A review by eliya
You Just Need to Lose Weight: And 19 Other Myths about Fat People by Aubrey Gordon

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.25

Love Aubrey Gordon, she always does the most research possible and gives you information in a very compassionate, gentle way, which was a theme in this book. She provides on-the-nose examples to explain her point of view, she does not cut any corners to say what she needs to say. I have been a vigilant listener of her podcast Maintenance Phase for a while now and there still so much information or different ways that she says things that have me reflecting my own anti-fatness as a fat person. 

This was a difficult listen for me, first in how defensive I noticed I got of course, second in how somber Aubrey’s tone is the whole time she was reading. The undertone was suffering and while absolutely necessary, definitely made me take longer over the course of this book. In her podcast, the information is easier to bite because of how jokey and conversational she and Michael Hobbes are, and even in her last book “What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat,” she had a pretty conversational tone. This one was very heavy. Necessary!! Just consider having space for emotional heaviness when you read this book. 

I also love love love how she organized this book, into 20-30 minute listens/reads for the 20 myths that you can share // refer back to.