by Frank Bruni (2010)
The New York Times restaurant critic's heartbreaking and hilarious account of how he learned to love food just enough after decades of wrestling with his weightFrank Bruni was born round. Round as in stout, chubby, and hungry, always and endlessly hungry. He grew up in a big, loud Italian family in White Plains, New York, where meals were epic, outsize affairs. At those meals, he demonstrated one of his foremost qualifications for his future career: an epic, outsize appetite for food. But his relationship with eating was tricky, and his difficulties with managing it began early.When he was named the restaurant critic for the New York Times in 2004, he knew enough to be nervous. He would be performing one of the most closely watched tasks in the epicurean universe; a bumpy ride was inevitable, especially for someone whose writing beforehand had focused on politics, presidential campaigns, and the Pope.But as he tackled his new role as one of the most loved and hated...
Robert K. Tanenbaum and Peter S. Greenberg
In October, 1966, Charles Yukl, a mild-mannered piano teacher, brutally strangled and sexually abused a young secretary who was his student. In August, 1974, he killed again after being released 9 years early, despite pleas from himself and the victim's family. (Google Books)
Judith Rossner
The future is looking bright for Caroline Ferrante. She is a gifted chef and irreverent cooking teacher who has just been tapped for her own television cooking show. Her relationship with her upstairs neighbor Leon - a doctor, yet - is thriving. She even seems to get along with Leon's children from his first marriage. But Caroline's past seems determined to undermine her future. The rebellious daughter of Manhattan academics, Caroline dropped out of college and fled to Italy as the mother's helper of family friends. There she was able to pursue her great passion, cooking, while also embarking on an affair with Angelo Ferrante, a volatile Sicilian. In fairly short order she found herself pregnant, married, and a full-time chef at the ristorante where Angelo also worked. The business thrived, and Caroline and Angelo's baby, Olivia, was the light of their lives. Then things started to go sour. Angelo began to quarrel with the restaurant's owners. At home he became increasingly domineering and brazenly unfaithful. And he began to turn his daughter against her mother, using Caroline's Judaism (or rather, his anti-Semitism) as a weapon. Eventually, when Angelo's behavior gave Caroline no choice but to leave Italy, twelve-year-old Olivia chose to stay with her father, refusing even to write or speak to her mother on the phone. Now Angelo has married a woman Olivia hates even more than she remembers hating her mother, so she decides to join Caroline in New York. But Olivia has a great deal of unfinished business with her mother, and Caroline, who'd dreamed of a loving reunion, instead faces a hostile adolescent who misinterprets her every word and action, present as well as past. Indeed, overcoming Olivia's resentment - while navigating a burgeoning career, an intensifying romance, and the treacherous straits of raising a teenager - is as tough as any challenge Caroline has faced. In Looking for Mr. Goodbar, Judith Rossner laid bare the desperation of the 1970s singles scene. In August, she took readers further inside psychoanalysis than anyone believed a novel could go. Now, with Olivia, she weaves a tale of mothers and daughters, of best intentions and bitter regret, of food and rage and love.
Debra L. Safer, Sarah Adler, Philip C. Masson
"Out-of-control eating is overwhelming and distressing--and one of the toughest habits to break. Grounded in dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), this motivating book offers a powerful pathway to change. Drs. Debra L. Safer, Sarah Adler, and Philip C. Masson have translated their proven treatment into an empathic self-help guide that focuses on the psychological triggers of bingeing and other types of 'stress eating.' Readers learn how to stop using food to soothe emotional pain and gain concrete skills for coping in a new and healthier way. Filled with vivid examples and stories, the book features pointers for building and practicing each DBT skill, mindfulness exercises, and downloadable practical tools that help readers tailor the program to their own needs. Finally, a transformed relationship to food--and a happier future--are in sight"--
Jes Baker
"In Landwhale, Jes Baker delves into her coming-of-age--including her 6 ways to hate your body (#2: Worship teen periodicals), her top tactics for reframing the malicious animal comparisons hurled repeatedly at fat women (see "Elephant: Everyone knows elephants are basically the coolest animals ever. Try again."), and as a bonus, Jes answers the Internet's most pressing question of all time: "So, have you ever thought about dieting?" With biting wit and arresting vulnerability, Baker also covers living with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and feeling like a hobbit, fat sex, Harry Potter roller coasters, the problematic effects of online heroism, and the complicated conversation around weight-loss surgery. For anyone who grew up as a fat kid (or didn't, for that matter), who has traveled while fat, or who has simply lived in a fat body, Landwhale is a truthful and powerful account of the unforgiving ways our culture treats fatness--and how to live happily and freely anyway."--Page [4] of cover.