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Speed Shrinking
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Product Description
“Proust had a cookie. Susan Shapiro has a cupcake—and a really hilarious book.”
—Patricia Marx, author of Him, Her, Him Again, the End of Him
In Susan Shapiro’s laugh-out-loud funny fictional debut Speed Shrinking, Manhattan self-help author Julia Goodman thinks she’s got her addictive personality under control. Then her beloved psychoanalyst moves away at the same time her husband takes off to L.A. and her best friend gets married and moves to Ohio.
Feeling lonely and left out, Julia fills in the void with food, becomes a cupcake addict, and blimps out. This is a huge problem—especially since she’s about to go on national television to plug her hot new self-help book about how she conquered her sugar addiction.
Navigating her insurance network, Julia desperately sees eight shrinks in eight days, speed-dating for Dr. Replacement—or any other new guru—to help shrink back her body and anxiety in time for her close-up.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #428253 in Books
- Published on: 2009-08-04
- Released on: 2009-08-04
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Hardcover
- 320 pages
Features
- ISBN13: 9780312581565
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
- Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
In Shapiro's bubbly latest, self-help guru Julia Goodman is fresh out of advice. Just as Julia is about to follow up her bestseller Up in Smoke with a book about controlling her food addiction, her shrink, Dr. Ness, and best friend, Sarah, both leave New York, sending her into a cupcake-scarfing tailspin. Soon she has packed on some extra pounds that she must lose before Food Crazy is published. To make matters worse, her director husband, Jake, has been called away to L.A., leaving no one to stop her late-night binges. Without Dr. Ness's tough talk, Sarah's help and Jake's love, Julia searches for a new support system, interviewing eight shrinks in eight days. Her selection, Dr. Cigar, only complicates her quest to return to her svelte weight in time for her Today show interview, leaving her to find her own answers to the weight question. Shapiro rescues a conventional plot with an original voice and an energy that will resonate with anyone who's ever stared down a Twinkie. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
Advance Praise for Speed Shrinking
“Proust had a cookie. Susan Shapiro has a cupcake—and a really hilarious book.”
—Patricia Marx, author of Him, Her, Him Again, the End of Him
“Susan Shapiro does for therapy and food what Candace Bushnell did for sex and shoes.”
—Guy Nicolucci, writer for Late Night with Conan O’Brien
“A powerful, soulful, laugh-out-loud delight.”
—Ian Frazier, author of Dating Your Mom
“A hilarious search for Dr. Right. Susan Shapiro makes neuroticism fun.”
—Amy Alkon, of AdviceGoddess.com
“A smart, fun, hyperactive page-turner that’ll keep you on your mental toes.”
—Valerie Frankel, author of Thin Is the New Happy
“Spills the secret of why women who have it all still overdose on cupcakes. Frothy, funny, sly, and street-smart.”
—Susan Jane Gilman, author of Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress
About the Author
Susan Shapiro has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, Newsweek, People, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, More, The Village Voice, The Forward, Salon.com, and Daily Beast. She’s a columnist for Writer’s Digest, coeditor of Food for the Soul, and the author of five works of nonfiction, including Five Men Who Broke My Heart, which was optioned for a feature film. She lives with her husband, a TV/film writer, in Manhattan, where she teaches her “instant gratification takes too long” method of journalism at the New School, NYU, Cooper Union, and Mediabistro. You can visit her Web site at www.susanshapiro.net.
Customer Reviews
I loved this book
This is an ideal combination for me. Susan Shapiro writing about one of the subjects that is closest to my heart - weight and addiction.
I feel in love with Shapiro when she wrote her "memoir" about trying to stop her various addictions and although this book is a novel, she picks up along of the main themes that she has used in her non fiction book.
In this one, our main character is now a "guru". She has managed to lose all her weight and is now the person who helps other people out there. She has surrounded herself by a huge support system (which is a great idea when you are battling addictions) but, as luck and the universe would have it, these people are all leaving her, in various degrees - which means she needs to find herself, among other things a new shrink - before her nightly binges threaten to envelop her and prevent her from making her appearance on TV.
This book is at times hilarious, poignant and always rings true, true, true! When the author describes the battles against binge eating and how this is just but a symptom of a bigger problem, I wanted to cry. I loved that Shapiro chose to make her main character strong (and weak) and willing, willing to do what she needed to do to stay in recovery.
This book is for everyone who has an addiction (or if you know someone who does) who wants to take a funny and poignant look at the situtation.
No victims need apply.
Cupcakes, Shrinks, Gurus and Madcap Manhattan Mania In One Delicious Romp
Speed Shrinking is a fun, cupcake-filled, search-for-a-shrink romp by noted memoirist Susan Shapiro, which also provides some sly looks at the business of book promotion, weight issues, father figures and very Manhattan mania. Self-help guru Julia Goodman should be at the top of her game, having conquered her many addictions through the help of Dr. Ness, her beloved therapist, found a hot husband, and written a bestselling book, Up in Smoke. But when her pregnant best friend leaves town, her husband is off to LA for work and her therapist, who, in many ways is both the hero and antihero of this offbeat love story, moves away, she feels alone, and turns to cupcakes for comfort. And shrinks, many, many shrinks.
She sets off to find the perfect therapist, who'll give her exactly what she needs (tough love), one who's covered by her health insurance, in a hilarious, neurotic journey where she ponders whether a cigar is just a cigar, hires a nutritionists, has occasional cupcake binges, and questions the premises she's built her life on. When she learns that her therapist may have betrayed her, she wonders whether he's worth the guru status she's given him. Meanwhile, she's competing with her fellow authors and warding off rumors that she's pregnant because she's gained so much weight.
This madcap journey will be appreciated by any woman who's ever worried about her weight, anyone who loves cupcakes, and anyone who's spent time on either side of a therapist's couch! Julia's wackiness has you rooting for her in her quest to get thin, and to finally get at the heart of her issues (though watching her breeze from one potential solution to another will give readers plenty of laughs even as it gives Julia a meltdown).
I'm addicted to this book
The main character in Speed Shrinking is a best friend I want to have. She devours junk food to make herself feel better about her loneliness and then cries about for days. Though Julia is at times as dysfunctional, her unashamed and insightful honesty in her quest for the perfect therapist is inspirational. I could read this book over and over. It opened me into the world of designer psychotherapy and had me dreaming of flavorful bakery goodness. I'm addicted to this book.
