The Body Is Not An Apology The Power Of Radical Self-Love By Sonia Renee Taylor: Book Review
I’ve recently started an online book club and we are currently accepting members if you would like to participate. This post is all about last month's book which was The Body Is Not An Apology: The Power Of Radical Self-Love By Sonia Renee Taylor. In these book reviews I want to include things I like about the book and anything I didn’t enjoy about the book as well. These reviews will be happening on a monthly basis which will align with the monthly book club meetings. So I’ll jump right into six points about last month's book that I liked.
This book is not a traditional self help book. The concept of self love and self confidence is something that we hear often in society as if loving ourselves more or having more con. Right away the author notes that the book is not meant to help you gain self confidence and it's more a book that will help you increase self awareness. It provides tools that help you improve your sense of self awareness and the sensation of freedom. To me the phrase radical self-love is equated with radical freedom, awareness and acknowledgement of our bodies. I appreciate that this book doesn’t reiterate the idea that you need to fake it until you make it as traditional self help books have stated which don’t help us with our body image issues.
Another thing I really liked about the book is that all throughout the book there are little snippets labelled “Unapologetic Inquiries” or “Radical Reflections”. Every couple of pages there are new ones. These snippets help you to think more deeply about the content that’s being shared. I think these are great opportunities to use as journal prompts as you are digesting and processing the information. It’s a fantastic chance to do the deep inner work and heal your emotional self.
In our book club I ask each member to share their favorite quotes from the book we are reading. A quote that I found really resonated with me was on page 69 and it reads as follows
“and i said to my body. softly. ‘i want to be your friend.’ it took a long breath. and replied ‘i have been waiting my whole life for this.”
I found that quote profoundly beautiful. It warms my heart to read. I get the feels each time I think about what that means for our relationship to our inner child and finally choosing ourselves. The quote was also from a poet I wasn’t familiar with so it inspired me to check out their additional work.
The fourth thing I absolutely loved about the book is the cover photo. It’s an image of a beautiful black woman lounging in a bed of flowers in all her glory. The photo is actually of the author herself in her body. I find that with self help books there can sometimes be a certain body type that accompanies them. This book has so much more value and power to me by standing out as something different than what we see often and have perpetuated as the standard. I love that the author chose to include herself in her authentic body as the cover of the book. The image is very powerful. It makes me excited to know more about her work and herself. By choosing to do a cover like that it feels like there is another layer of authenticity and realness that is connected to the book.
The fifth thing I liked about the book was that although I have familiarity with a lot of the content just by being someone who is a holistic therapist and someone who has dedicated a lot of time to reading self help books I still felt like I got a lot because of the way she frames the information and offers a fresh perspective. I was not familiar with the fact that The Body Is Not An Apology is an organization with events, etc. This is something that I would be interested in knowing more about so I was happy I could be introduced so I can learn more.
The final point I really enjoyed about the book is that the author includes basic steps, tools and actions that you can take from reading the book to practice radical self acceptance and self-love. On page 88 you can find a list of steps on how to achieve radical self-love. I like that the information is laid out in a way that is easily digestible.
I don’t have anything that I didn’t enjoy about the book. I thought the book was a great read overall. It took me about three weeks to read the book because I wanted to absorb the material and normally it takes me longer to read a self help book versus a fiction book. I would like to explore the author's work further by attending a workshop or an event in the future. If you’re looking for material to help your kids build their self-love then you can check out the author’s book Celebrate Your Body (and Its Changes, Too!): The Ultimate Puberty Book for Girls.
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