Fans pick 100 books like Dr. Beach's Survival Guide

This book covers the full range of accidents that could occur and how to recognize and prevent them from ruining a family vacation. The greatest risk at surf beaches is rip currents, causing 100 drownings annually, with more than 60,000 rescues by lifeguards in the United States. 

At some beaches where powerful waves break right at the shore, shorebreaks can pick you up and crash you headfirst into shallow water, resulting in concussions, serious neck and spinal injuries. Snorkeling seems to be as easy as putting on a mask, but it is the largest cause of drowning in Hawaii, so one should practice in a shallow swimming pool before venturing into the ocean. Scuba diving and surfing are exhilarating sports, but they come with a range of serious dangers that must be understood which requires professional training.

This book provides color illustrations and photographs to help you better understand these… show more.

This book provides an appealing overview of waves and currents with a folksy tone and scientific perspective. This book provides a quick and easy-to-understand guide to the top five physical beach hazards:  rip currents, dumping waves (shorebreaks), shallow water diving, surging waves and big, storm-generated waves.

Rob has dedicated his life to making Australian beaches safer, including giving talks on the “Science of the Surf” to thousands of schoolchildren. Beaches are fun but dangerous places under certain conditions, and this book is for everyone who loves the surf.    

This book describes the myriad of hazards possibly impacting blue-water sailors and casual beachcombers. Using real-life examples, Gary explains the natural processes, events, and creatures, why and where they may occur, and what should or shouldn’t concern us to provide a clearer understanding of how oceans behave. 

My greatest fear is being caught in a landfalling tsunami; I stayed at a little village near sea level on one of the Phi Phi Islands in Thailand that was destroyed by the Great Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004—timing is everything in life, or hopefully, I would have followed the elephants who headed to high ground before these huge waves came ashore.

Gary’s book covers this great calamity but also explains the more common occurrences and hazards of rip currents, rogue waves, and hurricanes.   

This book is an update of Bascom’s bestselling classic that was first published in 1963 and updated in 1979. I had the pleasure of learning about Bill Bascom by reading the papers presented at a symposium in his honor at the University of California, Berkeley, just a few years before his untimely death. 

Bascom was one of few people to use a DUKW boat to surf the big breakers at the Columbia River offshore shoals where the US Coast Guard cutters are intentionally rolled over in 20-30-foot breaking waves as a training exercise for new recruits (and to weed out those of faint of heart).  His buddy Kim McCoy, who is an oceanographer, sailor, and freediver, has brought this book back to life with updates regarding climatic impacts on coasts and beaches.  

While surfers and sailors will immerse themselves in this book, it vividly describes the struggle for supremacy between… show more.

Cassia Ross captivatingly conveys the stories of the individual women and girls, most of them financially desperate, whom the modern Brazilian state’s policing of women’s reproduction victimized.

Her book studies women’s reproductive health in Rio de Janeiro in the aftermath of the abolition of slavery (1888) and the dissolution of the country’s monarchy (1889). She argues that in this period, women’s reproductive capabilities became crucial to the expanding Brazilian state while the latter increasingly criminalized fertility control. 

This book is not the one-size-fits-all approach of many food books. Naturopath Dr Peter J. D’Adamo has carried on the work of his father to research the effect of various types of lectins, a type of protein found in our body, and found in many foods. One way our unique biology is expressed is in our blood type – O, A, B, or AB. Different types of lectins cause agglutination (the clumping of particles) in different blood types. ‘If you eat a food that contains lectins incompatible with your blood type, those lectins cling or bind themselves to membranes in the digestive tract causing damage such as inflammation.’

Gretchen Long’s book Doctoring Freedom includes remarkable stories not only of how Black people were abused and left out of American health care, such as it was in the 19th century, but centers the book on Black Americans’ efforts to support their health and their citizenship while being denied both. Long’s finely detailed case studies of Black doctors, such as John Donalson Austin who had been an enslaved herbal healer who was denied the right to practice when free, is one of many stories Long uncovers as she details the ways Black healers and doctors used clinics, hospitals, and dispensaries as sites of resistance to both medical and political authorities.

Although I may be biased in recommending my former mentor’s book, this memoir about Khakpour’s experience with mysterious illnesses and addictions is a must read.

Written in sharp, often poetic prose, the author offers an intimate portrait of a chronically ill woman of color navigating the frustrating world of doctors, tests, theories, medications, and doubt. The reader is pulled into this dark, gritty story of benzodiazepine abuse, debilitating symptoms, economic hardship, and, ultimately, diagnosis.

I love every book ever written by Khakpour, however, Sick is my absolute favorite (so far!) Not only could I relate to her experience in many ways, I adore her willingness to share all the messy, difficult pieces of her life.

Published in 2005, some parts of this book feel un-PC in light of the body positivity and beautiful-at-any-size movements.

With that said, I live in Paris and the food behavior and mindset observations that Mireille Guiliano shares are mostly true about French women. Whereas, American women are feeling worried/guilty about the next food they might eat, French women are daydreaming about the next food pleasure they will experience.

This book is easy to read because it tells an engaging story about her experience as a high school exchange student in the United States and how she gained weight. When she returned to France, her mother and the family doctor put her on a food regime and this led her to try to distill the essential French mindset about food and eating behaviors that allow people to enjoy food, eat well-balanced meals, and maintain a healthy lifelong body weight. 

This book seriously changed my life. Easter makes an incredible case for how we’ve gotten way too comfortable and how this is contributing to our overall anxiety.

My favorite part of the book highlights the Japanese concept of “misogi,” where we challenge ourselves to reach our mental and physical peak once a year. When I read this, it inspired me so much that I decided to run my first half marathon. This book will get you stretching yourself in exciting ways and it reminds you that your body and brain are way more capable than you’re giving yourself credit.