More, Please

April 15, 2024
A memoir that examines disordered eating and body image. In this "hybrid memoir-in-interviews," Vogue culture writer Specter blends her own struggles with binge eating and body image with the voices of prominent body-positive writers, including Carmen Maria Machado and Roxane Gay, to show how representation can be a healing agent. "The fat influencers and artists and writers and actors and musicians I sought out on social media when I first began to exceed the sizes that most stores kept in stock (or even manufactured) provided the road map that pointed me toward my current identity as a fat, mostly happy, out-and-proud dyke and decidedly fat-positive human being," she writes. The author takes readers through relatable phases of her life in chapters titled "Watch," about how so many girls learn from media presentations what the "ideal body" looks like; "Gorge," detailing the struggles of living with binge-eating disorder; and "Move," about finding joy through exercise of all kinds, not just the calorie-burning forms. Specter dives deep into her personal experience, but she never loses track of the far-reaching, societal factors that contribute to and arise out of diet culture and the shaming of fat bodies. "At a certain point," she writes, "when we're still selling diet plans to kids and rewarding grown women for fitting into sample sizes, I think we have to admit that our national obsession with being small isn't just some tragic holdover from the aughts; its affirmation of white supremacist, cis-heteropatriarchal notions about physical appearance and intrinsic worth." Though the author covers a lifetime of body image issues, her emphasis on the difficulty of the pandemic years for disordered eating is a fresh, timely take, which readers of all sizes will appreciate. An inspiring personal account of living with an eating disorder and finding joy in a fat body.

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Starred review from May 13, 2024
In this smart first outing, Vogue writer Specter braids journalism and autobiography to unpack her battle with binge-eating disorder. The chronological narrative begins with her girlhood, which she uses as a prism to explore how diet culture can sour relationships between mothers and daughters. Specter’s weight yo-yoed as she entered young adulthood and internalized the idea that fat was “the one thing I couldn’t be if I wanted to be loved.” She lost 50 pounds with Weight Watchers, but “the part that felt fundamentally unworthy was harder to shed.” After moving from L.A. to New York City and coming out as queer in her 20s, Specter reorganized her relationship with food, and eventually came to accept herself as “a fat, mostly happy, out-and-proud dyke.” Interwoven throughout are insightful interviews with science reporter Sabrina Imbler, weight-discrimination expert Virgie Tovar, and others who compare their own experiences with body image and disordered eating against broader social trends. Specter’s incisive report will intrigue readers of all sizes. Agent: Natalie Edwards, Trellis Literary Management.

June 21, 2024

This debut book by Vogue culture writer Specter is a narrative about eating disorders and their associated culture. Specter discusses their own relationship with dieting and bingeing through childhood, their teenage years, their first professional writing job, and the COVID lockdown. To discuss perspectives about food and body images, the book also incorporates the experiences of yoga instructors, athletes, physical trainers, and burlesque dancers who've historically been expected to have specific body types. Specter also shares quotes from their favorite food writers, which encouraged them to enjoy eating and cooking as treasured sensory experiences. They explain what strategies have worked for them in coping with body anxiety as eating-disorder recovery led to new insights about dating, mental health, work, and exercise. VERDICT This book's tone is compassionate as Specter creates a foundation for accepting oneself and rejecting stereotypes. Self-help, sociology, entertainment, and memoir readers from many generations will appreciate this wholehearted approach, which challenges society to do a better job of understanding the realities of eating disorders.--Catherine Lantz

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