Starved

A Nutrition Doctor's Journey from Empty to Full

By: Anne McTiernan

Narrated by: Valerie Gilbert

At the age of four, Anne McTiernan is left by her mother at a boarding school. Overcome by sadness from the neglect she experiences there, Anne emotionally and physically starves. A doctor, appalled by her excessive weight loss, forces Anne's mother to bring her home, but she is still not safe.

Set in working-class, Irish-American Boston of the 1950s - 1960s, Anne transitions from a malnourished state to obesity to obsessive dieting. Without love and support from her family, Anne decides she must take full responsibility for her own life during her last 18 months as a minor.

Today as a doctor and researcher, Anne has helped thousands of women improve their relationship with food - but this is not their story. Starved is the gripping tale of how Anne used hard work, undaunted intelligence, and persistence to turn the adversity she encountered as a child into a strength and set of skills that would later help her meet the demands of her career.

©2016 Central Recovery Press (P)2017 Central Recovery Press

good story, difficult to get through

The narrator was entertaining when voicing the mother but through parts it was flat and grating (the children’s voices in particular were obnoxious) which detracted from the already less than stellar storytelling. The story overall was good, very sad, but any feeling of sadness was mitigated by the way it was told. The author seems to say “woe is me” with every sentence and punctuates the book with bragging about her accomplishments as an adult. You do not get the sense the author has worked through their childhood issues and is seeking approval from the reader while also saying “look what I did all by myself”.