Bright Lights, Big Ass: A Self-Indulgent, Surly, Ex-Sorority Girl's Guide to Why it Often Sucks in the City, or Who are These Idiots and Why Do They All Live Next Door to Me?

4.25 stars

I guess the unifying theme in this memoir by Lancaster is the city. Really, it's another collection of funny situations that Jen managed to get herself into. I liked this a little better than Bitter is the New Black, I suspect because I like her better than I liked her at the beginning of BNB. My favourite parts were her visit to her gynecologist, the chapter on public transit, and her appointment with the personal trainer. The gynecologist chapter had me laughing so hard, I couldn't breathe! The public transit chapter was especially funny for me because I take transit myself. Another very funny book by Lancaster!

You may also read my review here: http://bookbybookreview.blogspot.com/2011/08/review-bright-lights-big-ass.html

When a book starts off by telling Carrie Bradshaw (Sex and the City) to go 'suck an egg' (in not so many nice words), you just have to know that you're in for a treat... and what an amazing one this was. Bright Lights, Big Ass had me laughing-out-loud in so many chapters that people were starting to get my application to the local funny-farm ready. It was really rather embarrassing! Seriously... I'm not kidding.

This is not my first Jen Lancaster book and in fact, it appears that I am reading her backwards, but it doesn't seem to matter. She is so friggin' hilarious that I could read her stories again, and again, and again. I show more actually found myself telling my husband that I want to be her friend. Her narcissistic personality is the reason that she makes me laugh... I think that those who have the same personality just get it and she, my friends, understands!

One of my favourite things about Jen Lancaster and her writing style is that she tells is like it is. There is no sugar-coating, it is how it is and that's just the way it's going to be. She has such a way with her words that I could imagine myself in so many of the scenarios that she found herself in... especially the day-spa and the 'brown-star'. OMG, still laughing!! (Oops, sorry... Oh My Goodness)

While reading this book, my husband actually told me it was like listening to her book on tape because I 'never.shut.up' the whole time... constantly reading parts to him. Now, if that doesn't say something about the book, nothing will!! It was AWESOME!

So, if you like memoirs... pick up this book and I promise, you will NOT regret it!! show less

Apart from? her annoying habit of random question marks (while at the same time railing on those who use LOL), this book was pretty good. Some interesting bits:

-very surprised she calls herself a republican. Politics don't play a huge part in the book but they are mentioned and one of my favourite spots was the PS in a letter to America that read, "If I could endure the fraternity party otherwise known as the Clinton administration, you can deal with President Churchy McJesus." That made me laugh - unforunately I was on the train at the time which is only slightly less odd than Chicago's mass transport.

She's got a thing for "Mc" - Slutty McGabsalot makes an appearance later. She gets props for fun names :)

Her book is also full of some show more very good lines:

"Here's a quick rule of thumb: no meeting requests to anyone you've seen naked, okay?"

"I ask for the Marquis deSade and instead I get an Olsen twin"

I liked it in that it's different from some books wherein you've read the blog, you've read the book. The two dove tail from one another but they're not exact replicas which is nice.

Live Serena Mackesy's The Temp I could identify with her temping stints. At the moment, I'm glad I'm done with that. Some were great but some you definitely held on for the end of the assignment.

My comment about Becky/Shopaholic holds true from the first book - there are times I want to slap her. Shallow gets old, but its funny to read. I think I'd go nuts if she were someone I had to deal with on a daily basis.

All this said, if there is a third book - I'll probably buy it. show less

This book is the very funny follow up to Lancaster's debut novel "Bitter is the New Black". Jen has resigned herself to not being the rich high-powered business woman she used to be and has begun her second career as a writer. And this is a dream come true for Jen because now she can stay home all day in her favorite 'sock-monkey' flannel jammies and catch up on her TiVo. She and her husband, Fletch, spend many a weekend with real estate agents looking for a new apartment and it's hard to tell what is worse - the agent who is "the dirtiest person I have ever seen" and squires them about in her 'stankmobile' where every cigarette in the world has been smoked in that car with the windows rolled up for 15 years; or maybe the apartments show more where the exterminator comes weekly. My favorite chapter deals with Jen realizing that she needs to lose weight for all the new-book publicity photos she will be posing for. After a good morning work-out at the local gym: "I'm congratulating myself for a job well done when the unthinkable happens. I bend over to remove my sneakers and my pants explode. Kaboom. I struggle to remove what's left of the dove-gray material and hold it up for examination. The back side appears to have been taken out by a scud missile. Or possible the afteraffects of inhaling six pounds of creamy, nutty, imported Gouda. The camel's back? Just broke!"
I laughed out loud at times while reading this book. Try Jen Lancaster, you'll like her. show less

