Manolo for the Big Girl

For this week’s book selection, Francesca thought it would be nice to choose a nice little group of of books and other items honoring those of our readers who will soon be celebrating Passover. But, my goodness, there is a wide selection for the Big Girls! (ha! Francesca puns!)

Here is a cookbook which would make a lovely house gift for one’s hosts for a Passover seder. Francesca notices while reading the “about this book” section that the recipes are gluten-free! But of course, that makes sense! Passover must be pay-dirt for gluten-free peoples!

So here is another beautiful, gluten-free book!

Here is the cookbook which Francesca herself would use, if she were Jewish, since she can hardly boil water without starting a fire. But it could also form the basis of a fun Sunday in the kitchen with her nieces and nephews. If they were Jewish. But, well, Francesca supposes that anyone can love kiddie chicken soup and glazed carrots. Even little Catholic children, yes?

Hah! It is a Passover Bag O’ Plagues. Francesca is amused by this toy!

And in the “most random holiday gift items Francesca has ever seen” category, we have The So Called Seder: A Hip Hop Haggadah on CD. Francesca has no words.

Happy cleaning and happy holidays! xoxo

Here, for your amusement, is Francesca’s absolute favorite excerpt from Wake Up, I’m Fat!:

Protesting injustice is a way of life in my family. One summer in Santa Cruz I was arrested and thrown in jail for participating in a pro-choice rally. So I called my parents to get me out.

CAM: Mom, Mom, I’m in jail.

MOM: You’re what?

CAM: I’m in jail, Mom.

MOM: Oh my God, what for?

CAM: Mom, I was arrested for participating in a pro-choice rally.

MOM: Oh, honey, that’s wonderful. Mazeltov! Jerry, Camryn got arrested for civil disobedience.

DAD: That’s great, honey, Go Go Go! Fight fight fight.

MOM: Stop it, Jerry. It’s long distance prime time, for God’s sake.

CAM: (screaming) Mom? Get me out of jail!

MOM: No, honey, you stay in there and make your point.

Click. 

 

OK, Francesca is very, very excited about this one!

You see, for many years Francesca has been following a super-fantastic fantasy epic called The Wheel of Time, by Robert Jordan. This is by far the longest series she has ever read, but to give you an idea of how popular it is, and how many fans stuck through with it even when it started to feel like it was getting a leetle too long, when Francesca went into Barnes and Noble to buy Book 10, the clerk asked “What is this book? It’s been going like hot-cakes.” Yes indeed! Books 8-11 reached #1 on the NY Times bestseller list! Because the world which Jordan has created is incredibly rich, with characters drawn so well that Francesca is sure she would recognize any one of them if they passed her on the street. There are multiple continents, multiple countries with multiple cultures, a good 1800 characters, and while of course there is the one heroic “good guy” and his friends, and a horrible “bad guy” and his cronies, there are also other groups of people who fall on the spectrum of “good,” “bad,” or “both,” depending on their agenda.

Anyhow, the tragedy of this series is that Jordan died before completing the final book. It was a horrible, horrible day for the fans.

But Francesca just found out — a bit belatedly — that before he passed on, Jordan left copious notes about what was to happen in the final installment, including chapter outlines, a near-complete draft of the final chapter, and voice recordings adding details to help tie up loose ends. His wife-editor has just hired an established writer to complete the last installment on Jordan’s behalf. And so, someday not-soon-enough, the Wheel of Time will finally turn for the last time. And now Francesca feels safe recommending the series, because you can “get into it” secure in the knowledge that the epic climax will, indeed, be provided.

Book One:  The Eye of the WorldBook Two:  The Great Hunt
Book Three: The Dragon RebornBook Four:  The Shadow Rising
Book Five: The Fires of Heaven Book Six:  Lord of Chaos
Book Seven:  A Crown of Swords Book Eight:  The Path of Daggers
Book Nine:  Winter’s Heart Book Ten:  Crossroads of Twilight
Book Eleven:  Knife of Dreams

Book Twelve will be the final installment.

As you can see, the reading of this series is a big project to undertake. And a wonderful one!

Francesca loves the fantasy epics!

And now, a question for those of you who are already fans: What Ajah would you join? Francesca is thinking Green because they are the best-dressed and the coolest. But Gray also holds its attractions. What about you?

