The Break-Up Diet: A Memoir

I wanted to love this book. The author has created a funny, painful, sometimes awkward narrative for which I simply wasn't the intended audience; I wish I were, because this book is the sort of work that makes it clear the author is someone whom other people love to know. I would recommend it to others, but I don't think that I'll be rereading it.

I first read this stunning memoir over 2 years ago, when I received it as an ARC LT Early Reviewers copy. Unfortunately, it got lost during the huge shuffle of moving across town not just once but twice in those past two years, and so I was unable to review this book earlier. (My apologies both to the author and to LT for this. Sorry!)

Much has changed during the last two years for me; my job, my house, my friends- all of these are different. My opinion of this book however, has not altered one bit upon rereading it. I loved it then and I love it now.

Ms. Fix's memoir is a wickedly funny, witty and remarkably honest take on the struggling single Mother in the O.C.; a "stripper with a heart of gold" who looks for love in all the wrong places. With refreshing candor and insight into the agony of dealing with (and eventually yes, healing) a broken heart and the ocean of emotions that comes with it, Fix takes us along with her on a wild ride through the Plastic Paradise that is Orange County for thirty-something single women. The dating disasters that follow are hilarious! I think I laughed harder the second time I read this, recalling the Eyebrow Incident and the AOL Pick-Up Artist. LOL. Her descriptions and anecdotes are priceless, and her voice is so genuine through the whole novel. She doesn't white-wash anything. From the complete self-loathing of being dumped to the complications of raising a 12-year-old boy herself, Fix is true to herself and remains refreshingly honest with her audience. Which is really what a Memoir SHOULD BE.

I read through the other reviews of her book on here, and I was suprised to see the number of people who wished it was Fiction, or thought it would "read better if it was fiction". None of that makes any sense to me. The whole point of it being a memoir is to tell the truth... perhaps we as a public are just so used to reading celebrity biographies (or in some cases autobiographies) that are nothing but tell-all scandals and gossip that we do not recognize the quality of a real Memoir?

In either case, to me it is Ms. Fix's honesty that makes this book 4/5 stars. She is warm, funny and is endearingly, self-deprecatingly hilarious with a sparkling wit that leaves me smiling long after I have finished reading. ( )

I enjoyed this book, and loved Annette's voice. Fun, casual read :-) ( )

Probably just the genre, I could not get into it. Not enough meat to the story for me. ( )

I don't usually read romance novels, but it's good to play around in a different genre once in a while. This is the perfect book for it - not too smooshy or crude. A nice modern-day cinderella story. ( )