In lively, personal chapters on such real foods as produce, dairy, meat, fish, and chocolate, REAL FOOD by Nina Planck (Bloomsbury, June 2006) explains how ancient foods like beef and butter have been falsely accused, while industrial foods like corn syrup and soybean oil have created the triple epidemic of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. REAL FOOD upends the conventional wisdom on diet and health and explains our taste for good things.

SOLE SISTERS: Stories of Women and Running by Jennifer Lin and Susan Warner (Andrews McMeel, Spring 2006) is a collection of stories about individual runners, their joys and tragedies, and the running that keeps them going through it all. More than 11 million women run, and many of those 11 million run with a partner or a group, and, for them, running is a social outlet as well as a way of getting into shape. Some of the runners profiled are: the Gibbs sisters who ran together after one of their sisters survived breast cancer; Grete Waitz, winner of the NY marathon in 1978; Sandy Felt, a woman who started marathon training after losing her husband on 9/11; and Helen Klein, an 80-year-old running phenomenon. SOLE SISTERS is not just for women who run, but for all who know what it means to have the support of others who share their trials and triumphs.

Is he a loser or is he a keeper? THE FATE OF YOUR DATE by Stefanie Iris Weiss and Sherene Schostak (Chronicle, 2006) divines the answer. In this darling, easy-to-use guide to romance, Teen Vogue astrologers Stefanie Iris Weiss and Sherene Schostak demystify the mystical and make ancient practices practical. Each chapter covers a time-tested metaphysical method: astrology, tarot, spell-craft, and more. Organized into sections of Before, During, and After the Date, the book outlines which practices are best used when. Work some numerology on his phone number, read his palm while holding his hand, and cast a bit of white magic to get exactly what’s desired. The Fate of Your Date makes it a cinch to go forth, divine, and conquer!

Famously elusive, Greta Garbo only had her picture taken when a contract required it. She shunned publicity, kept her private life a secret, and rejected the spotlight. Though ambivalent about fame and her public image, Garbo saved all of her favorite portraits, carefully archiving original prints by Clarence Sinclair Bull, Arnold Genthe, Ruth Harriet Louise, Edward Steichen, and Cecil Beaton, among others. Published in GARBO: PORTRAITS FROM HER PRIVATE COLLECTIONS (Rizzoli, August 2005) for the first time are these portraits--impeccably reproduced in tritone, one more beautiful than the next. In addition, the book features family pictures, candid photographs, and letters previously viewed only by her closest friends and relatives. Scott Reisfield provides an intimate portrait of his great aunt, spanning well beyond her career in the public eye–from the earliest days in Sweden when she would sneak through the back door of the theater to see actors rehearse, to her later years in New York when she traveled exclusively through back entrances, side doors, and secret elevators. Co-author Robert Dance’s essay traces the evolution of the image of Garbo--from the ingénue of her first publicity shots to the icon that she became–while an illustrated film production history documents all the still photography and portraiture of her entire career.