DECEMBER 2022 - AudioFile
Rabia Chaudry narrates her memoir about food, fatness, and self-acceptance in a welcoming voice that draws listeners right in. She describes the Pakistani food she grew up with in mouthwatering detail and shares stories from her childhood, both good and bad, in an emotional yet assured voice. She doesn’t shy away from trauma, but she also makes space for joy, and it comes through in her narration, especially when she’s writing about foods, people, and places she loves. Though Chaudry’s story is her own to tell, and she does so with honesty and infectious humor, listeners should be aware that this is a story about weight loss. Chaudry posits fatness as a problem to be solved and doesn’t address fatphobia or the systemic oppression fat people face. L.S. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
★ 07/11/2022
Chaudry, cohost of the Undisclosed podcast, celebrates and complicates food and culture with this engrossing account of how both shaped her. Born in Lahore, Pakistan, in 1974, and raised in the U.S. by Muslim immigrant parents, Chaudry was subject to myths of American nutritional supremacy that favored processed foods, as well as baby formula over breast milk. “The abundance of America strained at our skin and clothing,” writes Chaudry, “and our relatives were torn between embarrassment... and mild jealousy.” Internalizing her Pakistani family’s comments that her weight made her undesirable, Rabia married an abusive man and suffered years of disordered eating. A trip to Pakistan, where she eats naan pakora (“a big fluffy carb stuffed with deep fried carbs”) and spends time with relatives who support rather than shame her, becomes a turning point. As she traces her path toward a healthier relationship with food, Chaudry refreshingly eschews conventional narratives about weight loss, as well as fat acceptance (“Don’t make me feel terrible... for not being able to feel great no matter what,” she says to internet scolds), concluding, “I will never deprive myself of the joy of food.” That joy is contagious in descriptions of Pakistani street burgers, the rainbow hues of Punjabi daal, and 50 pages worth of delectable recipes. Victory is sweet and savory in this ebullient tale of self-acceptance. (Nov.)
From the Publisher
Named a Best Book of November/2022 by Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, and Amazon
“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
“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)
"Chaudry eloquently portrays the role of food in love and friendship. At the same time, she doesn’t flinch from reporting the humiliations heaped on the overweight at every turn... The literary equivalent of chaat masala fries: spicy, heady, sour, and uniquely delicious.” —Kirkus (starred review)
“Chaudry is totally engaging, a perfect host. And after her descriptions of food, readers will be very happy to see recipes included at the end. Utterly delicious!” —Booklist (starred)
“…touchingly warm and intimate… Chaudry is an uplifting storyteller and her humor-laden anecdotes balance the underlying gravity of her story with grace and skill. A Pakistani American lawyer struggling with her weight chronicles with humor and sensitivity her path toward inner contentment and shares recipes for chai, ghee and the Pakistani dishes she loves.”—Shelf Awareness
“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 who struggles with her weight and also her family and culture’s reaction to it, 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. The wonderful Pakistani recipes included will surprise anyone who thinks that Indian and Pakistani food are the same.”—Tung Nguyen, author of Mango and Peppercorns
“Those who know Chaudry from the podcast Serial may be surprised to read this bighearted, 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
“Chaudry… pens a delightful and entertaining memoir… mouth-watering descriptions of the foods… Her hilarious anecdotes about her large and supportive family are relatable to any reader with zany relatives.”—Library Journal
“Inspiring… This triumphant tale celebrates loving yourself and eating good food (it even includes recipes!)”—Real Simple
“Chaudry…turns her gimlet eye on her lifelong struggle with weight... Funny, smart and moving, this is a book for anyone with body issues."—Los Angeles Times
Fatty Fatty Boom Boom is much more than skin-deep... this book was very personal—Kate Tuttle, Boston Globe
“Deeply personal…cultural norms about what beauty means and what the ideal body is traverse oceans and continents; the pressure from family to be a certain shape and size have never felt more universal than in this heartfelt memoir.”—Zibby Owens, GoodMorningAmerica.com & ABCNews.com
“Deeply truthful. Chaudry writes authentically, reflecting on her relationship with food, fatness, and diet culture, while also exploring her passion for cooking and her feelings surrounding comments on her body. She includes a recipe section at the end, which many might want after reading her sensational descriptions of Pakistani food.”—Farrah Penn, BuzzFeed
“[Chaudry] frankly and humorously details how she…learned to embrace her body and find joy in food — most significantly, the cuisine of her culture.”—Eater.com
“This is more than a memoir about food and weight — it’s a humorous examination of growing up in a Muslim immigrant family, a love letter to the food of her culture, and a look at society’s expectations about what a body — a woman’s body — should look like.”—Book Riot
