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Born Round
- Narrated by: Frank Bruni
- Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
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Editorial reviews
Frank Bruni, restaurant critic for The New York Times, loves food. But he also hates food, as it represents the root of his lifelong struggle with weight. And therein lies the dilemma. The delightfully funny and provocative memoir Born Round chronicles Bruni's relationship with food from infancy to adulthood, when he scored the renowned position at the Times. Born into an Italian family where eating was a major and constant event, Bruni can't recall a time when he wasn't worried about his appearance. From embarking on the Atkins diet with his mother at age 8 so he wouldn't be the chubby kid at school, to trying his hand at bulimia and the abuse of Ex-lax and Metamucil in college, Bruni recounts the numerous years of yo-yo dieting with absolute clarity and intimate detail.
Anyone who's ever had a few (or more) pounds to lose can relate to Bruni the author, but even more so because his voice as the narrator is so familiar. You feel as if a good friend is telling you his story and you're dying to hear more. Bruni's memoir is so honest and bare, it's hard to imagine anyone else narrating it. When Bruni recalls Thanksgiving memories with his family or his grandmother's favorite quote "Born round, you don't die square." his tone paints the picture of warmth and love.
No detail is too intimate, as Bruni illustrates his trials with dating (in one instance he keeps putting off a first date with a man he is very interested in, because he needs at least a week to lose five pounds before he is presentable), but his sense of humor keeps the narrative from being too heavy or depressing. Is Bruni the confident, aggressive, take-no-prisoners journalist that you would picture the infamous restaurant critic of The New York Times to be? No. He's a self-deprecating, insecure, sometimes-chubby-sometimes-not guy. And you love him all the more for it. Colleen Oakley
Publisher's summary
Frank Bruni was born round, round as in stout, chubby, and hungry, always and endlessly hungry. He grew up in a big, loud Italian family in White Plains, New York, where meals were epic, outsize affairs. At those meals, he demonstrated one of his foremost qualifications for his future career: an epic, outsize love of food. But Bruni's relationship with eating was tricky, and his difficulties with managing it began early. When Bruni was named the restaurant critic for The New York Times in 2004, he knew enough to be nervous.
The restaurant critic at the Times performs one of the most closely watched tasks in the epicurean universe; a bumpy ride was certain, especially for someone who had never written about food, someone who for years had been busy writing about politics, presidential campaigns, and the pope. What qualified him to be one of the most loved and hated tastemakers in the New York food world? Did his decades-long obsession with food suffice?
Food was his friend and enemy both, something he craved but feared, and his new-job jitters focused primarily on whether he'd finally made some sense of that relationship .In this coveted job, he'd face down his enemy at meal after indulgent meal. As his grandmother often put it, "Born round, you don't die square." Would he fall back into his old habits or could he establish a truce with the food on his plate?
Born Round traces the highly unusual path Bruni traveled to become a restaurant critic; it is the captivating account of an unpredictable journalistic ride from an intern's desk at Newsweek to a dream job at The New York Times, as well as the brutally honest story of Bruni's lifelong, often painful, struggle with food.
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Greta Gleissner, a longtime professional dancer, dreamed her whole life of becoming a Rockette. Then she became one and she fell into the grips of a powerful eating disorder that began poison her life from the inside out. Something Spectacular is Gleissner's raw, personal chronicle of the devastating effects bulimia exacts upon her life during her time as a Rockette. As her disorder takes over, she begins to lead a dual life: happy-go-lucky on the outside; tortured by obsessive, self-destructive voices on the inside
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A Good Memoir, Badly Narrated
- By NNN on 10-09-17
By: Greta Gleissner
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Always Too Much and Never Enough
- By: Jasmin Singer
- Narrated by: Jasmin Singer
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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From the extra pounds and bullies that left her eating lunch alone at school to the low self-esteem that left her both physically and emotionally vulnerable to abuse, Jasmin Singer's weight defined her life. Even after she embraced a vegan lifestyle and a passion for animal rights advocacy, she defied any skinny vegan stereotypes by getting heavier. It was only after she committed to juice fasts and a diet of whole foods that she lost almost a hundred pounds and realized what it means to be truly full.
