Time is a skillful sculptor, which carves out every human being as a beautiful sculpture with painful blows of a hammer called sorrow and pleasurable caress of the chisel called Joy and the beauty increases with age'. “Selected Topics in Geriatrics” is a book which describes diseases of ageing and provides a clinical perspective. RS Bhatia, author of the book, is a consultant physician and an executive member of Diabetic association of India who runs a popular clinic in Ludhiana. He has authored the book such that clinical manifestations can be comfortably understood by a commoner. As an overview, this book start with a simple and thoughtful cover page and provides an overview of aging discussing old age complications like acute confusion states, falls, Parkinson's disease, diabetes mellitus, cardiopulmonary disorders, etc in a concise way giving informative guidelines for a healthy aging.
For aged people, this book gives an opportunity to understand the possible changes and complications that can happen inside their body. It also gives valuable information for facing the old age confidently with balanced diet and exercise. In various chapters of the book, gentle affection from the family members is emphasised which is necessary for the elderly as they may require physical and psychological support. While reading the book it makes the young readers appreciate the importance of maintaining good health which is necessary for independent and comfortable old age.
Falls in an elderly with type 2 Diabetes mellitus and Benign Prostate Hyperplasia are few of the chapters with adequate subject depth presented in an organized manner. Even though the book has a lot of information the organization of the chapters could have been done in a better way. If arrangement of chapters on general aspects of aging, physical disability and psychological disabilities properly linked, it would have made the book more readable. Though the book explains diseases from fall of the elderly to the lung cancer, commonly occurring complications like cataract, hypertension, Alzheimer's disease and AMD were untouched.
In brief, the book is a noticeable attempt to detail the various old age complications with valuable information on healthy aging. In addition, organized presentation with more subject details could have made it more comprehensive and attractive.