“A meal is much more than what’s on your plate, as Rabia Chaudry details in Fatty Fatty Boom Boom, her memoir-with-recipes that delves into body image, disordered eating and the messages we get from our families about food. Exploring the foodways of her birth country and beyond led her to not just delicious bites, but true satisfaction.”—Austin-American Statesman
“Delightful and entertaining… mouthwatering … Her hilarious anecdotes about her large and supportive family are relatable to any reader with zany relatives.”—Library Journal
“A candid and engaging reckoning with fat shaming... an engrossing read that attempts to reckon with two disparate cultures’ shame surrounding body image and obsession with looking thin. But don’t miss the tantalizing recipes... Like everything else in this book, they’ll keep you coming back for seconds.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“Readers will eat it up, finding consolation in Chaudry's story… Atypical of inspirational weight loss books, Fatty Fatty Boom Boom, is, among other things, a love letter to Chaudry's native cuisine.” —NPR.org
“Her writing is funny and sharp and allows readers to delve into the legacy of the South Asian diaspora via its cuisine… It’s an honest look at the relationship with the one thing we all carry with us (quite literally) throughout our lives: our bodies. And it’s a sort of love letter to the food that fuels it.”—Okayplayer
“You may be familiar with the author for the role she played in getting Adnan Syed freed, but trust me, she contains multitudes. This memoir explores her relationship with food and family, with Pakistani and American culture, and how she found her voice and her life.”—The Arts STL
Valerie Bertinelli
A delicious and mouthwatering book about food and family, the complicated love for both, and how that shapes us into who we are . . . I absolutely loved it!”
Library Journal
10/01/2022
Chaudry (Adnan's Story), a podcaster, executive producer, and lawyer most known for being an Adnan Syed advocate, pens a delightful and entertaining memoir of her childhood and early adulthood journey with her weight and nutrition habits, both gains and losses. She details her and her family's immigrant story, their extended family in Pakistan, and their misconceptions of and unexpected delight in aspects of American life and food (they hated the "unseasoned kebab meat" that is the American hamburger). She writes mouth-watering descriptions of the foods of her Pakistani heritage and her adopted American life that gave her joy and brought her family together. She also includes recipes at the end of the book for some of the dishes she raves about, which is a treat for readers. Her hilarious anecdotes about her large and supportive family are relatable to any reader with zany relatives, and she fills out the narrative with descriptions of Pakistani culture, traditions, and her highs and lows as she emerges as the advocate and self-assured figure she is today. VERDICT Recommended for fans of Lindy West and Frank Bruni's Born Round.—Amanda Ray
DECEMBER 2022 - AudioFile
Rabia Chaudry narrates her memoir about food, fatness, and self-acceptance in a welcoming voice that draws listeners right in. She describes the Pakistani food she grew up with in mouthwatering detail and shares stories from her childhood, both good and bad, in an emotional yet assured voice. She doesn’t shy away from trauma, but she also makes space for joy, and it comes through in her narration, especially when she’s writing about foods, people, and places she loves. Though Chaudry’s story is her own to tell, and she does so with honesty and infectious humor, listeners should be aware that this is a story about weight loss. Chaudry posits fatness as a problem to be solved and doesn’t address fatphobia or the systemic oppression fat people face. L.S. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2022-08-17
The highs and lows of a lifelong love affair with food.
Chaudry, a podcaster, lawyer, and author of Adnan's Story, which was adapted as a documentary for HBO, is a gifted storyteller and cultural commentator with a special knack for food writing, as quickly becomes clear in this unblinking account of the high price paid for the pleasures of eating. The author begins in Lahore, Pakistan, where her veterinarian father and school administrator mother married and started their family, moving suddenly to the U.S. while she was still an infant. Jaundiced and scrawny at birth, she was given half-and-half in her baby bottle and frozen butter when she began teething. "You won't believe me when I tell you this, but as God is my witness, I can still taste the salty, cold butter in my mouth melting into heavenly pools,” writes the author. “You have to wonder exactly how many sticks of butter I consumed to leave an indelible mark on my memory. Too many is the only right answer.” This tone of rueful candor continues as she tracks her expanding body into adulthood, with desperate recourse to fad diets, CrossFit, a gastric sleeve operation, and more along the way. The tortures of immigrant life in suburban Maryland; blissful return visits to Pakistan; the hilariously horrible wedding of her aunt, and the equally horrible but not so funny occasion of her own—every episode glitters. Whether she's describing a mad motorcycle mission to score Lahore street food with her overweight uncles, the acquisition of the "freshman 25" with new friends at college, or sharing ice cream in bed with her sweet second husband, Chaudry eloquently portrays the role of food in love and friendship. At the same time, she doesn’t flinch from reporting the humiliations heaped on the overweight at every turn. She also includes a selection of enticing recipes.
The literary equivalent of chaat masala fries: spicy, heady, sour, and uniquely delicious.
