Reviews

The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love by Sonya Renee Taylor

ichewonpushpins's review against another edition

informative reflective fast-paced

3.75

I like the beginning a lot and I think the reflection questions are genuinely helpful. The back half of this book is not what I'd like it to be and contains a lot of references to medical studies that seem...dodgy. One study she mentions was on 35 people. 

I also found it intensely frustrating that after all her talk of the diversity of human experience, she neglected to mention non-sexual ways of giving your body pleasure. She had a paragraph about the lack of orgasms cis women have but did not mention that not everyone wants to have or can have orgasms. It would have been extremely easy to add a brief paragraph about non-sexual forms of body pleasure and personal intimacy, like hot baths, massage, or other ways to love one's self without sex. 

ieatbooks__'s review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.5

aurora_is_reading's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.25

This book talks about fatphobia but the messages Sonya wants to communicate apply to everybody, regardless of body shape. Her words are inspiring and felt like a hug. It made me reflect on my own personal experience and I noticed I need to apply some of the concepts she describes (radical self love, curious enquiry…) more often in my life. I really like she did not put focus on the mere physical aspects of self love, but a more holistic approach that incorporates mind and body.

sam_the_panda's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.5

swaye's review against another edition

5.0

Profound! Life-altering! Transformative!

This book is a beautiful, compassionate gift to the world. I feel Sonya's wisdom course through my whole being like healing light as I choose to change the way I think about my body and reconnect with the radical self-love I've had within me all along.

oftortall's review against another edition

informative lighthearted fast-paced

2.75

mitskacir's review against another edition

2.0

This book really didn't hit me. There were a lot of words in this book that I felt didn't say that much. For such a short book, it was quite repetitive and gave more assurances that I was "divine" and that we were "on a transformative journey together" than actually helping me work through any body dysmorphia or achieve any "radical self-love" (I understand that isn't something that happens from reading a 130 page book and Taylor does articulate that it is a life-long process of work, but this didn't even make me that excited or give me a concrete place to get started). I do appreciate Taylor's inclusive vision of what the "body" is: her book makes you consider how race, age, gender, abilities, etc. are all part of the body, not just the weight or shape of a body. It did make me realize how much of my own body dissatisfaction (past and present) is rooted in racism and ableism, not just fatphobia.

jennmcclafferty's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

4.5

paige71's review against another edition

challenging hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.75

hbrxnnxmxn's review against another edition

informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.5

This book was very thought provoking and a great starting point for radical self love. Sonya Renee Taylor does an excellent job at sharing personal anecdotes, stories from others, academic research, and theoretical examples. Her intersectional approach creates points of reflection not just for our own body positivity, but for the many ways that having bodies and what those bodies look like affect us, our communities, and the world at large. The audiobook was incredibly vibrant and I love that the author narrated. If you are doing audiobook I almost recommend physical book also because there are things I feel I missed or didn’t fully sink in as a result. Regardless, there were many takeaways for me!