Books

Like a Natural Woman: The Black Woman's Guide to Alternative Healing (Kensington) introduces a wide variety of alternative healing techniques, including African folk remedies, that can be used alone on in conjunction with a variety of conventional medical therapies to help African-American women cope with such problems as obesity, cancer, diabetes, asthma, stress, PMS, Lupus, and more.

Library Journal Review: Like a Natural Woman, written by an editor at Essence magazine, stresses the importance of achieving balance within the self by meeting emotional, mental, spiritual, and physical needs. Kashef discusses a healthy lifestyle, nutrition, the use of dietary supplements and herbs, mind-body therapies, and diseases and conditions. Each chapter begins with a personal story about a woman with a specific condition and how she used natural medicine to help cope with it. There is a resource list at the end of each chapter. Kashef addresses her readers as colleagues, encouraging them to consult healthcare practitioners and use both traditional and natural therapies to promote health. She empowers women, stressing the African American heritage of natural healing. Her book is recommended for public libraries and women's and consumer health collections.

At last, a book devoted to the concerns of people of color that will help you enhance and protect the health and beauty of your skin, hair, and nails. Dr. Susan Taylor, a Harvard-trained dermatologist and a beautiful woman of color, bases her advice on more than fifteen years’ experience treating patients in private practice and at the first-of-its-kind Skin of Color Center in New York City, which she directs. She explains how to:

  • Attain and maintain satin-smooth skin
  • Prevent and camouflage scars
  • Choose and use makeup for a perfect match year-round
  • Style hair safely to avoid damage, hair loss, and skin irritation
  • Detect and protect against skin cancer

    ... and much more!

Brown Skin (HarperPB) will help you look and feel your best, inform you on how to prevent problems, and guide you to get the right treatment when needed.

Amazon Reviews: 

“Taylor empowers the Black woman to look and feel beautiful.” (--Ebony)

“This is a wonderfully informative book. It should be bought by every woman of color.” (--Harriette Cole, author of Jumping the Broom and Vows)

Backyards for Kids (Sunset) is a colorful handbook on how to create a safe and memorable backyard environment for children of all ages provides a host of creative design ideas, along with step-by-step instructions for building a variety of play structures, including playhouses, swings, sandboxes, tree houses, and water features.

From the experts at Parenting magazine comes this essential planner that's both an informative guide to pregnancy and a keepsake journal for moms-to-be. Organized week by week and packed with insights
from experienced moms along with helpful charts and checklists, Pregnancy Planner offers practical and emotional support. With detailed advice on diet, exercise, sex, and sleep as well as tips on what gear to buy, this invaluable resource is the perfect planner for expecting moms.