Mama's Home Remedies: Discover Time-Tested Secrets of Good Health and the Pleasures of Natural Living (Paperback)

~ Svetlana Konnikova (Author), Anna Maria Clement (Foreword)
Key Phrases: useful herbs, fresh potato juice, hips berries, Home Remedies, United States, Mother Nature (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Winner, 2009 Mom's Choice Gold Award in Adult Books: Health, Nutrition, Fitness & Safety

Finalist in the 2008 Next Generation Indie Book Awards for two categories: Health/Wellness and Multicultural Non-Fiction

"[A] book you will go back to time after time as a 'comfort book' (like comfort food!)—one that will variously provide information, stimulate your thinking, give you peace, and entertain you."  —Peter A. Gail, PhD, author, books and articles on creative living and edible wild plants, and founder, Goosefoot Acres for Resourceful Living

"Packed with nearly 800 remedies and recipes, motivational mottoes, inspirational advice and useful tips, this book provides centuries of healthy wisdom."  —Balance Magazine

"An herbal saga with time-tested secrets of good health and the pleasures of natural living, hidden until now "under seven seals." From centuries of healthy wisdom, discover nearly 800 remedies and recipes, secrets of joie de vivre, motivational mottoes, inspirational advice and interesting facts. The combination creates a perfect balance for readers seeking to nourish both body and spirit."  —The Nashville News

"I hope that this work will help to instill a deeper reverence for the environment in readers everywhere."  —Miriam A. Kilmer, artist and granddaughter of poet Joyce Kilmer, author, "Trees"

"A power-packed volume of the wisdom of ages placing generations of knowledge and practice into everyone's hands. Mama's Home Remedies delivers a healthy dose of common sense and common remedies touched with folklore, quotes and even superstitions."  —Lynnette Walther, columnist, The Herald Gazette

"A myriad of natural methods for achieving and maintaining good health and all-around happiness."  —Houston Tribune

Product Description

Interwoven with centuries-old herbal remedies, time-tested techniques, and women’s wisdom handed down through the ages, this kaleidoscopic whole-health tapestry reveals myriad of natural methods for achieving and maintaining good health and all-around happiness. At the heart of the narrative is a compilation of natural recipes for infusions, poultices, teas, and tinctures—garnered by the young Svetlana while listening to her mother and “the girls” (other medical professionals like her mother) as they shared their bond of friendship and their tales of healing success while gathered for tea in the family’s blossom-filled garden—intertwined with her grandmother’s fairy tales, family vignettes, legends, and herbal lore. Filled with easy-to-make, natural, healing recipes for common ailments and illnesses—such as allergies, asthma, fatigue, headaches, insomnia, and respiratory problems—this all-encompassing guide to wellness offers a holistic approach that intermingles alternative treatments with folklore, psychology, philosophy, and spirituality to foster optimal health and joyful living.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 328 pages
• Publisher: Aurora Publishers, Inc.; illustrated edition edition (January 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0979175828
• ISBN-13: 978-0979175824
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #509,208 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From Russia, with Love and Healing, January 13, 2008

By	Dr. Peter A. Gail (Cleveland OH USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"It is snowing outside right now and I am writing a book review for a wonderful volume that I can highly recommend.. It is called Mama's Home Remedies, and is written by Svetlana Konnikova, formerly a journalist in the Soviet Union.

It is a How-to-Autobiography that recounts not only a wide variety of natural remedies, but how they were learned at the feet of her mother and grandmother, with a wonderful potpourri of folk and fairy tales, and modern and ancient natural science interspersed between.

Most books like this, when something is wrong, you go into them, find the subject in the index, and then look up the suggestions for helping alleviate it. This book does that too, but in addition, when life is stressful and you are looking for relief, you can open this book and escape into the fairy tales, folk stories and life's adventures of Svetlana and her family, along with fascinating explorations of such things as ancient Druid beliefs about trees or the instincts animals have for healing themselves that we can learn to emulate in our lives as well.

Mama's Home Remedies is so well organized, with everything arranged in bullitted boxes, numbered lists, (also boxed,) and boxed sidebars containing the stories, that everything is ridiculously easy to find. Usually you have to dig through a book to find a fact remembered but not bookmarked. Not so here. All you need to do is remember the topic, or chapter. Once there, a quick thumbing through the pages will take you directly to the right box, and there you are. It is a model for the way I am going to lay out my upcoming books.

In the few short weeks I have had the book, it has earned a place on the bookshelf right next to my computer, so that when I need a break, it is right at hand. It is a marvelous vehicle for stress relief. She has a whole chapter on stress, but nowhere does she mention picking up her book and reading a few pages as one of the ways. She should. "

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Almost eight hundred folk remedies and the superstitions, folktales, and legends behind them, June 14, 2008

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

Secrets to staying healthy in day to day life when constantly seeing a doctor isn't practical - the secrets put forth in "Mama's Home Remedies: Discover Time-Tested Secrets of Good Health and the Pleasures of Natural Living". Boasting almost eight hundred folk remedies and the superstitions, folktales, and legends behind them, offering something to heal the spirit alongside the body. Some of the remedies are not just that, and can serve as marvelous snacks and meals sure to uplift anyone who is down on their life. For being packed cover to cover with non-stop invaluable wisdom, "Mama's Home Remedies: Discover Time-Tested Secrets of Good Health and the Pleasures of Natural Living" is highly recommended to anyone who wants that edge in health and for community library collections on the subject.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mother Nature Knows Best, January 6, 2008

By	Christine Louise Hohlbaum "award-winning auth... (near Munich, Germany) - See all my reviews

Despite the mantra of the 1950's when Father Knew Best, we all know Mama's the one holding the apron strings. The wisdom of mothers' hands has been passed down from one generation to the next, through food, spices, herbs and home-made medicines better than any pharmaceutical solution. If you've ever tasted my mother-in-law's homemade chicken soup when you've had the ickiest cold since time memorial, you'll know -Mama really does know best.

Mama's Home Remedies: Discover Time-Tested Secrets of Good Health and the Pleasures of Natural Living is a tribute to the old wives' wisdom that transcends modernity. It will inspire you to reach for your vegetable pantry before you head for the pharmacy. Among other things, the instrinsic magic of beets, potatoes, and wine grape leaves are revealed in these pages. Written by Svetlana Konnikova who grew up in the vineyards of Moldova, this book tells us to return to our roots - literally.

Part natural living guide, part naturopathic treatise, Mama's Home Remedies offers all kinds of advice women used to glean at the kitchen table as they nourished their families' hearts, bodies and souls. Cabbage leaves applied to the forehead can alleviate headaches. Inhaling the steam from potato water drains your sinuses. My all-time favorite for the winter blues: pomegranate juice.

As we speed along in our rapid-fire lifestyles, we're lucky to have Ms. Konnikova's immense knowledge wrapped in Mama's Home Remedies' 314 pages. The next time I'm faced with a health challenge, I will seek a gentler solution straight from Mother Nature, the world's first and only true healer.

~Christine Louise Hohlbaum, author of Diary of a Mother: Parenting Stories and Other Stuff and Sahm I Am: Tales of a Stay-at-Home Mom in Europe, is a PR consultant and freelance writer who lives near Munich, Germany, with her husband and two children.