The Life Machines by Daria Mochly-Rosen; Emanuel Rosen

The Life Machines
by Daria Mochly-Rosen; Emanuel Rosen

ISBN-13: 9781668057988
Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Simon Element
Released: October 14, 2025

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Improve your lifelong health and well-being by understanding what mitochondria really do for you, and how through small lifestyle changes, these awe-inspiring powerhouses can better your life.

Meet your mitochondria—tiny but mighty organelles that are the true engines of life. These organelles are popularly known as the “powerhouses of the cell,” but new research shows that the mitochondria do more than just convert food into energy—they’re orchestrators of critical functions that keep you healthy and alive.

This groundbreaking book by a leading scientist from Stanford University School of Medicine and her husband, a bestselling author, is the first to provide a comprehensive yet easy-to-understand look at mitochondria and their vital role in human health. It is based on the premise that healthy mitochondria are the key to healthy cells and, thus, to healthy tissues, healthy organs, and a healthy body. The Life Machines provides practical and fundamental principles that you can use to unlock your body’s full potential, including how sleep, stress, exercise, toxins, and diet affect mitochondria function. Dysfunction of these organelles has been linked to diseases and conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, type 2 diabetes, heart diseases, cancer, depression, autism spectrum disorder, chronic fatigue syndrome, and infertility

Packed with surprising facts, you’ll read about “mitochondrial Eve” who lived in Africa 200,000 years ago; tiny rotors that spin inside your body at fantastic speed; how cancer cells steal mitochondria from immune cells; how mitochondria help shape a baby’s fingers and brain; how mitochondria in your thighs are linked to your cognitive capacity, and more.

Skillfully weaving cutting-edge scientific discoveries, expert testimonies, personal stories, and practical insights, The Life Machines is inspiring and hopeful, empowering you to adopt lifestyle changes that will benefit the smallest—and yet most crucial—parts of the human body.


My Review:
The Life Machines is about the functions that mitochondria perform, things recent research has discovered about mitochondria, and how we can improve (or maintain) good mitochondria function through good sleep, exercise, relaxation, and diet. Also, why we should avoid chronic stress and toxins from the mitochondrial viewpoint. One author, Daria, is a researcher and provided the latest scientific information while Emanuel wrote this information in ways that anyone can understand, explaining things in both scientific terms and then through analogies. It was interesting to learn how much more mitochondria do for you than produce energy and the latest research on how exercise and such affect your mitochondria for good and bad. Overall, I'd recommend this interesting science book.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.

The Biology of Trauma by Aimie Apigian

The Biology of Trauma
by Aimie Apigian

ISBN-13: 9781637746233
Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: BenBella Books
Released: September 23, 2025

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
The latest research on how trauma impacts our bodies on a cellular level. Traditional medicine still mistakes subtle signs of trauma for stress, anxiety, or chronic disease—sometimes even retraumatizing patients with outdated and misguided methods. Treatment plans that focus on the mind are only addressing the downstream effects. Likewise, common medical approaches to manage symptoms fail to explore root causes and promote genuine recovery.

If we want to truly heal, we need to understand trauma as something happening inside of the body—not as a singular external event. Gaining clarity on how our bodies hold onto experiences, impacting both our physical health and our ability to maintain healthy behaviors and relationships, is crucial. That’s where Dr. Aimie Apigian’s integrative, revolutionary approach comes in.

With a decade of clinical research, approachable storytelling, and real-life examples, The Biology of Trauma will show ways to identify commonly overlooked trauma symptoms like lethargy, fogginess, and unexplained worry and to recognize how emotional pain stored in the body affects overall health on a cellular level, even for people with functionally successful lives. This information can help prevent trauma-induced changes in your biology that suppress the cycle of recovery. Lern to work with your nervous system to safely heal—without risk of retraumatization.

Perfect for both individuals seeking personal growth and health professionals improving their practice, The Biology of Trauma will help you gain deep insights into your own mind, body, and healing journey.


