So this is yet another great read thanks to all of you lovelies. I would never in a million years have picked this one up, but when y’all keep raving I reconsider (as long as it’s not horror, I don’t do horror). The audiobook version is great, and I was immensely entertained for a few days in the car. This is the story of Willowdean Dixon. Willowdean is a teenager in small town Texas just trying to make it through high school. She has a […]
Bringing a little FNL back into my life is always a good thing.
A few years back, when I still had a toddler that took naps, I used to have enough time to watch one episode of Netflix TV (sometimes two, if it was a good sleep day) every morning. I’d fold laundry or do arm weights or something, so I felt like I was getting something of use done. And then I discovered Friday Night Lights. Once I found myself in the world of Mr. & Mrs. Coach, Matt Saracen and Landry, and Tim Riggins, that was […]
I wanna be in the room where it happens
This book was super cute and sort of made me feel like I was on the verge of tears the entire time? Part of that was PMS, sure, but another big part of that is that reading this sort of felt like someone was poking me right in the center of my cold, dead heart. Which is uncomfortable. Willowdean is a fat (she doesn’t say overweight, she doesn’t see anything wrong with describing herself as fat) teenager living in a small Texas town as obsessed […]
“I hate seeing fat girls on TV or in movies, because the only way the world seems to be okay with putting a fat person on camera is if they’re miserable with themselves or if they’re the jolly best friend. Well, I’m neither of those things. ..”
I liked the message behind Dumplin’ a lot. It’s great to see a body positive YA protagonist with sass. I also have a weird obsession with beauty pageants. It seems like this should have been the perfect book for me…but it fell a bit short. The pageant really isn’t a huge part of the story. It’s more about relationships: Will and her mother, Will and her coworker/kinda boyfriend Bo, Will and best friend Ellen. The story isn’t bad by any means, but I really wanted […]
Happy, Beautiful, AND Fat
This was one of my must reads for 2015. Willowdean Dickson (self-identifying fat girl) is a Texan teenager with a beauty queen for a mother. Over the summer she falls in love with a coworker named Bo aka Peachbutt. Events conspire and she decides to sign up for the Miss Teen Blue Bell pageant her mother runs, even though she’s not the typical beauty queen contestant. With her best friend, Ellen, by her side, she navigates the tricky terrain of adolescence. I had great expectations […]