Bitter is the New Black, by Jen Lancaster

BitNB is a 'layoff memoir' written by now-blogger, Jen Lancaster. It is an account of her being laid off by a giant corporation during a merger/after 9/11, and struggling for the next few years to get back on her feet.

I am not familiar with her blog. Maybe if I were, it would have helped. As it stands, I could not read straight through the book because I *hated* her so much during the first quarter of the book that it made it difficult for me to root for her at all. Her label-obsessed, superiority-complexed, money-fixated personality turned me completely off, so much so that I couldn't really get past it to enjoy the humor in the book. I skimmed through to the end, was glad for her that things turned out well, and put it down.

I am not saying that this book is not for anyone, or that I find her to be a bad person. It was simply not for me. I am a very bare-bones, no-label, generally financially-restrained kind of girl, and I could not relate to her as she portrayed herself at all. I hope she is actually nicer and more deep than she appears even at the end of the book. I'm sure she probably is. I also think that there are many, many people who could look beyond the things that I got hung up on and enjoy the book. However, if one of your favorite books is 'Long Walk Home', I would guess probably not.

Rating: one star out of five, because it was well written, even if it made me slightly ill to read it