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32nd out of 102 books
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2 voters
Ravenous: A Food Lover's Journey from Obsession to Freedom
by
Dayna Macy (Goodreads Author)
What should I eat? How much should I eat? What does it mean to be nourished? How can I, a food lover and lifelong overeater, learn to be satisfied? These are the questions Dayna Macy asks in her debut memoir, "Ravenous." Like many of us, Macy has had a complicated relationship with food. In order to transform this relationship, Macy embarks on a year-long journey to uncove...more
Kindle Edition
Published
(first published December 23rd 2010)
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Jun 29, 2011
Mary Chrapliwy
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
netgalley-books
This book is not just about hunger and longing for food, it far more a spiritual journey through where food comes from (from small yet bountiful gardens and farms, the diary farms, straight through to cattle ranching and slaughtering) and how one should have a reverence for that food. Macy leaves no stone unturned in this story of her study of all forms of food and where it all comes from and the creation of fresh food from the ingredients she explores. Near the end she discusses making her own...more
The memoir parts were interesting and engaging. The parts where she visited farms, the slaughterhouse, etc. were fairly informative. I was not fond of the recipes at the end of each chapter and skipped right over them. The "orange" recipe at the end felt forced and trite. Furthermore, the conclusions she came to at the end of her journey were cliche at best and patronizing at worst. For what this book is presented as, it really didn't address the deeper issues of over- and emotional eating or th...more
While someone without issues with food might not find RAVENOUS: A FOOD LOVER'S JOURNEY FROM OBSESSION TO FREEDOM compelling, I did. It spoke to me. I understood Macy's squashing of feelings with food, her memory-infused love affair with traditional meals, and her inability to stop eating even when full.
Dayna Macy is a middle-aged mom who begins to take an honest look at her journey with food. Rather than begin a diet, she wants to go to the core of food and her issues swirling around it. Curiou...more
Dayna Macy is a middle-aged mom who begins to take an honest look at her journey with food. Rather than begin a diet, she wants to go to the core of food and her issues swirling around it. Curiou...more
While I don't agree with Macy's spiritual philosophy, I thought she had some really interesting and apt things to say about food. I can understand why someone who's never had an issue with weight or food could find this book tedious and even boring. But as someone who has struggled with weight and self-image my entire life, I found some good bits of truth in this book.
I loved the way she described food. She used words that I would never have imagined could describe food. She made me more aware o...more
I loved the way she described food. She used words that I would never have imagined could describe food. She made me more aware o...more
Like me, Dayna Macy has a love of food and is unable to control herself at times around her favorites. She has steadily put on weight and wants to find out why this relationship with food is controlling her.
To do so, she sets off on a journey to find out where her food comes from. She watches cattle being slaughtered at a local farm, which gives her an appreciation for each bite of meat she puts into her mouth. She visits an olive grove and learns how table olives are made.
Macy also travels to h...more
Someone (I don't remember who, thanks to whomever it was!) recommended this book to me and I grabbed a copy of it. I will admit I was a bit hesitant. I read half of Eat Pray Love, which it kind of sounded like. I really didn't like that book, at all, not one bit.
This was similar, for sure, but also a little more realistic for the rest of us in the world that cannot take a year off and go off to points unknown. The author visits places she can drive to, during her off times at work or on the week...more
This was similar, for sure, but also a little more realistic for the rest of us in the world that cannot take a year off and go off to points unknown. The author visits places she can drive to, during her off times at work or on the week...more
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Food and relating to food obsess me too, so I'm thrilled with this author's journey to delve deeply into her eating history and to seek authentic change of body-mind-spirit in the midst of overwhelming abundance. We also share living in the Bay Area and being longtime members of Full Belly Farm's CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).
I'm planning to employ one of Ms Macy's practices to help explore one of my blocks--the practice of measuring. "'The secret is there is no secret.' A portion is por...more
I'm planning to employ one of Ms Macy's practices to help explore one of my blocks--the practice of measuring. "'The secret is there is no secret.' A portion is por...more
This was a free book I found on Pixel of Ink. I wasn't too sure how I would like it since I am not a big fan of memoirs, but this book was really interesting. The author has an unhealthy relationship with food, so she sets out to find the origins of her food obsessions in order to change her relationship with food. She meets farmers, a forager, a chocolatier & many others on her quest to understand where food comes from & what it means to her. She looks into the family traditions surroun...more
While someone without issues with food might not find RAVENOUS: A FOOD LOVER'S JOURNEY FROM OBSESSION TO FREEDOM compelling, I did. It spoke to me. I understood Macy's squashing of feelings with food, her memory-infused love affair with traditional meals, and her inability to stop eating even when full.
