Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body

Disability is often seen by the able-bodied population as something to be fixed, something to be pitied. With Taussig’s memoir, readers are given a different perspective—one of someone seeking to bring awareness and education to the world around her. Taussig, with both a PhD in disability studies and the lived experience of having a disability herself, is able to meet readers where they are, whether they are disabled themselves or are curious to learn. However, Taussig states up front that she is not representative of all disabled people and that this book is not exhaustive. Rather, it is a personal account, and one that is organized as a book of essays, each a vignette of an experience where disability informed Taussig’s experiences: her romantic relationship with an able-bodied person, teaching an experimental disability theory class for high schoolers, discussing her life experiences with her family, and more.