Dianne Hales – författare

A celebration of the language and culture of Italy, La Bella Lingua is the story of how a language shaped a nation, told against the backdrop of one woman’s personal quest to speak fluent Italian. For anyone who has been to Italy, the fantasy of living the Italian life is powerfully seductive. But to truly become Italian, one must learn the language. This is how Dianne Hales began her journey. In La Bella Lingua, she brings the story of her decades-long experience with the “the world’s most loved and lovable language” together with explorations of Italy’ s history, literature, art, music, movies, lifestyle and food in a true opera amorosa — a labor of her love of Italy.Over the course of twenty-five years, she has studied Italian through Berlitz,  books, CDs, podcasts, private tutorials and conversation groups, and, most importantly, time spent in Italy.   In the process the Italian language became not just a passion and a pleasure, but a passport into Italy’s storia and its very soul. She invites readers to join her as she traces the evolution of Italian in the zesty graffiti on the walls of Pompeii, in Dante’s incandescent cantos and in Boccaccio’s bawdy Decameron.  She portrays how social graces remain woven into the fabric of Italian:  even the chipper “ciao,” which does double duty as “hi” and “bye,” reflects centuries of bella figura.  And she exalts the glories of Italy’s food and its rich and often uproarious gastronomic language:  Italians deftly describe someone uptight as a baccala (dried cod), a busybody who noses into everything as a prezzemolo (parsley), a worthless or banal movie as a polpettone (large meatball). Like Dianne, readers of La Bella Lingua will find themselves innamorata, enchanted, by Italian, fascinated by its saga, tantalized by its adventures, addicted to its sound, and ever eager to spend more time in its company.

Describes the stages of sleep, discusses sleep research, shares tips on sleeping well, and suggests solutions to common sleep problems.From the Trade Paperback edition.

From physical and mental to social and sexual, Dianne Hales' AN INVITATION TO HEALTH: TAKING CHARGE OF YOUR HEALTH helps students achieve a healthier lifestyle now and in the future. The 19th Edition covers new research on such topics as happiness and health, current statistics on life expectancy and death rates, mental health and anxiety, screen time and online presence, Dietary Guidelines, immunization, sleep habits, stress levels, safe sex practices, substance abuse including new information on the opioid epidemic, dubious diets and trendy foods, fitness monitors, vaping and cannabinoids. It also addresses healthy living on a budget, preventive measures and practical strategies that turn small changes into big benefits.

From the New York Times bestselling author knighted by the President of Italy for her writing, a jubilant exploration of how Italy transformed the Western world''s most vibrant passions -- from literature to art, music to movies. No country has matched Italy’s impact on culture. Just think of painting without Leonardo, opera without Verdi, fashion without Armani, food without the signature tastes of pasta, gelato, and pizza.  The first universities, first banks, first public libraries? All Italian. Dianne Hales attributes these landmark achievements to la passione italiana, a primal force that stems from an insatiable hunger to discover and create; to love and live with every fiber of one''s being.  This fierce drive, millennia in the making, blazes to life in the Sistine Chapel, surges through a Puccini aria, deepens a vintage Brunello, and rumbles in a gleaming Ferrari engine.Our ideal tour guide, Hales sweeps readers along on her adventurous quest for the secrets of la passione.  She swims in the playgrounds of mythic gods, shadows artisanal makers of chocolate and cheese, joins in Sicily’s Holy Week traditions, celebrates a neighborhood Carnevale in Venice, and explores pagan temples, vineyards, silk mills, movie sets, crafts studios, and fashion salons. She introduces us, through sumptuous prose, to unforgettable Italians, historical and contemporary, all brimming with the greatest of Italian passions—for life itself.A lyrical portrait of a spirit as well as a nation, La Passione appeals to the Italian in all our souls, inspiring us to be as daring as Italy’s gladiators, as eloquent as its poets, as alluring as its beauties, and as irresistible as its lovers.

