The Fat Girl's Guide To Life

The title of this post is not some clever title I came up with to illustrate a point about my highly interesting life. No, as anyone who read my previous post will perhaps recognize, it is the title of a book I have just read fairly recently.

What follows is a v-e-r-y short (because I finished reading it more than a week ago) review. First of all, for anyone who didn't read the last post, the author is Wendy Shanker who is largely (pun intended) a writer on fashion and beauty issues for magazines such as Marie Claire, Glamour and Cosmopolitan among others. Fat Girl is her first book and it dates from 2004.

For the most part I'd say that the book is worth reading for anyone who is interested in women's issues particularly weight issues. Some of the things she mentions are done in a bit of a precious way in my opinion but I think that is because I have read a few other titles (whose names escape me - it has been a long time) that were similar so her points didn't seem so earth-shatteringly original and the Fat Girl (vs fat girl - her distinction) attitude was a tiny bit much.

For people who are new to these type of titles though the book shouldn't be disappointing. Even people who have read some other similar titles such as the plus size model Emme's book which I think was called True Beauty (don't quote me on that) will find some new information though I'm sure.

One thing that stood out in her research was about how calorie counts on various products are mostly fiction. Apparently, when taken to a lab to ascertain how closely they relate to reality, the differences can be quite glaring. It is, as she mentions (and like any fan of Seinfeld will no doubt remember - I know I did) like that episode about the so-called low-fat yogurt that "mysteriously" was making Jerry and his friends fat.

If you end up reading this book and liking it, she has a new book coming out soon called Are You My Guru? How Medicine, Meditation and Madonna Saved My Life due out in the fall of 2010. The medicine part probably has to do with a serious illness she mentions having (I forget what it is called) in Fat Girl and Madonna is not merely mentioned "for show" as apparently she once worked as her assistant or something for a short time - this also being according to Fat Girl.

Carmen