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emilykuper's review
5.0
Absolutely stunning.
As we hear often, this was a book of windows and mirrors. As a white woman, there are parts of Nolan’s story that I didn’t innately understand or consider prior to reading Don’t Let It Get You Down. As a fat woman, I was intensely validated and moved by Nolan’s story.
As we hear often, this was a book of windows and mirrors. As a white woman, there are parts of Nolan’s story that I didn’t innately understand or consider prior to reading Don’t Let It Get You Down. As a fat woman, I was intensely validated and moved by Nolan’s story.
ktxx22's review
3.0
The essay’s in this that resonated with me most were when she spoke about being fat and dating. Unfortunately she lost me a bit further in. Not a bad thing by any means but overall I’d say this book isn’t for me, and that bums me out because part of reading memoirs or personal essays that I like is connecting and being able to relate to the author and outside of my fatness and being a mother I really struggled here because I wanted for meat to most of the essays. I needed more to connect better.
leahmarissafelton's review
5.0
Such a beautifully written memoir from Savala.
It really reminded me of The Good Immigrant, with each chapter of this book feeling like an essay.
I felt so touched to be given an insight into Savala's life, her thoughts on her race, body image, and family history. Being mixed race myself, I find it extremely hard to know where I fit in. Am I going to fit into with the White crowd, the Indian crowd, or mixed race crowd today? And the privileges that come with being mixed with white.
I cannot recommend this book enough. It will open your eyes on being female, body image issues, and being mixed.
It really reminded me of The Good Immigrant, with each chapter of this book feeling like an essay.
I felt so touched to be given an insight into Savala's life, her thoughts on her race, body image, and family history. Being mixed race myself, I find it extremely hard to know where I fit in. Am I going to fit into with the White crowd, the Indian crowd, or mixed race crowd today? And the privileges that come with being mixed with white.
I cannot recommend this book enough. It will open your eyes on being female, body image issues, and being mixed.
abbie_'s review against another edition
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
3.25
Insightful personal essays that just felt a little too essay-ish, you know? I felt some of them to be a bit repetitive, like there was almost enough for a book but not quite.
Faves were (I did the audiobook so apologies because the titles of the essays elude me!) the one that discussed our de-sensitivity to violence against women in the media we consume, and the one where Nolan dissects the ‘mammy’ stereotype. I appreciated the intersectionality of Nolan’s thoughts as a fat, mixed Black & Mexican woman, and the ways her identity has affected her life and the way she lives it. Just missing something that ties it together as a cohesive collection.
Faves were (I did the audiobook so apologies because the titles of the essays elude me!) the one that discussed our de-sensitivity to violence against women in the media we consume, and the one where Nolan dissects the ‘mammy’ stereotype. I appreciated the intersectionality of Nolan’s thoughts as a fat, mixed Black & Mexican woman, and the ways her identity has affected her life and the way she lives it. Just missing something that ties it together as a cohesive collection.
megpsmit's review
4.0
I choose this book for my book of essays for the Bloom reading challenge. It was out on a table for Black History month in my library. I have to admit that essays have not normally been my thing but this book stuck with me and surprised me. Nolan's writing is honest and raw, she speaks about the intersections of her life in a way that inviting you into the confusion and hardness of being big, a woman, and black in America but also raised in a white context. The essay "Bad Education" really stuck me with its discussion on the violence against women as normalized in TV.