Lynn Ruth Miller

Starving Hearts Buy this book!

by Lynn Ruth Miller, 2000

STARVING HEARTS, Lynn Ruth Miller’s first novel, is an autobiographical novel of life in the fifties and her successful struggle with anorexia and bulimia. It was published May, 2000 and its second edition was released January, 2001
Starving Hearts won ninth place in the National Writer's Club competition under its original title THE STRUGGLE and has the imprimatur of ANRED (Anorexia Nervosa & Related Eating Disorders). The story paints a vivid picture of the irreparable wounds of verbal abuse and the immense price that children pay when parents use them as weapons to cope with their own disappointment in life. The story also reflects the values and pressures of Jewish family life in the 1950s. Its appeal however transcends its ethnic and generational setting. It is every daughter's story with a tragic twist and speaks to anyone who feels guilt from perceived inferiority created by an abusive parent.

Reviews of "Starving Hearts"

“STARVING HEARTS is a stunning portrait of the 1950’s, the girls going for the MRS. Degree; feeling like failures if all college has prepared them for is a teaching degree. And the concept of the mother who only loves her daughter while the daughter eats, fixing all these amazing foods, while Susan alternates between anorexia and bulimia, it’s a perfect vehicle. Good work!”

Rochelle Ratner, Editor,
Bearing Life and American Book Review

“Although a serious and topical story, the author has brought her trademark humor to STARVING HEARTS, making it inspirational and enlightening.“
Chris Hunter, Editor & Publisher,
The Pacifica Tribune

“A moving, evocative narrative.”
Phyllis Deutsch, Editor,
University Press of New England

“Out of one woman’s pain has come a compelling and well-written novel that touches the soul. I am certain that it will find a devoted and large audience. A stunning accomplishment!”
Marsha Lee Berkman, Editor,
Here I Am, The Jewish Publication Society

“I've started reading STARVING HEARTS and think it is very good. It's certainly very good writing and the subject should be of great interest to women.”
Sarah Anne Walz, Marketing Manager,
University of Iowa Press

“STARVING HEARTS explores the complex relationship between food, love, body image and identity. It describes in great depth the painful cycle of eating disorders in which the obsession with food and the drive for thinness attempt to drown out the raging and destructive critical voices within.”
Carol Normandi, Co-Author,
“It’s Not About Food”

“A moving and passionate account of solitude and a life at the edge of time and human affection. STARVING HEARTS is written from the heart of a woman always alone.”
Marjorie Agosin,
Wellesley College, Department of Spanish
Author of “Uncertain Travelers”, “The Alphabet In My Hands”, “A Cross and a Star”, et al.”

“What a book! Great ending. The overarching theme of women's constricted options in the 50's really comes across. I was very moved by the novel. So moved I was immobile, actually, another one of those ironies. We lack good published first-person feminist narratives of the Fifties. You'd be filling an important void.”
Michael McGuire,
Author, Educator

“STARVING HEARTS by Lynn Ruth Miller leads the reader through a poignant, personal journey through the hell that underlies and runs eating disorders. This journey is filled with the aching despair that manifests in anorexic and bulimic symptoms from which the main character suffers. This particular telling is exquisitely layered, with brief moments of perspective and compassion lessening the searing pain of the main character’s anguish . . . The book offers the hope that the pit of despair may prove the entryway into the beginning of the recovery process.”
Deborah Brenner-Liss, Ph.D. Director,
Association of Professionals Treating Eating Disorders

“I just closed the cover on "Starving Hearts" and I want to congratulate you on having written a wonderful memoir. There are so many things to say about the book, what comes out to me as a reader, is that the entrapped women of the 1940's/1950's are so essentially voiceless. Quite frankly, it sounds like an absolutely horrible time to have been a woman in America, so limiting and constricting, so much pressure to conform to only one ideal of womanhood. You lived through
it, you survived it, and you are able to tell the incredible tale. I don't think I've ever read any memoirs about women in the 1940's/1950's quite as insightful as yours.”
Dr. Adam Strassberg,
Stanford University Hospital, Dept. of Psychiatry

"An excellent tool for professionals to recommend to patients who are struggling with eating disorders. A sugar pill of a novel with an important mental health message."
Emily Rosen,
Freelance Writer/Columnist, Boca Raton FL

“STARVING HEARTS is a damn good book. It captures the color, jargon and flavor of the fifties. The author has successfully lured us into her world of cuisine, the diet/overeating cycle of anorexia and bulimia and the pain that creates it. The novel is a good read, inspirational and a gutsy overview of the fifties.”
Anna Booth, Feature Writer, Teacher and Reviewer

“STARVING HEARTS is a beautifully written, deeply felt exploration about living through and overcoming emotional abuse and bulimia. Although this book would be of value to anyone struggling with an eating disorder, I would recommend that anyone who is interested in a compelling story should definitely read STARVING HEARTS.”
Susan Bishop, RN BSN CCHT,
Mind Over Matter

