Read My Hips

May 1, 2011

Get rid of the bathroom scales and start living.

Body acceptance is not a new idea, but Brittingham's memoir has a unique voice. With engaging, well-written prose, the author encourages readers to live full and healthy lives, regardless of their weight. The book begins with Brittingham's memories of a fat picture of herself as a teenager. In reality, she was not fat at all, and her mother's many diets were also a product of a culture obsessed with thinness. Often compared to her "fat Aunt Phyllis," the author spent years feeling ugly and unworthy. The more she dieted, the more weight she gained. Then came her job as a counselor for the Edie JeJeune weight-loss program and her introduction to the hypocrisies of the diet industry. Brittingham's style is lively, and her message is powerful. She isn't afraid of confronting issues head-on, as evidenced when she made a fake book cover called Fat Is Contagious and took it on a bus to gauge other passengers' reactions. They weren't pretty. The author does not allow herself to become a victim. When she starred in an NBC Universal video pilot that was turned into an offensive fat stereotype, she created her own video series, Kim Weighs In.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)