Dayna Macy

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 on the whole, her honesty about her ambivalent relationship with food shone through, and made this a fairly satisfying snack of a book.… (mehr)

This book ended up being very different from what I was expecting. I was expecting a book about addiction and recovery, eating disorders, and similar. I was expecting a memoir, and most of this book is not a memoir. Instead, it's a recounting of a year that Macy spent travelling around to find out where her favorite foods come from, like bread, and organic produce, and chocolate. It's really more a story of looking for locally sourced, organic, and artisnal foods, but this isn't really a book about food politics either. I'm at something of a loss to say what this book is, because at the end of it, it seems like there isn't much there. The "freedom" that Macy's title alludes to comes from doing yoga and committing to portion control. The language of the book made me question just how "free" this awakening had made the author. She writes about food with a sense of near-lust. Obsession seemed more accurate.

I think the thing that bothered me most throughout the book is that there's little acknowledgement on the part of the author about how closely her food and yoga choices are tied into class privilege. There's a sense throughout the book that her "self-discovery" is broadly available. Macy is eating expensive and fine foods. She travels to farms, ranches, and food production facilities. Macy consults with leading yoga masters. She can wake up at 4 in the morning to do extensive yoga poses, a luxury well beyond many with long days at physically demanding jobs. While there is one chapter in which Macy recounts her experience volunteering at a soup kitchen, and how the experience fostered her gratitude, there's a real tone of pity and disgust for the sorts of foods that many people eat. Most of us can't spend a year on a journey of self-discovery, some recognition of that would have made a difference.… (mehr)

Macy takes us on a wonderful journey regarding her fight to control her inner cravings with food.

Delightful and easy to read, she also adds one of her cherished recipes at the end of each chapter.

It isn't an easy journey Macy goes through, but the emotional transformation seems well worth the trip! I found myself nodding "Yes, I know eactly how that feels!' on more than one occasion as she stumbles, falls, and picks herself up throughout her discoveries!

I definitely give this book Five Stars, and my Thumbs Up Award!

****DISCLOSURE: This book was provided by Amazon Vine Program in exchange for a non-biased review. All comments as listed above are my own.… (mehr)