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 enlarge | Author: Jen Lancaster
Publisher: NAL Trade
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
Buy New: $7.27
You Save: $6.73 (48%)
New (43) Used (27) Collectible (1) from $6.89
Avg. Customer Rating:  89 reviews
Sales Rank: 1531
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 400
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.1 x 1
ISBN: 0451223896
Dewey Decimal Number: 814.6
EAN: 9780451223890
ASIN: 0451223896
Publication Date: May 6, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Fat is the new Self Centered December 9, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Lancaster is an author who can deftly turn a keen eye on herself. Again and again and again. As her novels progress ( and her website ) the subject matter increasingly turns more to herself with a lack of observation of what is happening around her. She seems to be reverting to the self centered mind set she says she wallowed in prior to the set up for Bitter is the New Black. The journey she takes the reader through never really ends up anywhere other than the end of a before and after episode on the Tyra Banks Show. I was disappointed. Perhaps I'm just hungover from the last ten years of watching people so self absorbed they no longer see what is around them.
Laughed my fat @$$ off November 28, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
... well not really. Fat @$$ is still there, but I swear my abs are a little tighter now.
Before choosing a book without a personal recommendation, I always look at the negative reviews. Sometimes, they actually make me want to buy the book, but in this case, they (along with the titles of her other books) were almost enough to make me say no. If I weren't nearly desperate for reading material, I'd never have bought the book. I learned that it disparages Weight Watchers (which more-or-less saved my life), and that the author is too self-centered to even be funny.
Well, all I can say to those who wrote negative reviews is "Get a sense of humor!" This book is one of the funniest things I've ever read. Yes, Jen is self centered -- about as self centered as most of us -- but more honest about it (and a lot funnier.)
Jen loves shoe-shopping, fashion, and (if I get the context right) overpriced purses. I'm a fashion retard, and hate shopping, especially for shoes (and almost as much for purses.) In the first chapter, she disparages the town I live in, which I actually like (for the most part.) She reviles the soccer moms with minivans, and I do own a minivan (although I try very hard never to actually drive the monstrosity), and my son does play soccer.
So why, when I'm reading this book, do I feel like it's me talking? My husband picked it up and read a few paragraphs from the middle. He says, "Tell me the truth. You're secretly writing books now under the pen name Jen Lancaster, aren't you?"
Jen speaks her mind (saying what plenty of women wish they had the guts to say), and she's freakin' funny. I'm not so sure about the title, though. Sometimes, I'm pretty sure pie IS the answer...
 Ambivalent... November 24, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have mixed feelings about this book. I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it, and parts of it were extremely funny and true. That being said, I have to say I found myself disliking the author. As someone who struggles with her weight, I fear her book may stereotype overweight people as extremely gluttinous and lazy-which I, and many overweight individuals, am not. Then again, you have to realize that she's being honest about her own behavior and sometimes truth isn't pretty. I think what horrified me the most is her description of her and her family spending fourth of July in the pool and not bothering to leave to pee because that's what chlorine is for. Please tell me she was joking, because if she's that lazy she needs a psychiatrist, not a weight loss counselor.
Her behavior to strangers also repelled me. During her opening scene in the book, she relates being called "a fat bitch," by a stranger, because she was insisting leaving through the nearer exit on the bus although it was being blocked by a child in a stroller. Instead of going to the next exit like a normal person would, she chooses instead to get into an altercation with the father of the baby. I'm not sure what she was going for by relating this incident, maybe she thought she'd get admiration from others and a you go, girl! But I just found her obnoxious and spoiled. Again, are you that lazy that you'd fight with a stranger rather than walk five feet?
The close of the book sees her getting called a fat bitch again, this time by a heroin addict who accosts her in the park. Again, instead of just nicely brushing the addict off and going on her merry way, Lancaster chooses to be extremely nasty and rude and tell this woman off, who responds predictably. After all, who is Jen Lancaster to tell a stranger how to live their life?
I guess what I am trying to say is, although the book is entertaining and there were times I felt she was right on target in her descriptions (such as Weight Watcher's meetings) I didn't feel much empathy and/or sympathy for Lancaster herself. She was not a likable character...I sort of ended the book thinking she was rude, nasty, mean...someone who doesn't contribute anything meaningful to society and revels in her own indulgence and frivolity.
Terribly funny, even if you think the author is kind of terrible November 22, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I've read all of Jen Lancaster's books (all humorous memoirs), to date, and, while I enjoy them, I gotta' say I don't know if I'd want to be this person's friend--at least not the person she writes about as herself. I've been called the B-word plenty of times myself, but many of the things the author says, or does (her epic battles with neighbors and the world at large), are pretty far out there and things I'd never even dream up, let alone consider acting on. Regardless, Lancaster is a great storyteller. Funny, nimble and never self-aware (at least not in a bad way). She certainly doesn't protect herself in her writing--or anyone else for that matter. (Reading her books gives you the idea her husband should be nominated for sainthood.) Her blog, jennsylvania.com, which kick-started her original book, Bitter is the new Black, is also a hoot and a I think Such a Pretty Fat is by far her funniest effort, though that could be because I have also struggled with my weight. Like her or hate her, or something in between, Lancaster is a reliably laugh-out-loud funny author.
 Such a Pretty Fat is Such a Pretty Funny Read November 18, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I enjoyed this book. I happened to just pick it up because it was on a table. Since reading the book I have become an avid reader of her blog and just ordered her other two books. She is like the friend you meet up with every so often to catch up and get the load down of their weird and bizarre life, you laugh so hard at their stories because you just can't believe that actually happens to someone.
This was a fun read and I would suggest it to everyone!
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