Shrill by Lindy West

Important note: I listened to an audio of this book and I would be very careful with your children in the car. No, I wouldn't know from experience. 

This is not the kind of book that one would want to pick up or listen to if you are a) sensitive or b) take offense when you hear bad language in a book. Once you have decided you don't fall into the categories above, you can read/listen to Shrill and really appreciate the honesty of the author and I found her stories to be hilarious, and, at times, truly heartbreaking. It is quite remarkable that we live in a world where people feel that they can be disrespectful to a person simply based on their size. Being able to hide behind a screen while shaming someone is a growing epidemic, and I am grateful for the Lindy West's of the world who help us all feel a little more "loud" and proud. 

The one big take-away for me was teaching my kids (especially my girl) that no matter what anyone says, she always holds the power.  

Synopsis via Amazon

Coming of age in a culture that demands women be as small, quiet, and compliant as possible--like a porcelain dove that will also have sex with you--writer and humorist Lindy West quickly discovered that she was anything but. 

From a painfully shy childhood in which she tried, unsuccessfully, to hide her big body and even bigger opinions; to her public war with stand-up comedians over rape jokes; to her struggle to convince herself, and then the world, that fat people have value; to her accidental activism and never-ending battle royale with Internet trolls, Lindy narrates her life with a blend of humor and pathos that manages to make a trip to the abortion clinic funny and wring tears out of a story about diarrhea.

With inimitable good humor, vulnerability, and boundless charm, Lindy boldly shares how to survive in a world where not all stories are created equal and not all bodies are treated with equal respect, and how to weather hatred, loneliness, harassment, and loss, and walk away laughing. Shrill provocatively dissects what it means to become self-aware the hard way, to go from wanting to be silent and invisible to earning a living defending the silenced in all caps.