My Review:
The Biology of Trauma explains how trauma impacts our bodies in a very specific sequence of steps designed to protect us long term. The first half of the book explained these steps in detail, how to recognize where you are in the sequence, and what to do so you don't get stuck in a trauma response. The author went into enough depth in the science (explaining how the body reacts down to a cellular level) for professionals but used analogies and clear examples to help non-medical readers understand the material. I found this information very useful because I can now recognize when I'm hitting the Overwhelm part of the sequence and can change things (also explained in the book) so I don't go into a trauma response, or at least don't linger there. She pulled information together that I've heard before and tied it together in a way that made a lot of sense. I'd recommend this book just for this section.

I was disappointed in the second half, in which the author took some of the cases that she'd used as examples and described how she treated them to help them recover. Unfortunately, her approach is individualized and you basically have to sign up for her courses. For example, she said that these clients went through a series of somatic exercises/movements that are foundational to recovery but didn't describe them beyond a few examples, like one woman needed to do hands-and-knees crawling for weeks. While this section gave an idea of things to check out (nutrition deficiencies, etc.) and what sort of things are done in the author's program, it's not something you're equipped to do on your own by the end of the book.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.

Mayo Clinic on Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias, Revised and Updated

Mayo Clinic on Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias, Revised and Updated by Dr. Jonathan Graff-Radford M.D. & Angela Lunde M.A.

ISBN-13: 9798887702834
Hardcover: 312 pages
Publisher: Mayo Clinic Press
Released: Aug. 26, 2025

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Help to prevent, slow, and understand Alzheimer’s Disease and other Dementias with this guide from the experts at Mayo Clinic. This essential resource includes key information about the latest advancements in diagnosis and treatment, as well as factors that may affect your cognitive health. While Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia, other types also affect adults worldwide, causing loss of cognitive functions such as memory, reasoning and judgment. In this fully revised and updated third edition of Mayo Clinic’s on Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias leading experts at Mayo Clinic answer patients and caregivers’ most pressing questions, including:

Are there ways you can lower your risk of Alzheimer’s Disease and other dementias? Can they be prevented?

Can you live well with dementia? If so, how?

How do sleeplessness, hearing loss, social isolation, and other risk factors contribute to cognitive decline?

How can exercise and healthy foods preserve brain function?

What are the neurological changes that can occur in the brain, and how is normal aging different from aging with dementia?

How are blood and genetic biomarker tests breaking new ground in diagnosing dementia?

Why is it increasingly important to identify dementia in its early stages?

What are the unique signs and symptoms of Lewy body dementia, frontotemporal degeneration, vascular cognitive impairment, and other dementias?

What are the stages of Alzheimer’s disease?

Can new and emerging medications slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease?

What day-to-day coping strategies can help people live well with dementia?

How can caregivers care for themselves?


My Review:
Mayo Clinic on Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias is a reference book on the various dementias. It primary talked to the reader as if they were the one getting (or concerned about getting) dementia. Some of the last chapters were aimed at caregivers, covering how to best interact with someone with dementia and how to take care of themselves, too. There was a lot of repeated information. For example, an early chapter gave a good amount of information about the different types of dementias, but this information was repeated and expanded upon in a chapter covering each type of dementia (Alzheimer’s disease, Lewy body dementia, frontotemporal degeneration, vascular cognitive impairment, etc.).

The authors talked about possible causes of dementia, risk factors for it, the symptoms and progression, ways to test for it, and treatments for it. They also talked about things that could look like dementia but are caused by things like drug side effects. I appreciated that they covered nutrition and exercise recommendations and didn't focus solely on the drugs. Overall, I'd recommend this informative book.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.

Mastering Chronic Pain by Dr. Sahar Swidan & Dr. Matthew Bennett

Mastering Chronic Pain
by Dr. Sahar Swidan and
Dr. Matthew Bennett

ISBN-13: 9798999258014
Kindle: 380 pages
Publisher: TranscendMed
Released: September 4, 2025

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Living with chronic pain can feel endless and exhausting, especially when nothing seems to help. Mastering Chronic Pain offers hope and a new path forward. In this clear and compassionate guide, orthopedic spine surgeon Dr. Matthew Bennett, MD and pain specialist Dr. Sahar Swidan, PharmD introduce an approach grounded in neuroscience and functional medicine. Instead of masking pain, they show how to work with your body’s biological systems to promote real healing.

