You asked for it Aunt Julie

Ok so it’s not really about you, but it is because of you…

My sister was in town last weekend and she left me two books to read. Julie’s a bit new to reading, (I know-that sounds really mean, but it’s totally true -so it’s all good.) and we’ve found we have similar taste from Laura Lippman crime novels to the loveliest of chic-lit as long as they meet one criteria…

It seems Julie has fallen into my life-long “condition” of devouring books with strong characters because for a while, said characters sort of feel like your friends. (Sad, but so true.)

Being that books are not in the King family budget unless they come from the library (ahem-free) Jul often lends me hers.

This weekend, the particular books she handed me made me nervous. I am really trying to The Secret-it-up with my life and not read anything too negative or sad (hence the time-out from Jodi Picoult).

So, when the first title I looked at was Bitter is the New Black, I thought there was no way I could even crack it open without completely poisoning my brain.

But the cover was too pretty and sure enough-I couldn’t resist.

Thank God for my weakness for eye-catching book jackets, because holy hysterical Batman this thing has me laughing so loud that my kids think I’m going crazy. There is one scene where the author/main character (after gaining a “few” pounds) has to go pick up a race packet for her friend who is running a marathon. Her description of walking through the convention center amongst the thousands of “clean living fitness nuts… who would rather die than put half and half on their Count Chocula” literally made me choke on my lunch. (Is that irony?)

Jen Lancaster is the author of Bitter is the New Black as well as four other books that I can not wait to get my hands on. If you want a sneak peek at Jen’s writing, find her here. And please, do yourself a favor and watch the video trailer for her new book. You will not regret it.

Yes, she is saucy and at times even crass. But often she says a lot of what you might think and more often she is actually pretty self-effacing and even sweet – or at least not so mean.

I don’t want to write more-because I want to go read more.

Summer reading at it’s best. Thank you Ms. Lancaster.