From Stress to Strength: How to Lighten Your Load and Save Your Life

The author of Is It Worth Dying For? draws on twenty years of treating stress to discuss his forty-point Quality of Life Index, which helps readers find better balance between stress and personal strengths. 25,000 first printing. $25,000 ad/promo.

Eliot, director of the Institute of Stress Medicine and author of the best-selling Is It Worth Dying For? (Bantam, 1989), spends the first half of this book trying to convince readers that sudden cardiac death may strike at any time. "You could drop dead today," he warns, and he spends the second half of the book outlining all the steps that must be taken to avoid a premature demise. Various superficial self-assessment tests (including a "should I read this book?" test) attempt to highlight problems and encourage desirable behavior. The message is similar to many other stress guides, namely, that worry, anger, and helplessness cause physical harm, whereas relaxation, humor, and "positive self-talk" lead to a healthier life. The advice is generally useful, but there's nothing new here.
- Ilse Heidmann Ali, Kyle Community Lib., Tex.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.