Go by the Book on Supplements

BRENDA ADDERLY’S INTRODUCTORY GUIDE TO NUTRITIONAL SUPPLEMENTS

by Brenda D. Adderly

Dove Audio, abridged nonfiction, one cassette. Length: 90 minutes. $13. Read by Loretta Swit. Available in bookstores or by calling (800) 368-3007.

An easy-to-understand guide, this extensive rundown on dietary supplements is very useful when purchased as a book, not as an audio. A reference guide that covers everything from alfalfa to zinc, it outlines the uses of more than 100 vitamins, minerals and foods we can easily access. However, if you want to double-check a particular recommendation or treatment, you have to listen to the tape again to find that one piece of advice. It is so much easier to simply flip through the printed version. Also, the book contains twice as much information as the audio and costs only $5 more.

Brenda D. Adderly’s sources are listed in the book, which is useful for those who want to read more extensively about a particular supplement. That same info is missing from the audio. Also, the audio is skewed more toward what she recommends and excludes much of what she does not. As for the narration, we could do no better than Loretta Swit, a personable and enthusiastic reader. She enunciates clearly and brings some pizazz to a typical genre tape.

WHEN THE MAN YOU LOVE WON’T TAKE CARE OF HIS HEALTH

by Ken Goldberg

Dove Audio, abridged nonfiction, four cassettes. Length: six hours. $22. Read by Kathy Garver. Available in bookstores or by calling (800) 368-3007.

The thrust of this audio is that women, being the chief caregivers in most relationships, should learn to properly manage the health of the men in their lives. Dr. Ken Goldberg, founder and medical director of the Male Health Institute in Dallas, goes into great detail about men’s issues that affect both of you. This is extremely accessible, covers every topic you can think of and is a useful general guide. Of course, one wonders why we need a book putting the onus on the distaff half of humanity. This takes the position that men simply do not respond to their bodies’ needs and that men should be handled with kid gloves. Maybe. However, a more useful audio would perhaps cut out the middle(wo)man and aim to teach men to take care of their own medical needs. Reader Kathy Garver, Sissy from “Family Affair,” has a positive manner and as peppy a style as you can expect from a book filled with clinical descriptions.