Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.3 AVERAGE
4.3 AVERAGE
Overall, this book made me feel a wide range of emotions. I went from connecting all too well with the author to not at all then back to all too well. She put it best in an interview I saw her do with Trevor Noah, this isn't a success story of her losing weight. This is the heartfelt story of how she got to her highest weight and the secrets she hid deep within her own self created fortress.
Favorite Part: I think for me personally, it was hearing the author tell her own journey from secret to openness with her past to her family finally as an adult. Her writing reflects some of those inner demons that so many writers tap into with their writing and I appreciate this author for being candid and letting me view those past memories with her.
Least Favorite Part: It's always hard to hear stories.
Would I recommend this book: In a heart beat. Just because the author's story isn't necessarily something you have experienced, doesn't mean it won't open your eyes to the reality of being a large person in a small world. I think every one can benefit from hearing how it impacts anyone who isn't small.
Final impressions: This was my first reading of anything by Roxane Gay but hopefully this will not be my last.
Favorite Part: I think for me personally, it was hearing the author tell her own journey from secret to openness with her past to her family finally as an adult. Her writing reflects some of those inner demons that so many writers tap into with their writing and I appreciate this author for being candid and letting me view those past memories with her.
Least Favorite Part: It's always hard to hear stories
Spoiler
of sexual abuse and especially sexual violenceWould I recommend this book: In a heart beat. Just because the author's story isn't necessarily something you have experienced, doesn't mean it won't open your eyes to the reality of being a large person in a small world. I think every one can benefit from hearing how it impacts anyone who isn't small.
Final impressions: This was my first reading of anything by Roxane Gay but hopefully this will not be my last.
All of us -- at least, all women -- know the struggle of trying to achieve the unachievable standard of beauty that our society has spent years cultivating within us and without us, and then grappling with the deep-seated desire simultaneously achieve body-positivity. We want to be thinner, taller, curvier, smoother, and we want to not want it.
Roxane unpacks that in a way that I've scarcely seen elsewhere, and then she adds her own perspective -- the perspective of a person living in a body that our society treats as, best case scenario, invisible. A body that is the result of trauma. And knowing that, while having to hold her head high through humiliation after humiliation because our culture is cruel.
There are so many layers to why this book is important. It's good. Just read it.
Roxane unpacks that in a way that I've scarcely seen elsewhere, and then she adds her own perspective -- the perspective of a person living in a body that our society treats as, best case scenario, invisible. A body that is the result of trauma. And knowing that, while having to hold her head high through humiliation after humiliation because our culture is cruel.
There are so many layers to why this book is important. It's good. Just read it.
This is one of the most beautiful, painful, raw, intelligent and real books I've ever read. For so many reasons, it should be required reading. It's a study on society and our bodies, from one of the last unseen and unwritten corners, the morbidly obese. But also a compelling memoir from a woman who in many ways has lived an extraordinary and yet very typical life. There is something for everyone, no matter your weight. You will learn something about, or more about, our society's unintentional or intentional cruelty to obese people and our general obsession with women's bodies and the price we all pay for it.
Despite the serious topic, the book is a compelling, if not an easy read. Ms. Gay's voice is personable, fiercely intelligent, warm, unapologetic and deeply compelling. She shares her story generously, though not salaciously.
Despite the serious topic, the book is a compelling, if not an easy read. Ms. Gay's voice is personable, fiercely intelligent, warm, unapologetic and deeply compelling. She shares her story generously, though not salaciously.
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
I am so impressed with this memoir! It was fantastic and very relevant to the way some types of women get treated. This memoir will really hit home with a lot of women especially those who struggle with weight issues. I highly recommend a five star book. I cannot say enough good things about this memoir. It is probably one of my favorites that I’ve ever read.
Raw and honest. The thing I admire the most about Roxane Gay's writing is that it feels like you're having a one on one conversation with her. Such an incredible memoir.
Incredibly necessary reading on living life inside an "unruly" body.
It bored me sometimes, but i loved the honesty.
Should I - or anyone - be allowed to rate a memoir?
Do I even have the right to rate a memoir as vulnerable and brave as this one?
When I picked this up, I expected something so well written that I'd swoon at words, sentences, paragraphs. That expectation was met. I expected something confident and a little bit in my face. A little bit of this expectation was met. What I did not expect was what I mostly got - bare bones and sensitivity and humiliations. I was blown away.
What struck me is how NOT manipulative this was. I wasn't being forced or even politely asked to believe what she believes or feel what she feels. She was simply stating what she believes and how she feels. And while there was no manipulation, I left with an awareness. Sure, I nodded along to certain excerpts that I felt deep in my soul and ranted to my boyfriend about others that resonated or just simply made me furious at the ignorance of the world, but what I truly gained from this was that awareness and knowing that I can also be better. We can all be better.
5 Stars
And hey folks, the next time you feel like being an ignorant a-hole to someone, maybe just don't. Because that someone just may be able to write circles around you.
Do I even have the right to rate a memoir as vulnerable and brave as this one?
When I picked this up, I expected something so well written that I'd swoon at words, sentences, paragraphs. That expectation was met. I expected something confident and a little bit in my face. A little bit of this expectation was met. What I did not expect was what I mostly got - bare bones and sensitivity and humiliations. I was blown away.
What struck me is how NOT manipulative this was. I wasn't being forced or even politely asked to believe what she believes or feel what she feels. She was simply stating what she believes and how she feels. And while there was no manipulation, I left with an awareness. Sure, I nodded along to certain excerpts that I felt deep in my soul and ranted to my boyfriend about others that resonated or just simply made me furious at the ignorance of the world, but what I truly gained from this was that awareness and knowing that I can also be better. We can all be better.
5 Stars
And hey folks, the next time you feel like being an ignorant a-hole to someone, maybe just don't. Because that someone just may be able to write circles around you.
Phenomenal and difficult. I am so grateful to Roxane for opening herself up to us and I am terrified of the ways we hurt people in ways both big and small, at how hurt was so easy for her to find even though she was looking. The world should be so different from what it is.
I'm also immensely grateful for her honesty and her willingness to welcome contradiction with reluctant arms. I love that she admits "What I know and what I feel are two very different things" because at times I don't know what to make of unwavering people, perfect always, their thoughts and actions always aligning with their beliefs.
I'm also immensely grateful for her honesty and her willingness to welcome contradiction with reluctant arms. I love that she admits "What I know and what I feel are two very different things" because at times I don't know what to make of unwavering people, perfect always, their thoughts and actions always aligning with their beliefs.
Powerful. A little (hate to use this word, but..) triggering for me, but definitely thought provoking.