A review by nochnitsa
Naturally Tan by Tan France

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced

3.0

I got this as an e-book because I really liked Tan's personality in Queer Eye and the few interviews that I saw. At first I wasn't very into it because, clearly, Tan France isn't a writer (which isn't a bad thing because he's so successful in other things) and I was asking myself why is it that all celebrities seem to think they need to write a book (yes, I'm a bitch). But then a few of the stories resonated with me - I'm Central Asian and some of my experiences with racism were similar to Tan's although not as scary because I am somewhat white-passing. I didn't care much for the advice and I couldn't understand much of the clothing/ fashion terminology. But what I really loved was that Tan spoke out about the side of 9/11 that affects brown people to this day, the way he is honest about how he felt under pressure of being a multiple business owner, the way he loves his husband and sets an example of a loving marriage, and the way he stays humble despite being a celebrity. I think there were some really important messages in this book which were worth sharing. And then there were also some messages which were really important to Tan personally to share, for example how he doesn't appreciate being lifted by fans (I really think some people overstep all the common sense boundaries). Overall, this book felt like a distant very successful cousin sitting me down and giving me some life advice, making me giggle along the way. This book was good company during my exam period - it was light and insightful enough to keep me interested but it didn't make me want to lose my sleep over it. I usually never read books during my exam periods, so this was a nice change.
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