This book isn’t about “toughing it out” or chasing the next pill. It’s about understanding what’s really happening in your body and learning how to support your recovery. Inside, you’ll discover: Why pain can continue long after an injury has healed; How to retrain your brain and reset your nervous system; The hidden role of hormones, inflammation, and immunity; Non-medication tools that actually support long-term healing; and a step-by-step guide to your personalized Resilience Code.


My Review:
Mastering Chronic Pain is nonfiction explaining how chronic pain is different than acute pain, why your body can get stuck in pain mode, and how to retrain your nervous system to reduce pain and support healing. I've done a lot of research on chronic pain and have heard much of the information in this book before, so I believe it's both accurate science and useful advice on a variety of non-drug methods that can help reduce pain. They gave just enough medical detail on chronic pain to claim it's a science-based book but spent most of their time explaining things in common language that anyone can understand. They used stories of people dealing with injuries that turned into chronic pain and how they learned about and applied the information in that chapter.

However, it seemed like everything was repeated at least three times, sometimes as a copy-paste from an earlier section and other times with additional information. The last part of the book went over the information (what's causing pain) and pain-reduction methods (Why does this work? How do you do it?) in a different format, but it was basically what we'd already gotten in the first part.

While some of the methods could be taught in brief, step-by-step, text-based instructions, methods like Tapping (Emotional Freedom Technique) really needed either a chart showing where to tap or you need to go to the Tapping website to see how it's actually done. The authors' instructions in this book weren't detailed enough to do you much good. While I recommend this book, I'd have felt it had more value if less time was spent repeating things and more had been spent detailing the more complex methods.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.

Nature and the Mind by Marc Berman

Nature and the Mind
by Marc Berman

ISBN-13: 9781668058770
Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: S&S/Simon Element
Released: August 12, 2025

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Dr. Marc Berman, the pioneering creator of the field of environmental neuroscience, has discovered the surprising connection between mind, body, and environment, with a special emphasis on the natural environment. He has devoted his life to studying it. If you sometimes feel drained, distracted, or depressed, Dr. Berman has identified the elements of a “nature prescription” that can boost your energy, sharpen your focus, change your mood, and improve your mental and physical health. He also reveals how central attention is to all of these functions, and how interactions with nature can restore it. Nature and the Mind is both an introduction to a revolutionary new scientific field and a helpful guide to better living.

In these pages, he draws on his original research and research from others and shares life-altering findings such as:
-Just eleven more trees on your street can decrease cardio-metabolic disorders like stroke, diabetes, and heart disease.
-A short walk in nature can improve attention by almost twenty percent, decrease depression symptoms, and make people feel more spiritual and self-reflective.
-More greenspace around schools and homes is related to better school performance, reduced crime, and improved working memory.
-Many of these effects can be achieved even if you don’t like nature.

With an engaging and approachable style, Dr. Berman offers the nature prescription for physical health, mental health, and social health. The nature prescription includes practical ways to bring the outside indoors and to “naturize” our spaces, no matter where you live. This groundbreaking guide explains why and how nature is good for our brains and bodies and gives us a window into fundamental aspects of our psychology and physiology that can be improved through interactions with nature.


My Review:
Nature and the Mind is part science and part biography. The author liked to talk about his life, like how he got interested in the field of environmental neuroscience and how he applied his findings to his own life. He also told of how the other people that he mentioned got into using nature to positively impact people's mental states. As for the science, he talked about his own research and other related research. He gave details about how the studies were set up, what they found, and how that might be applied to improve people's mood or ability to focus. He's not really into raw nature (as even his nature walks are in man-made and -maintained spaces), so he suggested things like modifying architecture or home spaces to have certain 'natural' elements and what those are. Overall, it was an interesting book.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.

A History of Women's Work by Janet Few

A History of Women's Work
by Janet Few

ISBN-13: 9781036105266
Hardcover: 178 pages
Publisher: Pen and Sword History
Released: July 30, 2025

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
A History of Women's Work explores the often overlooked contributions of women throughout history, particularly in a patriarchal society where men have dominated the historical record. While men were more likely to leave traces – through wills, leases, and civic duties – women laboured behind the scenes, performing crucial yet unpaid tasks for their families and communities. In many households, women supported their husbands’ work, ran home-based industries, or sought paid employment despite societal restrictions.

