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The Bibliophile

Begin the new year with a healthier lifestyle and an optimistic outlook. Observe the world around you while making each day count.

What to Eat When: A Strategic Plan to Improve Your Health and Life Through Food, by Michael Roizen, M.D., Michael Crupain, M.D., MPH, with Ted Spiker, 352 pages, National Geographic paperback, 2019

This book focuses on healthy eating habits, but it is not a diet book. What to Eat When provides a general and practical overview of the importance of food in achieving and maintaining physical well-being.

Specific suggestions on how to modify eating habits are discussed in depth. Foods to avoid and reasons why are delineated. Read about research on the best time of day to eat.

Drs. Roizen and Crupain maintain that we should consume 80% of our calories before 2 p.m. These recommendations, and others in the book, are backed by research studies, all of which are discussed and explained.

Learn that the best method to approximate optimum body fat is to measure your waist, not BMI. You may be surprised to know that the ideal ratio is a waist size that is half your height or less.

Dr. Roizen is affiliated with the renowned Cleveland Clinic. Co-author Dr. Crupain is on the faculty of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore. Both are associated with The Dr. Oz Show.

Suggestions are organized in easy-to-follow formats and charts. The authors identify foods to avoid or consume to ameliorate specific complaints such as insomnia, pain and hot flashes. They suggest healthy foods that can be reasonably substituted for unhealthy ones.

Home cooks will appreciate the list of multiple alternate cooking techniques to prepare foods in a more healthful manner. There is also a helpful glossary at the back of the book.

Nature’s Calendar: A Year in the Life of a Wildlife Sanctuary, by Colin Rees, 320 pages, Johns Hopkins University Press, paperback 2019

If you’re contemplating writing a journal in 2020, here’s an excellent example of the genre. And if the stark wintery landscape gets you down, reading Nature’s Calendar is sure to bring you relief from the doldrums.

Annapolis resident ornithologist Colin Rees has published his year-long diary of observations, commencing in January, of Maryland’s Jug Bay.

Dr. Rees served on the faculty of the zoology department of the University of Maryland. Jug Bay, operated by Anne Arundel County, is a 1,700-acre wetlands sanctuary along the Patuxent River in Lothian.

As the year progresses, follow Rees’ meticulous notations and lyrical descriptions of flora and fauna. Read the accompanying short essays explaining the findings of field researchers. Enjoy the 16 pages of photographs.

To visit the sanctuary, check jugbay.org for trail maps and information on events, hours and entrance fees. Or be inspired to start your own journal. Record, like Thoreau in his day, the changing seasons from your favorite vantage point — be it your window, backyard, local park, path or trail.

365 Words-A-Year Page-A-Day Calendar 2020: with an extra day for leap year!, by Merriam-Webster, Workman Publishing Company

Great Quotes from Great Leaders, 2020 calendar: Words from the Leaders Who Shaped the World, Sourcebooks

Peanuts 2020 Day-to-Day Calendar, by Peanuts Worldwide L.L.C. and Charles M. Schulz; Dilbert 2020 Day-to-Day Calendar, by Scott Adams, Andrew McMeel Publishing

Start your day with one of these delightful desk calendars. Not only will you be able to keep track of your schedule in an organized format, but you’ll be enriched in the process.

Expand your vocabulary, be inspired by a quotation, laugh along with the familiar Peanuts gang, or relish the hilarious office milieu that retirees have happily left behind.

Whatever your inclination — to gain knowledge or be entertained — one of these desk calendars is sure to fill the bill. All four calendars are gift boxed and presented in a recyclable plastic tray with an easel backing that can be propped up. Welcome each day of 2020 with optimism and hope.