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Touching and inspirational
- By Daniel on 02-19-16
By: Jasmin Singer
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Housebroken
- Admissions of an Untidy Life
- By: Laurie Notaro
- Narrated by: Laurie Notaro
- Length: 6 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Number-one New York Times best-selling author Laurie Notaro isn't exactly a domestic goddess - unless that means she fully embraces her genetic hoarding predisposition, sneaks peeks at her husband's daily journal, or has made a list of the people she wants on her Apocalypse Survival team (her husband's not on it). Notaro chronicles her chronic misfortune in the domestic arts, including cooking, cleaning, and putting on Spanx while sweaty (which should technically qualify as an Olympic sport).
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Wonderful
- By Carlie on 07-28-16
By: Laurie Notaro
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An Apple a Day
- A Memoir of Love and Recovery from Anorexia
- By: Emma Woolf
- Narrated by: Emma Woolf
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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I haven't tasted chocolate for over ten years and now I'm walking down the street unwrapping a Kit Kat. Remember when Kate Moss said, 'Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels'? She's wrong: chocolate does. At the age of 32, after ten years of hiding from the truth, Emma Woolf finally decided it was time to face the biggest challenge of her life. Addicted to hunger, exercise and control, she was juggling a full-blown eating disorder with a successful career, functioning on an apple a day.
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A memoir of a silver spoon, maybe.
- By S. covely on 06-05-16
By: Emma Woolf
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Goodbye, Vitamin
- A Novel
- By: Rachel Khong
- Narrated by: Therese Plummer
- Length: 4 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Freshly disengaged from her fiancé and feeling that life has not turned out quite the way she planned, 30-year-old Ruth quits her job, leaves town, and arrives at her parents' home to find that situation more complicated than she'd realized. Her father, a prominent history professor, is losing his memory and is only erratically lucid. Ruth's mother, meanwhile, is lucidly erratic.
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Hello Sweet Sweet Book
- By Syd Young on 08-06-17
By: Rachel Khong
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Out of Line
- A Life of Playing with Fire
- By: Barbara Lynch
- Narrated by: Christina Delaine
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Out of Line describes Lynch's remarkable process of self-invention, including her encounters with colorful characters of the food world, and vividly evokes the magic of creation in the kitchen. It is also a love letter to South Boston and its vanishing culture, governed by Irish Catholic mothers and its own code of honor. Through her story, Lynch explores how the past - both what we strive to escape from and what we remain true to - can strengthen and expand who we are.
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Hardheaded, arrogant, profane.
- By Minneapolis listener on 10-26-22
By: Barbara Lynch
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Nickel and Dimed
- On (Not) Getting By in America
- By: Barbara Ehrenreich
- Narrated by: Cristine McMurdo-Wallis
- Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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This engrossing piece of undercover reportage has been a fixture on the New York Times best seller list since its publication. With nearly a million copies in print, Nickel and Dimed is a modern classic that deftly portrays the plight of America's working-class poor.
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Good concept, but poor execution.
- By Marco Forcone on 08-24-04
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I Hate Everyone, Except You
- By: Clinton Kelly
- Narrated by: Clinton Kelly
- Length: 4 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Clinton Kelly is probably best known for teaching women how to make their butts look smaller. But in I Hate Everyone, Except You, he reveals some heretofore unknown secrets about himself, like that he's a finicky connoisseur of 1980s pornography, a disillusioned critic of New Jersey's premier water parks, and perhaps the world's least enthused high school commencement speaker.
