Argues that pets can improve one's health and help reduce stress, discusses the relationships between people and their pets, and looks at animal behavior

Between Pets and People: The Importance of Animal Companionship

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Beck, Alan

Katcher, Aaron

Psychology & Counseling

Putnam Pub. Group

BBC Radio issues some 14,000 contracts a year to radio actors. In addition, there is a large market for actors in voice-overs, commercials and book readings. Radio differs as a medium from acting for the stage, television or film, and many actors have neither experience nor training in it. This guide takes readers through the studio layout and recording, technical terms and productive working relations with the radio director. The author describes preparing a role, voice technique, rehearsal and recording. There is also a chapter devoted to voice-overs and commercials - a lucrative part of the business - and getting started on a radio career. Appendices include a marked-up radio script, technical exercises and a glossary of technical terms.

Radio Acting

Literature & Fiction

Dramas & Plays

Methuen Publishing

A Faithful Proposal is an over-the-top satirical novel in the tradition of Carl Hiaasen, Christopher Moore, Terry Southern, and Jonathan Swift. It is at once a manic ride through the irritable bowels of our health care system, a darkly funny descent into the sclerotic heart of contemporary religion (both mainstream and fringe), and a Prozac-induced mock homage to corporate and individual greed.

A Faithful Proposal

Humor & Satire

Brio Pr

Pets play a greater role in our emotional and physical health than ever before, says the Purdue University professor who is co-author of his revised edition of Between Pets and People: The Importance of Animal Companionship. The book offers conclusive evidence from the two foremost researchers in the field, Alan M. Beck and Aaron H. Katcher, that animals have a significant influence on human life and health. Dealing with such varied topics as pet ownership and gender differences, the pet’s freedom from social taboos, and pets’ taking on roles of family members, the authors show that animal companionship affects, and is affected by, the most basic levels of human existence. Even how we name and feed our pets tells us about ourselves and our needs. Between Pets and People explores the emotional and physical benefits of owning a pet and analyzes the complex relationship between people and pets. "The study of the importance of the relationship between people and animals is a growing field and has the potential to be part of the whole human-health field," says Beck, director of Purdue's Center for Applied Ethology and Human-Animal Interaction. Beck and Katcher note a 1992 study by an Australian cardiologist of 5,000 people who visited a clinic to find ways to reduce heart disease. The study found that people with pets had lower blood pressure and lower blood fat levels than those without pets, even though the two groups were alike in diet and exercise. The authors also point to the trend by nursing homes to incorporate animals into the routine and environment for patients. In the early 1980s nursing homes typically did not allow pets to visit patients, while today nearly half of the homes have an organized program for animal therapy, Beck says. In addition to exploring physical benefits, the book covers such topics as pets as family members, pets as therapists, talking to pets, and how pets can teach us to become better companions to friends and family. The book also has a list of web sites by such organizations as Canine Companions for Independence and the American Kennel Club.

Between Pets and People: The Importance of Animal Companionship (New Directions in the Human-Animal Bond)

Mental Health

Purdue University Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Beck, Alan. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Beck, Alan