Appetites

I bought this book before but it must have not survived my last move. I love the author, I have read most of her books. I consider myself to be a decent writer when I apply myself but Caroline had a gift with words. Too bad she passed away years back. I would have enjoyed meeting her. If you get a chance check out her other work.

This is a deeply engaging story, ranging from belly-laughing funny to piercingly painful to meticulously thoughtful. I thought this book was so interesting and useful that I bought it for all my friends for Christmas the year I read it, and am *still* buying it for people several years later. I am 34 years old so not quite a contemporary of Knapp's, but in the so-called post-feminist era there are so many things we do *not* talk about as young women, and reading this book was like looking into a mirror and seeing my own freckles and wrinkles for the first time - the shock or recognition and familiarity. I have been fortunate to never have grappled with significant eating disorders but simply as a woman of this Age I found this book incredibly compelling. And of course statistically, even if we don't have an eating disorder most of us have a close friend who does. Knapp helps shed light on their and all of our inner contortions.

I wish I had read this when I was young. It ties together all types of appetite and the social pressure to conform in ways that stunt or distort normal appetite. It changed my life.

I absolutely recommend this book to anyone and everyone. Issues related to appetite, desire, need, expectations, eating disorders, etc are really tricky and complicated---there are so many forces that influence these, from the media to entire industries predicated on feeding on women's vulnerabilities. This book puts all of that together in a cohesive and comprehensive work, naming patterns and themes that many of us experience on a day to day basis but could not understand on a larger and much more inclusive framework for how we live our lives.

knapp had a knack for carefully choosing her words to perfectly match every situation that she described. her message always was important in each passage, but her prose was even more conscientiously executed. the introduction to this book, alone, was worth its purchase. I wish she were around to write more. What a writer!

This book is amazing. I go to a large State College and see this sort of thing everyday. Girls spending money the don't have to buy an identity; girls giving themselves up to men just to feel wanted, girls starving themselves simply because they are so lost. This book says everything; very honestly. I think any female can relate to it. I couldn't put it down. I stayed up and read the whole thing in two days. I particularly rec this book if you are about college age from my generation.

Knapp's writing is four stars, but the story lacks the fluidity of her well-constructed prose. It is, however, a timely look into misogynistic advertising and how the media impacts girls' and women's vision of themselves.

Fascinating subject! Knapp took what seemed to be a simple topic of the desire to eat and relates it to our struggles with mothers, men, loneliness, and our universal need for pleasure. I've already lent my copy out ...

much more than a memoir of one woman's history of disordered eating. Interesting insights and ideas about how these individual illnesses are part of and sometimes reflections of wider culture.Very highly recommended.

This is a book to be relished, pondered and read again and again. It connects with ( I think) most women on so many levels. Caroline Knapp had the ability to express fairly profound ideas in a clear, deceptively simple way. She is not a show- off writer, striving to impress with literary gymnastics that obscure the message. Instead, she captivates the reader ( this one, anyway) with her honesty and humility. The awful thing is that she will never write again.

Ich habe dieses Buch schon vor zwei oder drei Jahren gekauft. Jetzt entdecke ich hier die Rezensionsspalte. Und sehe das Titelbild wieder. Kann mich sofort erinnern, dass das ein wahnsinnig gutes und spannendes Buch war. Dass ich es auf Empfehlung meiner Schwester gekauft habe, die das auch toll fand und dass ich es in zwei Tagen verschlungen haben. Soviel zum Appetite auf gute Bücher.Dank an die Autorin!!!Amazonkundin