Fatty Fatty Boom Boom

Reviews

“Engrossing…Chaudry refreshingly eschews conventional narratives about weight loss, as well as fat acceptance…Victory is sweet and savory in this ebullient tale of self-acceptance. 
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Yes, Fatty Fatty Boom Boom is a book about food and Rabia’s relationship to food, how that relationship influenced her life and how she ultimately, as she says, becomes friends with her body. It’s also a profound act of generosity as Rabia invites us into her life with candor, humor, and kindness, for herself, her family and anyone who has reflected on their relationship to food. Not incidentally, it’s a terrific read and one you can appropriately plow through or savor. I cannot recommend Fatty Fatty Boom Boom highly enough. I can’t wait for my friends to read Rabia’s story, for my kids to try Rabia’s recipes and for the world to know more about this remarkable woman.”
—Chelsea Clinton

“A delicious and mouthwatering book about food and family, the complicated love for both, and how that shapes us into who we are. It’s such a relief to not treat food as the enemy any longer and start to learn how to love and nourish the body I have today. I absolutely loved it!”
—Valerie Bertinelli

“Beautifully weaving together stories of food, family, and self-discovery, Rabia Chaudry’s memoir Fatty Fatty Boom Boom is complex, rich, and revelatory. I was deeply moved by her vulnerability, delighted by her self-deprecating humor, and awe-struck by her honesty. Chaudry sets a grand table before us and invites us to join her as she presents readers with her struggles, triumphs, and insights as a young girl in Pakistan, an awkward middle schooler in Maryland, and a young wife, advocate, and activist. Fatty Fatty Boom Boom is surprising, fiery, and heart-felt. Chaudry’s most important recipe contains the ingredients for loving and honoring who we were, who we are, and who we aspire to be.”                     
—Phuc Tran, author of Sigh, Gone: A Misfit’s Memoir of Great Books, Punk Rock, and the Fight to Fit In

“Rabia Chaudry’s Fatty Fatty Boom Boom is a hilarious and brutally honest journey told with candor, charm and wit about learning how to love yourself and your body unapologetically while navigating a roller-coaster of a life populated with eccentric and lovable Pakistani family members, delicious food recipes, awkward childhood crushes, failed diets, and Husky pants. I laughed at characters and scenes that seemed lifted from my own Pakistani home and winced at the colorism and fat-shaming that is often so prevalent but unchallenged in our communities. The big-hearted book takes on all of it with an invitation for all of us to be better, while enjoying a glorious, fried samosa along the way.”
—Wajahat Ali, author of Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on Becoming American 
 
“Rabia Chaudry has given us the next chapter in the story of how food shapes self and how self shapes food. Here is an American, a South Asian woman writing at the intersection of food, tradition, gender, the body and pressures without and the journey within. This is an important and savory work.”
—Michael W. Twitty, James Beard Award-winning author of The Cooking Gene

“A delectable memoir that reads with the intensity of a novel. Devour it all at once, or savor it slowly—there’s no wrong way to enjoy this funny, heart-wrenching, and brutally honest journey of food, family, and learning to love yourself.”
—Geraldine DeRuiter, founder of Everywherist.com and author of All Over the Place

“This unflinching and often humorous memoir of a Pakistani girl shows us Rabia Chaudry’s resilience while highlighting her determination to celebrate the foods she loves. I was rooting for her as she learned to control food instead of food controlling her.”
—Tung Nguyen, author of Mango and Peppercorns
 
  Expand reviews