Suze Orman is my financial hero and I love her. I have her Money Book for the Young, Fabulous & Broke and it's really taught me a lot about my own money. Suze appeared on today's Oprah and as a special treat, they're giving away Suze's book Women & Money as a free download on the Oprah website until tomorrow evening. Get it here. If you've never read any of Suze's books this is a really great opportunity to learn from a pro and take control of your money.
What I admire about Tim Gunn, on this show and Project Runway, is his ability to offer critique and criticism without being judgmental. He makes it about the clothing and not the person. And he does it with grace and charm.
Being a member of the Tim Gunn Fan Club, I picked up his book soon after it came out. Again, it's not ground breaking material. But it's written from the Tim Gunn perspective, where there's grace and beauty but practicality as well. The whole point of the book is to choose a style that suits you so that shopping becomes less about defining yourself through clothes and more about finding pieces that reflect who you already are.
I've always been looking for a book, or a magazine, or a TV show to tell me "This is how you dress" and just be done with it. But the truth is that no one person can decide that for you. All we have are guides, like Tim Gunn, to offer tips and some logical advice. The rest is up to you.
Awhile back, I was contacted by Figure Magazine to be in an article. The newest issue is out and the article is called "Makeover Your Destiny" by Juhie Bhatia, who was so wonderful to work with. I haven't gotten my hands on a copy yet, but I hear I look awfully cute in the picture! If you read the article and are left wondering if I've flown yet, the answer is no. But I am working on my fear and my best friend has plans to drag me onto an airplane very soon. I've got places to go, y'know? :)
Torrid has another cute little interview with Wendy Shanker, author of The Fat Girl's Guide to Life. I just realized that the book has been out for a year and I still haven't written a proper review. I guess I'll be re-reading it at some point.
I just started reading Fat Girls and Lawn Chairs, a collection of short stories by Cheryl Peck, but I wanted to share this excerpt from the very first story, "Queen of the Gym."
"I don't believe it's exercise that keeps fat women out of the gym. I think it's the distance from the bench in front of the locker to the shower and back. I think it's years and years of standing in grocery lines and idly staring at the anorexic women on the cover of Cosmo. I think it's the four year olds in the restaurants who stage-whisper 'Mommy - look at that FAT lady.' I think it's years of watching American films where famous actresses never have pimples on their butts or stretch marks where they had kids. It's Baywatch. Barbie. It's never really understanding, in our gut, that if we could ask her even Barbie could tell us exactly what is wrong with her body. And we all know, intellectually, of course, that Barbie's legs are too long, her waist is too short, her boobs are too big and her feet are ridiculous, but she's a doll. What we do not know, as women, is that my sports physiologist, who is in her late twenties and runs marathons, also has tendinitis in her shoulder, a bad back, and passes out if she trains too hard. My former coach for the Nautilus machines had MS. None of us have perfect bodies. If we did have perfect bodies, we would still believe we are too short or too fat or too skinny or not tan enough."
Torrid interviews Wendy Shanker, author of The Fat Girl's Guide to Life:
It's a self-defense manual for fat chicks. It hooks in people of all types; all kinds of people can relate. I love TV, Vogue and celebrities as much as the next girl but it's getting boring. We need to see other kinds of girls, more variety. We need to see the skinny girl with no boobs, the fat chick with no hips, tall girls, short girls, black girls and more. I see a lot of beauty all over the place. We need variety. The enemy is not beauty. It's homogeneity.I keep meaning to write my response to the book but now it's been so long since I've read it, I want to read it again before I post about it. I can say that I think you should read it, whether you're fat or thin, because she brings up a lot of issues that needed to be talked about. She's intelligent, funny, and a good writer. Some people might not like some of the things she talks about but I think it's worth reading.
I'm going to write a detailed book review of The Fat Girl's Guide to Life within the next couple of days but I just wanted to point something out. If you go to Torrid, there's a link to email Wendy Shanker (author of said book) for "fabulous advice on everything you need to know." Hmmm, maybe I'll email her :)
I ordered The Fat Girl's Guide to Life by Wendy Shanker, which I'm really looking forward to reading. You can check out some comments in this entry at Big Fat Blog. Kimberly posted it earlier but check out the Salon article if you haven't already. I'll share my thoughts about the book once I get my little paws on it.
Paul over at Big Fat Blog recently interviewed Jennifer Weiner, author of Good in Bed and In Her Shoes. It's a great interview and I'm pretty sure you'll all be interested in reading it. Have a look-see. In a world of Bridget Jonses, I wish there were more authors like Jennifer Weiner who wrote real-size women as they deserve to be portrayed - smart, funny, and sexy. Right on!
