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Reviewer's Choice
The Question of When: A Practical Guide to Knowing When It's Time for Assisted Living, Memory Care, or Skilled Nursing
Cory Fosco
https://coryfosco.com
Campion Hall Press
9798995236900, $24.95 Paperback/$9.99 eBook/$9.99 Audiobook
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Question-When-Practical-Knowing-Assisted/dp/B0GS69QCXD
The Question of When: A Practical Guide to Knowing When It's Time for Assisted Living, Memory Care, or Skilled Nursing addresses the difficult decision of knowing when it's time to choose care for a declining loved one. From knowing when one's home is no longer safe and what to do about that to understanding the differences between assisted living, memory care, and skilled nursing, readers receive a wealth of knowledge not just about when it's time for a change, but how to contrast all the options.
Cory Fosco surveys the basics of how to evaluate facilities and support systems. This will prove essential for all - especially those who may hold little prior familiarity with such institutions and organizations.
Chapters also discuss how to have the "it's time for a change" conversation with a loved one who likely will resist making such a move. This adds value for readers who struggle with not just identifying what to do and when to do it, but getting a loved one on board with planning. "Action Steps" specifically outline what's involved:
"Pull up CMS Care Compare and look up any facility you are currently considering - or, if you are earlier in the process, look up two or three facilities in your area as a practice exercise. Review each domain separately, read at least one state survey report, and note what questions it raises. Then complete the sections of the When Readiness Checklist that you can complete today, and note which sections need more work."
Fosco shows how to get everyone on board with the process, including the most obvious (but also the most commonly neglected): one's physician:
"Of all the planning failures I have observed over 34 years, one of the most consistent is this: families who have been living with a serious diagnosis for months or years and have never had a direct conversation with their loved one's physician about trajectory, prognosis, and care planning. They have had plenty of appointments. They have discussed medications, test results, and symptom management. But the larger conversation, the one about where this is going, what it will eventually require, and what the family should be thinking about now - has simply never happened. Sometimes because the physician didn't initiate it. Sometimes because the family didn't know to ask. Often because both parties were focused on the immediate and no one made space for the longer view. That conversation is worth having deliberately. Not in the five minutes at the end of a routine appointment, but as an appointment with a specific purpose."
The result is an exceptionally potent survey of next step possibilities and approaches that goes where every book about advancing years should go in identifying when, where, and how to make changes in lifestyle and support systems.
Librarians will have many similar-sounding guides to consider for their collections, but The Question of When is head and shoulders above most. It will attract a wide audience with its practical assessment strategies and important inclusion of everyone involved in the process of supporting an elderly or infirm loved one.
The Cookbook Shelf
Rome: Classic Recipes from the Eternal City
Lucia Tersigni and Audrey Cosson
Mitchell Beazley
c/o Octopus Books
https://www.octopusbooks.co.uk
9781846017308, $32.99
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Rome-Classic-Recipes-Eternal-recipes/dp/1846017300
Rome: Classic Recipes from the Eternal City by Lucia Tersigni and Audrey Cosson is an Italian cookbook that pairs lovely color photos of Rome and discussions of touring possibilities off the usual path with some 200 recipes that celebrate the city's culinary flavors. Variations on common Italian fare that are unique to Rome are exemplified by recipes such as Fettuccine Alla Papalina, which requires a pasta-making machine and an interest in sophisticated adaptations. This one includes a sauce of cured ham, butter, onion, cream and cheese. A melt-in-the-mouth Coda Alla Vaccinara (Roman Oxtail Stew) flavored with sage, bay leaves, cloves, wine, raisins, and pine nuts also expands the boundaries of traditional Italian fare. Readers, cooks, and libraries interested in adopting a more regional approach to Italian cooking will find Rome: Classic Recipes from the Eternal City a top-level "must have" acquisition.
A Tuscan Table: Seasonal Vegetarian Recipes from Italy
Luca Calvani
Mitchell Beazley
c/o Octopus Books
https://www.octopusbooks.co.uk
9781846017285, $34.99
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Tuscan-Table-Seasonal-Vegetarian-Recipes/dp/1846017289
Luca Calvani's A Tuscan Table: Seasonal Vegetarian Recipes from Italy captures both food and the atmosphere of Tuscany in a celebratory title that blends full-page color photos with seasonal dishes from Luca Calvani's small Tuscan villa Le Gusciane. Some dishes, such as Pumpkin Pie, will be familiar comfort fare; while others, such as Butternut Squash and Radicchio Casserole or Braised Fennel with Raisins, Pine Nuts and Olives, offer surprising innovations. These celebrations of Tuscany's seasonal opportunities will appeal to anyone interested in a recipe-centric cookbook that acknowledges local vegetarian opportunities year-round.
The Interior Design Shelf
The Nurturing Home: Living with Kotoisa, the Finnish Way to Happiness
Susanna Laiho
Mitchell Beazley
c/o Octopus Books
https://www.octopusbooks.co.uk
9781846016219, $29.99
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Nurturing-Home-Kotoisa-Finnish-Happiness/dp/1846016215
The Nurturing Home: Living with Kotoisa, the Finnish Way to Happiness by Susanna Laiho Hawkins advocates a different vision for a home atmosphere - one which promotes peace, simplicity, and slower thinking, habits, and contemplative efforts. Of special interest are color photos that accompany insights about the transformation process. "The house as it was" and "Dreaming what it could be" are just a few examples of sections that document the process of interior design transformation and the results of changing original interior layouts to promote calmness and coherence. Tips for budgeting without compromising such values and analyzing the options incorporate a range of possibilities and approaches for making the Finnish philosophy of peace part of an overall approach to change that begins at and with one's home.
The Buddhist Studies Shelf
Way Beyond Happiness
Sandra Woien, editor
Carus Books
www.carusbooks.com
9781637700792, $29.95
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Way-Beyond-Happiness-Buddhism-Psychotherapy/dp/1637700792
Way Beyond Happiness: Buddhism, Stoicism, and Psychotherapy blends philosophy with spiritual and psychological inspection to consider the foundations of stoicism, Buddhist thinking, and tackling life changes and impact.
Readers interested in the deeper psychological threads of discussion which run through these topics will find this collection excels in considering revised definitions, case histories, and examples of these elements in daily life, ultimately tackling the roots of happiness, dissatisfaction, and stoic thinking.
Libraries interested in intellectual discourses that hold the potential to reach into general-interest audiences via examples that resonate will find Way Beyond Happiness will attract patrons beyond the usual circles of Buddhist thinkers.
James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief
Diane C. Donovan, Editor
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