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Filthy language overshadowed stories
- By Doris on 04-29-17
By: Clinton Kelly
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Laughing Without an Accent
- Adventures of an Iranian American, at Home and Abroad
- By: Firoozeh Dumas
- Narrated by: Firoozeh Dumas
- Length: 5 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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In the best-selling memoir Funny in Farsi, Firoozeh Dumas recounted her adventures growing up Iranian American in Southern California. Now she again mines her rich Persian heritage in Laughing Without an Accent, sharing stories both tender and humorous on being a citizen of the world, on her well-meaning family, and on amusing cultural conundrums, all told with insights into the universality of the human condition. (Hint: It may have to do with brushing and flossing daily.)
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Sigh
- By Sara on 01-29-14
By: Firoozeh Dumas
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My Planet
- Finding Humor in the Oddest Places
- By: Mary Roach
- Narrated by: Angela Dawe
- Length: 4 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Follow New York Times best-selling author Mary Roach - but be careful not to trip - as she weaves through personal anecdotes and everyday musings riddled with her uncanny wit and amazingly analytical eye. These essays, which found a well-deserved home within the pages of Reader's Digest as the column "My Planet," detail the inner workings of hypochondriacs, hoarders, and compulsive cheapskates. (Did we mention neurotic interior designers and professional list makers?) For Roach, humor is hidden in the most unlikely places, which means that nothing is off limits.
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Narrator drove me crazy
- By Ann on 04-23-14
By: Mary Roach
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Everything Is Awful
- And Other Observations
- By: Matt Bellassai
- Narrated by: Matt Bellassai
- Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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From the break-out star of BuzzFeed and the People's Choice Award-winning comedian comes a collection of hilariously anguished essays chronicling awful moments from his life so far, the humiliations of being an adult, and other little indignities. Matt Bellassai has no idea what he's doing. Well, to be fair, he did become semi-Internet famous by getting drunk at work, making him a socially-acceptable - nay - professional alcoholic. He's got some things figured out. But the rest is all just a terrible, disgusting mess.
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Best Audio Book I’ve heard ever.
- By M on 11-23-17
By: Matt Bellassai
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Property
- Stories Between Two Novellas
- By: Lionel Shriver
- Narrated by: Lionel Shriver
- Length: 14 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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A striking new collection of ten short stories and two novellas that explores the idea of property in every meaning of the word, from the acclaimed New York Times best-selling author of the National Book Award finalist So Much for That and the international best seller We Need to Talk About Kevin.
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Painful and drawn out
- By JR on 06-27-18
By: Lionel Shriver
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Notes on a Banana
- A Memoir of Food, Love, and Manic Depression
- By: David Leite
- Narrated by: David Leite
- Length: 11 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Reminiscing about the people and events that shaped him, David looks back at the highs and lows of his life, from his rejection of being gay and his attempt to "turn straight" through Aesthetic Realism, a cult in downtown Manhattan, to becoming a writer, cookbook author, and web publisher, to his 23-year relationship with Alan, known to millions of David's readers and listeners as "The One", which began with (what else?) food.
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Finished it in a day!
- By Kathryn on 08-23-17
By: David Leite
What listeners say about Born Round
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Leah Holbrook
- 09-12-22
Inspiring
Frank Brunni is a great storyteller. He is also brave to so freely tell us about his life - with all its accolades and shortcomings. Loved it. Thank you.
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- K. Welch
- 04-13-23
I loved listening to this book!
I loved listening to this book! What wonderful stories—touching, funny, engaging. Bruni’s way with words made this an especially addictive read. If you like his NYT newsletter, you’ll love this book.
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Overall
- loix
- 09-15-09
Has it all
People who have any experience w/ addiction are sure to enjoy and draw valuable lessons from this book, even if they don't love food. But for a food addict like myself, this seems to have it all: food virtually brought to life (food porn in words, which can be just as good as the real thing w/o the calories), dead-on descriptions of the rationalizing that precedes the binges and the guilt, regrets and dejection that follow, the sometimes unpredictable relapses, etc. I plan to go back to this book every time I can feel one of these last looming.
