We look forward to seeing you on your next visit to the library. Find a location near you.

Empty: A Memoir
(OverDrive MP3 Audiobook, OverDrive Listen)

Book Cover
Average Rating
5 star
 
(1)
4 star
 
(1)
3 star
 
(0)
2 star
 
(0)
1 star
 
(0)
Published:
Books on Tape 2020
Status:
Available from OverDrive
Description
An editor at This American Life reveals the searing story of the secret binge-eating that dominated her adolescence and shapes her still.

“Her tale of compulsion and healing is candid and powerful.”—People
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY MARIE CLAIRE
For almost thirty years, Susan Burton hid her obsession with food and the secret life of compulsive eating and starving that dominated her adolescence. This is the relentlessly honest, fiercely intelligent story of living with both anorexia and binge-eating disorder, moving past her shame, and learning to tell her secret.
 
When Burton was thirteen, her stable life in suburban Michigan was turned upside down by her parents’ abrupt divorce, and she moved to Colorado with her mother and sister. She seized on this move west as an adventure and an opportunity to reinvent herself from middle-school nerd to popular teenage girl. But in the fallout from her parents’ breakup, an inherited fixation on thinness went from “peculiarity to pathology.”
 
Susan entered into a painful cycle of anorexia and binge eating that formed a subterranean layer to her sunny life. She went from success to success—she went to Yale, scored a dream job at a magazine right out of college, and married her college boyfriend. But in college the compulsive eating got worse—she’d binge, swear it would be the last time, and then, hours later, do it again—and after she graduated she descended into anorexia, her attempt to “quit food.”
 
Binge eating is more prevalent than anorexia or bulimia, but there is less research and little storytelling to help us understand it. In tart, soulful prose Susan Burton strikes a blow for the importance of this kind of narrative and tells an exhilarating story of longing, compulsion and hard-earned self-revelation.
Also in This Series
Formats
OverDrive MP3 Audiobook
Works on MP3 Players, PCs, and Macs. Some mobile devices may require an application to be installed.
OverDrive Listen
Need Help?
If you are having problem transferring a title to your device, please fill out this support form or visit the library so we can help you to use our eBooks and eAudio Books.
More Like This
Other Editions and Formats
More Copies In LINK+
Loading LINK+ Copies...
More Details
Format:
OverDrive MP3 Audiobook, OverDrive Listen
Edition:
Unabridged
Street Date:
06/23/2020
Language:
English
ISBN:
9780553550924
Reviews from GoodReads
Loading GoodReads Reviews.
Citations
APA Citation (style guide)

Susan Burton. (2020). Empty: A Memoir. Unabridged Books on Tape.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)

Susan Burton. 2020. Empty: A Memoir. Books on Tape.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)

Susan Burton, Empty: A Memoir. Books on Tape, 2020.

MLA Citation (style guide)

Susan Burton. Empty: A Memoir. Unabridged Books on Tape, 2020.

Note! Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy.
Copy Details
LibraryOwnedAvailable
Shared Digital Collection22

There is 1 hold on this title.

Staff View
Grouped Work ID:
c407092d-90fe-8cce-9b79-ca005cb7511c
Go To Grouped Work
Needs Update?:
No
Date Added:
Jun 24, 2020 18:13:44
Date Updated:
Dec 07, 2020 08:39:14
Last Metadata Check:
Apr 14, 2024 14:17:07
Last Metadata Change:
Jan 30, 2024 07:09:36
Last Availability Check:
Apr 14, 2024 14:17:11
Last Availability Change:
Mar 26, 2024 15:13:08
Last Grouped Work Modification Time:
Apr 20, 2024 02:11:00

