When I took this book, I thought I would read about the everyday situations that come with a bra fitter job. I expected funny episodes, insights into women's feelings about their bodies, the establishment of relations between women.
There was so little of that! And when one of these episodes was described I was surprised to find that the main character made a very cruel description of women's bodies. There is no bonding or empathy among women. There are a distance and a mean streak of the woman who is the bra fitter towards other women. I didn't like it. I don't think there is a woman who would feel comfortable if she went to buy underwear right after reading this book.
Women need to read books that make them feel good with their body shapes and the signs of aging, not cruel descriptions of it.
I felt no empathy with the main character and the humor was lost on me.
This book did not come up to my expectations.
Not my cup of tea.

This was such a fun, but also poignant and honest book. I was just expecting some funny anecdotes about fitting women into bras, but the stories that came out of this book were so much more than just that. I loved seeing this look into a place that is mostly women and the way that they interact in the process of buying undergarments. The author was funny but also relatable in many ways. I enjoyed this book even more than I thought I would and suggest it for a great, fun read.

This book was uplifting in more ways than one! I figured this would be a fluff read with no thinking involved but I am glad I was wrong. Yes, there were funny parts but mostly this book was about women in all shapes, sizes, and walks of life. There were cancer survivors, divorcees, teens, elderly, transvestites, and tired nursing moms. The author, Natalee, presents all these women with humor, dignity, and humility. We learn along with her the many struggles women have about their body image and society’s expectations of them. The author’s writing is light and easy to read and we learn about her dealing with her mother’s death and dad’s bad health. I highly recommend this very empowering book on women.

I thought this book was very interesting to read. I must say I had to chuckle in quite a few places and so it definitely humored me. I am not sure it is the type of book I would recommend to everyone but I have a few friends that may enjoy this read. Thank you for the laugh!

4 stars
Boob Job is a very interesting and at times, humorous look at the inside world of a bra fitter. The author writes of how she came to be working in the lingerie department, interspersed with stories of her life and her family.
I think many people would enjoy this insider look at a job that most of us rarely if ever consider. I found the book sweet, sad and fascinating at different points in the book.

I highly recommend this book.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher and NetGalley. The views given are my own.
#NetGalley #BoobJob

I really enjoyed this book! This was a wonderful story of a woman who worked for several years as an official bra fitter. But her experiences in the fitting room will have you laughing and crying. The author takes you deep into the lingerie department of a popular department store where you will experience the joys and pains of bra fitting and sales. From the strong encouragement of management to maintain high sales ratios to the myriad of individuals who enter the sacred fitting room, you will work alongside Natalee as she realizes that it's not how many bras she sells each day as much as it is the person behind the bra! You will fall in love with some of the individuals, your heart will ache for others, and then there are some you just want to pinch their head off!

And while Natalee is handling all of that, she's also dealing with life. And life has not been that kind to her. Some of the decisions she's made haven't been the best for her, but she is a good person deep inside and truly loves her parents and she cares a lot more than I think she realizes.

This was definitely not what I expected when I began to read the book. But I am so glad I flipped open to the first page and experienced the life of a bra fitter, especially one as delightful as Natalee Woods. This is a book I would highly recommend...as long as you realize there are a few choice words sprinkled throughout. But the story itself is worth every minute of page turning and every tissue you'll use blowing your nose and wiping your eyes.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I found this book to be inconsistent. It feels like she is just on the cusp of being a writer but not there yet. There was a surprising lack of warmth of feeling, just a mess of random thoughts.

One star feels a little harsh, but I really disliked this book and would not recommend it, so ... one star it is.

I was actually pretty excited to read this book -- I tend to like chatty, slice-of-life memoirs like this. I was curious to know what it's like to be a bra fitter; I assumed it was like any other mind-numbing retail job, but who knows.

Woods writes with the purplest prose, almost to the point where I couldn't understand what was going on. Her writing will wander with the hopes of coming across as thoughtful, but it just reads as a garbled metaphor. Not really a spoiler, but putting under a tag since the book hasn't been published yet: [I'm thinking specifically of when Woods has to help an elderly woman with Alzheimers and her frustrated daughter. It could be a moving anecdote, especially since Woods teases her own mother's recent death. However, so many details are glossed over in favour of vague emotional overtures that it had no impact. Apparently the daughter was a former bra fitter? Woods casually notes this shared experience, without having introduced it. Woods then waxes rhapsodic about the deep emotions she's feeling, the bright feeling of something real, that's then disrupted by another customer. But her writing is so thoroughly mediocre and overwrought that this intense emotion is not believable or adequately expressed to the reader. (hide spoiler)]

Her attempts at humour were equally off-putting. I get that it's a very intimate, tactile job: she manhandles bodies all day long. But her constantly describing rolls of flesh erupting (even on the skinniest women! She details a woman's muffin top and then explains that the customer in question was incredibly tiny) and spilling boobs comes off as incredibly mean. There's a way to write humorously and realistically about bodies, but Woods doesn't have that skill. Her descriptions are overly critical and often cruel.

She does attempt to make connections between her work as a bra fitter and women's issues at large; Woods occasionally meanders along the edges of examining misogyny, body image, and self-worth, but again her writing skills are incapable of communicating anything of note to the reader.

Ultimately a total disappointment.

Funny.... but I didn't like that she calls kids dirtballs.. not cool...I did keep reading and glad I did because its so funny and witty. Its a good anytime read, beach, bath, while the kids are tearing the house apart.

