I know you have all been waiting patiently for this post (you’ve probably been waiting since the beginning of time- honestly.. I am sorry to have taken so long).. but it is finally here! BOOK POST!! Wooo!!! I <3 Books! So, here are my fat teenager reads (for now anyway )! I’ve tried to supply and Amazon link for most of the books I talk about, but if I don’t supply a link, if you go to amazon and type the title in it will come up (I feel like I linked about 50 zillion things..).. This post took me an awful long time to write/put together (I am tired of sitting!) so please enjoy!

Fat Acceptance Books

We shall start this collection with what pertains most to this blog- TEH FATZ! These are my Fat Acceptance type books! Sadly, I only have 3 (anyone have any suggestions? I do love Amazon shopping!), but here they are!

 First Up: Fat Chicks Rule!: How To Survive in a Thin-Centric World, and The Fat Girl’s Guide to Life

And because I am such a lazy ass fat person, I am just going to quote from the amazon page what these books are about (because I have summarizing)

Fat Chicks Rule

 

A fun, fact-filled guide to living the big girl’s life with style, Fat Chicks Rule!: How To Survive in a Thin-Centric World, tackles the weighty issues that large women face in our thin-obsessed society. This lavishly illustrated book provides information on everything that the plus-size woman needs to know, including where to shop, the dieting scam, how to be fat and sexy, the fat acceptance movement, famous fat chicks in history, fat chick entertainment, snappy comebacks against the fat-phobic and much more. Dedicated to every woman who feels she needs to lose a few pounds but really doesn’t, Fat Chicks Rule! shows you how to live fat and happily ever after. 

Fat Girl’s Guide to Life

Wendy Shanker is a fat, healthy, beautiful girl who has simply had enough. Enough of family, friends, co-workers, women’s magazines, even strangers on the street, all trying (and failing) to make her thin. She finally decided, “If I can’t take it off, I’m going to take it on.”

With a mandate to change the world-and the energy to do it-Wendy shows how media madness, corporate greed, and even the most well-intentioned loved ones prey on our shrink-to-fit minds, if not our shrink-to-fit bodies. She invites people of all sizes, shapes, and dissatisfactions to trade self-loathing for self-tolerance, celebrity worship for reality reverence, and a carb-free life for a guilt-free Krispy Kreme.

Wendy explores dieting debacles, full-figured fashions, and feminist philosophy while guiding you through exercise clubs, doctor’s offices, shopping malls, and even the bedroom. She believes that you can be fit and fat, even as the weight loss industry conspires to make you think otherwise. The Fat Girl’s Guide to Life invites you to step off the scale and weigh the issues for yourself.

These books (along with a big Geisha book lol) were my first (and only, so far, actually) Amazon purchases. I was amazed that I could get a book for .61 cents (I think that was how much I paid for Fat Girls Guide to Life, plus shipping of course). Anyway! I love both of these two books! I have read them both quite a few times, and I definitely plan on taking them (all three) with me to college.

 

I know I’ve said this before on my blog, but I’ll say it again (I <3 irony!). I got my Fat! So? book at, of all places, the Curves where my mom and I went back when I was in 10th grade. They had this table at the entrance on the lower floor (the curves was in a two floor building and it was on the second floor, while the table was below the stairs at the entrance) where people would put free books and magazines and stuff, and you could take whatever you want. The one day I went I saw that book and snatched it up immediatly. I don’t know why (okay, it was probably the colors on the cover and the cover drawing itself), but I did. I can say, with most certainty, that was my first experience of Fat Acceptance. I don’t know how I would feel about myself if I hadn’t grabbed that book. Nowadays I wonder why someone wouldn’t wanted to get rid of that treasure, or what would’ve happened to someone else who picked it up, or what would’ve happened to me if I hadn’t? Still, I have read this book atleast 4 times through and through, and will skim when I feel like it. I love all the pictures and fat drawings and the colors and the style, just everything. That probably the only thing i wish the other two books had, more cute stylish fat girl drawings. I love them, and I really want to try and draw them myself.

 

I’m not even going to give a quote for this book- if you don’t have it, just go buy it. Seriously. .

 

Women’s/Gender Studies Books

 

 

Books in this category include: College Girls: Bluestockings, Sex Kittens, and Co-Eds, Then and Now, Pink Think: Becoming a Woman in Many Uneasy Lessons, Flapper: A Madcap Story of Sex, Style, Celebrity, and the Women Who Made America Modern, and The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women.

 

I’m not going to do a quote for these (I’ve already made this entry very long with the pictures and stuff lol), if you really want more info on them just click on the links (they go to the amazon page for it).

