I'm Not the New Me

I read this book over the course of two nights and didn't want it to end. But when I did I was surprised in a really nice way. McClure's writing is fresh and candid yet also sweet and sometimes melancholy. She's not afraid to put her emotions on the page - the pretty ones as well as those the rest of us usually try to hide. I don't think there's anyone - fat, skinny or in-between - who couldn't relate to McClure's narrative about love, loss, friendships and body image.

This is a fast-moving, laugh-out-loud-even-when-you're-the-only-one-in-the-house book. But it's so much more than just another funny fat-girl book. It's the story of a smart, iconoclastic, woman making her way through the shoals of the post-college years when everyone, including her, is waiting for her to "live up to her potential." It's about dating, karaoke, friends, therapy, parents, work--all discussed with insight, honesty and humor. This is also one of the best books I've seen about the relationship between internet relationships and "real life." My first laugh-out-loud moment came on page 7. "I'm in Vegas because of a website. I got here through the Internet. It's a little hard to explain that to other people. You start out telling someone, 'Okay, so there's this website,' and that you know a few people through it, and as you're talking he or she will tilt his/her head like a dog who's heard something you can't hear, and apparently, that something is your own voice saying La, la, la, I have a magical pretend life." I don't know where McClure will go from here (see, even when you "live up to your potential" and write a great book it only adds to the pressure), but I know I'll want to read about it.

Wendy McClure is my new hero. Transforming women's most intimate struggles and insecurities into the subject of pure hilarity and fun, I wholeheartedly commiserated with Wendy's ill-starred diet regimens and dating disasters...as addictive as a bag of Funyuns, without all those nasty calories.

This book would be worth the money just for the circa 1970's Weight Watchers recipe cards that are reproduced within it. But don't just buy it for that. Buy it because Wendy is whip-smart and tremendously funny, and because this book will make you think twice about the diet industry, food, and the relationships American woman have with both.

Wendy McClure's book is about all of the things my friends and I talk about all of the time--weight, friendship, dating, family--but she crystallizes it all in a far more articulate and funny way than we ever could. I laughed like crazy when reading about her adventures in online dating and felt genuinely sad when reading about her breakup with a boyfriend. She's got a terrific sense of humor, which is sometimes silly, sometimes campy, but always dead-on. I picked up this book because I was a fan of Wendy's website, poundy.com, but you don't have to know the site to love this book. Using the magic number that Wendy herself mentions early in the book, I would recommend this to any woman who has ever weighed more than 125 pounds!