This book is aimed at helping heart-attack survivors empower themselves by learning as much as they can about their hearts, heart-attack treatments, recuperation, and what to do in the event of another heart attack. Chapters on high blood pressure, diabetes, weight control, diet, and exercise address these specific issues.

Philip Schewe, chief science writer for the American Institute of Physics, says he was writing a book about the forces of nature, but it became too sprawling. "I decided I needed to write a more focused, more practical book," he said. At that point, Schewe was preparing to write about how electricity came to be an applied technology. "The backdrop was to be the massive blackout in the Northeast in November 1965 — then the largest electrical failure in history. That became the topic of my book."

When Lucy Kavaler first sent her manuscript to her agent, the receptionist called to say she thought fungi had to be boring, but she read a few pages and was so caught up, she took it home and read it through the night. When the galleys went out to reviewers, Time magazine sent a photographer to Kavaler's house, she went on tour, and the book was a tremendous success. But alas, after many years, the publisher let it go out of print. Despite that, Kavaler kept getting contacted by people discovering it in libraries and a Cornell professor based an entire course on the book.

When first published 30 years ago, this was one of the first books to address "nutrition in practice" and sold millions of copies through the years. Among the topics in this fully revised, updated edition are "how what you eat can affect more than 100 ailments (and) what science can tell us about dietary supplements."