If you’ve been struggling with your weight, you know how hard it can be to lose those extra pounds and keep them off. In the groundbreaking Think Thin, Be Thin, nationally prominent psychotherapist Doris Wild Helmering and award-winning health writer Dianne Hales assert that the true key to a healthy body weight is a healthy attitude toward food and exercise. Their logic is simple: Your brain ultimately controls what you eat and whether you work out. If you change the way you think, you can change the way you behave. And you can lose weight.Using proven psychological strategies and scientifically based exercises, you will learn how to harness your thoughts to transform your behavior, body, and life. With practical advice on such troublesome issues as curbing emotional eating, motivating yourself to exercise, and overcoming diet plateaus, this book is the ideal complement to any diet and weight-loss program.

“Italians say that someone who acquires a new language ‘possesses’ it. In my case, Italian possesses me. With Italian racing like blood through my veins, I do indeed see with different eyes, hear with different ears, and drink in the world with all my senses…”A celebration of the language and culture of Italy, La Bella Lingua is the story of how a language shaped a nation, told against the backdrop of one woman’s personal quest to speak fluent Italian.For anyone who has been to Italy, the fantasy of living the Italian life is powerfully seductive. But to truly become Italian, one must learn the language. This is how Dianne Hales began her journey. In La Bella Lingua, she brings the story of her decades-long experience with the “the world’s most loved and lovable language” together with explorations of Italy’s history, literature, art, music, movies, lifestyle, and food in a true opera amorosa—a labor of her love of Italy.Throughout her first excursion in Italy—with “non parlo Italiano” as her only Italian phrase—Dianne delighted in the beauty of what she saw but craved comprehension of what she heard. And so she chose to inhabit the language. Over more than twenty-five years she has studied Italian in every way possible: through Berlitz, books, CDs, podcasts, private tutorials and conversation groups, and, most importantly, large blocks of time in Italy. In the process she found that Italian became not just a passion and a pleasure, but a passport into Italy’s storia and its very soul. She offers charming insights into what makes Italian the most emotionally expressive of languages, from how the “pronto” (“Ready!”) Italians say when they answer the telephone conveys a sense of something coming alive, to how even ordinary things such as a towel (asciugamano) or handkerchief (fazzoletto) sound better in Italian. She invites readers to join her as she traces the evolution of Italian in the zesty graffiti on the walls of Pompeii, in Dante’s incandescent cantos, and in Boccaccio’s bawdy Decameron. She portrays how social graces remain woven into the fabric of Italian: even the chipper “ciao,” which does double duty as “hi” and “bye,” reflects centuries of bella figura. And she exalts the glories of Italy’s food and its rich and often uproarious gastronomic language: Italians deftly describe someone uptight as a baccala (dried cod), a busybody who noses into everything as a prezzemolo (parsley), a worthless or banal movie as a polpettone (large meatball). Like Dianne, readers of La Bella Lingua will find themselves innamorata, enchanted, by Italian, fascinated by its saga, tantalized by its adventures, addicted to its sound, and ever eager to spend more time in its company.

Don’t be a Stress Head! Manage the pressures of college life with PERSONAL STRESS MANAGEMENT: FROM SURVIVING TO THRIVING. This book equips you with the insights and skills you need to conquer the demands ahead, and give you relief when stress levels rise. Written by health and psychology experts, this book delivers specific strategies for tackling common campus stressors, including academics, time management, and relationship issues. You’ll learn helpful, easy strategies for changing your perspective and responding to stress with confidence and resilience, empowering you to manage even the most difficult situations and come out on top--in the classroom, in the workplace, and in life. PERSONAL STRESS MANAGEMENT: FROM SURVIVING TO THRIVING engages you with practical tools you can use immediately, incorporating the latest insights from neuroscience, exercise physiology, nutrition, and medicine, while highlighting healthy habits like regular exercise and good nutrition to prevent burnout.

Start making healthier choices now for a lifestyle of healthy living. AN INVITATION TO HEALTH: TAKING CHARGE OF YOUR HEALTH, BRIEF EDITION, 11th Edition, helps you assess your health behaviors, encourages positive behavior change, and gives you effective ways to achieve it. Covering body, mind, and spirit, the book addresses current issues related to health and wellness that can affect you now and throughout your life. The book empowers you with practical ideas and tools that you can immediately apply to your own life. "Health on a Budget" features demonstrate practical ways you can achieve your health goals in low- and no-cost ways, while "Consumer Alert" features help you evaluate health care. AN INVITATION TO HEALTH helps you build your foundation for a healthier future.