Dayna Macy is a middle-aged mom who begins to take an honest look at her journey with food. Rather than begin a diet, she wants to go to the core of food and her issues swirling around it. Curiou...more
Dayna Macy is a middle-aged mom who begins to take an honest look at her journey with food. Rather than begin a diet, she wants to go to the core of food and her issues swirling around it. Curiou...more
I can definitely identify with Macy and the journey she's sharing. It's not a preachy story, but a recounting of the trials and tribulations sustained while dissecting herlove affair with food. It was heartfelt and relatable, sometimes crossing over into bits of cheesiness. But life can be cheesy, can't it?
Macy brings up many personal and societal ideals relating to food, agriculture, and nature that you may or may not agree with, but she poses them in ways that make you think. Everyone is diff...more
Macy brings up many personal and societal ideals relating to food, agriculture, and nature that you may or may not agree with, but she poses them in ways that make you think. Everyone is diff...more
This is a quick read -- I started and finished it while flying from North Carolina to New York (one stop). It's a quickie inspirational but sometimes uncomfortably honest account of one woman's quest to redefine her relationship with food in a healthier way. There's a bit of New Age-y stuff that didn't do much for me, and some of her ideas verged on silly to me (e.g. visiting a slaughterhouse to understand her lifelong fascination with pork... and by the way, pork does not come from cows). But o...more
While I enjoyed reading parts of this book, it really didn't come together for me. Her journey led her to journaling and measuring her food? That was sort of anticlimatic for me. That, and the editing was terrible. I'd love to know who did the "find all and replace" four with flour. By the end of the book, I almost found that amusing. While I don't happen to agree with all of her spiritual beliefs, I was impressed by her willingness to learn about various foods and the effort that goes into prod...more
This book didn't provide the insight I thought it would. It reminded me of "Eat, Pray, Love" but lacking in depth (not that the aforementioned had much depth). The end was such a let down because she decided that the "secret" to being at peace with her eating and weight issues was portion control and tracking what she ate. Gee - sound familiar? But the book was a tad bit interesting in finding out how certain foods make it from beginning to plate. The slaughterhouse information was insightful in...more
Nov 30, 2011
Pamela (slytherpuff)
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Over-eaters who don't want to be
See more of my reviews at Bettering Me Up.
Other reviewers have done a fine job of giving an account of the novel, so I'll talk about how this book affected me.
Like the author, I have struggled with obsessive eating my whole life and wondered "why?"
(view spoiler)...more
Other reviewers have done a fine job of giving an account of the novel, so I'll talk about how this book affected me.
Like the author, I have struggled with obsessive eating my whole life and wondered "why?"
(view spoiler)...more
Mar 27, 2011
Tamsen
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Tamsen by:
Devon
"Why are you in this body? What does your body have to teach you?"
These questions that Dayna asks herself stood out to me. I like to think that, as humans, we are put in our lives specifically to work on things. You are the person you are with the challenges you face for a reason. Your soul chose your life to grow spiritually. That could be the wrong answer to why we're here, but it's what I like to think about my life at least. I never thought that perhaps my spirit could choose the shell of my...more
These questions that Dayna asks herself stood out to me. I like to think that, as humans, we are put in our lives specifically to work on things. You are the person you are with the challenges you face for a reason. Your soul chose your life to grow spiritually. That could be the wrong answer to why we're here, but it's what I like to think about my life at least. I never thought that perhaps my spirit could choose the shell of my...more
Food can be a lot of things. Delicious. Nourishing. Yummy. But food can be much more than that. It can be protection, comfort, pleasure, and love. Like in Dayna Macy's case.
With her memoir Ravenous: A Food Lover's Journey From Obsession To Freedom she offers a downright honest look into what food meant and means to her, from early childhood up to the present. Admittedly this book wasn't quite what I expected it to be, starting off with a praise to different foods, which made me think that “Know...more
With her memoir Ravenous: A Food Lover's Journey From Obsession To Freedom she offers a downright honest look into what food meant and means to her, from early childhood up to the present. Admittedly this book wasn't quite what I expected it to be, starting off with a praise to different foods, which made me think that “Know...more
I got this for free for my Kindle and I have to say a big thumbs down. The idea is interesting, which is why I downloaded it. Even for free there are some books I don't bother with. But after plowing through the whole book, here is her big revelation/solution. A food journal and portion control. Um.... I think weight watchers might have been able to help you with this a while ago. If controlling your portions was easy, everyone would do it and no one would be overweight.
