Sitting Pretty Book Review | Under the Spot Hype #ep1

Hi I’m Jaz. Welcome or welcome 
back to my channel. Today  
is very exciting. This is the first 
video – episode? Video episode  
in a new series on my channel called 
Under The Spot Hype.
(upbeat intro music).
Okay so Under The Spot Hype basically stemmed 
from me wanting to read and promote and hype up  
books that I don’t think are getting enough hype 
in the book world. Whether that’s like they don’t  
have that many reviews or ratings on goodreads, or 
they might have some but I feel that the general  
vibe is that people aren’t talking about this 
book, if that makes sense. And I want to shine  
a spotlight on them which is why it’s called 
under the spot *hype*. Hope you appreciate the pun.  
So that’s it. They’re going to be a real variety 
– it’s going to be really reflective of my reading  
but it’s just me going a bit more in depth into 
– it’s basically a book review, this is what this  
is, it’s a book review! I want to say a big thank 
you to Sharn from caffeine & commas for designing  
the like fun logo. So, for each one I’ll be able 
to pop a different book in and it’s like under the  
spot hype – I love it. I literally love it. That 
is under the spot hype – I hope that you enjoy!  
If you have any like feedback on the format 
and things like that, I would love to

hear it
because this is my first series on my channel
so …
I am here for feedback. Without further ado
I think we should just get straight into it.
I’ve been mulling this idea over for months
and months and as soon as I read this book
I was like “that’s the one” like this is the
one I want to kick start off this series with and
that is Sitting Pretty: the view from my ordinary
resilient disabled body by Rebekah Taussig.
I listened to this on audiobook in December
and it became one of my favourite non-fictions of
2020. Um I’ve seen a few people talking about it
but I really wanted to continue to hype it because
I think it’s really incredible. Okay so this book
was published by Harper One in August of 2020, so
it’s still quite a new release. The audiobook is
like 7 hours and a bit – 7 hours 33 minutes.
And the hard cover I think is somewhere in the
like mid-200 range. So, I don’t usually do
this for book reviews but I think with this
book I think it’s really succinctly put so I’m
going to read out the synopsis that I have here
for the book. Let me grab – let me grab my laptop.
I think that’s a really good summary of the kind
of topics that this book branches into and talks
about. And I think the way that it is written
and narrated is very accessible – especially
the audiobook feels very conversational. So,
I really would recommend it if you are able to
listen to audiobooks because it’s also narrated
by Rebekah which is really really excellent.
So as that sort of mentions, it dives into a
lot of topics surrounding disability and each
chapter sort of tackles something different but
obviously not separate because everything is very
interlinked. It goes into you know dating whilst
disabled, trying to find accessible housing um and
the kind of issues with trying to find accessible
housing and how few and far between they actually
are. Whether somewhere says it’s accessible but
it actually isn’t. I was watching this interview
and she mentioned that in when trying to find
accessible housing, one of the adverts labelled
a house as accessible but then when she got there
the curb wasn’t lowered which like – you know is
accessible for some people um but if you’re in
a wheelchair that’s obviously not accessible.
Rebekah is a wheelchair user and so it talks about
the different types of accessibility. As well as
that, it talks about health insurance and the
real worries of health insurance and kind of like
basing your career and your job around the
fact that you will need health insurance um
was a really interesting conversation especially
from like a US perspective um with their health
insurance. That was really interesting to like
listen and hear it and learn about. That summary
also talked about the complications of kindness.
That whole chapter was so interesting to hear
what Rebekah had to say – especially when thinking
about able-bodied people like myself thinking
you’re trying to help but actually you are really
not helping. And she very much talked about the
view of like able-bodied people viewing disabled
people as people who need your help without
recognizing at all that disabled people have
value and they have valuable things to offer
to the conversation. It also spoke about
independent dependency and it spoke about
um this is kind of like interlinked I guess in
with feminism which it talked about as well,
and how the narrative within feminism is very
much focused on “strong independent woman”
and what does that actually mean? What
does a strong independent woman mean?
And she reflected on it in terms of like being
independent but also needing to be dependent at
times within herself and within her relationship
and how actually an independent/dependent
relationship is very valuable. And in that way
feminism can be very exclusionary to people that
might not be able to be independent 100%
of the time and – actually I have a quote,
let me grab my laptop. I have a quote from the
book that kind of spoke about feminism as well.
I found that whole passage that whole chapter
so interesting. Within the book um she told a
story about being in a group of women who were all
kind of talking about feminism and men and kind
of she was sort of sat there like “I can’t really
relate to what you’re saying”. Um and I found that
really interesting because it’s something I’ve
not really thought about before that – well
it’s really obvious like in hindsight – but
in terms of actively thinking about it,
obviously every woman has a different experience
with feminism and that’s why it’s so
important to have inclusive feminism because not
every person has the same experience obviously.
I honestly, I think this book was fantastic. It
also talked a lot – it had a kind of mix like of
personal anecdotes with some theory. There was
also a chapter where Rebekah spoke about teaching
a disability studies class. And the different
reactions from students about this class um kind
of really highlighted like the you know disregard
of people with disabilities and and the disregard
of like like any form of like awareness that
disabilities aren’t always something to be
cured. And also talking about the fact that
disabilities can change and like it’s not like
if you’re currently not disabled you can’t
become disabled – it’s not a fixed thing. And
so, the unawareness of students and how they
would be like “I don’t need this class, it’s
not for me, it’s not relevant to my life” its
was like astounding to her. It’s like tough very
tough listening to it because it’s so frustrating
to hear people disregard it so easily. So yeah,
I think overall this is like a fantastic read.
I hope I’ve convinced you somewhat to maybe pick
it up. It was a really fantastic read um and it’s
really one that you should have on your radar if
it’s not already! I mean it now is because I have
brought it to your radar if it’s not on your radar
– what am I saying? Okay – I’ll link below some of
the interviews I watched with Rebekah Taussig
as well as obviously her book um. And yeah,
that is the first episode of Under The Spot Hype.
Thank you so much for watching. Look out for
another Under The Spot Hype episode in the future.
I’m hoping this was like a short concise video
that was my aim but then I get so passionate
about books I love and just talk for ages!
Let me know if you’re interested in reading this
book. If you’re here and you watched to the end um
but you’re not in a commenty space – I see you.
Just leave me a little yellow heart so that I
know that you’re here! Thank you again
and I will see you in a new video, bye!