Freudenheim, Ellen

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FREUDENHEIM, Ellen

PERSONAL: Female. Education: University of Chicago, M.A.; Columbia University, M.P.H.

ADDRESSES: Home—Brooklyn, NY. Agent—Wendy Sherman, Wendy Sherman Associates, 450 7th Ave., Ste. 3004, New York, NY 10123.

CAREER: Public-relations executive and writer. Has appeared on numerous television and radio programs. Cofounder of New Yorkers against Gun Violence, 1993, and Silent March (also known as "Shoes Campaign").

WRITINGS:

The Executive Bride: A Ten-Week Wedding Planner, Bantam (New York, NY), 1985.

(With Daniel P. Wiener) Brooklyn: Where to Go, What to Do, How to Get There, St. Martin's (New York, NY), 1991, 2nd edition published as Brooklyn: A Soup-to-Nuts Guide to Sites, Neighborhoods, and Restaurants, 1999.

Healthspeak: A Complete Dictionary of America's Healthcare System, Facts on File (New York, NY), 1996.

(With Anna Wiener) Brooklyn: The Ultimate Guide to New York's Most Happening Borough, St. Martin's (New York, NY), 2004.

Looking Forward: An Optimist's Guide to Retirement, illustrated by Stephen Quinlan, Stewart, Tabori & Chang (New York, NY), 2004.

SIDELIGHTS: Ellen Freudenheim is the author of several nonfiction books, including three guidebooks to Brooklyn, a healthcare dictionary, and a book about retirement. In Healthspeak: A Complete Dictionary of America's Healthcare System, she provides readers with a comprehensive dictionary of essential words and phrases associated with the evolving healthcare system in the United States. The book includes 2,000 non-clinical definitions associated with modern healthcare. Noting that the "dictionary is intended for the lay person who is trying to understand the jargon of this field," a Booklist contributor commented: "The dictionary most certainly fills a need."

Freudenheim's Brooklyn: A Soup-to-Nuts Guide to Sites, Neighborhoods, and Restaurants is the second edition of her 1991 book Brooklyn: Where to Go, What to Do, How to Get There, written with Daniel P. Weiner. The book guides readers through Brooklyn's various neighborhoods and includes descriptions of a variety of festivities and events. The books also includes several essays on the borough's cultural aspects. Writing in Library Journal, Norman Oder concluded that "this is a tremendous resource."

Freudenheim looks on the positive side of ageing in Looking Forward: An Optimist's Guide to Retirement. She guides the reader through the various options available in retirement, with an emphasis on finding both enjoyment and meaning after leaving the work world. For example, she writes about such topics as spirituality and the joys of volunteering. Freudenheim also helps readers think through their retirements by offering a series of quizzes and a list of various organizations and Web sites for further research. To write the book, the author interviewed 200 experts from a variety of relevant fields. Writing in Booklist, Stephanie Zvirin noted that the book is not strong on the financial aspects of retirement but added that it has "a cheery, encouraging text and a sprinkling of cartoon art that lightens the subject without minimizing its importance." Library Journal contributor Deborah Bigelow wrote: "While there are many books on retirement, this one ranks among the best and will appeal to pre-retirement baby boomers as well as retired seniors."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, May 1, 1996, review of Healthspeak: A Complete Dictionary of America's Healthcare System, p. 1528; December 15, 2004, Stephanie Zvirin, review of Looking Forward: An Optimist's Guide to Retirement, p. 695.

Library Journal, May 15, 1999, Norman Oder, review of Brooklyn: A Soup-to-Nuts Guide to Sites, Neighborhoods, and Restaurants, p. 116; January 1, 2005, Deborah Bigelow, review of Looking Forward, p. 134.