Appetites: On the Search for True Nourishment »

Geneen Roth's When Food Is Love profoundly explored the relationship between eating and intimacy in women's lives. Her rejection of convention in dieting practices has motivated hundreds of thousands of women to think more deeply about, and alter their relationship to, eating and food. When Food Is Love became a bestseller - but in the wake of that success, Roth found herself in an unexpected position: she descended into a long illness, losing what she thought she could never live without - her health, her hair, and even her best friend. In Appetites: On the Search for True Nourishment, Geneen Roth explores, with great insight and clarity, the process of questioning what was at the core of her own life, her ultimate return to good health, and the new and unexpected ways she found to nourish herself and those she has loved and worked with. Over the course of this journey, Roth looked deeply into women's friendships and what happens when they change; the longing for success and affirmation for one's work; the conflicting emotions a woman can have when she considers whether or not to have a child; the longing for a safe place to live and build toward the future. She writes, "Appetites is the story of friends and women with whom I've worked as they've questioned the meaning of success, thinness, friendship, and fulfillment ... Why, I asked myself, is an embarrassment of riches embarrassing? Why do most women feel they will lose friends as they lose weight? ... What feels good about feeling bad? And where do we turn for nourishment when it's not in the places we thought it would be?"

Publishers Weekly

That some of us overeat in order to feed a spiritual rather than physical hunger isn't a new idea, but perhaps no one has chatted it up with as much panache as Roth (When Food Is Love). In her earnest new book, this popular workshop guru focuses on the ersatz bliss of overeating but also expands her vision to question "the meaning of success, thinness, friendships, and fulfillment." Drawing on much personal anecdote-her hair loss following illness; her ties to her best friend; her worries about another's health, etc.-she charms readers toward realizing that true happiness comes not from a sleek body, wealth or indeed any external attribute but from a sense of inner worth. There's nothing new in that idea either, but Roth presents it, as usual, in just the right mix of confession, sass and style. (Apr.)