Jes Baker

I'm not sure I can adequately describe how incredible this book is. With her trademark kick-ass prose Jes Baker has created an amazing book on self-love/self-care. While many books of this variety seem lacking in action and substance, TNOWTFG lays down a hefty amount of facts and history along with plenty of action steps and resources to live your life unapologetically.

This book isn't just for fat girls, it's for anyone who looks at the weight/diet/fitness obsessed world we live in and show more thinks "something is wrong here". For anyone who wants guidance toward loving their minds and bodies just as they are now. For anyone who has ever been told they aren't enough.

Immensely quotable, immensely useful, immensely empowering. This is the self-love book you have been looking for. show less

Baker, a fat-positive activist, writes about her life, including many difficult topics such as love and intimacy, and being trolled online (and in person). She describes a near-identical experience to mine of visiting Universal's Harry Potter theme park and being unable to ride the main ride, though a friend of similar weight was able to. That made me feel vindicated, I'll admit. On the other hand, I think she's got "defensive" and "offensive" driving backwards, and I'm surprised her editor show more didn't catch that. Some parts of this book made me sad, some made me angry, and some made me laugh out loud. If you're looking for this sort of memoir, I'd recommend this book. show less

I learned a lot from this book. I recognize my own prejudices when it comes to size and health. The chapter on mental health was VERY helpful to me. She provides practical advice for those bad days and addresses mental illness as what it is -- an illness. I don't think this is only a book for "plus size" women, but for people interested in how the beauty myth can affect anyone.

I think I'm just not the fat girl Jes is writing for. Although shelved in the adult non-fiction at my library, I think this more appropriately belongs in our teen section. Most of the advice is advice that I probably could have used in high-school, maybe college. But as an adult, it was all old news. Some of it was more interesting like health becoming our latest beauty trend.

For me, the majority of the book read like a conspiracy theory. As an adult, I have rarely experienced show more discrimination because of my size. On the occasion that I did, I just assumed that that particular person is terrible. Not that I am terrible. I have always had skinny boyfriends except once and that turned out to be my worst relationship! Jes is saying conquer the world, but her requirements for doing so are normal, everyday living, which I have never found hard, even when I was 275.

And, finally, I think Jes is misinformed about diet and exercise. For example, when she talks about how fat people should challenge the idea that they shouldn't run or jump - that is for safety purposes! It isn't discrimination. If you run or jump with a lot of weight above your knees, you will injure yourself, and this is coming from experience as well as advice from a personal trainer. This is a good example of how overly sensitive this book can be - not everything is a challenge or discrimination. Some things have merit. Some things just are.

I still gave the book three stars because I think many people could benefit from it, and there were some good ideas here. I definitely learned a couple of things, too. I just really thought a book for fat girls would speak to me, a fat girl, and it did not. show less