Full disclosure: Dayna and I worked together years ago and recently bumped into one another at a yoga class, which reminded me I needed to review her book! The truth is I would've read this book even if I'd never known the author, because it touches on two areas near and dear to me: food and yoga. In Dayna's case the latter helps her gain insight into and control over the latter. But the book is really about the journey. In an effort to control her impulses and her weight, she delves into the or...more
The idea behind this book spoke to me. I have an unhealthy relationship with food, as do most Americans. When I read the description I could relate to the author. Her journey isn't something most people can do, she uses a lot of her connections to get her into places that most people could never visit. However, we can learn something from her path. In the end she comes to the most basic of conclusions, the ones most people don't want to accept.
This fabulous book is filled with insight and wisdom as the author Danya Macy attempts to free herself from her obsession with weight and food by learning both more about the food as well as herself.
We follow Macy on her journey and learn about the responsibility of eating meat after visiting an abattoir, about the love of land many farmers have and try to cultivate whether they raise goats or lettuce. This is definitely a journey of love and hope.
For those who are obsessed with weight and food...more
We follow Macy on her journey and learn about the responsibility of eating meat after visiting an abattoir, about the love of land many farmers have and try to cultivate whether they raise goats or lettuce. This is definitely a journey of love and hope.
For those who are obsessed with weight and food...more
I have asked myself the question, "Why are you carrying this extra weight?" Ravenous comes closest to helping me find the answer. Like Ms. Macy I have a rebel inside of me that so resents the discipline of eating wisely. Old pathways have finally turned into dead ends and I am looking for new path. I recommend this book to any one needing a better connection to their body and food.
This book weaves recipes with childhood memories and culinary discovery in a way that keeps the reader engaged. I particularly loved the way Dayna Macy sought insights about her personality and the personality of food consumers in general through her interaction with different types of food producers (from someone making sausage to a chocolate lover to a cheese maker etc.) An enjoyable read.
Read for free on my Kindle.
I could relate to so much of this book, even her favourite foods. I enjoyed the memoir sections, which are very immediate and vivid, but I also found the sections on the making of different foods, and the different food production methods, very interesting too. It was an unusual way to consider food, and I'm glad I read it.
I could relate to so much of this book, even her favourite foods. I enjoyed the memoir sections, which are very immediate and vivid, but I also found the sections on the making of different foods, and the different food production methods, very interesting too. It was an unusual way to consider food, and I'm glad I read it.
A self-indulgent book about what seems to be a love-hate relationship with food. The author blatantly shows off her yoga knowledge and practice, her connections to artisan food people and the tours, and what was that chapter about her tripping on hallucinogenic mushrooms? Gee, I don't think I have read a worse food-related memoir.
Macy's book held my interest, but it lacks depth; it's a series of short vignettes with nearly as brief insights, especially concerning the effects of her father's abusive behavior.
Most food writers have no trouble fleshing out descriptive writing on this sensuous topic, and most memoir writers dig a little deeper.
Most food writers have no trouble fleshing out descriptive writing on this sensuous topic, and most memoir writers dig a little deeper.
This book was amazing. I love reading food non-fiction and I love stories of women discovering the reasons we tick the way we do. Dayna Macy wrote an excellent book here encompassing a lot of what we probably all share in our food relationships.
If you have a love of food and non-fiction, this book might rock your world as much as it rocked mine.
If you have a love of food and non-fiction, this book might rock your world as much as it rocked mine.
There were a few interesting ideas here, but I read it to the end hoping it would get better and end up with a useful takeaway. It didn't. I was disappointed. i wanted to read the book because it was recommended in a magazine. I'm sorry to say I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone.
Another experiment on my new Kindle. Really interesting book,not just the author's need to find out the root cause of her overeating, but really interesting chapters about different foods, different chefs, very Northern California Tree Hugger type, but enjoyable reading. Also, some good recipes
I can relate to the obsessed with food thing...and I loved the way she went on a literal journey to explore the food she eats...everything from the organic farm to the abbatoir..some of it pretty intense.
I like things that make me think and help me with the puzzle of my brain!
I like things that make me think and help me with the puzzle of my brain!
The parts of the book that described food production were moderately interesting, but the rest of the book I found to be boring and indulgent. After reading the first few chapters, I ended up skimming the book and finding her conclusion to be "portion control" The end.
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Personal Biography
Ravenous: A Food Lover's Journey from Obsession to Freedom tells the story of how I made peace with my appetite and my body. That journey, and the one I traveled to become a writer, both took a while.
I was born in Rockland County, New York. I went to college at Drew University, and then to graduate school at Brown University, where I got my degree in philosophy. I thought I wante...more
More about Dayna Macy...
Ravenous: A Food Lover's Journey from Obsession to Freedom tells the story of how I made peace with my appetite and my body. That journey, and the one I traveled to become a writer, both took a while.
I was born in Rockland County, New York. I went to college at Drew University, and then to graduate school at Brown University, where I got my degree in philosophy. I thought I wante...more
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