Tressie McMillan Cottom’s “Thick” is a revelation, a beacon of truth and wisdom in a world often marred by ignorance and prejudice. Through her incisive essays, she fearlessly navigates the intersections of race, gender, and capitalism, offering a thick tapestry of lived experiences that resonate deeply. With prose as rich and potent as sweet tea, she affirms the voices and experiences of Black women, urging them to embrace their truths unapologetically. From laughter to tears, each page is a testament to resilience and empowerment. “Thick” is not just a book; it’s a lifeline, a call to action, and a celebration of Black excellence.

A piercing, sharp, insightful essay collection about the realities of being a Black woman living in the United States. Tressie McMillan Cottom deserves all of the status and praise she has been awarded and this book, if even possible, made me even more in awe of her than I already was.

One of the best collections of essays I've read in awhile. McMillan Cottom tackles a wide range of topics and offers witty and insightful engagements with them. She eminently makes the case for valuing the work of Black women even as she explores the way that forcing Black women to do so much work harms them.

I love essay collections that really make me think, and "Thick" definitely achieved that. With musings on race, beauty, rape culture, and tons of other topics, Cottom has an extremely intelligent and insightful way of looking at the world. Her personal story of being mistreated as a black mother-to-be by the medical community was enraging as much as it was heartbreaking. Her ability to be completely transparent makes this collection stand head and shoulders above the rest. She's simply fearless. The only downside for me is that her style of writing can be a bit hard to follow - but that's really based on my intelligence level only. There were a lot of words I had to look up the definitions to! But overall, I just aspire to write as powerfully as she does!

Chock full of wonderful information. Well written, well presented. A must read. Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the arc of this book in return for my honest review. Receiving the book in this manner had no bearing on this review.

Exploring beauty, media and capitalism, McMillan wields academic authority with relatable and thoughtful writing - this should be required reading for everyone.

SHE IS BRILLIANT. This is one of the best essay collections I've read in a long time and I'm honestly surprised it didn't get more hype than it did. I think it's a must read for everyone, especially right now.

I was included in the CBC's books roundup monthly picks and chose to spotlight THICK.

Additionally, I put together the newspaper's Books section annual gift guide again this season and was delighted to include this book as a selection in The Globe and Mail's massive Best Holiday Gift Books package (in print December 7, 2019)

This was a very well written, eye opening, important book. Looking forward to reading more from this author.

Shouldn’t have put this one off as long as I did. This is a collection of essays on a few of the issues affecting Black women/girls and Black women of advanced education including the misdirected sexualization of black girls, multiple role management when living within two or more cultural groups, and the AMERICAN standard of beauty.
Tressie uses a conversational tone in this book that leaves you feeling like you are having a deep and trusted conversation with a friend.
Tressie says that she doesn’t like small talk and it shows.

Reading about race issues is, for me, kind of like reading about physics. (Particularly, where race and economics intersect.) I get some of it, but a lot of it is like learning a new way to think, a new way to see the world. A lot of it is over my head. I will keep reading and rereading until it is the new paradigm ingrained in my mind. I want all of that old trash in my head gone, so I'll drown that old way of thinking until I can recognize and call out all the unconscious bias in myself and others. I think, as white people, we all have a lot of work to do. And not just white people like me, a white woman, raised in the South, in a racist family. ALL of us.

There are so many aspects, so many systems in place, that we, as white people, do not see unless someone puts it in front of our eyes. Those someones ... these important writers like Tressie McMillan Cottom, Ibram X. Kendi, and Ta-Nehisi Coates, are people we should be listening to and learning from. I'm not sure how I can change anything in the big picture, except to use my voice and my votes and to raise my children to see these things and hope that they will go forth and spread the word.

Two of these essays particularly touched/resonated with me. Dying to be competent and Black Girlhood, Interrupted. I really didn't know what black women and girls had been dealing with all this time. We must listen to them and hear, really hear and understand, their words.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for a copy of this ARC.

