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  • The Reading Cure

  • How Books Restored My Appetite
  • By: Laura Freeman
  • Narrated by: Laura Freeman
  • Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (3 ratings)

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The Reading Cure

By: Laura Freeman
Narrated by: Laura Freeman
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Publisher's Summary

At the age of 14, Laura Freeman was diagnosed with anorexia. She had seized the one aspect of her life that she seemed able to control and struck different foods from her diet one by one until she was starving. But even at her lowest point, the one appetite she never lost was her love of reading.

As Laura battled her anorexia, she gradually rediscovered how to enjoy food - and life more broadly - through literature. Plum puddings and pottles of fruit in Dickens gave her courage to try new dishes; the wounded Robert Graves' appreciation of a pair of greengages changed the way she thought about plenty and choice; Virginia Woolf's painterly descriptions of bread, blackberries and biscuits were infinitely tempting. Book by book, meal by meal, Laura developed an appetite and discovered an entire library of reasons to live.

The Reading Cure is a beautiful, inspiring account of hunger and happiness, about addiction, obsession and recovery, and about the way literature and food can restore appetite and renew hope.

Read by Laura Freeman.

©2018 Laura Freeman (P)2018 Orion Publishing Group

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super interesting and candid!

I really appreciate Laura Freeman's honesty. This is such a unique bibliography and memoir. If you or anyone you know has suffered from an eating disorder, or if you love food, or if you love reading, I recommend this book!

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So wonderful

As an ex-anorexic & a bibliophile myself, I just loved this book. I bought the beautiful hardback copy years ago, & enjoy it so much. I was delighted to not only find it on Audible, but that it was read by the author, & read so well! I enjoyed her quality narration even more than reading the book myself (a rare occurrence). I’ve had a year of being unwell, & it’s been so lovely to curl up in bed in the dark on rainy days & listen to her descriptions of food & comfort. It’s been food for my soul. She’s an excellent writer & her enthusiastic recommendations have led me to add so many books to my To Read list.

So many books about anorexia go into great detail of the pain, torment, & ever inventive ways to starve yourself, but have little about the road to recovery. They always made me worse. But this book is so inspirational, motivational, & hopeful. It’s a beautiful light at the end of a terrible tunnel. That recovery is not quick or easy, but possible & manageable. A one-foot-in-front-of-another approach to lasting change about how one views food during & after anorexia. That food is not only not to be feared, but something to nourish us, build us up, & even to be enjoyed. I relished this book & highly recommend it.

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