Manolo for the Big Girl has an extremely intelligent and well-read readership!
In the next few weeks, Francesca will highlight comments from various readers in which they tell us about their favorite books. Francesca has not yet read these books, but plans to! Thanks to all who tell us about their favorite reads so we can all feed our minds and souls as well as our voluptuous bodies!
Leah wrote:
Speaking of books that change your body image, my two cents is to recommend Eve Ensler’s The Good Body, which is not specifically for big girls but does a beautiful job of putting body insecurity and the market frenzy that feeds on it in perspective. At the end of a book that is alternately poignant, hilarious, and shocking, I found I was able to see myself in a much more appreciative light. I’ve shared it with most of the women in my life and now, I suppose, I am sharing it with you! It’s a quick, easy read that you will find hard not to pass around to women you love, no matter what their shape.
In response to Francesca’s recommendation of Guy Gavriel Kay’s fantasy novel Tigana, Icy wrote:
Try The Lions of al-Rassan if you’re looking for another fabulous read, and the Sailing to Sarantium two book series.
And regarding the idea that some books improve with age (that is, our age), class factotum says:
Great Expectations changed from a boring chore in 9th grade to a “I can’t wait to see what happens next” my sophomore year of college.
Oh, yes, Great Expectations! Francesca loves! (now, but not in 8th grade)
For the funny bone, Das Boots says:
To share the love of David Sedaris, I very highly recommend Barrel Fever and Other Stories. Mr. Boots and I made the mistake of getting the book on tape for a road trip, and had to pull off the road several times until we could stop crying. It’s seriously that funny.
Readers also recommended other books by Sedaris: Me Talk Pretty One Day(a favorite of Francesca’s, too!), Naked, and Holidays on Ice. Here is a Box Set of audio cassettes of four of his books!
(At a reader’s suggestion, Francesca bought Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim and loved it. She warns that Sedaris is best enjoyed like rich chocolate, in bits and pieces; don’t read it straight through.)
More to come next week. Happy reading!
I love David Sedaris so much that I can’t help but read all of his stuff as soon as possible. It’s a guilt-free binge. I just finish wishing there were more.
Comment by cheeky — February 14, 2008 @ 4:18 pm
Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin series. Twenty novels, and possibly the best historical fiction series ever written.
Don’t be put off by the fact that they’re genre novels, or war novels, or sea novels. They’re just simply wonderful novels.
And please don’t be put off by that stupid Russell Crowe movie. (“Let’s see…. This beloved and highly regarded novel is about a huge young English naval officer on his first command during the early days of Napoleon’s ascendancy, and the officer’s complex and dangerous physician/spy best friend. So let’s jam in random elements from two books much later in the series, change the Americans they fight to French so as not to annoy the colonials, cast a short 40-year-old Australian in the lead, and turn the friend into a bumbling clod! That’ll work!”)
Comment by Bridey — February 15, 2008 @ 12:44 pm
Oh, dear Francesca, I love your book recs. My recs to you, since I admire your appreciation of older, classic fiction, is to discover Edna Ferber. She wrote Giant, (later a movie w/ Liz Taylor, James Dean and Rock Hudson); Show Boat (and the play of the same name); won a Pulitzer for So Big; and has written several excellent collections of short stories (one to look for is One Basket). Just to name a few. I also revisited Steinbeck several years ago, and The Grapes of Wrath is riveting.
And, of course, I adore David Sedaris. :)
Comment by rosarita — February 15, 2008 @ 7:38 pm