Required Reading

For the past four years, not only have I had to deal with the the wake of disaster Bush left for America, I've been stunted from doing a lot of the things that used to bring me such joy. I realized the other day, as I neared the end of Bitter is the New Black by Jen Lancaster, that I hadn't finished a book that didn't have case captions in it in the last four years. I mean, I've read magazines, parts of books, but have been unable to stick to a book long enough to finish.

Today, I finished Bitter. I LOVED it. She's my new favorite author. And I related to it, as I imagine many who read this blog could.

The book is a "memoir" about her being a superficial label-whore VP at a large company who got laid off after September 11th. She was out of work for 2 years, and her new husband also got let go during that window. They lost their fabulous apartment, she had to sell her purses (which is unfathomable!), and almost got evicted from her non-fabulous apartment. The biggest thing I could relate to is the rejection and being forced to re-evaluate your life.

If you can't figure out the similarities, you're either blissfully ignorant or you've never tried to do something challenging.

Either way, anyone who has been kicked when they were down, and subsequently kicked when they tried to get back up again, Bitter is the New Black should be required reading.

I'm also reading Such a Pretty Fat, and will be next reading Bright Lights, Big Ass. I also am an immediate fan of her blog: www.jennsylvania.com. It'll tide me over when I've finished her 3 currently-published books.

Going to try to not be fixated on Friday...wish me luck! Have a great weekend.