I love Jen Lancaster, but this book seemed a little more scattered than her other books. There wasn't much of a unifying theme; it more felt like a collection of really random anecdotes, some of which happened to be about looking for a place to live in Chicago, others of which were about her dogs' particular neuroses, and others of which were about her either having or being a "big ass". Funnyish, but not hilarious, and as a whole, fairly uncompelling.

This is my second Jen Lancaster book, and I enjoyed it even more than the first one (Bitter Is the New Black). A rollicking memoir by a very funny but bitchy lady, Bright Lights, Big Ass is a bit more free-wheeling than her first memoir, and I think it suits her material and style better. And what style is that? Smart-assessedness mixed with lots of footnotes combined with superiority and leavened with a smidge of humility. It amazes me that someone who was born in the same year as me (1967) has been able to churn out at least four memoirs, all of which have more than 300 pages. Jen Lancaster can seemingly write about anything—the thrills and horrors of riding public transportation, the travails of dog ownership, neighbors, show more house-hunting—and make it fun to read about. It is also fun to read a memoir that is light and funny and is not about sad and disturbing stories of alcoholism or child abuse. Consider it memoir lite.

Excerpt about the appeal of Ikea: I don't care how rich or poor you are, the draw of purchasing twelve hundred tea lights for thirty-seven cents is too great for anyone to resist.

Rating: 4 stars show less

What I love about Jen Lancaster is that you feel like she could be your best friend. Your scary, loose cannon, OMG-what-is-she-going-to-say-next friend.

And sometimes? Well, sometimes those people are the most fun in the world to be around.

In her second memoir Bright Lights, Big Ass, Lancaster focuses on the realities of life in the city — and how, specifically, Chicago is nothing like the sparkly, doors-wide-open, exciting New York City that “Sex And The City” character Carrie Bradshaw is so apt to describe. Reality includes annoying neighbors, ridiculous prices, people who don’t like pets and problems with mass transporation. All told with Lancaster’s trademark snark, of course.

While her debut novel Bitter Is The New Black show more chronicled her fall from success and wealth to unemployment and near poverty, her next memoir finds Lancaster in a better place — financially and emotionally. She’s married to Fletch, her longtime love, and living in a decent-ish apartment with her bevy of beloved animals. She’s sold Bitter Is The New Black and is eagerly awaiting its publication. Here, each chapter in Bright Lights, Big Ass is an ode to some aspect of life in Chicago — and is filled with anecdotes regarding her love of Target, Starbucks and modern conveniences. As I am also a huge fan of those things, Lancaster’s book read like a series of messages from a buddy.

Maybe it’s because I’ve seen this song and dance before, but Bright Lights, Big Ass didn’t “wow” me the way her debut book did. I snorted, chortled and laughed until I cried many times, but I wasn’t desperate to read portions of it aloud to my sister or boyfriend. With a second book in the Lancaster’s distinct style, settling in with her prose is like getting a long catch-up email from an old friend: you know it’s going to be full of good stories and fodder for the dinner table, but it’s probably nothing you haven’t heard before.

Without the biting wit made famous through her blog, Lancaster’s memoirs would seem like a laundry list of whining. But she hasn’t become a New York Times best selling author without being funnier than hell. And she is: spit-take-inducing, compulsively readable and hilarious. And though she can also be erudite and cruel at times, she has a good heart — it’s just layered under a casserole of sarcasm, angst and elitism. But that’s totally fine, because as long as she keeps churning out the funny? Well, I’ll be reading. Pick this one up as a stand-alone, if you like, but it might be more fun to read them in order. show less