Friday, April 22, 2016

book review - it was me all along



I had never heard of the author, Andie Mitchell until I read her memoir. She's also now a popular food and weight loss blogger. This memoir isn't a how-to book on weight loss, but more of how Mitchell battled childhood trauma, how food was her comfort, and how she found independence and made changes in her life to overcome obesity.

 At first, the book was very engaging - and also painful to read at times. It was easy to understand how childhood trauma brought on binge eating: her mother was never home because she worked several jobs and she had an alcoholic father. I found myself wanting to hug and rescue this little girl. But the story went downhill from there. I found Mitchell to be self-centered and selfish: leading her boyfriend, Daniel on over and over and then breaking up with him; using her mother's retirement money to have plastic surgery to remove the excess skin from losing so much weight; and spending too many book pages talking about the thrill of working on a movie set and meeting Leonardo DiCaprio. That's great, but a brief mention in the book would've been good enough. I got the feeling it was "always about her".

Mitchell's blog does have a lot of weight loss tips and good recipes, if you're looking for more of something along those lines. She's also just written and published a cookbook, Eating in the Middle. And, you can find her on Instagram and Twitter.

I received "It Was Me All Along" from Blogging for Books for my honest, personal opinion review.

8 comments:

  1. I don't know where I saw a review of this book before---I thought it was yours!

    I read the book about two years ago. I found it to be an engaging story and I loved Andie's spirit. I agree though, the part about her movie set job went on a long time. Maybe she meant to show us how productive she became. No matter, I found it to be a page turner because she wasn't wallowing in her her size and weight, it didn't keep her from having friends, guys and girls. Most stories we hear are of women sitting at home, feeling inferior and depressed while they eat a bag of Doritos and a gallon of ice cream!!

    Great review!

    Jane

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  2. I have this book on my kindle but haven't gotten around to reading it yet - now I might not bother!! Thanks for your honest review!! Xo

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  3. Thanks for the review - I think I'll skip it!

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  4. Well, they asked for an honest review and they got it. Certainly not the way the book is described on her blog. It's interesting how certain circumstances and decisions can seem okay to some but others would find them questionable.

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  5. It is a shame when a book doesn't reach expectations isn't it. Glad to read your honest review though! xx

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  6. I generally like memoirs, so I may have picked this one up, but not now. Thanks for saving me the precious time!

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  7. Thank you for this review Melanie. It is disappointing when a book appears to have so much potential and then falls by the wayside. I appreciate you being candid about it.
    I have a book I need to finish in the next few days for Book Club on Thursday!
    Jemma

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  8. I, too, find an honest review so refreshing. I know of two people who spent there parents retirement money and I think a most interesting conversation to have with people who have done that would begin with, "How did you bend the facts around in your mind to make yourself believe that was an all-right thing to do?" Wouldn't the answers be interesting, but no doubt disturbing?

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Thank you for taking the time to leave a kind comment - I read and appreciate each one!