Brittany Gibbons

I really enjoyed this book and Brittany's journey from adolescent to mother of 3. This book has the potential to be relatable to a wide variety of women, but it is really intended for those of us who have had issues with our bodies or its size, and in my own case for nearly 35 years, longer than she is even on the planet.

I could do without the crudness, then of course, she would not be who she is, you either take her as she is or not.

If you don't like reading the word vagina on every 5th page, this book is not for you, nor will be for you if you are not able to at least tolerate ( even if you hate it, like I did ) crude words for sex, using the bathroom and body parts.

I related to her body issues in many many ways, but she never really had an eating disorder like I do, she is just her size partially thru genetics and partially because she enjoys eating.

I highly recoomend it for those who feel comfortable with the things stated above.… (lisätietoja)

**Apparently this isn’t released until Tuesday, but my local Barnes and Noble had it out yesterday, so I guess I’m reviewing this from the future? Awesome!**

You might be familiar with Ms. Gibbons. She’s the woman who went on TV in her bathing suit (in Times Square, no less), wearing a size 18ish. She had sex with her husband every night of the year in hopes of improving her own body confidence. She runs the website ‘Brittany, Herself’ and is the leader of the ‘curvy girls army (http://brittanyherself.com/cgg/).’

I found this book while trying to kick-start by Cannonball Read yesterday. I bought four books that I could see myself forgoing TV for (although not the new Game of Thrones tonight, because I’m not an animal). This one really jumped out at me, and I pretty much inhaled it. I read it before bed last night, only stopping because my eyes refused to cooperate. I read it on a 30 minute walk to get lunch, and on the walk home. I was even a little sad that today was a run day, not an elliptical day, so I couldn’t read it while working out.

I related to a lot of what Ms. Gibbons shares in this collection of essays, even though I’ve never had children (her discussion of being a mother permeates much of the second half of the book, but is certainly not the overall focus). No one would describe me as thin. Fat? Eh, probably not usually. But I’ll freely admit to having more than one totally fine morning destroyed because I stepped on the scale.

And that’s bullshit. Ms. Gibbons articulates the ways in which it is bullshit much better than I can, so I’ll just leave it at that. There are some really laugh-out-loud moments, and some really thoughtful ones that gave me pause. I was reading this too quickly to even bother to underline passages I especially liked (the book would have been mostly underlined anyway), but this one stuck out:

“The reality was that my life wasn’t miserable because I was curvy; I was miserable because I thought I’d be happier if I were thinner, and when I sat to think about it, it didn’t really make sense.”

Word.… (lisätietoja)

So I have never purposely sat down and read an autobiography, but found out about Brittany Herself (aka Brittany Gibbons) from another blogger and was instantly a fan. So when I heard about her book Fat Girl Walking, I knew that I must read it straight away.
There is not really that much I can tell you about the story, without giving huge chunks of the story line away, but this is what I can say, it’s basically Brittany's life from. We follow along as she tells us about how her Dad's brain injury affected not only his life, but the whole families. We follow Brittany's college and family life, her up and downs, painful struggles and acceptance of herself.
I cannot get over just how brave and quite honestly amazing women I have found Brittany Gibbons to be. I'm astounded by the way she has overcome obstacles, the same ones I struggle with every day. I love the way that she is totally honest about her flaws and image struggles. But best of all I love the way she stripped down to her underwear at the TED Conference.
So I have to say that I love her style of writing, it’s fun and witty and the names of the chapters had me laughing so hard my hubby though I was having a seizure. The whole book it honestly like Brittany is sitting in front of me, telling me stories from her life.
I have to say that Fat Girl Walking is a MUST READ! And one the defiantly earns 10 out of 10, but be prepared! You are not going to want to put it down.
… (lisätietoja)