Reading While Fat

Welcome! I’ve published nearly 300 reviews of the books I’ve read since 2021. You can skip to the bottom to search books by tag or just keep reading. They are not all fat-positive, but I do note if there is any significant anti-fat bias. Thankfully, most of what I read is at least weight-neutral.

Have you ever been annoyed by a description of a fat character in a book and wish the author did better? Have you been thrilled to find a fat character that isn’t trying to lose weight? Less often, but it does happen.

In this blog, I’ll review the books I read and report whether I found anything fat positive, anti-fat biased, or weight neutral, but I’ll try to avoid repeating the worst of the anti-fat bias. I’ll focus on fiction, with an emphasis on diverse and queer-friendly authors. In 2025, I published over 70 reviews, and I plan to do the same in 2026 as well, generally published on Sundays, but reviews of new books will happen on publication day Tuesdays. If you subscribe, you’ll get reviews in your inbox whenever I publish one, but no more than that, I promise. My 2026 goal is an average of a review every week on Sundays and one new book an average of every other week.

Click on the tags in the cloud at the bottom of this page to filter by topic, or for book cover thumbnails leading to my latest reviews, click here. The list of my 2025 reads, an analysis of my 2025 reading year, and older annual summaries and other content, including my views on fat acceptance, my journey to becoming a single mother, dealing with breast cancer and life afterwards, and my coming-out story are at bbwesquire.

Missing Sam

Missing Sam (publication day January 27, 2026) by Thrity Umrigar caught my attention immediately, telling the story of a fight between married Aliyah and Samantha, that they don’t resolve before they go to sleep. In the morning, Sam goes for a run and doesn’t come back. Ali becomes the prime suspect in her disappearance. Umrigar…

Last First Kiss

Last First Kiss (publication day January 27, 2026) by Julian Winters is a sweet M/M queer romance set in the I Think They Love You world of the Carters and their event planning business. Jordan Carter is trying to prove himself in the family business and get a promotion, while is mother keeps setting up…

Anita de Monte Laughs Last

The audiobook for Anita de Monte Laughs Last (2024) by Xóchitl González (author of 2022’s Olga Dies Dreaming) completely enthralled me with the alternating stories of both Cuban artist Anita de Monte in the early 1980s and 3rd year art history student Raquel in the late 1990s. There is some controversy that shows up in…

The Magnolia Sword

The Magnolia Sword: A Ballad of Mulan (2019) by Sherry Thomas is a satisfying YA retelling of the Mulan story, set in 5th century China. I was introduced to Thomas through her newest novel, The Librarians, which I loved so much that I had to check out her backlist. As the book opens, the protagonist…

Divine Ruin

Divine Ruin (publication day January 13, 2026) by Margot Douaihy is another thrilling installment in the adventures of Sister Holiday–former punk rocker, current nun, nonpracticing lesbian, amateur sleuth! I love this series! (#1 is Scorched Grace, #2 is Blessed Water.) This time Sister Holiday is dealing with the overdose of one of her favorite students,…


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Professional Reader50 Book Reviews80%