This book delves into three main areas of women’s work: household tasks, home industries, and paid employment outside the home. Through case studies and practical research tips, it sheds light on the lives of these women, encouraging readers to uncover their own female ancestors' stories and contribute to a richer understanding of women’s history.


My Review:
A History of Women's Work is nonfiction about the different types of work that women did (primarily focused on England) up until the World Wars. The author covered keeping up the household to paid work that could be done at home to helping her husband or paid employment outside the home. The information was written in a very readable fashion, so even teens might find this interesting.

The author covered a variety of jobs, describing each one with some detail on how it was done, explaining how it changed over time, and sometimes using a real woman's example (as found in historical records) to show how the work affected their lives. Sometimes she pointed out a registry that you could go to if you're searching for details about your ancestors who did that job. She covered: making clothing, munitions work, domestic servants, straw plaiting, making matches, fishwives and herring packers, prostitution, housewives using herbal remedies, healing professions, cooking, glove making, dairy work, cleaning, laundry, lacemaking, midwifery, shop work, farm work during the World Wars, textile mills, button making, woman's suffrage, teaching, and pottery work. Overall, I'd recommend this interesting, informative nonfiction.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.

Sound Affects by Julian Treasure

Sound Affects
by Julian Treasure

ISBN-13: 9781538741870
Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Released: June 3, 2025

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Every day, the sounds around us affect every aspect of our human experience, and thus fundamentally alter our quality of life, for better or worse. It is only recently that scientists have realised that sounds connect us to the world in ways that are every bit as vivid and evocative as visual landscapes. Hearing is the first sense we develop, and as our primary warning sense it is hardwired into our brains. And yet, in an increasingly noisy and distracted world, most people pay scant attention to the sounds around them, causing them to lose contact with the essential skill of listening.

Sound Affects is about rediscovering the wonder of sound, and understanding how powerfully it affects us, whether we are paying attention or not. It is also a manual for taking back responsibility for the sounds we consume and the sounds we make, so we can enhance our own happiness, effectiveness and well-being.

In the process, the reader will discover
- stars are like bells, ringing with sound black holes make sound 50 octaves below what we can hear
- snapping shrimp may be only 1cm long but they make sound that's as loud as a rock concert
- whales can communicate underwater over hundreds of miles with very low frequency sound that travels five times as fast as sound in air
- individual cells make unique sounds, enabling scientists detect early signs of metastases
- dolphins have names and call each other by them


My Review:
Sound Affects is about sounds and how they affect us and animals. This is a book of numbers, most of them in metric (kph, cm, m). It got mentally exhausting trying to relate the information to how I experience the world: "so, let's see, that would be....well, really fast, probably. Really loud. Something I can't hear." I have a good memory, but I've pretty much forgotten what's in this book (and I just finished) beyond vague impressions.

I enjoyed the first few chapters as they were about human hearing: how it works, how sounds affect us, listening to the sounds around us, and changing our sound environment to be more productive. The author then got into fun facts about animals (birds, land animals, and sea animals): the range of sounds that they can hear or make, why they might make sounds like songs, and how human noises are affecting animal behavior. Some of the 'human sounds are to blame' connections do seem likely, like birds singing louder and earlier in cities to be heard over human noise. Other examples left me thinking, "well, that could be caused by day-and-night artificial light, pesticides, EMFs, etc., and not just sound." The author then got into a rant about how horrible human sounds are to animals and we ought to do something about it. Followed by a chapter about the future of sound, wherein the author seemed pleased with the idea of people living mostly isolated at home surrounded by artificial, modified (and high-definition) sound curated by an AI that can cancel out sounds it thinks you shouldn't hear. I'd prefer to hear live birds, go to a live concert, and so on.

The book went on to talk about the sounds of natural disasters (mostly how loud they are) and outer space. The author frequently referred to evolution, so many of these were speculative stories about pre-historic events like asteroid impacts or the big bang or how we evolved hearing or songs. As I was expecting more about how different sounds affect humans, I started losing interest when told how horrible I am as a human and when the 'fun facts' just stopped being relatable. It wasn't quite what I expected and just stopped being interesting to me. There is a link to a website that has clips of the various sounds referred to in the book, which would have been interesting to listen to when actually reading the book, but I wasn't reading near an internet-connected device.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.