Got this to read to my children who love horses. It was very well written. They really enjoyed it. Definitely worth a read

This was a really interesting memoir, one that I hadnt heard of before Netgalley so thank you for giving me the opportunity to find new authours and voices

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55592918-stable-weight

Formatting issues, which I tried to ignore while reading.

Lisa Whalen suffered from depression and an eating disorder until she sought professional help. Writing this book became part of the healing process and her love for horses helped her recognise similarities between their behaviour and her own struggles. I don’t have a disorder but reading her story has made me reflect on my own life, personality and behaviours in certain situations.
As a horse lover/owner I know how powerful the relationship between horse and rider/handler can be. It is an area where you never stop learning and every horse is different. Also every rider knows what it’s like to fall and the physical/mental side effects which go with it.
I agree with Lisa’s comment “if that riding had taught me anything, it was how dangerous rigid expectations could be. I’d accept today’s gift and be grateful”. This is something we all need to be reminded of in or outside of horses.
I was interested to learn about Freytag’s Pyramid and it prompted me to research more information.
This great read was well written, interesting, honest and should be enjoyed by a wide variety of readers. I hope they enjoy it as much as I did!
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free prepublication advanced review digital copy of this book in return for an honest review.

A beautifully written and put together memoir. It chronicles the author’s recovery from an eating disorder and how horses helped her to heal. The writing was stunning and pulled the story together. The author was brutally honest, no stone left unturned, so we get a real eye-opening account of her life and illness. Although tough to read in parts, it was inspiring, showing how with the help of a therapist and horses they were able to bring themselves back from the brink. Thank you to Netgalley, publisher and author for a chance to read and review this book!

I thought this was a brave, insightful and beautifully crafted memoir.

The story of the author's life and the insight she has gained through therapy and her interactions with the horses at her riding lessons are spun together like an intricate spider web. Each chapter, centered around a lesson learned from a particular horse, stands alone as a wedge of the web, but the work as a whole is woven together with a few continuous threads that bring the piece full circle.

The descriptive language used in this book is exquisite. The author is an artist and her words are her paint brush. She is able to paint a vivid image of the characters, both human and animal, the locations and the raw emotions she experienced. As a reader I felt like I got to know each character and was able to put myself in the author's shoes to see through her eyes and feel what she felt.

I found the author's self-awareness and the candid way she writes about her self-descovery inspirational. I could see this book being beneficial for anyone who has ever struggled with anxiety, depression and/or an eating disorder. In sharing her experience and insight, the author gives anyone going through similar struggles the same reassuring message given to her by her dad over the phone while she was in the psychiatric ward: "I just want to tell you that I get it. I know what it's like. I've been through it, and you'll get through it, too. You’ll be ok.”

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me a digital copy in exchange for an honest review. My overall rating of this book is a 3/5. As an equestrian I appreciated the authors description of the horses that impacted her journey and the connections with them. This is definitely an emotional read that is raw and honest. Unfortunately, I found the writing to be a bit awkward at times and found myself getting a bit lost. This is due to a lot of info dumping and tangents that took away from the main story.

Going into this memoir, I didn't realize that the author lived on the border of Wisconsin and Minnesota, right where I currently live and work. Even if I didn't know the area Whalen wrote about, I would need little imagination to see it in my mind, as she wonderfully describes the locations, her experiences, and the amazing horses with which she creates a bond.

Perhaps this book hit me harder as I have suffered from several of the same things Whalen has, but this memoir makes sure that the reader knows they are not alone and that they can get through the struggles they are currently facing. Readers from many different backgrounds can find something within Whalen's writing to relate to, whether it be the obsession with perfection, the effects of anxiety and depression, the struggles of an eating disorder, the joy of bonding with a horse, or simply a love of reading good memoirs.

I've mixed feelings about this and I feel that I maybe wanted to like it more than I did.
It's a very honest memoir and tackles the eating disorder well , looking at the emotional and social issues tied to an eating disorder as well as the physical . Each chapter focuses on a lesson learned from a horse and for me it was just too technical and descriptive in parts and started to skim read over certain chapters. Some may find it too boring to invest in and I think you need to have either experience of an eating disorder or of horses to find it an enjoyable read .

I was excited to read this memoir, yet found myself struggling to continue to the end.
I loved the author’s honesty. I loathed the recurring over-explanations, as well as how far and often the writing strayed. I was dying to grab a red pen and edit. When on target, the book is absorbing. This would be an enjoyable, intense read if it lost all if the unnecessary detours.

In Stable Weight, Lisa Whalen weaves her past trauma, childhood experiences, and her eating disorder with her horseback riding lessons and the horses she's learned from in the process.