I really didn’t know what to expect with this book. I’d already read one lingerie book that gave me the lowdown on everything undies, so I was really hoping it wasn’t going to be too similar. Thankfully this was a world away and in such a wonderfully different manner. Natalee Woods’ book is so far from a reference type book there’s no comparison. This one made me laugh and cry multiple times over and I found it hard to put down for long. I basically inhaled it. She just has a way of keeping you coming back to find out what the heck she’s going to run into next in the fitting rooms because the situations are just so painfully human and upliftingly endearing. Her many vignettes are just so very relatable, with some interesting insights and it seemed the book got better and better as it went on. You may not be surprised to learn she went to college and has a BA in English and an MPA in writing as it shows in her work, at least in my humble opinion. An advance digital copy was provided by NetGalley and author Natalee Woods for my fair review.

Amberjack Publications
Published: July 24, 2018

Upon reading the description of the book, I was intrigued but unsure of its premise actually being interesting. Boob Job: Confessions of a Professional Bra Fitter left me happily surprised. Although it took me a second to warm up to Natalee’s sense of humor, especially considering she calls children “dirt balls” on the very first page… I actually almost stopped reading it after that. But, I stuck with it and it was a fascinating read. I loved getting a glimpse into each customer’s story. Both the plight and empowerment of life as a woman was conveyed with great diversity. Once I warmed up to Natalee, I truly found her to be relatable and quite funny (but still a bit cynical for my taste). So take it from me, somebody who spent some time thinking about giving up on the book but ended up not being able to put it down!

The only negative feedback I have is that the ending felt a bit rushed to me. Natalee spends so much time telling everyone’s story and sharing great details, but I feel the lessons learned/introspection/growth at the end of the book could be better served by diving just a little bit deeper into that.

At first, I though that this book contained mostly funny anecdotes, but it was more like an autobiography with lots of self-reflection and it was also very personal and there wasn't really a focus on humor. It was okay, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if it had been more funny. There are also some feminist thoughts and reflections about women's issues as well as many detailed descriptions of women's bodies and underwear. The last point was probably to be expected, but it was still a litte much for me and I think it could have been more respectful in how their bodies were being described.
Even though it was interesting to learn more about the job of a bra fitter, I didn't really get along with the protagonist. There were also several story lines that I felt were kind of abandoned and some gaps in the story and she left out a few months.

So it was okay and if you're into memoirs and women's issues, I'm sure you'll like this book, but it just wasn't what I had been looking for.

I see that the release date has been changed to April 2019 and that it will be revised. So maybe it will be better then, but I'm not sure if I would be willing to read it again.

I didn’t know what to expect when I sat down to read this. It was fantastic! A memoir of the author’s years spent working.as a bra fitter provided a great foundation (no pun intended) for her journey of self discovery. The relationships she developed with some of her “regulars” were entertaining, but also remind us that the unlikeliest people can impact your life.

This book was a riot. Natalie has a way with storytelling. Her views are honest with a hint of bluntness. What other demeanor can you have as a professional bra fitter? I often wonder what it is like being the woman in the lingerie department that has to deal with customers with various personalities. Bra shopping isn't fun, AT ALL, but you can make it a pleasant experience if you put yourself in the salesperson's shoes!!! Hopefully, people reading this will have a better understanding of that Salespeople go though. I know I do! I'd definitely recommend this book to my friends.

This was a light, easy read. I'm not in love with this book, but I didn't hate it either. It was interesting to read what a bra fitter goes through on the daily while of course going through her own personal struggles in life. It was also fun getting to know some of the people that she encountered as well.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Interesting memoir from a bra-fitter/writer. The book was heartbreakingly sad and hilarious. I loved the all of the shoppers and constantly rooted for Natalee.

This was a really excellent book and provided a different take on retail. I liked that it was a very personal story, and how it highlighted that the author found a family at her employer, as well as her traditional family. I would recommend this book to everyone. I liked how the author treated all people with respect in her role, and enjoyed reading the life stories and lessons she learned from all the different customers.

Subtitled "Confessions of a Professional Bra Fitter" this was the rather tedious story of the author's experiences in the lingerie section of a department store, fitting women for bras. The blurb tells us that "Woven into the humor are subtle and profound insights into larger issues, such as the relationship between women and their bodies, evolving ideas about women's breasts and their sexual, social, and cultural implications, and how women negotiate all these influences and pressures as they stand before the mirror in the dressing room," but I got very little of that!

I gave up on this about a third of the way through as I read what seemed to be the same story yet again - of fitting an older woman with overly large and/or pendulous breasts for a bra, or of fitting a youngster for a bra, or of fitting a 'thrown over wife' for a bra. It was far too repetitive in describing the women, describing the sweat, describing the lingerie draped on hangers, describing grabbing the tape measure.

It offered no insights whatsoever into "larger issues" unless those issues were breasts, and it seemed far more interested in fangirling over the guy in men's suits than exploring the female condition. I think we would have gotten far better insights into that very topic - and more authentic and realistic ones - if this same author had hung out in the fitting area of a Target store and listened in on the conversations there rather than in an exclusive, high-priced department store.

You can't take the experiences and mindsets of rich, spoiled women and think they apply to everyone. It doesn't work like that, and even if it did, as I said, no such insights were forthcoming unless they were all held back for the second half of the book where, like a female fitting room, I had no interest in venturing. Based on what I read, I can't recommend this. I had expected a lot better from someone who writes for Huff Post. I guess I learned my lesson!

Great story. Couldn’t put it down. Great character development. Definitely recommend. Would be a great book to gift.

Natalee swore she would not work in retail. No how, no way. Then needing money, during summer break from school, she ends up in the only job she can find, retail. Not just and retail, she's in the bra department being trained as a bra size expert. She isn't thrilled. But, working at different stores in different towns, she learns that things happen for a reason. From fitting 10 year old beauty pageant girls to women with mastectomy's to women who are transitioning, she hears different stories and learns valuable lessons. This a fun book. I enjoyed it immensely. It is funny in parts, serious in parts, but above all Natalee keeps it real. Loved it!!