If good things come in small packages, "10 Simple Solutions to Migraines" partially fits the bill. The book is 5" by 7½" and contains 143 pages. It's purpose is to offer some good strageties for dealing with Migraines, offered in a straight forward, no nonsense style. It's a good attempt, but falls a bit short.
Stylistic strengths of "10 Simple Solutions to Migraines"
The style in which this book is written and formatted offers several strong points in its favor:- Bolded, descriptive headings
- Short paragraphs and bulleted lists
- Check lists
- Quizzes
- Clear, concise language; plain English (although this goes too far in some places)
Content strengths of "10 Simple Solutions to Migraines"
The content in some sections of "10 Simple Solutions to Migraines" is well done:- Description of the features of a Migraine attack
- List of warning signs indicating the need to see a doctor
- Section on medication overuse headache
- Section on communicating
Could "10 Simple Solutions to Migraines" have been better?
There are ways in which "10 Simple Solutions to Migraines" could have been better:- There is no mention of Migraine as a disease despite one of the "simple solutions" being "Understand Your Migraine."
- The book has been oversimplified in some places.
- An index would be helpful. Even though this book is only 147 pages long, an index would be very helpful. As an author, I know that indexing adds a considerable amount to the production expense of a book, but it's money well spent.
- Recommendations for more and more current books. Dr. Marcus only listed recommendations for four other books -- one about herbs, one on stress reduction, one about children's head pain, and a Migraine cookbook. All of them were published in 2000 and 2001. I'd have appreciated it if she'd taken the time to do more here.
- More Web resources. The only listings were for ACHE, the American Headache Society (AHS), and the National Headache Foundation. Listing ACHE and the AHS is rather redundant since ACHE is the patient arm of the AHS.
- Dr. Marcus's biography is out of date. It states that she's a member of the American Society for the Understanding of Headache, an organization that hasn't existed for many years now.
Summary
If you want a very simple, beginner's book, this one may be helpful to you. Overall, I was disappointed in "10 Simple Solutions to Migraines." Some of the areas in which I was disappointed may be the responsibility of the publisher rather than Dr. Marcus, but as the author, she should have had final approval on all aspects of the book.