Absolutely loved this! I really don't want to say much because I don't identify in-depth with the culture or ethnicity of the women being talked about but as a feminist, this was definitely an inspiring and a pleasure to read this collection of essays. Majority of the thoughts and pieces challenge the usual societal norms and made me think which not many books, especially memoirs, do. It's easy to see the underlying sociological remarks and subtle take on race and/or marginalization so something like this is definitely a recommendation from me.

I remember my excitement when I saw that Tressie McMillan Cottom was being interviewed by Trevor Noah for the Daily Show. It heightened my excitement, which is saying a lot since I was already deeply excited when I received my ARC for this book. Read it, it is an experience to be savored. It will definitely make you feel all of the potency of how darn smart Tressie McMillan Cotton is and that's okay, be humbled by it and you will come out at the end a better person.

Tremendous essay collection. I've followed Tressie on Twitter for quite some time and have seen her speak on several occasions, but until now, I'd not had an opportunity to read her writing. Boy, am I glad I've changed this. Her writing is so authentic, full of wit and intelligence, and pushes you to look at the world from a different perspective. Over the last few years, I've read quite a few works of nonfiction from authors of color, and this essay collection is one that made me take a closer look at my own privilege and the advantages I have that I've taken for granted. Five Star Read! *Advance copy provided by the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

"Thick" comprises of 8 essays about black people's roles and treatment in society and popular culture.
I loved the author's writing style and voice. I would highly recommend this collection and will definitely follow what the author publishes next!

"They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and that ugly is as ugly does. Both are lies. Ugly is everything done to you in the name of beauty."

Thick straddles the lines of academic writing, memoir, and Twitter snark - all things I love. Tressie McMillan Cottom is fresh with a appropriately biting sense of humor. This book is highly readable, and recommended to fans of Roxane Gay, or any person who feels the needs to learn more about the black woman's (academic) experience.

I was already a Tressie McMillan Cottom fan from Twitter so I was excited to read this! I was not disappointed. Loved her essays and more academic pieces about race, sexuality and being a woman in America. Cannot wait to read more from her!

Thank you to Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Prof. Tressie McMillan Cottom's debut essay collection, Thick, is both wide-ranging in covering important aspects of American popular culture, higher education, race relations, politics, and the prison-industrial complex, yet simultaneous focused in that it presents the nuanced views of an African-American public intellectual and professor with strong social and ethical commitments informed by her subject position. This book is in dialogue with the author's other public writings, such as her famous essay on Miley Cyrus and provides the personal element missing from these journalistic pieces.
The book is emotionally vulnerable in points through maintaining the nuanced distance that isn't overly moralizing. Cottom's book is tremendously important and it is incredible that she was able to write such a good book alongside her other commitments. This book is recommended for anyone who cares about good writing or America.

One of my goals this year is to read more books by people who have a different perspective than me. Thick was the first of these. This book was more sociological and academic than I initially expected, but the way that personal essay combined was academic fact was excellent and readable. My eyes were opened to a variety of perspectives I wasn't aware of up to this point, and I was able to see the way black women - or at least this black woman - views and interacts with aspects of our society. There were times that the book was hard to read - not because it was poorly written but because the subject matter was so intense or heartwrenching. I wouldn't recommend this book to everyone, but for anyone to engage on issues of race, gender and the divide present in our world - this is a must-read.

Thick is a non-fiction book that straddles the line between academic writing and memoir – something I personally really happen to enjoy. Here McMillan Cottom writes on a variety of topics, often with anecdotal evidence centered into her more academic musings.

This book both suffers and improves for me because McMillan Cottom comes from a similar academic tradition as I do. On the one hand it means that I am bound to agree with a lot of her analyses, on the other hand some of her arguments do lose persuasiveness because I have seen them done better elsewhere. I especially thought her use of Bourdieu did not always take into account all of his nuances (which I only know of because I am using his works for my own thesis).

I thought this was a well-written collection of essays that manages to make sociology accessible to a variety of readers and for that I was always going to love it. It did not reinvent the wheel but it makes for an interesting discussion starter.