Vintage Shorts Wellness Selections

Vintage Shorts, an ebook program of Vintage Books & Anchor Books, is pleased to present Vintage Shorts Wellness Selections, a well-rounded collection of advice and reflection on healthy living.

“Every crisis has a message for you, if you look for it. Every crisis carries with it some kind of a gift that will make you feel more whole.” From beloved advice-columnist Heather Havrilesky comes a new collection of treasured questions and answers for those of us who have a crisis looming, who are still looking to find our joy, and who are hiding from injustice and doubt.

Why doesn’t anything feel fun? Am I too anxious to ever find love? Why won’t my former friends forgive me? And, why should I keep going? To all of these questions and more, Havrilesky offers her customary wit, grace, candor, and wisdom. These are the pep talks we all need to hear to lay our egos aside and draw on the strengths we didn’t know we had. Read More>

It should come as no surprise that low calorie and low fat diets rarely accomplish what they are expected to do—improve health and slim waistlines. Likewise, exercise, however beneficial it may be to fitness, only increases appetite and so often hinders weight loss.

In this sharp and persuasive piece, acclaimed and bestselling science writer Gary Taubes exposes erroneous nutritional guidelines and finally provides evidence to curb misguided “calories-in, calories-out” model for why we get fat. Read More>

In her deeply affecting and profound portrait of illness and how it can dramatically alter the fabric of our lives and our faith, Nora Gallagher depicts the process of alienation she experienced when she encountered her first major crisis of health. Learning to suddenly have to ask for help, to heal, and to find her own capacity for wellness and resilience—Gallagher makes a powerful call for a more meditative, shared existence in which we can sit quietly with one another, open our hearts, listen, accept, and throw off the narrative of business and function that pervades our lives and blinds us to compassion.

Meditative, touching, and an inspiration—Accompany Me welcomes people from all walks of life and tradition to join Gallagher on her journey to rediscover her faith, her home and her comfort in a community of all of the other souls who spend their days with one another in the land of the vulnerable. Read More>

All living beings grow from young to old. From Dr. Andrew Weil’s bestselling and authoritative guide—this companionable and easily digestible selection explains exactly what causes bodies to age.

Covering inflammation and oxidization as well as the role played by genetics and free radicals, Dr. Weil reveals just how ill-advised the obsession with life extension is, and demonstrates in no uncertain terms the urgent need to focus on improving the quality of the life we do have to live by minimizing the distress caused by disease and by aging naturally and gracefully. Read More>

Curiously practical—this no-nonsense blend of literary biography and self-help unravels how interesting life can be if only you could resist the impulse to rush through the mundane rituals of modern life. Every morning, Marcel Proust sipped his two cups of strong coffee with milk, ate a croissant from one boulangerie, dunking it in his coffee as he slowly read the day’s paper with great care—poring over each headline and section.

Only Alain de Botton could have pulled so many useful insights from the oeuvre of one the world’s greatest literary masters. Fascinating and vital, How to Take Your Time will urge you to find the wisdom in defying “the self-satisfaction felt by ‘busy’ men—however idiotic their business—at ‘not having time’ to do what you are doing.” Read More>