Rating: 
Summary: Missing the Point
Review: You don't have to be anorexic or struggling with an eating disorder to enjoy this book. It's smart, funny and still has this incredably social commentary. It really shows you how thin the line is drawn between anorexia and just being a normal woman. The best thing about this book was the fact that while it was really a diary of a young girl with anorexia, it wasn't, "I took one bite. Then I took another..." and so on and so on. She talks more about what's going on and why she's doing this than literal explanations. You can relate to her and at the same time feel kind of bad for her. One of my friends saw the back cover of the book and said, "How can she have annorexia? She's really pretty." Then of course, that would be the point. It's not about what you actually look like.
Rating:
Summary: Gottlieb withholds nothing
Review: I found this book to be entertaining as well as informative. The best part about the book is that the stereotypical guidelines placed upon those with eating disorders often don't hold true. I feel that this was proved best by the fact that Gottlieb was only 11 during the thickest bout of her anorexia. It isn't often that such a young person could grasp the disorder with such a tight hold. This book was very well written and actually made me believe that I was actually walking with Lori through all of her troubles. I feel "Stick Figure" is a major triumph in the literary world, and to girls of every age.
Rating:
Summary: I COULDN'T PUT THIS DOWN!
Review: I'm a "twentysomething" who reads a lot of "twentysomething" books. I read mostly for pleasure, because I have enough to read at work that "teaches" me something. I also like to read about women's experiences in which I see my own. I'd heard about Stick Figure, but because it was a young girl's diaries, I didn't think it would interest me as much as some other titles I had piled up by my bed -- titles about adults, not teenagers.Then I saw a great review of this in a magazine (in fact, all the reviews I've seen have RAVED about the book) but this particular writer quoted passages from the book that made me think, "THIS IS ME!" I realized, from those passages, that while a young girl said these things, so do ALL women -- young, less young, middle-aged, you name it. So I ordered a copy. I only wish I'd bought it sooner!! Stick figure is one of the most hilarious books out there, but it also makes you think about our culture, about what it's like to be confused growing up, about what it's like to be confused as an adult. And it makes you question who's sane and who's not. The young author in the book sounds pretty darn sane at times -- even though at others, she's clearly lost her way. Haven't we all wondered, at one point or another, "Am I sane or am I going crazy?" I could SO RELATE to this person in the diaries. By the end, I felt like (1) I knew her or (2) I WAS her. Stick Figure is an absolute GEM, parts of which you'll read to your friends on the phone and howl with recognition. I'm already recommending this to everyone I know! If you want a fun, quick, wildly entertaining, but also thought-provoking read, STICK FIGURE is the book for you. Don't think it's for teens, because I'm buying it as a gift for all my twenty- and thirty-something friends. In fact, my friend's 30th birthday is in a few weeks... Better get my order in!
Rating:
Summary: PERFFECT FOR BOOK CLUBS
Review: I heard the author on a radio show recently, and when she talked (with humor, a fresh perspective, and honesty) about women's relationships with their bodies -- and didn't say "the same old thing" that we've heard over and over -- I went out and bought a copy. The book is as engaging as the author, which isn't surprising given that it's based on her diaries. I started it when I got home from work and didn't go to sleep until I'd read the last page. I've never been anorexic, but I think women everywhere will recognize themselves and their adolescent diaries in Gottlieb's. If you're looking for a fabulous first-person memoir told with humor, authenticity, and most of all, just a HIGHLY ENTERTAINING READ in which you'll see elements of your own life -- this is the book for you! I'm recommending it to all my friends with book clubs as well. Women everywhere should read this book!
Rating: 
Summary: Bogus
Review: This book was no more written by an 11-year-old girl than it was written by my Himalayan cat. I don't doubt it was inspired by Ms. Gottleib's real-life experiences or even her actual childhood diary, but the narrative style is so obviously contrived it cannot possibly be that of a young girl. I would have preferred to read the author's story in her own, adult words; while there may in fact be serious cultural and social issues at stake here, I put the book aside almost immediately since I couldn't get past the idea that I was being duped.
