Ear Ache

A renowned physical therapist helps you get rid of your pain in just 10 seconds. In this one-of-a-kind book, Peggy Brill, acclaimed author of The Core Program, shows you how to find relief from chronic and everyday aches and pains as well as all those stress-related pains that can attack so suddenly--whether you're at work, in a car or a plane, at home with your kids, recovering from surgery, or relaxing in bed. Instant Relief provides 100 clearly illustrated, easy-to-do 10-second exercises that provide immediate therapy for every part of your body--from your head to your toes. - Does your upper body ache after hours of hunching over a report due by the end of the day? Try doing the Brill Chicken. For extra relief, there's the Dead Brill Chicken. - Desperate to get rid of that tension headache? Try the Tongue Press, the Ear Tug, the Cheek Release, or the Scalp Glide. - Is your lower back killing you? Do the Pelvic Rock or the Pelvic Clock. - Feel those calves cramping up again? Do the Ankle Pump. - Need something to relieve your aching feet? Try the Foot Dome, the Toe Lift, or a simple self-massage. - Does your knee hurt when you walk downstairs? Do the Squeeze and Step.

Nevada's back country is a region of vast spaces, drought-parched sagebrush and snow-clogged winters where rugged ranchers and fiercely independent loners seek solitude in remote canyons. But the Nevada of Art Gibney's superb new story collection is part of the modern West, where traditional ways collide uneasily with apocalyptic technologies, ranchers contend with BLM bureaucrats about the use of the land, downwinders die of horrible malignancies, and no canyon is inviolate to the ubiquitous military presence. Gibney vividly captures the tensions of the contemporary rural West -- ranchers struggling to preserve a valued way of life and sons yearning to escape to easier livelihoods, dreamers trying to flee the modern world only to find themselves entangled in its complications, an achingly beautiful landscape full of invisible and deadly poisons. Few stories of the West depict the primal herder's life as vividly as "The Wild Cow, " and the heartbreaking dignity of the dying rancher in "The Manure Spreader" will linger long in the reader's mind. The characters in "A Hard Way to Make a Hundred Bucks" explore the mystery of a secret Department of Defense installation while reflecting on the larger mystery of an impending birth, and a drought in "Cloudshine" launches a series of events that threaten a peaceful Mormon community. Gibney knows his characters well, their strengths and their foibles, and he knows the land they live on. He writes with sympathy, humor, a keen sense of irony, and a sharp ear for dialogue. These are memorable stories of a West that is both remote from and thoroughly enmeshed in the modern world, a rural place where cattle and rabbitbrush live side by side withatomic fallout, where open spaces conceal the deepest secrets of the human heart.