Here is another amusing exerpt, chosen randomly from our Bible, the superfantastic Wake Up, I’m Fat!:

The Road to Wellville was a film about bodies. All kinds of them. Fat, thin, short, funny looking, and Alan was looking for people with all kinds of body shapes. He asked me if I could ride a horse, and once again, like all well-trained actors I told him, “Absolutely.” If he had pursued it, I was prepared to tell him that I spent every summer at my family’s ranch in, uh, Montana, just a two-day trot from Peoria. Never mind that I hadn’t been on a horse in over twenty years. Then he asked me how I would feel about getting naked. I said, “I feel fine about it, how would you feel?” He laughed, which I sensed was a big accomplishment. Finally I just said, “Listen, I’ll ride a horse naked if you want me to.” I got the part. That was the good news. The bad news: He really expected me to follow through on that whole get-naked thing. You’d think I would have learned by now, but knee-jerk I-can-do-it actor’s instincts still get me in trouble. Like, when the publishers of this book asked, “Do you really think you can write a book?” “Sure,” I said. “I spend every summer at my family’s book-writing camp in Montana. The problem was that they actually wanted me to write a book, which is a damed sight harder than getting naked.

Francesca wants to know: What would be easier for you, writing a memoir or getting naked in a feature film?

Francesca says, for herself: Getting naked in a feature film is much less time-consuming, but would require many, many shots of Frog Water Cocktail to happen.

I know, I know, the book recommendations are usually Francesca’s gig. Well, I’m hijacking it for today.

I recently found myself at loose ends for new reading material. For once, the pleasures of re-reading Anthony Trollope and PG Wodehouse seemed somehow lacking. I wandered into my favorite local bookstore and began browsing the shelves.

When I do this, I invariably check out the cooking section, because I love to cook. In fact, cookbooks rank as my personal pornography of choice. Reading a good recipe, I find my breathing going shallow as my mind conjurs up a vision of making and serving dish after glorious dish. I can smell each ingrediant as it sizzles in my mental pans. I can practically taste the combinations right there on the page.

So when I spotted this book, well, my interest was piqued immediately.

After all, if there’s one thing in the world I love more than good cooking, it’s good writing about cooking. The combination is irresistable to me. More than that, I was always the kid in class who wanted to know why the people in the history books did what they did. It wasn’t enough for me to know that so and so invented such and such or this person assassinated that person. I wanted to understand what made them do these things.

So finding the crossroads between food, words, and the whys and wherefores of personal choice made buying this book inevitable.

Now I’m basking in the joys of reading great cooks talk about cooking. From Anthony Bourdain explaining how to pick the right dish to prepare on a morning news show (hint: do not do steak au poivre, no matter how quick and flashy it is lest you risk setting off the studio sprinklers) to Mario Battali talking about how he learned that more is not always better while working in a tiny Italian trattoria where pasta rolling machines were held in great contempt, to Rick Bayless recounting his childhood obssession with Julia Child, the stories are heartfelt and told in entertaining voices. Some resonate more specifically with me than others do, of course, but all the ones I’ve read thus far have delighted me in their various ways.

So if you love food or a good story that really says something about how someone ticks, do yourself a favor and read How I Learned To Cook.

And if you have a good story from your own culinary education, I’d love to read it.

Francesca has been trying to think of a way to put a light, frothy spin on this question, but cannot think of any, so she will just put it out there.

When Francesca was perhaps 11 or 12 years old, her Aunt Bianca came from America with a gift for Francesca: a book in English called Nothing’s Fair in Fifth Grade.

Francesca thinks the book was meant to be fat positive, in the way that fat positive was in the 1970’s and early 1980’s: the message was that Fat Girls are people too, and can make great friends, so do not make fun of your fat classmates!

The story ends with the Fat Girl losing a few pounds, which is correlated with her emerging popularity and happiness. Still, the book ends with the image that though she has lost some weight, she’s still quite heavy - and that’s basically OK. On the last page she notes that she can finally see her shoes, and Francesca, who was fat as a child, remembers relating to that line.

So Francesca asked Aunt Bianca to send her more books about fat girls, and received in the mail Me and Fat Glenda and Hey, Remember Fat Glenda?

Francesca barely remembers Me and Fat Glenda, probably because the main character was actually the skinny girl, who had conflicts with her hippie parents, and since Francesca’s parents are as far from hippie as two people can possibly be, she did not relate. But she well remembers the sequel.

In this book, Fat Glenda has lost a lot of weight. So much weight that she is now, if not slender, at least slender enough that boys are starting to notice her, if not exactly the boys she wants (and therein lies the conflict and the comedy). But — Francesca noticed then — on the cover was a VERY slender girl, admiring her figure in a mirror.