 

In all honesty I can only recommend Pink Think, as it’s the only one I have actually finished reading. I am about halfway through College Girls- I’ve just been so busy/nervwracked about college and work and thinking about hair that I havn’t had time lately to read more. I have to say that I love Lynn Peril’s writing and style- I was never bored during any of Pink Think, and I loved having pictures to see (sorry- I am a visual person!). I wasn’t until after I finished Pink Think that I noticed Peril was the person who writes Femoribilia in Bust magazine (I <3 Bust!)! I really enjoyed Pink Think and love College Girls so far- I find it fascinated to be reading about this since, as you know, I’m going to be going to college for the first time this fall. And OMG, after reading this book, I can’t believe I used to think that I should go to college because I can find my husband there… I just can’t believe I thought that way. So I would very much recommend this book, and I’m not even done with it yet! (Plus, it has lot of nice pictures!) I also read here (this really makes me want to minor in Women’s Studies), about her next book:

Her next book, which has a working title of “Swimming in the Steno Pool: A Social History of the Secretary, America’s First Businesswoman,” is scheduled to be published by W.W. Norton in 2009

 

So definitely check her books out (I mean, if you are interested in these sort of topics).

 

I’ve had Beauty Myth sitting on my shelf for, what seems like, forever. I read some, then I stop, I read some, then I stop. Sometimes it’s hard for me to get through, or it reads too much like a research paper or something. I do like it, I just thinks it’s one that I will try and finish now, and then re-read it when I am a little older. For me, some books are just hard to read. I remember when I was back in 8th grade and there was this one book that i read and enjoyed a lot, but it was so hard for me to get through. Some books are just like that for me. So, again, I havn’t finished this one yet.

 

Last book in this category is about flappers! woot! I havn’t even started Flappers, so I can’t really say anything about it, except that I am SOOO looking foreward to reading it. I love the cover design, all the photographs, and, obviously, the subject matter. So, again, looking foreward to reading it and I can’t say much else about it.

 

Young Adult Books

These first three are more relevant to the outcast/nerd type in all of us: Confessions of a Not It Girl, The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things, and The Queen Geek Social Club.

Confessions and The Earth are more relevant to body image type things. Now, in all honesty, I enojoyed Confessions, but I don’t remember much about it. It was a quick read, a good quick read, but a quick read non-the-less. I wish I could remember more of it’s details. The Earth, on the other hand, I absolutely love. I would whole-heartadly recommend it. It is one of the few YA books that has a fat character. I don’t even remember how fat the character is, but I picture her as myself anyway. I don’t want to spoil the book, but it handles everything great. And it seems very HAES esqe. And about gaining independence and such… I think I have to re-read the book with my more feminist outlook. The Queen Geek book was also enjoyable. It’s more about people who don’t fit in and want to be different kind of thing than body image. But I still enjoyed it.

(sorry about the quality of this picture- it came out fuzzy and I sharpened it Paint Shop Pro, but it still isn’t much better)… I don’t have much to say about these books other than if you havn’t read them, READ ‘EM! I love the lead character, and I love the interview with the author in the back of the one book. Made me appreciate the books even more. I bought The Sweet Far Thing wayyy back in December when it came out, and I STILL havn’t read it yet!!! I want to re-read the first two before I read it, but I still can’t believe I havn’t gotten around to it.

Again, if you havn’t read these books- READ ‘EM! I used these books (well, the first three, the fourth one wasn’t out at the time) for my 11th grade author research paper (the big project of that year), which actually, you can read here, if you like. These books show a future obsessed with plastic surgery and conformity and being brainwashed, stupid, and pretty- and it all seems so very realistic, like this actually could happen and it wouldn’t be surprising. Uglies, Pretties, and Specials all go together with the main character Tally, while Extras stands apart with a new main character, Aya and deals a lot with popularity, points, and what it all means. I really love Scott Westerfeld’s writing, having read and enjoyed Peeps and it’s sequel. He also has an awesome blog, and it’s nice to have that connection with book authors. And thanks to his awesome blog, I myself have just learned that an Uglies insider-type book is coming out, Bogus to Bubbly: An Insider’s Guide to the World of Uglies.

hm… any other books that I don’t have pictures of that you must read? All of Stephenie Meyer’s books- The Host (LOVED IT!), and The Twilight Series. The Host is not a YA book, but I still liked it. I know there are plenty of people who do not like The Twilight Series, but I would suggest that even if you do not like Twilight, check out The Host (even if you DO like Twilight, check out The Host).

Some other books I enjoyed a lot: Memoirs of a Geisha, American Shaolin (loved it! totally taking this with me to college!), Pride and Prejudice, any of the Georgia Nicolson books (sehr amusant!) and a bunch others that I can’t even think of right now.

So, there you have my readingzzz, where I get my genius from (along with reading everyone else’s awesome blogs). If anyone has any books they’d like to suggest for any of the above categories let me know- I’m especially looking for another fat acceptance type book- I only have 3! Plus I need some books to read over vacation lol. Enjoy my lovely list, and check some of these books out if you like.

---

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• Disney Princess Jewelry Box Collection
• Children’s Book Review: The Dog Princess Fairy Tails
• Prêt à Porter Spring 2009 Day 1