Most of the health books that have come across my desk this fall aren't exactly volumes you'd want to cozy up with in bed. But wait, you ask, who would choose to kick back with, say, an encyclopedia of infectious or deadly diseases in the first place? Perhaps only failed med students or genuine health freaks would be happy to chill out with a copy of Body Worlds: The Anatomical Exhibition of Real Human Bodies, the companion book to the fascinating show now on at Science World. Nevertheless, there are several new volumes worth seeking out if you want to get up to speed on anything from the flu pandemic to healthy eating.

Just in time for breast-cancer awareness month come a slew of books on the subject. By far the most refreshing and innovative is Marisa Acocella Marchetto's Cancer Vixen (Knopf, $29.95). The New York cartoonist illustrates her journey with the illness in blazingly bright colours and with sass and humour.

Marchetto, a self-described “shoe-crazy, lipstick-obsessed, wine-swilling, pasta-slurping” fashion fanatic was diagnosed three weeks before her wedding. She's honest about the toll of treatment (she depicts herself with bags under her eyes and scraggly blond hair after waking up from a nap drenched in sweat) and about her fight strategy (she continued working, going out for dinner, and preparing for her wedding in between chemo appointments).

Marchetto makes political points too: in the U.S., she writes, women without health insurance are 49 percent more likely to die of breast cancer than those who have it. Maybe Cancer Vixen's most touching passage isn't in the bold cartoons but on the back flap: “The author is donating a percentage of the proceeds from this book to provide breast care for underprivileged women.”

Far more sober is Canadian cancer survivor Pat Kelly's revised What You Need to Know About Breast Cancer: Diagnosis, Treatment and Beyond (Key Porter Books, $21.95), written with Ontario oncologist Mark Levine. What makes this book so valuable is its focus on the emotional impact of cancer, information that's usually overlooked or minimal in hospital pamphlets. Kelly gives practical advice for family and friends: “Keep your relationship as normal and balanced as possible”; neither “be afraid to talk about the illness” nor “always feel you have to talk about cancer.” And she talks about the way the disease affects relationships, intimacy, and sex.

After Breast Cancer: A Common-Sense Guide to Life After Treatment, by Hester Hill Schnipper, explores the emotional aftermath of the illness. It's written by someone who knows: Schnipper, who lives in Boston, is an oncology social worker and a two-time breast-cancer survivor. She has a gentle but realistic tone when it comes to dealing with the concerns of spouses and children, as well as the fear of recurrence. Then there are her practical tips, like planting perennials, living a little beyond your budget, and loving as much as you can.

Sorely lacking in information on the ways cancer affects people emotionally is Yashar Hirshaut and Peter I. Pressman's Breast Cancer: The Complete Guide (Random House, $24). Loaded with details on everything from surgical procedures for partial mastectomy to removing sutures after breast removal to hormone-receptor levels, this guide is as technically comprehensive as it is overwhelming.

Elsewhere, if you've fallen prey to the fear-mongering in the media about the impending worldwide outbreak of influenza, then The Flu Pandemic and You: A Canadian Guide (Random House, $14.95) is for you. At least Ontario doctors Vincent Lam and Colin Lee explain that being scared is a personal decision. So is being prepared, something you will be if you follow their advice. Besides providing a history of flu pandemics, the pair explain how to help someone who's sick while minimizing your own risk; the proper way to wash your hands; the pros and cons of stockpiling antiviral medications; what emergency supplies to have on hand; and how to measure vital signs. This guide might be the sort of thing to pass around the office rather than using it as a stocking stuffer.

The flu-pandemic threat shows up again in Andrew Nikiforuk's Pandemonium: Bird Flu, Mad Cow Disease and Other Biological Plagues of the 21st Century (Penguin, $34). A fascinating, intelligent, and exhaustively researched read, Pandemonium looks at the link between globalization and the potential for biological agents to spread quickly. If you weren't already freaked out about hospital-acquired infections like methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus or illnesses like SARS or West Nile Fever, you will be after this. But it's impossible not to be engrossed by this clearly written investigation.

And worth the price of the book alone is Nikiforuk's “canticle for local living”, in which he gives such suggestions as eating locally grown, organic produce and grass-fed beef, shunning antibiotics, and not buying exotic pets.

Books on dieting should be viewed with a measure of suspicion, and nowhere is this more evident than in Christopher Vasey's The Detox Mono Diet: The Miracle Grape Cure and Other Cleansing Diets (Healing Arts Press, $12.95). Red lights should flash anytime you see the words miracle or cure, especially in the same sentence. Take a pass on the Swiss naturopath's endorsement of the exclusive ingestion of grapes and consider instead Leslie Beck's The No-Fail Diet: The Easy 4-Step Plan for Permanent Weight Loss (Penguin, $28). There are no miracle cures in the Toronto registered dietitian's book, just logical advice and a balanced approach not just to losing weight but to staying healthy in general. She does zero in on portion sizes, the “protein factor” (one serving at every meal), and the frequency of meals and snacks, but she also dedicates a hefty amount of space to a 12-week fitness program, complete with half-page photos of specific exercises. She also throws in recipes, a meal plan, and tips on how to eat well in restaurants, making hers one of the more sensible “diet” books out there.

Image excerpted from Cancer Vixen: A True Story. Copyright © 2006 by Marisa Acocella Marchetto. Published by Alfred A. Knopf Canada. Reproduced by arrangement with the publisher. All rights reserved.