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Bale, Bradley & Amy Doneen with Lisa Collier Cool. Healthy Heart, Healthy Brain: The Personalized Path To Protect Your Memory, Prevent Heart Attacks and Strokes, and Avoid Chronic Illness. Little Brown Spark. Jan. 2022. 288p. ISBN 9780316705554. $29. HEALTH & FITNESS

Founders of the Heart Attack & Stroke Prevention Center, in Spokane, WA, Bale and Doneen blend cardiology, neurology, endocrinology, and other specialties in a holistic approach aimed at preventing and even reversing cardiovascular disease and metabolic disorders. Well worth attending to, as the BaleDoneen Method won praise in the 2019 Netflix documentary Root Cause as “the premier cardiovascular prevention program in the country.” With a 30,000-copy first printing.

Brooks, Michael. The Art of More: How Mathematics Created Civilization. Pantheon. Jan. 2022. 320p. ISBN 9781524748999. $28. Downloadable. MATHEMATICS/PHILOSOPHY

Moving from ancient Egyptian priests to a hobbyist who solved a mapmaking puzzle that confounded NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey, science writer Brooks aims to persuade readers that mathematics was one of the great innovations that made civilization happen. Following The Quantum Astrologer’s Handbook, a Daily Telegraph Book of the Year.

Friedman, Danielle. Let’s Get Physical: How Women Discovered Exercise and Reshaped the World. Putnam. Jan. 2022. 352p. ISBN 9780593188422. $27. Downloadable. HEALTH & FITNESS

Expanding on her viral article in New York Magazine’s the Cut, Friedman offers an overview of how the now-hot women’s exercise culture emerged, particularly in the United States. In the decades before the Sixties, exercise that wasn’t scrubbing floors or laboring over a hot stove were discouraged ass unbecoming and even dangerous for women. Then came the barre workout, followed by jogging, aerobic dancing, weight training, and the desire to create a more socially just fitness culture, with the focus shifting from improving one’s looks to securing mental and physical well-being. Okay, pulling on my sneakers….

Hughes, Evan. The Hard Sell: Crime and Punishment at an Opioid Startup. Doubleday. Jan. 2022. 288p. ISBN 9780385544900. $28.95. BUSINESS/OPIOID CRISIS

Having reformulated the powerful painkiller fentanyl, ambitious scientist John Kapoor founded Insys Therapeutics in the early 2000s and pushed his sales staff to market it aggressively, especially to shady or outlier doctors. The start-up boomed, but whistleblowing led to an investigation, a trial, and the government’s determination to make the drug industry accountable for opioid addiction. From National Magazine Award finalist Hughes.

Milman, Oliver. The Insect Crisis: The Fall of the Tiny Empires That Run the World. Norton. Jan. 2022. 272p. ISBN 9781324006596. $27.95. SCIENCE

Three out of four of Earth’s known species are insects, and according to Millman, an environment correspondent at Guardian US, recent evidence suggests that they are in deep trouble. The world can’t survive without insects, so here we encounter bees being trucked over long distances to support our food supply and the relocation of trees to save a valuable butterfly. Wasps and mosquitoes make us jump, but this is what’s really scary.

Mlodinow, Leonard. Emotional: How Feelings Shape Our Thinking. Pantheon. Jan. 2022. 272p. ISBN 9781524747596. $28.95. lrg. prnt. NEUROSCIENCE

In Western context at least, emotion has often been seen as the antithesis of rational thinking, something that gets in the way of making good choices. But as suggested in this latest work from Mlodinow, author of the best-selling, PEN/E.O. Wilson award-winning Subliminal, emotion is essential to our well-being and a crucial ingredient in every decision we make. Here he explains the new, research-driven science of feelings.

Rutherford, Adam & Hannah Fry. The Complete Guide to Absolutely Everything* (*Abridged): Adventures in Math and Science. Norton. Jan. 2022. 304p. ISBN 9780393881578. $24. SCIENCE

Cohosts of the BBC Radio 4 show The Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry, geneticist Rutherford and mathematician Fry take on the big questions: the origins of the universe, the nature of space and time, and whether our dogs really love us. (The answer to that last question must surely be yes.) The title suggests that the authors aren’t just authoritative but witty and accessible, with their work adding to the groundswell of recent books on the basics of the universe for lay readers.

Saladino, Dan. Eating to Extinction: The World’s Rarest Foods and Why We Need To Save Them. Farrar. Jan. 2022. 464p. ISBN 9780374605322. $30. AGRICULTURE

BBC food journalist for a quarter-century, Saldino points out that globalization has reduced what we eat—once nearly 6,000 different plants—to the point where only nine are major staples today. In fact, only three key plants—rice, wheat, and corn―account for half of the caloric intake worldwide. Before it is too late, Saldino travels the world to highlight important foods that are in danger of being lost. With a 75,000-copy first printing.

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