Stick Figure Muffins
Everyone loves muffins.
Big, plump, warm muffins from the oven…
Oozing with rivers of warm berry juice, crumbles of sugary goodness clinging to your fingers and lips…
It’s really hard not to love a muffin.
But for the girl in Lori Gottlieb’s book, Stick Figure: A Diary of my Former Self, it’s not only hard to love a muffin, it’s hard to eat one.
It’s not just hard. It’s impossible.
Based on her own struggles with anorexia and her actual journal entries from her teen years, Gottlieb crafts a book that’s both funny and heartbreaking through an 11-year-old’s honest eyes. In the book, Lori questions why her mother never finishes her dinner and recruits her husband and son to eat it (never her daughter) yet shoves cookies in her mouth over the sink at midnight in the dark. Trapped in a 1970s Beverely Hills where girls go on diets before they get their periods, Lori slowly seeps into anorexia with a startling, yet twisted logic: Every woman she knows is on a diet, therefore, to be a woman, she must diet like the women in her life do.
Although anorexia and eating disorders is not a funny subject, Gottlieb uses hope and sarcasm to make Stick Figure both educational and enjoyable, rather than a harsh examination of an anorexic teen girl. Readers will love Lori’s acceptance of herself and her weight at the end, especially when she finds a surrogate mother in a nurse at the institution she’s placed in for treatment.
Just make sure you read it with a batch of these muffins.
And eat an extra one, just for Lori.
Printable version here (and at the bottom of the post! Click the printer!)
2 cups flour
3/4 cup cup sugar
1 tbslspn brown sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup large fresh blueberries (or mixed berries)
1 cup milk
1/3 cup oil
1 egg, slightly beaten
sugar for garnish
In a large bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt. Stir in blueberries (washed). Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine milk, oil, egg and beat with a fork to mix in separate bowl. Make a well n the center of the flour-blueberry mixture. Pour in the milk mixture all at once in center. Stir quickly with fork until dry ingredients are moistened. Batter will be slightly lumpy, don’t overmix! Spoon batter into greased muffin pan. Sprinkle tops lightly with sugar. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Yields 12 muffins.
Stay tuned, Invisible Friends! We have the end of the Butterfly Dress tomorrow–along with the winner of the giveaway! Stay tuned!
July 28th, 2011 at 2:39 am
What a great title for the book.
July 28th, 2011 at 3:39 am
I love your book reviews! Tell me more while I gobble one of those delicious goodies
*kisses* HH
July 28th, 2011 at 4:17 am
Fantastic post and review.
July 28th, 2011 at 4:31 am
Frightening in one so young. 11 is still childhood!
Good review!
July 28th, 2011 at 4:38 am
Sounds like a really informative book, thanks for sharing it with us. Your muffins look incredible!
July 28th, 2011 at 4:54 am
That book sounds really interesting. Frightens me how her mothers actions so obviously impact her self confidence and thoughts. The muffins look perfect. I love how fruit explodes out of baked goods
July 28th, 2011 at 5:13 am
Yummy post, darling!
xoxox,
CC
July 28th, 2011 at 5:17 am
I am putting this book on my list of must-reads right now – it sounds like such an interesting read.
July 28th, 2011 at 5:36 am
Your muffins sounds delicious and I love the perfect dome they have formed. I’d love one or two of these with my coffee this morning. I hope you have a great day. Blessings…Mary
July 28th, 2011 at 5:58 am
I love food and book reviews. Pass me a muffin, please and thank you?
July 28th, 2011 at 6:15 am
Yum, yum, yum! I love muffins!
July 28th, 2011 at 6:35 am
Just one?
July 28th, 2011 at 6:41 am
I love muffins and good books.
July 28th, 2011 at 7:36 am
Yay for good books and MUFFINS!
July 28th, 2011 at 8:07 am
Good looking problem. anorexia is something I’ve never had to be concerned about, cause….I luv eating…too much
July 28th, 2011 at 8:26 am
I’m with Ramona…not something I remotely understand. But it does sound like an interesting book.
July 28th, 2011 at 8:26 am
The book sounds like it could help a lot of young girls who struggle with low self esteem and eating disorders. The muffin recipe sounds great!
