Readers' Advisory Interest Group

With the economy in its current horrible shape, affecting everyone and all job markets, unemployment is hardly a humorous topic, but Jen Lancaster pulls it off in her memoir Bitter is the New Black. Once a highly paid executive, Jen once enjoyed a palace of an apartment, fine dining, and designer everything, from clothes to shoes to bags to even makeup. She lives with her boyfriend and ignores conventional wisdom, spending all rather than saving. When she is laid off unexpectedly, she circles her impressive resume, assuming her unemployment is temporary. As she quickly finds out, it is not, and she goes from living in luxury to cutting costs in ways she never imagined. Through it all, she has her sass and humor, and does indeed take a Prada bag to the unemployment office (where she also asks the workers there if they have any jobs that "don't suck"). Rather than marveling at her lack of wisdom in financial matters, the reader sides with her and roots for her, and when she begins to learn life lessons the hard way, we are proud. The book has its somber moments, with the events occurring before and after 9/11, and the inevitable horrors of a lack of income, Jen keeps her humor and stride, maintaining strength and resolve when she finally hits rock bottom. This book is a hilarious, sad account of a girl who once loved designer duds over savings accounts, and who learned the hard way to save for a rainy day. It seems impossible to make an amusing memoir of such a hard time in a young business woman's life, but Jen Lancaster pulled it off with this book.