“This novel is a blow-by-blow account of the horrors of anorexia and bulimia… The book serves as a wake up call to parents and reminds them to be mindful of the words, tone of voice and body stance that they use when talking with children and the possible deleterious effects on the children’s perceptions of themselves and their world.”
Esther Kletter
Book Reviewer & Educator, Sunnyvale, CA

“I really enjoyed your book. Actually, it was like reading my own life story. STARVING HEARTS had great humor in parts even though it was a true story, your true story. The story is so much like my life that I had to laugh at certain parts.”
Debby Hester
Special Education, Redwood City, CA

From the Fans...

“Starving Hearts is godsend for anyone who has ever had to deal with anorexia or bulimia, but it’s a wonderful, inspiring read for those of us who just grew up in families that functioned painfully with unresolved issues.”
Virginia Howard
Atlanta, GA

“I read your book STARVING HEARTS and it brought me to tears many times.”
Beverly Storie
Oshawa, Ontario

“I needed time to properly digest your remarkable book. I hope you are able to ‘spread the gospel’ of STARVING HEARTS. It is so well written, it deserves a wide audience (first rate cover design, too). Your pictorial use of language is really impressive and the story line often heart rending.”
Eric Beaumont, Merseyside, England

“The more I read STARVING HEARTS the less I could put the book down . . . Susan Talberg became a friend and her suffering became tangible to me . . . Lynn Ruth Miller’s writing is superb, it is smooth and it is fascinating.”
Gershon Evan,
Author of “Winds of Life”

“STARVING HEARTS was an excellent instructor and illustrator of eating problems. I can only hope that the right people read it and learn a lesson.”
Mart Hapke, Eden Prairie, MN

“I just read the section in STARVING HEARTS where Susie is about to be married….The psychology here is devastating. I have never read anything like it before. I wanted you to know how much it is impressing me. It carried me away so that I had to stay up late to finish it last night. It was particularly haunting for me, I think, as I felt I knew the family. This of course simply speaks for your brilliance as a writer, and many readers, I know, would feel the same way.”
Mark Fenton, Toronto, Canada

“Congratulations on your book. I read it in one sitting. I couldn’t put it down.”
Miriam Chaya, Filmmaker, Berkeley, CA.

“STARVING HEARTS is a powerful book! A brave job - - thank you for getting it out there!
Aletha Nowitsky.”
Ashland, Oregon

“You certainly painted a very powerful picture of one family destroyed by anorexia and bulimia. It has helped me to appreciate what a devastating thing anorexia can be. I am sure many other people have found their understanding of the condition expanded by reading it.”
Columba Corbett, Co. Galway, Ireland

“A page turner, STARVING HEARTS by Lynn Ruth Miller is the portrayal of a girl growing up verbally abused, trying to cope in the only way she knows how. I couldn’t set this book down.”
Patrician Evans
Evans Interpersonal Communications Institute

“I thought STARVING HEARTS was very effective – sometimes to the point of being harrowing. The use of detail is very telling. It’s not just that Susan is eating everything in sight; it’s that she’s eating the kinds of food that were symbolic of middle-class fifties prosperity - women’s magazine cooking. People who are nostalgic for the fifties don’t remember what it was really like; how restricted the social roles were; what a traitor you were if you didn’t want the things your parents could provide you that they couldn’t afford as children.”
Ann Singer, Librarian,
Lerhaus Judaica

“Just finished reading your book STARVING HEARTS and I wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed it. It wasn't easy reading though as I knew it was based on fact. Brought me to tears on more than one occasion.”
Linda Klein, Bookstore Acquisition Critic, San Carlos, CA

“STARVING HEARTS is a great book! This deserves to be a national book. It reads very well, and it feels to me like real life.”
Joan Pasch
Poet

“Your book is one that i will truly treasure and hold dear for years to come.”
Lori

“You are an amazing woman and a great role model for how life should be lived! I think it's wonderful that you've found your voice and expression through words.”
Julie Ocano, Livermore, CA

“STARVING HEARTS raises issues on a topic of great relevance to society today. I found your discussion enlightening, particularly in the way you showed how dysfunctional family dynamics and using food as a reward/controlling mechanism can be a significant cause of eating disorders.”
David Chard
Community Relations Manager, Barnes and Noble, Colma, CA

“We could not tear ourselves away from it. This is one of the best written and touching books we have ever had the pleasure of reading.”
Michael Fein, Montreal Canada

Check out all of Lynn Ruth Miller's Books:
Thoughts While Walking the Dog	Starving Hearts	The Late Bloomer	More Thoughts While Walking the Dog	Thoughts and More Thoughts (Audio book)