Ha! Forgot one!

Book #14: I'm Not the New Me, by Wendy McClure

I totally forgot that I read this a month ago on a car trip to Green Bay. Wendy McClure is the hilarious mind behind this and these, and she also used to write for Television Without Pity – my personal Alpha and Omega of the internet. Her book covers the first few years she spent writing her online journal, Pound, and the life stuff that happened in that time. Weight loss and gain, painful dating experiences, professional quandaries – through it all, Wendy struggles to find and maintain her sense of self. She is a reluctant internet celebrity – someone who set out to record her weight loss progress, but ended up with an audience of thousands. Even as her readers pressure her to be their guiding light, she doesn't shy away from admitting or even celebrating her slip ups. Even the title seems to be a way of keeping other people's expectations off of her.

Despite the distance she tries to create between herself and her readers, she surprises herself by finding kinship with her readers and fellow bloggers, and this book is as much about those nice discoveries as it is about dieting and dating. This is not a chick lit novel – Wendy isn't buying a size 6 wedding dress at the end. It's a section of one person's life, and happily that person is a damn fine storyteller.