Making Light of Being Heavy by Kandy Siahaya

Synopsis from publicist website:  These days everyone has a society-driven mindset and totally forget to laugh, especially at themselves. This may be cliche but the author truly believes that laughter is the best medicine and thinks everybody should laugh every day. Period. Over the years as a person blessed with the fat gene, Kandy has been in many situations where if she could not find humor she probably would end up on the couch in the psychiatrist s office. This book is about as politically incorrect as it gets for such a subject but it is also based on reality. This is a reality that many women have just like Kandy but do not think they can (or should) at times just laugh about it. Her intention when she started writing this book was to hopefully give insight to many who could never relate but at the same time perhaps provide a different perspective to women just like her. It is a point of view that has given her the strength to live her life happily and project these feelings onto everyone she comes in contact with. She has a great sense of humor and a quick wit and guarantees you will be laughing (and thinking) with each chapter of Making Light of Being Heavy.


My thoughts:  This is a very quick read at 90 pages long.   It is fantastic that the author has embraced her weight and is okay with who she is.  In this day and age, self acceptance especially among women is difficult to achieve.  Parts of the story reminded me of a stand up comedy act, others felt like she was defending her choices.  There was a lot of information on various popular diets ranging from the gimmicky diets to the tried and true.  Kandy relates her successes and failures with each. 


I've read some of the reviews and I know that I'm in the minority when I say that this book wasn't quite what I expected.  I guess I was looking for more of a memoir about what her life is like  and how she handles the prejudice that can exist against larger people.  I thought it would be more personal stories that would let me get to know Kandy as a person not just stories about why she is fat.  I was looking for fewer fat jokes and more of her personality to shine through.  


Here are a couple of the other reviews that I found:


As the pages turn
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This book was provided to me by the publicist for review.