I was expecting this book to have more of a central theme but I didn’t feel it did, other than food, of course. An interesting collection of food essays covering so much stuff!

Given we're knocking on the door of the new year and all those horrible adverts about joining a gym and starting another diet, a few more books like Ruby's would be welcome. Ruby is intelligent, and her style is engaging. She just gets it without being preachy. I would love to see more of her work. Thank you for approving this title for me.

There was much to enjoy here, but I found I couldn't connect with it. I'd read more from this author in the future though.

This book is EVERYTHING! I devoured it in one sitting and have continued to return to it at least twice a week since. The short snippet recipes are all delicious and bookend the chapters where Tandoh talks complete, wonderful and perfect sense.

It's for anyone who loves food. In fact, it's for anyone who eats! A delicious myth-busting book that will make you fall in love with food again.

Eat Up! is such a fantastic book. Ruby Tandoh does a great job talking about food and the different ways it impacts and influences our lives. We get some recipes in here but we also get Ruby talking about her own experiences with food, as well as speaking out about food from a political and cultural point of view.

Food in relation to bodies, eating disorders, fatness and feminism. There's so much to take from that section, I was pleased to see Ruby saw that she has a certain luxury to say 'eat what you want' while being slim and not getting the same reaction from the public as someone who is larger would for saying the same thing. She got her friend Bethany Rutter to talk about what it's like to eat in public and be fat and it's refreshing to hear a voice from that perspective.

We get a take on the big trend on wellness, health, 'you are with you eat' and bullshit science. She speaks about food, class, culture, LGBT issues, there's some great intersectionality in this book. We get pop cultural references, personal stories (picking blackberries at her grandmother's house), and tidbits like Creme Egg Ritual.

The best part is how Ruby writes and just encourages people to enjoy food. There's no shaming here! From the most expensive Michelin Star meal to a microwaved Shepherd's pie and everything in between, they all serve purpose and pleasure. I devoured this book and look forward to buying my own hard copy so I can dip in and out to my heart's content. 4.5*

This is an incredibly refreshing and different take on food books as we know it. As a society, we're constantly told that food is fuel and we must feel guilty about the naughty things. Ruby makes food sound beautiful, elegant and almost sexy. Her use of language is stunning, and it resonates so deeply with the diet addict within me. This is a fantastic book for not only general book lovers, but should be given to anyone and everyone with food issues. Ruby is amazing!

Ruby Tandoh, best known as a finalist on the 2013 series of The Great British Bake Off, is a massively interesting figure, especially if you follow her Twitter, where she has increasingly been championing the joys of food and eating and discussing her dislike of fad dieting and the issues that still pertain to our culture regarding our consumption of food as a pastime. As someone who continues to struggle with her body and her own relationship with food, Tandoh's book was a breath of fresh air and a wonderfully sweet and comforting read to sink my teeth into.

This book is almost part memoir, part essay, part self-help book, part recipe book, but it is all collated into a genuine love of food and the nourishing qualities of all kinds of food. Whilst Tandoh does spend a lot of the book discussing the positives of good food and the things we can make out of it, she does not pretend that we can all very easily live a clean, pseudo-vegan lifestyle. There's an entire chapter about the Cadbury Crème Egg and the ritual that you take to eat one of those delicious little traditions. She speaks often about the joys of eating things that may not necessarily be good for your health, but are in turn good for your soul. One of my favourite parts was an anecdote about her girlfriend and herself being ill with the flu, but feeling almost immediately better after inhaling Indian food.

This book is short and sweet and was definitely something that I just wanted to keep with me. My only wish is that it was a bit longer so I could just stay in this book forever and read more to comfort me in my woes about food.

This is one of the smartest and kindest books I have read and I am so grateful to Ruby for writing it. It brought me so much joy and enabled me to truly appreciate the food which nourishes me (I went straight out to buy chicken dippers! Is there any greater joy than chicken dippers?!) I bought a hardcover copy on the day of release and will keep it by my bedside to dip in and out of. It’s well researched, heavy but light, everything is contextualised. Thank you, Ruby.

The opening chapter of Ruby Tandoh's new book, Eat Up! takes us back to her grandparents' house where a manicured lawn edged by tidy herbaceous borders gives way to the kind of liminal space much beloved by children. There's a tangle of blackberry bushes and desire lines. These are paths worn by feet and no didactic maps exist to tell you what your destination ought to be. These paths have been lived.

The unfettered picking and eating of berries, arms and legs scratched and fingers stained purple, teeth filled with seeds and a stomach made loose by its cargo of fruity excess might serve as a metaphor for Ruby Tandoh's book which roams the messy, liminal spaces and desire lines of eating. Reading this book feels synaesthesic because of its intricate sensory melding of food, books, film, anthropology, biology, and memoir. If you do struggle with eating and food, taking your good and sweet time to read Eat Up! is extra- important. Ruby's book will help you, but pace yourself.

Eat Up—subtitled ‘Food, Appetite, and Eating What You Want’—is a manifesto in favour of food that combines personal anecdote, discussions of topics such as comfort food, mental health, dietary requirements, and cultural eating differences, and a sprinkling of recipes. Ruby Tandoh is known for being a contestant on Bake Off and talking about food, particularly on Twitter. In this book, she describes a lot of relatable material for many people, including the phenomenon of eating each Creme Egg like it is your last of the year, and also gives short accounts and information about major topics connected to food and eating such as eating disorders and supermarket production.

The content is interesting and the style is charming and quirky. For people who enjoy books about food, this may be something a bit different in that Tandoh tries not to prescribe or pass too much judgement. The proliferation of descriptions of food can get a bit much, especially if you’re not hungry when you read it, but this is a book full of affection that seeks to combine a love of food and eating with discussion of some important things to consider (and a nice little selection of recipes relating to the content).

Eat Up by Ruby Tandoh is not really a cook book, though there is a few recipes xontained within. They are not laid out like usual recipes but contained within the text of a chapter.

This book is more a look of what food means to her life, be it picking blackberries when visiting her grandmother to feeling under the weather and ordering a curry takeaway to make them feel better or what films have food appear in them.

I was rather disappointed that the main content took up only 64% of the book, with the remaining pages dedicated to the bibliography and index.

I was provided with a copy of #eatup from #netgalley in return for a honest review.