Rating:
Summary: STICK FIGURE....
Review: I enjoyed this book to the fullest extent because i can relate to it so much. i too am a young girl suffering from anorexia nervosa, and to read about someone just like me made me see things a little differntly. i reccomend STICK FIGURE to anyone with or without an eating disorder.
Rating: 
Summary: Unrealistic Revaltion
Review: When Lori was first developing and going through her eating disorder it seemed extremely true to life. I myself have an eating disorder and I could relate to her denial and the control that EDs can have on your mind. However, although it happened to her, the way that she understands and changes her eating disorder is COMPLETELY out of the ordinary. I don't think I would recommend this book to an ED victim because I think that they would be waiting to see their "skinny self" in the mirror. For most ED patients, this never happens. Even after they get the ED under control they will never see themselves as this. Through treatment you learn to accept yourself regardless of how you look, but that never changes how it looks in the mirror. Lori was very lucky to be able to see the destruction she was doing to herself, but for most people, they will never see that image in the mirror. God Bless.
Rating:
Summary: "Beverly Hills Brat"
Review: There is a review of this book here that calls Gottlieb a "Beverly Hills brat," and I'm sort of ashamed to say I agree with that particular appellation. This should have remained in the realm of "diary." Overblown prose in bad need of an editor crossed with a poor understanding of the topic (herself!) makes for some sadly self-indulgent nonsense. There isn't much sympathy to be mustered up for the "brat" who thinks her tale of woe quite so interesting.
Rating:
Summary: BETTER THAN "GIRL, INTERRUPTED"! AMAZING!
Review: I'd seen several rave reviews of this book in newspapers and on the Web, but some of them made it sound like it would be mostly about anorexia, and I've never had an eating disorder. I've read books like "Prozac Nation," a memoir about depression, even though I've never tried Prozac, and I read Kay Jamison's memoir of being a doctor with bipolar disorder (again, not my experience); and Lucy Grealey's memoir "Autobiography of a Face," even though I've never had cancer. But for some reason, I'd never read any autobiographies on anorexia that I related to...until I read this one! Like "Prozac Nation" and also "Girl, Interrupted," STICK FIGURE is incredibly witty, entertaining, heartbreaking, vulnerable, honest, and completely familiar somehow. We've all had those feelings of insecurity about how we look, we all want to be ourselves and also want to fit in with the "crowd," we want the boy to notice us but don't want to compromise our integrity by becoming "someone else" just so he'll like you. Gottlieb's diary entries (probably because they're what she wrote at the time) are so REAL, so VIVID, that it took me back to that time in my life when I was also trying to figure out who I was and often thought I was crazy if my ideas were different from my friends', parents', etc. All of the characters in the book -- from her teachers to her brother to her therapist to her friends at school -- were so accurately dissected with a child's insight and "say it like it is" attitude. I read that Martin Scorsese is making the movie, and with these characters and situations, I can see why. I actually wanted to know a little more about what happened after the book ended, but I liked that it ended sort of "up in the air" -- Gottlieb came a LONG WAY, and you hoped she'd keep on that path, but it left you in enough suspense that you didn't know for sure. Which is what makes this so real - the author didn't "sugar coat" anything for the sake of ensuring a happy ending. (If they're as fascinating as this volume, Ms. Gottlieb should publish her diaries from the next year too! ) I started reading some funny or touching sections to my friends, and I realized there's so much innocent yet incisive (and hilarious!) cultural observation and in each paragraph, that I need to read it again to catch everything. A book to have in your collection... and to pass on to your close friends!
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful
Review: The reader is fortunate to find here an elegant, humorous look inside a woman who understands herself very well. The words find their way into your ears in a way that makes you forget you're reading at all-- it seems instead that you are experiencing life right along with the authoress. Not many people have a sense of how to write about themselves in a way such that we truly become interested and grow to care-- Ms. Gottlieb (or is that Dr. Gottlieb?) does.
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