Change Your Age: Using Your Body and Brain to Feel Younger, Stronger, and More Fit by Frank Wildman, CFT, PhD (Da Capo, $18.95)
As more and more boomers edge toward their retirement years, the effort to feel younger and be more fit has increased dramatically. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average life expectancy for Americans who are born this year is 78 years old, an increase of six years over those born in 1978. Frank Wildman, the Berkeley-based international authority in the Feldenkrais Method and the founder and director of the Feldenkrais Institute, thinks that by using a revolutionary “mobility index” and over thirty movement lessons sequenced to the fice core positions of human movement, greater coordination, balance, and performance can be achieved. The Change Your Age program is based on the principles of the Feldenkrais Method, developed by Moshe Feldenkrais, a form of somatic education that uses gentle movement and focused awareness to improve flexibility, enhance agility, and even reduce pain. By utilizing this program, Wildman claims that people can live better and longer. As he states in his books, age is really just a number.

Why I Fight: The Belt is Just an Accessory by BJ Penn with David Weintraub (William Morrow, $25.99)
BJ Penn is the undisputed Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight champion and is considered, pound-for-pound, one of the best fighters in the world. In 2000, the Hawaiian-based fighter captured the World Jiu-Jitsu Championship in the black belt category. In “Why I Fight,” Penn tells the story of how he survived a rough and tumble childhood on the mean streets of Hilo, Hawaii, to become a super star in the world of mixed martial arts. Penn reveals that in spite of the controversy, criticism, and hype, he remained focused not just to win hard-won victories but also to learn from his defeats to eventually become one of only two fighters in UFC history to hold belts in two different weight classes. This is the true story of a kid from Hawaii who found fame because, more than almost anything else, he loved to fight. This book is brutally honest and provides an unflinching inside look at the world of a professional athlete at the top of his game.

A Man For All Species: The Remarkable Adventures of an Animal Lover and Expert Pet Keeper by Marc Morrone and Nancy Ellis-Bell (Harmony, $23)
Marc, owner of the Parrots of the World pet store in Rockville Centre, New York, for more than thirty years and pet advisor to Martha Stewart, had a simple dream even at an early age. Since his childhood on Long Island, Morrone wanted to learn everything he could about every kind of animal and share that knowledge with others. Needless to say, he began collecting animals like others are drawn to stamps, coins, and sports memorabilia. His new book, which is co-written with Nancy Ellis-Bell, a California-based writer and author of the recent bestseller, “The Parrot Who Thought He Was a Dog,” is frank, funny, and highly readable. Shared stories include how March almost met his demise by Emily, a Burmese python, the moment he realized he was in peril at the hands of a group of restless capuchin monkeys, and how Georgette, a loveable baboon, steals his heart. Blending insight, advice, and wonderful tales from the animal kingdom, “A Man For All Species” is a literary tribute to one man’s passion for the world of animals and his enduring commitment to their care.

What If the Earth Had Two Moons and Nine Other Thought-Provoking Speculations on the Solar System by Neil F. Comings (St. Martin’s Press, $26.99)
Neil Comings is a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Maine and has written several scientific books including the recent “Discovering the Universe: From the Stars to the Planets.” In his latest effort, he poses ten questions including what if the Earth had two moons, if it orbited backwards, if it had two suns, and my personal favorite, if our planet had a twin on the other side of the sun. The scenarios are backed by the latest astronomical research and make for fascinating reading. For example, if the Earth had two moons, the second one orbiting closer to our planet than the one we have now, our light sky would be a lot brighter but eventually the two moons would collide, with one emerging after a period during which we would have a Saturn-like ring. If only all science would be this interesting and intriguing.

One Report: Integrating Reporting for a Sustainable Strategy by Robert G. Eccles and Michael P. Krzus (Wiley, $39.95)
As the dust clears from the recent international financial collapse in the business world, tough new questions are being raised not only about financial performances but also about such non-financial issues relating to the environment, social, and even governance. As both internal and external stakeholders demand transparency and corporate responsibility, the business of business is beginning to change. Robert G. Eccles, a faculty member of the Harvest Business School, and Michael P. Krzus, a public policy and external affairs partner with Grant Thornton, LLP, a global audit, tax, and advisory organization, present a guide that focuses not on short-term financial performances but rather a longer-term view that progressive companies can use to contribute to a more sustainable society. Known as the “One Report,” Eccles and Krzus build a convincing case that if companies stress greater clarity about relationships and commitments, better decisions can be made that will lead to a higher level of engagement with all stakeholders and a lower reputational risk.

Cesar Chavez: A Photographic Essay by Ilan Stavans (Cinco Puntos Press, $13.95)
Inspired by two recent publications from Cinco Puntos Press that combined essays by well-known historians with archival photographs including the much acclaimed “The Face of Pancho Villa” by Friedrich Katz, Ilan Stavans, a native of Mexico City and an instructor at Amherst College where he is the Lewis-Sebring Professor of Latin American and Latino Culture, began researching Cesar Chavez. By sifting through the archives of the Cesar Chavez Foundation and Wayne University’s Reuther Library, images of Chavez and his farm workers’ movement are brought into sharp focus. The lively text documents how Chavez became immersed in the movement and created an upheaval which triggered a struggle that continues even more than a decade after the leader’s death. This is a timely collection that depicts not only workers on strike but gives a sense of the importance of their fight. This is a remarkable achievement and will provide readers with a better understanding of the work and struggle that went into the movement and changed the way that we see migrant workers.

Mark Twain’s Other Woman: The Hidden Story of His Final Years by Laura Skandera Trombley (Knopf, $27.95)
If Isabel Van Kleek Lyon had lived in the present instead of the first decade of the last century, she would have been considered a groupie, perhaps even a stalker. Laura Skandera Trombley, president of Pitzer College in Claremont, California, and an internationally-recognized Twain scholar, has written a remarkable book about an even more remarkable relationship. Following the death of his wife after thirty-four years of marriage, Twain began to rely on a hired assistant, Isabel Van Kleek Lyon, a woman who oversaw his schedule and finances, nursed him through several illnesses, ran his household, presided over the construction of his final residence, and even provided entertainment for him when he was bored. To say that Isabel idolized Twain would be an understatement. She smothered him with attention and watched his every move and perhaps these are two of the key reasons why their friendship began to unravel. It unraveled to such a degree, Twain, who was never one of mince words, would later rant that Isabel was “a liar, a thief, a hypocrite, a drunkard, a sneak, a humbug, a traitor, a conspirator, a filthy-minded & salacious slut, pining for seduction.” Isabel had the last laugh through her meticulously kept diaries. This friendship, which went sour, makes for engaging reading and is historical reporting at its very best. Laura Skandera Trombley brings both Twain and this very determined woman into sharp focus.

Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex: A new Translation of the landmark classic by Cansyance Borde and Sheila Malovany Chevallier (Knopf, $40)
Simone de Beauvoir was born in Paris in 1908 and built her literary reputation as an Existentialist writer and novelist. She eventually became a professor at the Sorbonne where she studied philosophy with Sartre, her companion until his death in 1980. Together they founded Les Temps Modernes in 1945. One of her most remarkable works is “Le Deuxteme Sexe,” a seminal “magisterial treatise” that was published four years later. This newly translated and unabridged English edition weaves together history, philosophy, economics, biology, and an array of other disciplines to analyze the Western notion of “woman” and to explore the power of sexuality. This vital and life-changing book has dramatically changed the way women talk and think about themselves. Even after more than half a century, “The Second Sex” has lost none of its power and punch. De Beauvoir, one of the most influential thinkers of her generation, died in 1986

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