A genius immortalized her. A French king paid a fortune for her. An emperor coveted her. Every year more than 9 million visitors trek to view her portrait in the Louvre. Yet while everyone recognizes her smile, hardly anyone knows her story. Mona Lisa: A Life Discovered, a blend of biography, history, and memoir, truly is a book of discovery-about the world's most recognized face, most revered artist, and most praised and parodied painting. Who was she, this ordinary woman who rose to such extraordinary fame? Why did the most renowned painter of her time choose her as his model? What became of her? And why does her smile enchant us still? Lisa Gherardini (1479-1542) was a quintessential woman of her times, caught in a whirl of political upheavals, family dramas, and public scandals. Her life spanned the most tumultuous chapters in the history of Florence-and of the greatest artistic outpouring the world has ever seen. Her story creates an extraordinary tapestry of Renaissance Florence, with larger-than-legend figures such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Machiavelli. In Mona Lisa: A Life Discovered, Dianne Hales takes readers with her to meet Lisa's descendants; uncover her family's long and colourful history; and explore the neighbourhoods where she lived as a girl, a wife, and a mother.

Everybody knows her smile, but no one knows her story: Meet the flesh-and-blood woman who became one of the most famous artistic subjects of all time—Mona Lisa.A genius immortalized her. A French king paid a fortune for her. An emperor coveted her. Every year more than nine million visitors trek to view her portrait in the Louvre. Yet while everyone recognizes her smile, hardly anyone knows her story. “Combining history, whimsical biography, personal travelogue, and love letter to Italy...Mona Lisa is an entertaining” (Publishers Weekly) book of discovery about the world’s most recognized face. Who was she? Why did the most renowned painter of her time choose her as his model? What became of her? And why does her smile enchant us still? Dianne Hales, author of La Bella Lingua, became obsessed with finding the real Mona Lisa on repeated trips to Florence. In Mona Lisa: A Life Discovered, she takes readers with her to meet Lisa’s descendants; uncover her family’s long and colorful history; and explore the neighborhoods where she lived as a girl, a wife, and a mother. In the process, we can participate in Lisa’s daily rituals; understand her personal relationships; and see, hear, smell, and taste “her” Florence. Hales brings to life a time poised between the medieval and the modern, a vibrant city bursting into fullest bloom, and a culture that redefined the possibilities of man—and of woman. Mona Lisa is “a readable and affectionate my-search-for-story for art lovers and anyone interested in glorious and gory Florence in the fifteenth to sixteenth centuries, and in the divine Leonardo in particular…Hales’s assiduous research has made it possible for us to know Mona Lisa just a bit, enough to wonder if this otherwise ordinary Florentine housewife could ever have imagined her portrait enchanting millions for centuries” (USATODAY.com).

Explore the latest edition of AN INVITATION TO HEALTH, where renowned author Dianne Hales helps you commit to a healthier lifestyle. From physical and mental health to social and sexual issues, this personal health text candidly explores the mind, body, and spirit, and shows you how to start making improvements today. Readings include a new chapter on consumer health, with “Consumer Alert” features to critically evaluate your health care options. You will also discover how to live healthily on a tight budget while making small changes that yield big benefits. More than a superficial self-help approach, AN INVITATION TO HEALTH: The Power of Now! presents hard data in meaningful ways, such as ACHA’s 2013 National College Health Assessment, which shows where your health stands among peers. And you can make even greater strides with MindTap, complete with health self-assessments, behavior change labs, and other tools that lead you to better health—and learning!

Start making healthier choices now for a lifestyle of healthy living. AN INVITATION TO HEALTH: The Power of NOW, BRIEF, 10th Edition, helps you assess your health behaviors, encourages positive behavior change, and gives you effective ways to achieve it. Covering body, mind, and spirit, the book addresses current issues related to health and wellness that can affect you now and throughout your life. The book empowers you with practical ideas and tools that you can immediately apply to your own life. "Health on a Budget" features demonstrate practical ways you can achieve your health goals in low- and no-cost ways, while "Consumer Alert" features help you evaluate health care. AN INVITATION TO HEALTH helps you build your foundation for a healthier future.