Rating: 
Summary: ok, but i didn't like the writing style.
Review: I thought the style of writing in this book wasn't really what i like. some of it was trying to be funny, but didnt really succeed. I liked most of it though. its not that informative about anorexia, and may actually be a trigger because it mentions weights (numbers).
Rating: 
Summary: Not bad... But I wouldn't call it "Enlightening"
Review: I will admit that I read this book with guarded cynicism. From what I had heard, I was expecting to read a droning feminist tirade about the way society treats women and how girls are expected to hate their bodies, and how the average woman is size-14 but the average model is a 2. Surprisingly, these passages made their presence but did not overstate themselves; they were written more with compassion than with snooty criticism. The story is a memoir of Lori Gottlieb's struggle with anorexia at the young age of eleven. Lori attributes her illness to her growing up in Beverly Hills and the demands that the nearby movie-industry made on women. Lori begins to starve herself during a vacation to Washington D.C. after quarreling with her parents. She is impressed by the attention she receives from it, as well as her diminishing size, so she persists, and her condition becomes life-threatening and she is hospitalized. It is only after attempts at noncompliance and a vague suicide attempt, that Lori finally takes a good look at herself and realizes what she is doing. It dawns on her that you can never be happy even if you are thin because then you have to keep worrying that you will get fat or deal with the health consequences of not eating. Thus she paves her "road to recovery"I found this book to be rather shallow. There obviously was more to Lori's eating disorder than her simply choosing to stop eating one day. Yet Lori glosses over clear examples of her mother's disdain for her and seeming lack-of-affection, preferring to focus on her mother's poor body-image and the consequences of an L.A. upbringing instead. The author also repeatedly gave references to what an intelligent, precocious child she was and how persecuted she was for enjoying math; this got annoying after a while. Although it seems unlikely that Lori would decide to start eating so suddenly after a botched suicide attempt and without any set-backs, I will give her the benefit of doubt because the causes and cures for anorexia nervosa are mystifying. However, there did not seem to be any question that Lori might die in the first place. I can understand the author not desiring glamorize these high-profile disorders, but I feel there was too much humor and sarcasm and not enough evidence of genuine medical danger. While this book has clear weaknesses, it also has definite strengths. Contrary to other beliefs, Lori is living proof that a complete reversal of anorexia is possible. More than twenty years later, she has now moved past that stage in her life and is a medical student at Stanford University. She writes with hope and compassion, avoiding criticism. There is little blaming of anyone in particular for Lori's eating disorder, so it is left to the reader to interpret.The story is well-paced and entertaining without becoming grim. Overall, STICK FIGURE: A DIARY OF MY FORMER SELF is an amusing tale with a funny and positive writing style, but it is not a book to treasure or seek genuine insight from.
Rating: 
Summary: Powerful and compelling!
Review: Stick Figure is an extraordinary book written in an unusual manner. The author Lori Gottlieb recounts her experiences as an adolescent who developed eating disorders. She shares her story as if she were still that eleven year old child. Her ability to recapture her thoughts and actions is riveting. Lori has truly bared her soul in this book.
And Lori in the book can really get under your skin. She was impudent with adults, illogical in her thinking and very self absorbed. I felt at points like shaking some sense into her! At other times I wanted to give her a hug and protect her from herself! But only Lori could do that.
As you read the book you recognize how obsessed our culture has become with women's bodies. Society had drilled into Lori that thin is good and fat is bad. She absorbed this and a "Stick Figure" became her ideal body shape.
Many females will find their own thinking mirrored in many of Lori's thoughts. How often do we fault our bodies because they do not fit what we think is the ideal shape.
Lori's book helps us to realize how important it is to appreciate all that is good about our body and not focus on supposed flaws.
This is an important book for both young and older women to read.
Rating:
Summary: Great book of tremendous passion, style, self-awareness
Review: I'm not moved to write a review very often, but Lori Gottlieb's "Stick Figure" was such a great book I felt I couldn't not--hers is why non-fiction books are written in the first place, namely, to be moved by the words, and hopefully to be moved into actual action. I can't think of a group who wouldn't benefit from reading "Stick Figure," be they parents, adolescents, health care professionals, the lay adult population, or little kids. And men--wow, can men learn about the pressures put on even little girls to look the "right" way from day one (and I'm a man.) Written in a really unique and remarkable format--her actual diaries from when she was a kid--Gottlieb's memoir never comes across as narcissitic or self-serving, but as the story of a young girl growiwng up in the epicenter of where how you look being how many judge who you are (Beverly Hills) and trying to cope. It's hard enough growing up in Podunk, but we all can be grateful that Gottlieb not only survived (both literally and emotionally,) came to thrive, and emerged eventually to write this fabulous book that should be required reading in every grade school, junior high, high school, college, and family in the country. If that sounds gushy so be it--I only write these when I feel the book deserves it. Great job, Gottlieb!