Equestrian readers will surely relate to the different vignettes that detail her successes and failures in riding as well as the different personalities she encounters with the horses. As a reader with close to zero experiences with horses, I didn't find these stories too difficult to follow. Certain passages that delved into technical detail did lose me in places.

Ultimately, I was left unsettled at the end of this memoir. I understood the connections she was making between her past and her present (often the transitions were just spelled out for the reader, when the reader would be able to see the common thread). However, the reader doesn't really end with an understanding of where the author is now. Her eating disorder recovery seems unfinished, the big events teased at the start of the story end up being relatively small, in the grand scheme of things.

Meh! I wanted to like this one but the writing felt so stiff that I could not get into the story. The main subject line was of interest to me, but it kind of got lost among all the words on the page that dragged the storyline way down.

I downloaded this book to my laptop as a pdf. When there are double l's, the second l has been replaced with a blank. I sent a note to the publisher (with a clip with four instances of this problem circled in red across two pages). Their reply was basically that their version is fine. I've read about 1/6th of the book and this dropped l issue bugs the daylights out of me. Obviously I'm not reading the most ready for publication version of this book that is available; so I'm really not compelled to finish. I feel bad for giving up, but there are so many books. I tried to reach out to the publisher and it really didn't seem to work. Not sure how many stars I should provide, but going to go with 3. I will not be providing any review on social media. If i do happen to finish, i will provide a review on Goodreads and update my feedback. Best of luck.

Stable Weight is much more than a stroll down memory lane. It’s an intensely candid memoir chronicling the author’s journey of discovery and recovery from an eating disorder “with the help of a therapist and ten special horses.” The expansive, colorful narrative spans the author’s life from infancy on. It probes the social, cultural, psychological and other factors, both internal and external, that drove her “starve-binge-extremes” and the cycle of escape, comfort, and punishment related to food.

Well-written and structurally sound, the story is laid out in three basic parts: Falling, Impact, and On Course. The prose is candid and captivating as the author describes the “twin therapies” of riding and writing as she battles anorexia. Also the chasm between mind and body and how sitting down to eat “became a comfort – a break from physical, mental, and emotional stress.” How the longer she starved herself, “the more intricately tied eating became to relaxation and reassurance: a perfect recipe for developing an eating disorder.”

The author goes on to vividly describe how and why she lands in a Minnesota psych ward at age 29. (Keep an eye out for “B.C.” and “A.C.”)

Indeed, Stable Weight is a deep dive into the complex and varied physical, emotional, social and other factors tied to an eating disorder. The author carefully explains how exercising “will power” over eating and pride over how far she could push her body to go without fuel made her feel like self-discipline was “the first power I’d ever wielded.” And it was “intoxicating.” It also describes how “success” related to food and eating was almost always dangling just out of reach, or over the next French fry refused.

Skillfully interwoven throughout the text are lessons learned and shared with horses at Seventh Farm Riding School. Like how riding “centered in impatience and perfectionism prompted by riding reminded me that real growth happened one step in the sand at a time.” (Alert readers may note occasional echoes of Monty Roberts’ classic, The Man Who Listens to Horses.)

This book is illuminating and eye-opening. It’s honest and authentic. Reflective, insightful, and sensitive, the story neatly sidesteps canned answers and empty platitudes. The lyrical prose deftly chronicles “how jumbled pieces fit together in a life story whose plot I was desperate to gain control of so it would stop wreaking havoc.”

In terms of structure, chapters and paragraph transitions are as smooth as spun silk, flowing seamlessly between the author’s youth, growing up years, and present day. A fair amount of dialogue is included. But the bulk of this book is told via internal narrative.

Some readers may find the story occasionally strays off course into just Too. Much. Information. Additionally, detailed descriptions of riding technique, lessons and maneuvers, et.al., will captivate some readers. It may put others to sleep. It won't be everyone's cup of tea. But the “personal and professional gifts riding bestows” shine through the narrative like sunshine after a spring rain. Or a tranquil blue sky after a hurricane.

What a great book! I loved the raw honest way the story was told. The author was not afraid to show who she really was and what she had been through.

I received an advance copy of, Stable Weight by, Lisa Whalen. I really tried to get into this story, but I could not. Its an inspirational story, but I could not get into it.

I did not finish this book. It was purportedly about a woman's experience with horses as part of her recovery from a debilitating eating disorder. I did not find a compelling narrative about either the love of horses, her experience as a horsewoman, or her eating disorder. The story jumped around from era to era of her life and was disjointed.