Francesca was disturbed, but did not know why. Now she knows: while the book gave the message that being thin would not solve all your problems, it also gave the message that being thin brought with it the wonderful problem of boyfriends. Clearly, if Glenda had remained fat, the entire plot of this book would be unthinkable, because fat girls need to focus on losing weight, not on boys. Or, at least, that is what Francesca got from it at the time.

Francesca wants to know: Did you read the Fat Glenda books as a child? And if so, what did you think of them then?

Were there other books with fat characters that you loved? Hated?

After seeing a movie preview for Prince Caspian, Francesca is re-reading The Chronicles of Narnia and loves it! There is a great debate about the order in which the books should be read; Francesca recommends reading them in the order in which they were written, not the order in which they take place chronologically. Anyway, here is the “movie tie-in” edition of Prince Caspian, and here is the boxed set of the entire Chronicles of Narnia series, which makes a great gift for yourself or others.

After Francesca suggested Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone, Ottermatic wrote:

Oh Wilkie Collins! How I love thee. I just read  The Woman in White and it is one of my favorite books now.

(Francesca, too, has The Woman in White on her bookshelf!) 

And Margo wrote:

   I love book recommendations - from intelligent people with oodles of style and class, that is. Have been on a bit of an autobiography kick lately, after I discovered V.S. Pritchett’s short stories I tracked down his memoir A Cab at the Door, which I can’t recommend highly enough.

(Francesca says: Thanks for the implicit compliment!)

And in response to Francesca’s love of The Handmaid’s Tale, two readers recommended other books by the same author:

   Margaret Atwood is the best. Oryx and Crake is my second fave after Handmaid…third on the list is The Robber Bride, which is intelligent, yet somehow manages to be a fantastic “beach read”.

Happy reading!

xoxo!

If the pencil skirt which Francesca recommended a couple of days ago is too conservative for you, here is a more youthful version from Torrid

which can be paired to fun effect with this adorable blouse:

The quality of the material is not as high as that of the other, but if you are the fun, flirty, fantastic girl and Francesca saw you wearing this, she would approve.

And look! While we are on the topic of adorable red clothing with little white dots, lookie at this cute bathing suit from Silhouettes, which Francesca might scoop up for herself:

And if you are a Pear, this red shirtdress (also in blue, black, and brown) could become a staple of your wardrobe:

More:

Red Shoes

Ann Likes Red

Happy shopping!

xoxo!

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!

Five minutes and 58 seconds into her amazing first Fat Rant video, Joy Nash points out that sometimes, we blame things on our fat that are really not about our fat, but about others of our flaws (we all have them), or about factors that have nothing to do with us at all.

And, when we finally admit that not everything revolves around our fat, it can be quite liberating. Paradoxically, admitting that we’re flawed and make mistakes and turn people off for reasons like, say, our bitchiness, is actually quite freeing and empowering . . . more empowering than blaming everything on being fat, just to avoid the pain of examining what else might be “wrong” with ourselves.

Here is Manheim’s take on this idea, from her book “Wake Up, I’m Fat!” (a.k.a. The Best Fat Girl Book Ever):

What if I stopped blaming [my anthropomorphized fat] for everything? What if I stopped using him as an excuse? What if I stopped hiding behind him and entered into a covenant with myself that if I failed as an actor or a lover, it was my fault, my responsibility? It wouldn’t be easy. I would have so much more at stake, which meant I was going to have to work harder, prepare more thoroughly, and redouble my commitment to my art. From that point forward I wouldn’t let myself off the hook so easily with a simple “They didn’t choose me because I’m fat.” No, if they didn’t choose me, it was because I didn’t wow them. I stopped relying on my ever-present alibi and put all my energies into wowing them. These were my first baby steps on the journey of self-acceptance. And a funny thing happened on the way to the self-love forum: I learned that confidence, courage, and a little bit of sass can be very seductive.

Francesca has mixed feelings about this idea.

On the one hand, it ignores the fact that there are many, many people who — consciously or subconsciously — do indeed deny jobs or service or love to fat people, no matter how confident, talented, and giving the fat person may be.

On the other hand, there’s no denying that confidence, talent, and generosity of spirit go a long way, and that sometimes, the reasons people deny us what we want are not about our fat. They are about something else entirely, like our messiness or lateness or our having blonde hair when the guy likes brunettes.

Or they are about the frown we put on, the negative vibes we emit, when we worry and fret about how much our fat might stand in our way, instead of focusing with a smile on our gifts.