

Yes, Health Minister - 40 Years Inside the NHS Working for Children Sonya Leff worked as an NHS community paediatrician from 1963 to 2000 and her book encapsulates much that informed health service development during that time, and in particular its orientation towards public and child health. Her belief in the institution she terms ‘our great co-operative venture’ was influenced by her upbringing as a grandchild of Lithuanian immigrants. Dr Leff worked with school nurses and health visitors and developed empathetic relationships with families. Published in print: 21 March 2007 Read More: http://rcnpublishing.com/doi/abs/10.7748/ns2007.03.21.28.30.b590