Book Review | Spa Week Daily

Emily Giffin’s Where We Belong: Teaser!

April 25, 2012 | By Kerri Johnson

We got the priviledge of getting our hands on the next Emily Giffin book and once I did I couldn’t get my hands off of it! I read it cover to cover on a roundtrip flight. I even had the flight attendent say, “Ooh is that the next one? How is it?” So, how was it? Here’s my quick teaser for Where We Belong.

Marian Caldwell is a thirty-six year old television producer, living it up in Manhattan. She seems like the perfect version of how I’d like to see myself; the New York City dream. She has the perfect boyfriend that reminds me of Big from Sex and the City – only likeable. But Marian’s life isn’t as perfect as she portrays. One night Kirby Rose, an awkwad eighteen-year-old girl (a girl I more easily relate to) is the blast from the past that Marian thought she had left there. From the moment Kirby enters her picture perfect life, Marian’s life forever changes.

Of course, like any good Emily Giffin novel, there is more than one story. The chapters alternate from Marian’s first person account to Kriby’s. From Kirby’s point of view, the encounter throws her into a world of self discovery and acceptance. She is forced to grow up and find out who she is. Something everyone has at some point struggled with.

The story of the two women and their disconnected connection is both heart-felt and real. It’s a tale of life, love and the past and what happens when they all meet. It left me evaluating where it is that I belong. Also, I immediately called my mother.

In addition to loving her new book (on shelves July 24th), we loved hanging out with Emily at the 2012 Sping Spa Week Media Party. And besides her time, she’s also letting us borrow some of her favorite things, and we’re giving them away! There is STILL time to enter for your chance to win a prize package worth over $2,500 – all hand picked by Emily herself!

Sex and The Spa = Better Health

January 6, 2011 | By Candace

Sexy health alert! Hugging, holding hands, getting a massage and getting busy between the sheets all fall into the same category: HEALTH. Two of America’s favorite touchy pastimes are proven to improve your wellbeing. So, if you spent your days doing nothing but getting massages and having sex (preferably with a partner), it turns out you’d be doing yourself a big service. A story posted on CNN greater supports the evidence noting that a kneading massage or a bedroom romp can lower blood pressure and heart rate, increase immune function and even relieve pain.

Guest Contributor Healing Lifestyles & Spas delivers more healthy nuggets in this review of Stay Young: 10 Proven Steps to Ultimate Health by physicians Mark Anderson and Walter Gaman, and writer Judith Gaman:

No one’s trying to sell you a mythical fountain of youth in this inspiring book, authored by physicians Mark Anderson and Walter Gaman, and writer Judith Gaman. Numerous studies have shown that sex boosts body image and of course increases the bond between partners, but now we’re being told in the book Stay Young that having the Big O may help you live longer and healthier! Part book, part personal journal—with sections to be filled in with personal health and lifestyle information—it’s organized to guide readers through ten steps designed to reduce stress, access inner spirituality, eat healthier and exercise better and more frequently. Our favorite steps? Go to the Spa, and Have Sex Often! Fun Fun! Sex can boost your immune system, reduce stress, and keep you trim and healthy to boot. Studies show that for men, ejaculating more than five times a week can reduce the risk of prostate cancer. “Your sexuality is part of your general health—if you don’t use it, you will lose it,” claims sex educator and internationally best-selling author Lou Paget. So go to the spa, and have sex often!