Rating: 
Summary: too superficial
Review: This book should be classified Young Adult reading, I don't think the writing would hold the average adult's interest. Could the author mention ANY more often how gifted and wonderful she was in her eyes? This was unusual, for a child who apparently thought highly of herself to create issues with food. Eating disorders are so complex and I felt the author came off as a rebellious brat who didn't really have an illness, just a power trip she was winning. It didn't seem that her thoughts/feelings around eating changed, it was like she said, "Oh, okay... I'm bored with starving myself now."
Rating:
Summary: THE BEST BOOK EVER
Review: This is by far the best book I have ever read in my entire life. Why? It's so realistic. There's no doubt about it-Lori Gottleib is an incredibly smart, talented writer. I have read this book at least 6 times and get something new out of it every time. Lori Gottleib has shown me how incredibly awful anorexia nervosa is and her facts in the back tell all of the fascinating statistics of anorexia. I'd reccommend this book to anyone who has ever been upset with who they see when they look in the mirror.
Rating:
Summary: When children resist being molded into carbon copies of...
Review: A great book where the author, Lori Gottlieb, goes back almost 2 decades to retrieve and publish childhood diaries of 1978, about struggling for a self-chosen separate identity. The author keenly described how based on gender, women of all ages are still pressed into abandoning their own early initiatives for self expression, academic evolvement and career motivation. Gottlieb boldly displayed the persistent popular belief that women are instructed from childhood to still, "Save the desserts for the men". Imagine what gets passed on to 11-year-old Lori from her self involved mother, who publicly cries for everyone, but denies the emotional needs of her daughter. From the beginning of Lori's story, it was clear that the strong spirited character was aware of her mother's acceptance being conditional on physical daintiness and superficiality. This applied only to females. The men were encouraged and allowed to openly partake of all of life's edible gifts and bounty, but the females were supposed to publicly abstain and restrict and be submissive. An eating disorder, diagnosed as anorexia nervosa, developes as Lori attempts to show her worth and needs beyond the superficial aspects that her mother keeps pushing down her throat and the media keeps screaming in front of her. With wonderful clarity and well put details, Lori shows the viewer that women still barely have a chance to get out of the chute before being inundated with expectations that inhibit personal choice based on gender. In the book, the parents were at fault for ignoring the normal development and path their daughter wanted to take. There was little encouragment for Lori from her mother unless it revolved around discussions and interest in silly outfits and objectifying women by breast size and hair fluffiness. That Lori witnessed her mother shoving a cookie in her mouth late at night while everyone was in bed, pointed to the self loathing that occurs when unrealistic ideals can't be met. Everyone in Lori's family was trying to be something else other than just themselves and 11-year-old Lori tried to cope by denying her need to eat which she showed was also denying her need to be accepted and loved just as she was. The author included a short chapter on an arranged meeting with one of Charlie's Angels as her father tried to logically solve his daughter's refusal to eat. The epilogue is written by the 30 year old author and shares wonderful insights about the pressure to conform, where it still comes from, and what happens when women can't.
Rating:
Summary: excellent book
Review: I really enjoyed reading this book - I couldn't put it down! I guess because I was alot like her as a kid, not anorexic, but too creative (and intellegent, I suppose) for the public schools to know what to do with.
I'm skeptical as to whether or not an 11 year old actually wrote what was published, but that doesn't really matter because an editor is going to get at it one way or another. Fabricated or not, it was an excellent read, and I found it very informative as to how a person beings to see food as something to be controlled etc.
Rating:
Summary: Rare, Innocent, Witty
Review: Lori Gottlieb's diary as a child with anorexia demonstrates the twisted logic of a starver - without glamorizing anorexia by overly describing the physical breakdown. As a recovering anorexic myself, and having read most ED accounts in print, Ms. Gottlieb's book is refreshing, and uplifting.
Rating:
Summary: Very Entertaining
Review: At 11, Lori was different from other girls her age; she preferred playing chess and doing math to shopping and chasing after boys. She doesn't get along very well with her mother, who loves to shop, doesn't like to eat, and seems to be quite a flaky nervous person, or her father who likes to end arguments and stutters about "changes" she is going through. Her diary is funny and perceptive, and easy to relate to; going inside the mind of Lori, you feel like you know her, or someone like her.
Being a former anorexic, there were many parts that sounded so familiar, that sometimes painfully reminded me of myself a few years ago: the distored self image, obsession with numbers and calories, the fear of all food and drinks and becoming fat even as you're wasting away into nothing. Lori candidly describes her experience, with no self pity. While the events leading up to her eating disorder are pretty thouroughly discussed, the ending seems to be somewhat glazed over. While almost the whole book is devoted to the development of her disorder, the ending doesn't do much to explain the process of recovery, which usually takes place over a long, painful period of time. Lori seems to suddenly come to her senses and start eating again.
I would give this book a higher rating for its entertainment value; it's a refreshing look at the sad truth of the pressures being put on kids by media, peers, parents, and themselves.
This book, while perhaps not the best resource to find information about eating disorders, is highly entertaining and captivating, and definitely worth reading.
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