The Little Book of Stress Relief by David Posen. Buffalo, NY: Firefly books; 2004. 208 pages, paperback, $12.95.

This is an interesting book, and the route the author took to writing it is also interesting. David Posen is a family physician who first got "hooked" on stress in 1981 when he attended a seminar in Montreal, Canada, on heart disease. The seminar had 3 lectures on stress management, and he immediately saw how this topic related both to his patients and to him. Dr Posen gave up his medical practice in 1985 to spend his time dealing with stress management, lifestyle counseling, and psychotherapy.

This book is organized into 52 short sections-1 for each week of the year. Each chapter begins with a story or analogy and ends with prescriptions that are specific, simple, and concrete things the reader can do. He says that his goal is to provide a guide to enable readers to make gradual changes to reduce their stress and improve their health.

The first few chapters talk about stress: what it is, how it manifests itself, and what its causes are. The examples he uses are simple and ones with which readers can identify. He contends that we create most of our own stress. Specifically, he says each of us has a little voice inside us that speaks to us-not "hearing" voices-but our "self-talk." We react to things around us depending on our self-talk. At the end of each chapter, he gives a prescription. Examples for looking at internal sources of stress are

1. Start to notice each upset or stress reaction this week. Tune in to your inner voice.

2. Review the list and see if there is a pattern.

3. Get feedback from family and close friends.

For the person who has done a lot of reading about stress, the book is a primer. For new readers on this subject, the book will have much information to offer. Even for those of us who have studied stress, its consequences, and how to more effectively handle it, the book is a helpful refresher.

The stories and examples he uses are drawn from real-life experiences-his or his patients, or friends and associates. The chapters on "setting boundaries and limits" or "enough is enough" illustrate how the book is organized. He gives 3 work-related examples from friends and patients. He then lists the parameters he uses to structure his life to manage stress and then he concludes with his prescription.

For those of us who have demanding jobs, several of the chapters will be especially useful. Specifically, he outlines ways to say no, putting your work in perspective, leaving work at work, reclaiming ownership of your time, and dealing with clutter, to name a few.

Essentially, the messages I took away are that each of us has choices about if and how we handle stress. If we are serious about balancing work and rest and relaxation, then a variety of steps can be taken such as reducing caffeine, exercising regularly, setting limits on our work and other time-encroaching activities, and taking time for leisure.

This interesting, easy to read, and useful book can make a great gift to a friend or colleague who leads a hectic and demanding life and who wants to "get control."

Jeanette Lancaster, PhD, RN, FAAN

Editor, Family & Community Health, University of Virginia, School of Nursing, Charlottesville, Va