With the snowpocalypse threatening to keep me indefinitely in South Georgia, I find myself doing anything to avoid spending time with my family. And so, another blog post is here:
Latest reads: Bright Lights, Big Ass by Jen Lancaster, Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead
Latest musical discovery: The Decemberists--if you're into folk music with an Irish slant, you're probably into them. Check out them out and try and prove me wrong.
Currently reading: The Society of S by Susan Hubbard
Here's my take on Bright Lights, Big Ass : A Self-Indulgent, Surly, Ex-Sorority Girl's Guide to Why it Often Sucks in the City, or Who are These Idiots and Why Do They All Live Next Door to Me? by Jen Lancaster. (I know, she went all Fiona Apple with the insanely long title. All for the comedy, I suppose.)
I though the memoir was nicely done. She's absolutely one of the funniest ladies around and proves it in every chapter, email expert, and open letter from cover to cover. In this book, which is the sequel to Bitter is the New Black (aka: Bitter is the New Black: Confessions of a Condescending, Egomaniacal, Self-Centered Smartass,Or, Why You Should Never Carry A Prada Bag to the Unemployment Office--hey, once you've got a gimmick you gotta stick with it), Lancaster opens up about her personal opinions/phobias/general ticks to her audience more which makes, for the most part, good reading. Her chapter on the challenges of maintaining modesty at a spa was beyond funny. Who would have thought a confident, loud mouthed, fat lady can't stand the thought of public nudity (hers or anyone else's)?
Where I thought the book sort of lacked meat (actually story, less fluffy smart-ass jokes) was the storyline. Overall, the book is about Lancaster's experiences living in the big city, aka Chicago. And while she definitely covers that, I felt myself laughing at her wise cracks, more than reading a story at times. This critique is probably because I read Bitter is the New Black, which chronicles her two year struggle of unemployment after being laid off from a fabulous (read: really good paying) dot-com job, first and it has much more defined timeline. (It's hilarious if you're into a smart woman making funny jokes about learning to live on very little income.)
In short, for this effort I give Ms. Lancaster 4 our of 5 Cetoria's because she hit the mark on what she was trying to do--write a hilarious book about living in the big city on a little budget.
Ms. Lancaster also has a popular blog: http://www.jennsylvania.com/ if you're interested.
Sincerely,
Cetoria
