LIZ: Book #37

The Good Eater: The True Story of One Man's Struggle With Binge Eating Disorder by Ron Saxen

252 pages

Completed 9/26/10

This memoir takes you from abused, chubby little Ron to unhealthy-habitted model Ron, to self-destructive Ron. And the whole while, you want to feel for this guy, but I found that you just can't. It took me quite some time to get through this one; not because it was dull or didn't interest me, but because I honestly just wanted to smack the character through the book.

Binge eating, which affects millions of Americans, was the focus of this book; but not really addressed. Yes, it was clear as Saxen shoveled multiple Big Macs and one pound bags of candy followed by entire loaves of fried bread that this was unhealthy binging at it's finest. But the author seems to have used this book to connect his feelings to the food (which I know is the reasoning behind binge eating, but not the reasoning behind this book); if he was unhealthy, unhappy, tired, wary, scared, uneasy, pleased, or overwhelmed - in went the food. Skyrocketing from 204 lbs. to almost 300 in an unbelievably short amount of time, Saxen was just hard to feel for.

Yes, the short peek into the male modeling world and crazy dieting ideas Saxen tries was entertaining, albeit sad, but towards the end of the book, I found myself completely uninspired. Instead of addressing his clear binge eating disorder, Saxen chooses to close the book out by introducing his new love interest and simply summing it all up by saying "I am happy now." For this to be the explanation behind why he doesn't binge eat anymore is absurd. For people looking to this book for advice or reaching out for help, Saxen addressed BED terribly, especially connecting his happiness with healthiness and leaving it at that.

LIZ: BOOK #36

Hungry by Crystal Renn

256 pages

Completed 8/30/10

Leading plus-size model Crystal Renn takes us into her susprinsingly dramatic childhood, her dive into anorexia and exercise addicition, her entrance into the modeling world, and her subsequent conquering of it at her heaviest. Entertaining in the way most fashion world memoirs are, and as sad as most spiraling teenage girls into eating disorders always are, this was a good - albeit very quick - read.

Typically if a memoir begins presenting statistics to me, I skip the chapter; if I had done so in Renn's case, I would have finished in half the time. However, this was a rare case in which I welcomed the numbers and journal article excerpts. The appalling low numbers of weights, salaries, and ages of these models was shocking were countered with the fashion industry's heavyweights (no pun intended) adding their own opinions and experiences about the plus-size world of things.

What is intriguing about Renn's story is that her plus-size status doesnt not always designate her to only the plus-size jobs. She's closed out Jean Paul Gaultier's runway shows, she has starred in Dolce & Gabanna's ad campaigns, and has over a dozen high fashion covers under her belt. She was the back behind (ha!) the breast cancer ad of the velvet-draped goddess. All at a size 14. And by maintaining her sanity, her brain, and herself.

LIZ: BOOK #35

Love and Other Impossible Pursuits by Ayelet Waldman

352 pages

Completed 8/29/10

This novel about a young woman who marries her lover and gains a precocious stepson, Waldman makes the reader both related and love the main character while loathing her. When Emilia loses her newborn daughter, despair follows her everywhere.

As someone who is not a kid-person, I was hesitant to find any good in Waldman's five-year-old protagonist; the little know-it-all made me literally feel Emilia's frustration. By the end, predictably, I loved the little bugger, but Waldman does make it difficult.

I read fiction, although I do not often find something I love. This book was so real to me that I ad to check when I concluded reading that it was indeed a novel and not one of my new favorite memoirs. Waldman has a new novel out, and I am on the waiting list. An eloquent writer without overwhelming the reader, I recommend her.

LIZ: BOOK #34

I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced

198 pages

Completed 8/19/10

With a title like this, the memoir lover in me couldn't resist; gets straight to the point, now, doesn't it? So, believe it or not, this was an account of a young Yemen girl who, at 10 years old, was married off to a man many years her senior. While this is not uncommon in itself, the telling of Nujood's self-awareness and fight to escape and demand a divorce in front of the court is surreal.

Clearly, this book was translated, and it was an as-told-to story. That being said, I sped through this read. Young adult level, at most, and it left me wanting more information, instead of coming away with an amazing tale. In fact, I liked the writing in the epilogue the most; a Glamour magazine writer who introduced further details and stories of other girls who experienced similar account of Nujood's premature end to childhood.

If anything, this is a book for people who want a different perspective on arranged marriages. Not often does such a young girl have the gusto, courage, and heart to not only escape from such circumstances, but tell the story with -not depth- but truth.

LIZ: BOOK #33

Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang by Chelsea Handler

256 pages

Completed 8/15/10

Let's preface this by saying I adore Chelsea Handler. I think she's hysterical; yes, she's crude and not very classy, and that is exactly what I love about her. I have read all of her books, and while this one was not the funniest, I was still laughing out loud so hard at some points that I had to stop reading.

That being said, I sped through this book; 6 hours and done. Disappointing when a book is that good and you get to that last page. Clearly, this is not a work of literary genius, but nonetheless beyond enjoyable.

LIZ: Book #32

Cabin Pressure: One Man's Desperate Attempt to Recapture His Youth as a Camp Counselor by Josh Wolk

*Be warned, I read an advanced reader's copy of this memoir, so things may be slightly different in the final published version than what I read.*

288 pages

Completed 8/13/10

This was a campy (no pun intended) kitchsy memoir about a man in his mid-thirties about to get married who decides to relive his childhood by returning to the camp he so fondly remembers. When I first began to read it, I thought it was going to be a sappy let's-discover-who-I-am throughout this book, but I was pleasantly surprised when it did not end up that way. However, this book is hard to categorize; equal parts midlife crisis, troubled adolescent boys, sleepaway camp expectations, and relationship problems, there wasn't enough about each for it to really matter to me.

If Wolk had chosen to only focus on his feelings of underachievement or only his relationship, I wouldn't have picked this up in the first place. But I feel like a lot of instances in which ironic humor could have been injected went to waste. Ten year old boys are a species of themselves; that's enough material to drum up some humor. Instead Wolk takes us along his woe-is-me problems with the boys of his youth - who are now fellow adult counselors - and his inner conflict over why his fiance is stressed. (Perhaps because two months before their wedding, he decides to up and leave for rural Maine?!)

This was one of those memoirs that took awhile to get through even though it wasn't heavy or deep. I just lacked the interest needed to read it in it's entirety before picking up a new book, so it took me some time. If you're looking for a humorous, gritty story of a man who returns to camp to relive his glory days...this is not the book for you.

LIZ: Book #31

The Good Doctor by Damon Galgut

224 pages

Completed 7/26/10

This novel was a bit slow, but nonetheless enjoyable. Focusing on a middle-aged, divorcing doctor posted in a decrepit, quasi-abandoned hospital with a total of five other people in post-aparthied South Africa, he is forced to discover himself when a fresh-faced, young and eager new doctor requests to join the pathetic team.

Disillusioned and stuck - both figuratively and literally - Frank resists change, except when it can benefit him. But putting himself in poor situations - an affair with a married local woman, reliving his military days, and challenging a dangerous ex-leader - leads to devastating consequences, both for himself and others.

While I would say this book is more mystery-like than I normally prefer my fiction to be, it wasn't a bad read. Well-written and eloquent without drowning the reader in words, Galgut is a talented author for sure. Amonst the ruin of the story, though, the ending left me wanting more; and not in a I-need-more-from-this-author kind of way, but more of a this-ending-is-it?! way.