OverDrive Product Record

images
    • cover:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/1191-1/{5F3681A4-65D1-43B1-83D9-0D202A462B92}Img100.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
    • thumbnail:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/1191-1/{5F3681A4-65D1-43B1-83D9-0D202A462B92}Img200.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
    • cover150Wide:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/1191-1/5F3/681/A4/{5F3681A4-65D1-43B1-83D9-0D202A462B92}Img150.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
    • cover300Wide:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/1191-1/5F3/681/A4/{5F3681A4-65D1-43B1-83D9-0D202A462B92}Img400.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
formats
      • identifiers:
            • type: 8
            • value: penguinrandomhouse_audio#9780553550900
            • type: ISBN
            • value: 9780553550924
      • name: OverDrive MP3 Audiobook
      • id: audiobook-mp3
      • identifiers:
            • type: 8
            • value: penguinrandomhouse_audio#9780553550900
            • type: ISBN
            • value: 9780553550924
      • name: OverDrive Listen
      • id: audiobook-overdrive
mediaType
Audiobook
primaryCreator
    • role: Author
    • name: Susan Burton
title
Empty
dateAdded
2020-06-24T18:53:00-04:00
contentDetails
      • href: https://link.overdrive.com/?websiteID=141&titleID=5019861
      • type: text/html
      • account:
          • name: Sacramento Public Library (CA)
          • id: 1151
sortTitle
Empty A Memoir
crossRefId
5019861
subtitle
A Memoir
id
5f3681a4-65d1-43b1-83d9-0d202a462b92
starRating
3.5

OverDrive MetaData

isPublicDomain
False
formats
      • duration: 09:56:34
      • fileName: Empty_9780553550900_5019861
      • partCount: 9
      • fileSize: 283978824
      • identifiers:
            • audience: retailer
            • type: 8
            • value: penguinrandomhouse_audio#9780553550900
            • audience: library
            • type: ISBN
            • value: 9780553550924
      • rights:
            • type: PlayOnPC
            • value: 1
            • type: PlayOnPCCount
            • value: -1
            • type: BurnToCD
            • value: 1
            • type: BurnToCDCount
            • value: -1
            • type: PlayOnPM
            • value: 1
            • type: TransferToSDMI
            • value: 1
            • type: TransferToNonSDMI
            • value: 1
            • type: TransferCount
            • value: -1
            • type: CollaborativePlay
            • value: 0
            • type: PublicPerformance
            • value: 0
            • type: TranscodeToAAC
            • value: 1
      • name: OverDrive MP3 Audiobook
      • isReadAlong: False
      • id: audiobook-mp3
      • onSaleDate: 6/23/2020
      • samples:
            • source: Part 1
            • formatType: audiobook-mp3
            • url: https://excerpts.cdn.overdrive.com/FormatType-425/1191-1/5019861-Empty.mp3
            • source: From the book
            • formatType: audiobook-overdrive
            • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=5f3681a4-65d1-43b1-83d9-0d202a462b92&.epub-sample.overdrive.com
      • duration: 09:51:33
      • fileName: EmptyAMemoir-68578
      • partCount: 0
      • fileSize: 283947254
      • identifiers:
            • audience: retailer
            • type: 8
            • value: penguinrandomhouse_audio#9780553550900
            • audience: library
            • type: ISBN
            • value: 9780553550924
      • name: OverDrive Listen
      • isReadAlong: False
      • id: audiobook-overdrive
      • onSaleDate: 6/23/2020
      • samples:
            • source: Part 1
            • formatType: audiobook-mp3
            • url: https://excerpts.cdn.overdrive.com/FormatType-425/1191-1/5019861-Empty.mp3
            • source: From the book
            • formatType: audiobook-overdrive
            • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=5f3681a4-65d1-43b1-83d9-0d202a462b92&.epub-sample.overdrive.com
creators
      • role: Author
      • fileAs: Burton, Susan
      • name: Susan Burton
      • role: Narrator
      • fileAs: Burton, Susan
      • name: Susan Burton
imprint
Random House Audio
publishDate
2020-06-23T00:00:00-04:00
edition
Unabridged
isOwnedByCollections
True
title
Empty
fullDescription
An editor at This American Life reveals the searing story of the secret binge-eating that dominated her adolescence and shapes her still.

“Her tale of compulsion and healing is candid and powerful.”—People
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY MARIE CLAIRE
For almost thirty years, Susan Burton hid her obsession with food and the secret life of compulsive eating and starving that dominated her adolescence. This is the relentlessly honest, fiercely intelligent story of living with both anorexia and binge-eating disorder, moving past her shame, and learning to tell her secret.
 