July 28th, 2011 at 9:16 am
Waaaah. My eyes bulged out of their sockets with the first picture, then I read the synopsis for the book and now I can’t even swallow my saliva! *sigh* So, so true about women always being on a diet – my aunt’s are ALWAYS on a diet. I hope we can stop the insanity! Now I’m curious to read the book. But I have to see what would be better for my mental state – book on anorexia or eating a tin of muffins? Decisions, decisions…
July 28th, 2011 at 9:25 am
I just found your blog and am so glad I did. My sister has struggled with anorexia, so I’ll have to check out this book. Thanks for the recommendation!
July 28th, 2011 at 9:43 am
Anorexia is a sad subject indeed.
Your muffins look super!
July 28th, 2011 at 9:43 am
Those muffins look delish! The book sounds like a pretty good read, I will definitely add it to my TBR. Thanks for the recipe and review!
July 28th, 2011 at 12:11 pm
First these look insanely delicious. Thank you for the recipe. Berry muffins are my FAVE!!
Second, the book sounds so sad and yet like a good read as well. Definitely adding this to my book list.
Third, I cannot believe one of my dream gowns was your wedding gown!! How cool is that?!
I think this means we’re bffs now! Hehe.
July 28th, 2011 at 12:18 pm
The muffins look amazing!! I love your reviews!! sounds nice! gloria
July 28th, 2011 at 1:01 pm
You know I always bake mini muffins, right? Then my guys can eat 6 or 8 or 10, and I can eat 2 or 3 without worry! It’s always more fun that way.
And in the 1970s, everyone was on a diet, not just in Beverly Hills.
July 28th, 2011 at 1:09 pm
Thanks much!
July 28th, 2011 at 1:27 pm
This looks like a really great book for the summer–thanks for the reading recommendation. I also love the way it’s approached, from the point of view of a 11-year-old pouring her heart out into her diary.
July 28th, 2011 at 1:33 pm
Such a cute book! And great looking muffins too!
July 28th, 2011 at 2:13 pm
I definitely would love a berry muffin just like these, oozing with a river of juice – yum!
July 28th, 2011 at 4:00 pm
they look perfect for breakfast!
July 28th, 2011 at 4:30 pm
Haha, must be muffin day
I want to read this book, thanks for the review!
July 28th, 2011 at 6:36 pm
I haven’t heard of this book, but you really make me want to read it! And those muffins really do look amazing. Yummy!
July 28th, 2011 at 10:07 pm
Oh, these muffins look delicious. Right now, we can pick our own berries for muffins…
What a lovely idea to create a book for Norway… Most people affected are around 15-16 yrs old, so not sure what you had in mind?
July 29th, 2011 at 2:49 pm
Sounds like a great book. food is such a complicated topic for many isn’t it!
July 29th, 2011 at 5:18 pm
Your muffins look yummy,Duckie! The books sounds good too.
Have a nice day!
July 30th, 2011 at 7:27 am
Sounds like a very powerful story. The muffins are scrumptious!
July 30th, 2011 at 11:41 am
Yum! I just made blueberry muffins for breakfast today
July 31st, 2011 at 7:04 pm
Sounds like an interesting book and beautiful muffins!
August 1st, 2011 at 12:05 am
that looks like a book that needed to be written! as for me, i love muffins and such so much that i’ll never need to worry about stick figures…
August 1st, 2011 at 3:57 am
Such an important topic. So nice to be able to look at it with humor but it is a huge crisis, glad you’re all bringing attention to it.
Lots of yummy love,
Alex aka Ma What’s For Dinner
http://www.mawhats4dinner.com
August 1st, 2011 at 7:40 am
I’m half tempted to run to the store and pick up the ingredients for those right now!
August 1st, 2011 at 10:19 am
Wow. I need to read this. I worry about girls these days and the intense pressure to be thin. Thank you for the wonderful synopsis of the book. Very powerful indeed.
August 1st, 2011 at 2:17 pm
wow, sounds like a really compelling book. i’m definitely adding it to my to-read list! + those muffins look heavenly, too. =)