The Bennet Women - Eden Appiah-Kubi

Initial Draw: ☆☆☆☆☆
Character Development: ☆☆☆☆☆
Plot/Writing Style: ☆☆☆☆
Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Welcome to Bennet House, the only all-women's dorm at prestigious Longbourn University, home to three close friends who are about to have an eventful year. EJ is an ambitious Black engineering student. Her best friend, Jamie, is a newly out trans woman studying French and theater. Tessa is a Filipina astronomy major with guy trouble. For them, Bennet House is more than a residence - it's an oasis of feminism, femininity, and enlightenment. But as great as Longbourn is for academics, EJ knows it can be a wretched place to find love.

Yet the fall season is young and brimming with surprising possibilities. Jamie's prospect is Lee Gregory, son of a Hollywood producer and a gentleman so charming he practically sparkles. That leaves EJ with Lee's arrogant best friend, Will. For Jamie's sake, EJ must put up with the disagreeable, distressingly handsome, not quite famous TV actor for as longa s she can.

What of it? EJ has her eyes on a bigger prize, anyway: launching a spectacular engineering career in the "real world" she's been hearing so much about. But what happens when all their lives become entwined in ways no one could have predicted - and EJ finds herself drawn to a man who's not exactly a perfect fit for the future she has planned?"

📚📚📚 

Oh, I do love a Pride & Prejudice retelling! And between this and Debating Darcy, I've been reading some winners recently. (Next up: Most Ardently by Gabe Cole Novoa. Honestly, an embarrassment of riches.) Please note, in case you have interest in reading this, this review will contain some degree of spoilers. Read on with caution.

Similarly to Debating Darcy, I enjoyed that the original characters were incorporated into this story in different ways. Instead of SISTER sisters, they're dorm sisters...it's not really a sorority, right? Although it seems like there are similarities. Anyway, they're chosen family instead of blood family, and the way that they connect and relate to each other is way different and really sweet. 

Additionally, while a bit heavy-handed at times, I enjoyed the way some of the more hurtful moments in the original were honored while being handled differently. For example, Jamie and Lee have bumpy relationship moments, but the way they communicate and resolve them, instead of one of them essentially ghosting, is so sweet. (Sidenote: It really tickles me to think of Bingley leaving in the original as ghosting) Also, while a version of Darcy's terrible first confession of love is incorporated, I like that this confession was a. basically a rough draft and b. shared with other people instead of EJ, so then they could say hey, dufus, that's SO insulting! Instead of EJ's feelings being further hurt.  

If I had one gripe with this book, it would be that there was a little too much crammed in, so instead of REALLY developing one or two things about each character we got lots of partially developed things. Still fine, just a small grumble. Outside of that, and beyond my comparisons to the original inspiration, I found this story enjoyable as its own thing. I loved seeing so many passionate, inspiring women coming together and supporting each other, the way the various families, found or otherwise, supported each other was lovely, and while there were ups and downs and the book dealt with serious things, like discrimination in STEM, disordered eating, and addiction, there was so much encouragement and having each others' backs that it was just...so lovely and ultimately uplifting to read. 

Final thought, I found it very fitting that garbage people Carrie and Jordan ended up together and that Colin got dumped. Very much appreciate those choices.

Anti-Diet - Christy Harrison

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"If you're like most people, you've dieted at some point in your life. You've had negative thoughts about your body, carefully counted your calories, and obsessed over the ever-changing rules of "healthy eating." But studies have shown that well over 90 percent of people who manage to lose weight regain it within five years. If dieting is so ineffective, why are we so obsessed with it?

The culprit is diet culture, a system of beliefs that equates thinness with health and even moral virtue, promotes weight loss as a means to attaining higher status, and demonizes certain ways of eating while elevating others. It's sexist, racist, and classist, yet this approach to thinking about food and bodies is so embedded in the fabric of our society that it can be hard to identify. It masquerades as health, wellness, and fitness, and for some, it is all-consuming.

In Anti-Diet, Christy Harrison, a registered dietitian nutritionist, takes on diet culture and the multibillion-dollar industries that profit from it, exposing all the ways it robs people of their time, money, well-being, and happiness. It will turn what you believe about health and wellness upside down, as Harrison explores the history of diet culture, how it has infiltrated the world of health and wellness, all the sneaky forms it can take, and how letting go of efforts to lose weight or eat "perfectly" actually helps to improve people's health - no matter their size. Based on scientific research, Harrison's personal experience, and stories from her patients and colleagues, Anti-Diet provides a radical alternative to diet culture and will help you reclaim your body, mind, and life so you can focus on things that truly matter."

This book is life-changing. I couldn't stop underlining and taking notes as I read it, and I want to give a copy to everyone I know. As someone who has struggled since high school with disordered eating, yo-yo and bandwagon dieting, weight fluctuations, etc, every word Christy wrote resonated with me. When I reflect back on times I have lost weight, it has always been as a result of extreme dieting, it has never been sustainable, and sitting here reflecting on it, was it worth the effort and the misery of constantly being hungry, crabby, and tired? FUCK NO. Especially when I take into account that regardless of how high or low my weight was, my actual scientific measurements of health like cholesterol levels and blood pressure have been excellent and, more importantly, have never changed. If being fat or gaining weight is unhealthy, then at 30-40 pounds heavier than I was ten years ago shouldn't other indicators of health be getting worse?

Things that make you go "hmmm..."

I am so grateful that a friend of mine read this book and recommended it to me. In the last few months, I have been focusing my energy on mental health and self care, and part of that focus included tackling my body dysmorphia. What better way to untangle my issues with weight and body image that than by reading a book debunking the message fed to all of us that the only way to be healthy is to be thin and highlighting all the ways that diet culture messes with our lives while offering no real benefits? There were moments as I read that I literally wanted to yell or cheer out loud, it was so inspiring, and there were just as many moments where I was in tears because what I was reading resonated so deeply with my experience. Also, we need to talk more about how racist, classist, and misogynist diet culture is, because I had no idea, and reading about the ways in which diet culture and fatphobia try to force everyone into essentially a rich white standard of beauty, I just...if you don't walk away from this book furious at diet culture and legitimately ready to burn it to the ground, good god, what is going on with you?

One of my favorite inspiring moments is when Christy notes in chapter one that "it's hard to smash the patriarchy on an empty stomach." I mean.............yeah! It is, you guys. Can we please eat some fucking carbs and get smashing? And just think, that was chapter one. There are eleven chapters, folx, all just as empowering. Whether you have struggled with diet culture or not, read, be inspired, and share the message. Let's burn diet culture to the ground together!