REVIEW for Till We Eat Again, a Second Helping

Thank you to the publisher CreateSpace and author Judy Gruen for sending me a digital copy of this book.

TITLE:               Till We Eat Again, Second Helping
AUTHOR:          Judy Gruen
GENRE:            Memoir/diary format
RATING:          

Anyone who reads my blog knows that weight issues are of very specific interest to me!  Till We Eat Again the initial book was published, it would appear in 2002.  I have no memory of reading this book at that time, so I was excited to "dig in" go "Second Helping".

Firstly, let me say that the book cover for this memoir  is much better than the previous one (although, thanks to my ebook reader, I don't see the covers as much anymore).  I am also a huge "cover" person, so if the cover does not attract me - I won't read the book!

As I mentioned, this was a digital copy, but in preparing my post for this blog, I did notice the huge improvement in covers.

Now, about the book itself and why I gave this one 3 coffee cups.

I loved the humor that was sprinkled throughout the story.  Weight issues are often very scary and painful and I like that the author managed to find something funny in her situation.  This made reading this book fun and airy, despite the very personal subject matter.

As with any type of memoir that I read, I always, always commend the author for putting it "out there".  I don't know that I could be so honest about something as personal and for that Gruen should be fully commended.

I also liked the fact that throughout the book, the author makes a point of basically admitting to and then debunking almost every "diet industry" claim there is.  It was interesting to read about someone who basically did a ton of research about those "lose weight quick schemes" all the while putting them down as being unhealthy, ridiculous or dangerous (or a combo of this).

I loved, loved Gruen's interactions with her Boot Camp leader.  I could have read alot more about their exchanges and was sorry that she did not elaborate more on this part.

Now, for the things that did not really work for me.

Gruen is making a huge deal out of losing 15lbs!!!! At one point, she stated how much she weighed and it really wasn't very much. In fact, unless she was 5 feet or under, it was a pretty healthy weight.  Which, right  from the beginning, made me feel as though Gruen was promoting a unhealthy approach to her body image - as opposed to needing to lose weight to get healthy.

Secondly, I just could not relate at all to a mother of 4 who does not work outside the home.  This is so far from my reality that I just could not do it.  In fact, the weakest parts of this book, for me, were her exchanges with her teenage children.  It also appeared to me that Gruen had a lot of free time to pursue all of these "weight loss" activities (except at 6:00 a.m. when, apparently, this mother of 4 gets to sleep?????).  Yeah, this did not work for me - there was a disconnect here.

Finally, I have to wonder how Gruen managed to ONLY be 15lbs overweight(!!!) with the junk food she periodically consumed.  I think she should have been grateful for her metabolism. 

Very mixed feelings about this book.