The book wasn't simply instructive or drool-inducing, though. It's worth a read (or listen) based on the merit of its prose alone. I also enjoyed the other parts even if their focus was not on food, such as the loving descriptions of the author's family, esp. of the two most important people (women) in his life, and his interesting "run-in" with one of America's most influential restauranteurs. Many parts had me in stitches, and passers-by who failed to notice my earphones must have thought me crazy.
The narration was just as good as that by professional readers and less nasal/annoying/exaggerated than some very popular ones. It was also unabridged, which seems to become more and more of a rarity w/ books narrated by authors (Ted Sorensen's autobiography was almost alone in this category until Born Round came along).
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17 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 09-15-22
Eating disorder- no recovery
Typical compulsive eating history but no recovery. Overeaters Anonymous is one solution. Could try that!
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1 person found this helpful
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- phloxicona
- 01-01-23
Interesting if not a bit long
A long tale of two lifestyles that almost lost my interest. A great New Year book tho
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- Tom
- 06-14-23
Wonderful story teller
Loved his descriptions of food and people. As a man who has struggled with weight all my life it was affirming, funny, horrifying and delightful. Such an interesting life well lived.
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- Catharine C.
- 09-24-20
Boldly honest and insightful
As someone who has similar mental and physical struggles surrounding food to what Frank describes in this book, I appreciated his candor in this memoir. He was brutally honest and self-exposing, and drives the point home that honesty is the key to success with yourself. This was so well-written and intriguing and I enjoyed listening to all of his stories, family dynamics, and travels. I cannot recommend this enough!
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Overall
- john O. Phillips
- 11-27-09
A Wonderful Read
This is clearly an unusual take on someone who has an unhealthy relationship with food but makes the choice to confront this behavior in a professional context. However, more telling is the degree of rationalization to justify self-destructive habits to the detriment of self-esteem and personal relationships. Clearly, a high level of intelligence is no match for an addiction which cuts to the emotional core. I applaud his journey and became involved in his struggle. At the same time ego (not meant in a derogatory way) probably kept him away from the professional psychological support that may have brought some self-awareness to this life-long process. I'm pulling for him.
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- B Hart
- 09-22-14
What a disappointment!
What did you like best about Born Round? What did you like least?
When, after 15 chapters, he finally become a restaurant critic. Unless you're someone who's struggled with eating disorders, this book is not for you! Most of the book is about his binging, purging, dieting unsuccessfully, poor self image, etc. after several chapters on this I fast forwarded it many times.
What do you think your next listen will be?
I'm already listening to two other books, so I'm just trying to get through the rest of this.
What does Frank Bruni bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
His personal story.
Did Born Round inspire you to do anything?
Yes, to read another book. I wish I had returned this early on and made a wiser choice.
Any additional comments?
I have no idea how this receives such great ratings from Amazon! There must be plenty of people who can relate to this story and if it helps them, great. Ruth Reichl and Craig Claiborne he isn't!
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- Glitterific
- 04-22-16
Not for foodies... For humans
Bruni takes the listener on the grand tour of his life. From his childhood and coming of age in a food-centered Italian family to his starting out in his career and various posts he held through his mid-40's. Much of this is a poignant story of a young man with disordered eating and various coping mechanisms to limit its physical effects- diuretics, laxatives, purging and more. There are few stories of this type from men and Born Round is extremely valuable for that alone, but Bruni's story is a universal, relatable, and he charms the listener with his confessional style. I want him to be my new BFF.
The intersection of his eating/exercise habits and his life's journey thus far is a fascinating one. It has many light moments, some very sad ones, and one that made me sit down and weep, a big, ugly cry with tears streaming down my face as I listened to him narrate what must have been the worst day of his life. (No spoilers)
I recently saw Bruni give a talk at Temple University where he told a few of these stories (prompting this purchase) and they were equally well delivered in person and in this audiobook. Bruni will not disappoint.
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1 person found this helpful