It Was Me All Along by Andie Mitchell

I've followed Andie Mitchell’s well-beloved Can You Stay for Dinner? blog for quite some time. I always found her realistic posts about food and weight to be uplifting when so many other “success stories” had a ring of falsehood or exclusivity. Not everything Andie eats is healthy. She lives in a world of moderation. She walks instead of runs. She misses eating the entire cake. She know what it means to really want pizza (and by “pizza,” I mean the whole pie). As someone who can relate to her relationship with food, I was intrigued to learn more about her life and what brought her into being who she is now.

It turns out Andie’s book quickly fulfilled the requisite for “a book that makes you cry,” because this girl has lived a very hefty slice of life and come out the other side self-aware and ready for action. I know many reviewers have stated they disliked Andie’s memoir or felt it was not the book they thought it would be going into their purchase. They wanted a diet book or an exercise guideline, but that isn’t what a memoir is when laid out bare. It's meant to be a recount of a life in detail, and that is certainly what was received.

I pre-ordered this book via Kindle as soon as it was available for such a thing, and then, honestly, forgot it until it showed up in early January. I waited a moment before starting (having already begun my first book in a trilogy) and listed it promptly as either my "memoir" or “book published this year” on my 2015 challenge – not anticipating it would jump categories. It went down quickly, and I enjoyed every morsel. It may be the case that I post a book talk soon to further discuss the details. 

Andie’s writing style is true and honest. Her descriptions of food come from a place of reverence – as anyone who genuinely adores a meal can boast – and they were often my favorite parts of the book. However, her reflections on her relationships and on her abusive past with food and overeating were quite poignant to me, staying with me long after I finished the last chapter. I found myself feeling convicted for my decisions in regards to “wanting” to lose weight and considering that gym membership I dutifully pay for without use month after month.

In the end, I think Andie succeeded in what she set out to do: give you a sumptuous, toothsome bite of what it means to be big in a world obsessed with small, a reminder to love yourself and chase what matters to you.  I would recommend it. Thanks for sharing, Andie.

The History of My Insanity by Trisha Paytas

If you've been an active participant within in the YouTube community anywhere from 2006 to the present, you're probably not a stranger to Trisha Paytas and her blndsundoll4mj channel – even if just to roll your eyes and move on about your day. Trisha is known for posting, shall we say, controversial videos about religion, politics, and sex using a “character” she’s created to ruffle some feathers. She’s a self-professed troll, but she’s so convincing at times it can still be hard to stomach.

I've spent a considerable amount of time both watching and avoiding her videos, as I think many others might also claim. However, after re-subscribing a couple weeks ago, I've settled on the opinion that, for the most part, I like Trish. Although a little vapid at times, I think she seems like a sweet person who genuinely wants to be a good daughter, friend, and sister. And, when not trying to upset everyone within an arm’s reach, she’s bubbly, fun and always looking for her next shopping trip – which, if you're like me, is always sort of interesting to see.

I picked up her “book” because it was cheap on Amazon (currently $3.99 on kindle, for anyone interested). For all her videos on YouTube, there’s not a lot of concrete, straight-forward information about her past, so I thought it would be something to satisfy my curiosity, if nothing else.  

First thing’s first, to me… this is a short story. There isn't a world where you should pay more than $4.00 for a “book” that only reaches up to 82 pages unless it’s coming from a highly sought-after author or celebrity. So, I'm not sure exactly where my opinion falls on this. On one hand, I applaud Trisha Paytas for keeping her books at a realistic cost. On the other hand, I feel we're somewhat cheated by being promised her life story and being handed something watered-down and vague.

Trisha has, to her credit, lived a very full and interesting life. Her relationship with her family, especially her (highly questionable) mother, is curious to me. She’s lived several places and actively sought what she wanted in life, and I think that’s something that should be commended, since so few people are willing to push themselves outside of their comfort zones.

That being said, many of the details of her book seem falsified, and she contradicts herself regularly within its pages. This is a theme between her books. Her “entirely true” sequel, The Stripper Diaries, starts off with an entry from 2006 that references Fifty Shades of Grey… a book published in 2011. Many of the things she claims have a blurred line: is it an exaggeration (no place for it in this type of book, but excusable) or is she making this up (more likely)? Her writing style reads exactly in the same voice she speaks – for good or bad, and, while she does give you a skeletal outline of her life, where she is, and how she got there, it is not what I would consider to be enough content for a memoir or biography. Her story lacks a certain meat that is required to be considered an entire success, and I came away feeling I knew very little more about Trisha except that she’s far more spoiled than I would have ever dreamed. I went in hoping to learn to like her more, and I found the opposite waited for me. 

It’s my hope that, much like her YouTube channel, much of her memoir is purposely blown up for effect, which would explain her inability to expand further on the details. It doesn't excuse the lack of material, but I’d like to give her the benefit of the doubt. If you like Trisha Paytas’s YouTube channel, it isn't an expensive read (although that doesn’t account for any time you spend on it), so it may be worth it to you to pick up. It may give you (slightly) further insight into her past or her personality. With all due respect to Trisha, I doubt I will be reading it again or recommending other people read it for a first time.

Super Stiches Sewing by N. Vasbinder

I took sewing classes ages ago in the pursuit of designing stuffed animals and aprons with my best friend in middle school. Since that time, I've been more or less regulated to hand sewing as all memories of the sewing machine lessons I received have flown out the proverbial door.

My sister-in-law, an accomplished seamstress, whips up all sorts of fantastical costumes with her sewing machine, and she and my mother-in-law decided to purchase a Singer Curvy for me a couple Christmases ago because they knew I wanted to get back in the swing of things. Since then, I've been pleased with the things I've created: a Nintendo 3DS case, a Christmas ornament, a cat bed, but I've been stuck using a straight stitch outside of the odd embellishment (where I have no idea of the proper use).

So I decided to look into Super Stitches Sewing in an effort to understand my machine just a little bit better, and it helped me do just that. First of all, the quality of the book - the cover, the binding, the feel of the pages - is fantastic. Reference books have to hold up to the rigors of heavy use, and I've been pleased with the feel of the book as I hold it open with my coffee mug or elbow while balancing bobbins and thread.

The contents of the book itself and the explanation of each of the stitches is very straightforward and easy to follow. It's, truly, exactly what I needed: a list of stitches and the details of what they can do. Most of the time when I've looked for explanations I get long, rolling (tl;dr) paragraphs that make my eyes cross or limited lists of a few basic stitches with very little information where I'm expected to "fill in the gaps." There's a lot of power in straight-forward simplicity, and this book made more sense to me than anything I've read online in the past on the subject, truth be told.

It truly helped me understand my machine a bit better, took a lot of (unnecessary) mystery out of the "fancy" stitches listed next to that old familiar straight stitch, and I feel it improved my experience sewing by a large margin. I enjoy being able to have an easy place to go back to and understand what I'm doing better. I would highly recommend checking this book out if your machine has been a bit of a mystery. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

I received this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for an honest review.