When Burton was thirteen, her stable life in suburban Michigan was turned upside down by her parents’ abrupt divorce, and she moved to Colorado with her mother and sister. She seized on this move west as an adventure and an opportunity to reinvent herself from middle-school nerd to popular teenage girl. But in the fallout from her parents’ breakup, an inherited fixation on thinness went from “peculiarity to pathology.”
 
Susan entered into a painful cycle of anorexia and binge eating that formed a subterranean layer to her sunny life. She went from success to success—she went to Yale, scored a dream job at a magazine right out of college, and married her college boyfriend. But in college the compulsive eating got worse—she’d binge, swear it would be the last time, and then, hours later, do it again—and after she graduated she descended into anorexia, her attempt to “quit food.”
 
Binge eating is more prevalent than anorexia or bulimia, but there is less research and little storytelling to help us understand it. In tart, soulful prose Susan Burton strikes a blow for the importance of this kind of narrative and tells an exhilarating story of longing, compulsion and hard-earned self-revelation.
reviews
      • premium: True
      • source: Publisher's Weekly
      • content:

        January 27, 2020
        This American Life producer Burton debuts with an unfiltered discussion of how binge eating and anorexia plagued her throughout her adolescence and into her 20s and turned her into a “desperate wreck.” Around the time she entered puberty, Burton began worrying about getting fat; she started controlling her portions and took “perverse pleasure in smallness.” Burton ably recreates her anxiety-filled youth, when she struggled with her parents’ divorce, her mother’s alcoholism, and with eating disorders. She offers raw descriptions of binging late at night in her kitchen as a teen, eating ice cream, muffins, and power bars to fill a void (“This was tearing things, a frenzy”), then, later in life, starving herself to the point that she developed osteoporosis, all in an effort to feel “light” and “empty.” Burton traces her issues with food back to her grandmother, who obsessed about weight, but offers no easy answers about what ultimately drove her own behavior. Physically healthy now, she writes that she remains “inflexible, paranoid, and self-loathing about food,” and is still on the road to recovery, aided by therapy, writing, and family support. Burton convincingly conveys the desperation and darkness of eating disorders.

popularity
1234
links
    • self:
        • href: https://api.overdrive.com/v1/collections/v1L1BWwAAAA2I/products/5f3681a4-65d1-43b1-83d9-0d202a462b92/metadata
        • type: application/vnd.overdrive.api+json
id
5f3681a4-65d1-43b1-83d9-0d202a462b92
starRating
3.6
images
    • cover:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/1191-1/{5F3681A4-65D1-43B1-83D9-0D202A462B92}Img100.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
    • thumbnail:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/1191-1/{5F3681A4-65D1-43B1-83D9-0D202A462B92}Img200.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
    • cover150Wide:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/1191-1/5F3/681/A4/{5F3681A4-65D1-43B1-83D9-0D202A462B92}Img150.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
    • cover300Wide:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/1191-1/5F3/681/A4/{5F3681A4-65D1-43B1-83D9-0D202A462B92}Img400.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
isPublicPerformanceAllowed
False
languages
      • code: en
      • name: English
subjects
      • value: Biography & Autobiography
      • value: Family & Relationships
      • value: Psychology
      • value: Nonfiction
publishDateText
06/23/2020
mediaType
Audiobook
shortDescription
An editor at This American Life reveals the searing story of the secret binge-eating that dominated her adolescence and shapes her still.

“Her tale of compulsion and healing is candid and powerful.”—People
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY MARIE CLAIRE
For almost thirty years, Susan Burton hid her obsession with food and the secret life of compulsive eating and starving that dominated her adolescence. This is the relentlessly honest, fiercely intelligent story of living with both anorexia and binge-eating disorder, moving past her shame, and learning to tell her secret.
 
When Burton was thirteen, her stable life in suburban Michigan was turned upside down by her parents’ abrupt divorce, and she moved to Colorado with her mother and sister. She seized on this move west as an adventure and an opportunity to reinvent herself from middle-school nerd to popular teenage girl. But in...
sortTitle
Empty A Memoir
crossRefId
5019861
subtitle
A Memoir
publisher
Books on Tape
bisacCodes
      • code: BIO026000
      • description: BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Memoirs
      • code: FAM043000
      • description: Family & Relationships / Life Stages / Teenagers
      • code: PSY002000
      • description: Psychology / Developmental / Adolescent