"Fatty Fatty Boom Boom" is Rabia Chaudry's memoir about her love affair with food and her struggle to suppress that love affair. The book takes the reader through various parts of Pakistan and then through Chaudry's life in the suburbs of the United States. The descriptions of the food the author eats in Pakistan made my mouth water. The time and effort put into some of these dishes is awe inspiring. On the flip side, in the United States, Chaudry and her family turn to quick, processed foods as they lose the time, resources, and access to the ingredients they need to cook dishes from back home. At the heart of it, "Fatty Fatty Boom Boom" is about Chaudry's lifelong struggle to maintain a weight that is considered healthy and proper by those around her. She goes through diets and surgeries, and finds success, but then has periods of relapse where she goes deeper into eating binges than she did before. The descriptions of these up and down periods can be a bit dizzying for the reader, as I'm sure they were for the author, but overall it was a good book.

This was a fun read, and not at all what I was expecting from her! I like seeing her outside of the legal and Serial-focused context in which we got to know her. Full review to come in time for pub date.

Super interesting intersection of food, culture, family and weight. Chaudry provides a nice balance to some very difficult topics. A must-read for foodies as well as anyone interested in Indian culture.

If you know Rabia Chaudry from her Twitter feed or her tireless advocacy work on behalf of Adnan Syed, you know how lovely she is. You get to meet her whole extended family in "Fatty Fatty Boom Boom," a story about the Pakistani immigrant experience and how food is at the center of it all, though this coming-of-age journey will also be relatable to anyone who has struggled with their weight or just feeling out of control of their own body. I will add a TRIGGER WARNING for ED and a few scenes of abuse, though Chaudry mercifully doesn't go into details regarding the latter. If you find yourself craving some of the delectable dishes she describes in the book, you're in luck; there is an addendum with several recipes.

The book was delightful, and I finished it in a couple of days.

Fascinating book, very detailed and clearly written. I appreciated the deep look at the writer's culture and how it impacted perceptions of gender and body image. My only quibble is the title which didn't seem to really fit the novel and was perhaps too comical for the tone of the narrative.

Your new favorite memoir has arrived! Chaudry, best selling author of Adnan’s Story, returns with her own story of growing up in America after her parents immigrated from Pakistan in the 1970’s. Beginning with her parents arranged marriage and continuing to their eventual move to the States, Chaudry documents how her parents embraced the American way of eating – food was fast, cheap, plentiful…and fattening. In an effort to make her sickly daughter appear more healthy, Chaudry’s mother fed her half and half in her baby bottle and let her gnaw on sticks of butter when she was teething. Chaudry quickly went from being a tiny child to a very large one, leading one of her relatives in Pakistan to ask her how many Americans she had eaten. This book was so engrossing, I couldn’t put it down, from Chaudry’s mother’s struggle against a culture that would force her into an arranged marriage to the tremendous cultural challenges she and her family face in an increasingly xenophobic America. Highly recommended