I loved this memoir by Tommy Tomlinson who had me drooling over his many food descriptions and their impact on his growing body. It’s a touching, sensitive and powerful story of a man whose shame and regret about his own body has him seek a better, more grown-up future.

The mixture of stories about his family, marriage and career in journalism interspersed with his struggles as a man weighing over 400 pounds holds you in its grip from page to page.

The line I wanted to share, having so recently completed my own memoir, summarizes his trajectory. “I banged out hundreds of stories and columns, most of them terrible, because most of us are terrible at anything before we get good.”

Those are the kinds of reflections that carried me through the writing process. NO ONE starts off as a genius. It’s banging out all those words over and over again that creates great writing. Amen to this!