Read by Rabia Chaudry

"A delicious and mouthwatering book about food and family, the complicated love for both, and how that shapes us into who we are . . . I absolutely loved it!" -Valerie Bertinelli From the bestselling author and host of the wildly popular Undisclosed podcast, a warm, intimate memoir about food, body image, and growing up in a loving but sometimes oppressively concerned Pakistani immigrant family. "My entire life I have been less fat and more fat, but never not fat." According to family lore, when Rabia Chaudry's family returned to Pakistan for their first visit since moving to the United States, two-year-old Rabia was more than just a pudgy toddler. Dada Abu, her fit and sprightly grandfather, attempted to pick her up but had to put her straight back down, demanding of Chaudry's mother: "What have you done to her?" The answer was two full bottles of half-and-half per day, frozen butter sticks to gnaw on, and lots and lots of American processed foods. And yet, despite her parents plying her with all the wrong foods as they discovered Burger King and Dairy Queen, they were highly concerned for the future for their large-sized daughter. How would she ever find a suitable husband? There was merciless teasing by uncles, cousins, and kids at school, but Chaudry always loved food too much to hold a grudge against it. Soon she would leave behind fast food and come to love the Pakistani foods of her heritage, learning to cook them with wholesome ingredients and eat them in moderation. At once a love letter (with recipes) to fresh roti, chaat, chicken biryani, ghee, pakoras, shorba, parathay and an often hilarious dissection of life in a Muslim immigrant family, Fatty Fatty Boom Boom is also a searingly honest portrait of a woman grappling with a body that gets the job done but that refuses to meet the expectations of others. Chaudry's memoir offers readers a relatable and powerful voice on the controversial topic of body image, one that dispenses with the politics and gets to what every woman who has ever struggled with weight will relate to. Rabia Chaudry is an attorney, advocate, podcaster, and author of the New York Times bestseller Adnan's Story and executive producer of a four-part HBO documentary The Case Against Adnan Syed, which was based on her book. Chaudry is also co-producer and co-host of three podcasts, Undisclosed (360 million downloads), The 45th (four million download) and the new The Hidden Djinn. A 2021 Aspen Institute/ADL Civil Society Fellow and a 2016 Aspen Ideas Scholar, she serves on the Vanguard Board at the Aspen Institute. She is a Fellow of the Truman National Security Project, a Fellow of the American Muslim Civic Leadership Institute, a Fellow of the Shalom Hartman Institute. Currently, she a founding board member of the Inter-Jewish Muslim Alliance and the Muslim Jewish Advisory Council, both of which focus on building Muslim-Jewish coalitions around pressing policy issues and educating across communities to break barriers. "Engrossing…Chaudry refreshingly eschews conventional narratives about weight loss, as well as fat acceptance…Victory is sweet and savory in this ebullient tale of self-acceptance. -Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Yes, Fatty Fatty Boom Boom is a book about food and Rabia's relationship to food, how that relationship influenced her life and how she ultimately, as she says, becomes friends with her body. It's also a profound act of generosity as Rabia invites us into her life with candor, humor, and kindness, for herself, her family and anyone who has reflected on their relationship to food. Not incidentally, it's a terrific read and one you can appropriately plow through or savor. I cannot recommend Fatty Fatty Boom Boom highly enough. I can't wait for my friends to read Rabia's story, for my kids to try Rabia's recipes and for the world to know more about this remarkable woman." -Chelsea Clinton

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