Some of these are memoir, and some are informational texts. The memoirs inevitably have some downs because existing in a fat body is challenging from day-to-day. I don’t recommend books that promote surgery or normalize dieting.

Recommended

Memoirs

• Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman by Lindy West
• Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay
• Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby
• Love is a Thread by Leslie Moïse
• Fat, Pretty, And Soon to Be Old by Kimberly Dark
• Kicking & Dreaming: A Story of Heart, Soul, and Rock and Roll by Ann & Nancy Wilson

informational

• You Have the Right to Remain Fat by Virgie Tovar
• Anti-Diet by Christy Harrison
• The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love by Sonya Renee Taylor
• Hot & Heavy: Fierce Fat Girls on Life, Love & Fashion edited by Virgie Tovar
• Crip Kinship: The Disability Justice & Art Activism of Sins Invalid by Shayda Kafai
• What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat by Aubrey Gordon
• The Unapologetic Fat Girl’s Guide to Exercise and Other Incendiary Acts by Hanne Blank
• Fat Girls Hiking: An Inclusive Guide to Getting Outdoors at Any Size or Ability by Summer Michaud-Skog
• It’s Always Been Ours: Rewriting the Story of Black Women’s Bodies by Jessica Wilson

humor

• Shit, Actually by Lindy West
• #VERYFAT #VERYBRAVE by Nicole Byer

To Be Read

MEMOIRS

• Fat Girl: A True Story by Judith Moore
• Hungry Heart: Adventures in Life, Love, and Writing by Jennifer Weiner
• The Other F Word: A Celebration of the Fat & Fierce by Angie Manfredi
• Fattily Ever After by Stephanie Yeboah

informational

• Fat Shame: Stigma and the Fat Body in American Culture by Amy Erdman Farrell
• Fat! So?: Because You Don’t Have to Apologize for Your Size by Marilyn Wann
• Shadow on a Tightrope: Writings by Women on Fat Oppression by various authors
• Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat with Diabetes: A Mindful Eating Program for Thriving with Prediabetes or Diabetes by Michelle May
• Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight by Linda Bacon
• Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole
• Queering Fat Embodiment by Cat Pausé, Ph. D.
• Killer Fat: Media, Medicine, and Morals in the American “Obesity Epidemic” by Natalie Boero
• Body of Truth: Change Your Life by Changing the Way You Think about Weight and Health by Harriet Brown
• Bodies Out of Bounds: Fatness and Transgression by Jana Evans Braziel
• Revolting Bodies? The Struggle to Redefine Fat Identity by Kathleen LeBesco
• What’s Wrong with Fat? by Abigail C. Saguy
• The Fat Studies Reader by Esther D. Rothblum
• Fat Activism: A Radical Social Movement by Charlotte Cooper
• Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia by Sabrina Strings
• Lessons from the Fat-O-Sphere: Quit Dieting and Declare a Truce with Your Body by Kate Harding
• Why Diets Make Us Fat: The Unintended Consequences of Our Obsession with Weight Loss by Sandra Aamodt