Category Archives: Mixed: Includes anti-fat, neutral, and fat positive portrayals

Big Girl

I have complicated feelings about Big Girl by Mecca Jamilah Sullivan (2022). First, I am glad that a novel about the coming of age of a fat, black, young girl in 1990’s Harlem was written. The author did an amazing job with the story of Malaya and her family (her mother, Nyela, is a professor,Continue reading “Big Girl”

The Unfortunates

The Unfortunates (2023) by J.K. Chukwu is probably better read than listened to, although I very much appreciated it, as it deals with themes of microaggressions, body size, queerness, depression, and the alienation of a black college sophomore student at a primarily white institution. Told from the perspective of Sahara, a half-Nigerian pre-med student, inContinue reading “The Unfortunates”

Yours For the Taking

Yours For the Taking (pub. date December 5, 2023) by Gabrielle Korn is a completely-engrossing, near-future (set in 2050) story about one possible solution to climate change–governments building completely-enclosed compounds called “Inside” and taking applications for those who would be chosen to live Inside. Each Inside would be self-sufficient and built strong enough to withstandContinue reading “Yours For the Taking”

The Love Songs of W.E.B DuBois

The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois (2021) by Honorée Fannone Jeffers was an Oprah’s club pick, a finalist for the Kirkus prize that year, along with several Goodreads nominations, and I’m disappointed that it wasn’t honored more. Overall, it’s a sprawling, beautifully written, epic work of historical fiction, poetic and heartbreaking and intricate. At nearlyContinue reading “The Love Songs of W.E.B DuBois”

Unmarriageable

Unmarriageable: Pride and Prejudice in Pakistan (2019) by Soniah Kamal was a delightful retelling of Austen’s novel, set in the year 2000 in a small town, Dilipibad, in Pakistan. I was so intrigued I accidentally bought two copies at the library sale without realizing it! Alys Binat and her sister Jena are thirty and thirty-twoContinue reading “Unmarriageable”

Weightless: Making Space for my Resilient Body and Soul

This is a great book of essays dealing with the intersectionality of anti-fatness, racism, misogyny, and chronic illness, written by an astute observer of pop culture.

Amy Among the Serial Killers

I didn’t know that Amy Among the Serial Killers (2022) by Jincy Willett was the third book in a series that begins with The Writing Class and Amy Falls Down when I picked it up at the library, but it worked as a standalone. Carla is just fine; she is a grown-up former child starContinue reading “Amy Among the Serial Killers”

Interior Chinatown

Interior Chinatown (2020) by Charles Yu is a very quick read, and has one of the most interesting formats that I’ve read-novel-as-screenplay! I didn’t know when I picked it out to read that it won the National Book Award in 2020, but I’m not surprised. Yu tells the story of Willis Wu, who plays “GenericContinue reading “Interior Chinatown”