Achoo.

You’ll have plenty of those in the next few months – and sniffles, body aches, and chills. So what can you do to take care of the only body you’ll ever have? Get some ideas from these great new books…
First, if you’ve been in a long relationship with pain, isn’t it time to break up? Grab “It Doesn’t Have to Hurt” by Sanjay Gupta, MD (Simon & Schuster, $30.00) and find out how pain works, why it happens, and what you can do about it. This is an easy-to-understand book – Gupta uses real medical terms – but he doesn’t confuse readers. Instead, what you’ll read here may help you to help your doctor, and get well.

What better way to feel better than to look back at history, but not yours. Go farther with “Convent Wisdom: How Sixteenth Century Nuns Could Save Your Twenty-First Century Life” by Ana Garriga and Carmen Urbita (Avid Reader Press, $28), where the past has a lot to teach. See how long-ago nuns ate (or didn’t), how they worked, how they dealt with others and friends, and how their lives and deaths might help you live a happy, healthy, blessed and longer life.

Here’s something provocative, something you’ll want to know about, especially if you’re a fan of true crime or medical mysteries: microchimerism, and with “Hidden Guests: Migrating Cells and How the New Science of Microchimerism is Redifining Human Identity” by Lise Barneoud (Greystone Books, $27.95), following this medical rarity is easy. Briefly, the cells in our bodies can migrate in ways that we’re just now understanding, and this book helps untangle microchimerism with tales and examples, hypotheses, and science. It’ll also make you wonder about the cells in your own body, and about the very nature of identity.

If childbirth or pregnancy is on your health-radar in the near future, “Unbearable: Five Women and the Perils of Pregnancy in America” by Irin Carmon (Atria, $30) might be a book you want. It’s about having a baby in America, the changes made politically and medically, and what other women have to say about their experiences. Be aware that this is a very balanced book, and it calls for unity.

And finally, if you have eyeglasses, a knee replacement, or false teeth, you’ll want to read “The Body Digital: A Brief History of Humans and Machines from Cuckoo Clocks to ChatGPT” by Vanessa Chang (Melville House, $19.99). It’s about technology, and how even the most simple devices, implants, and tools have changed the way we act, work, and live. So you might wonder what the future could look like, which is why you’ll want to read this book. Six Million Dollar Man, indeed.

If these health-related books don’t exactly hit the right tone for you, then head to your local library or bookstore. There, you’ll find lots of books for what ails you, books to make you feel better and ideas for your well-being. You can even get help getting those books off the shelf, if you need it. And gesundheit.

Books for Health by various authors
c.2025, various publishers
$19.99 – $30.00
various page counts