My Earlobes Still Feel Fat

Since I started writing my own novel, I think I’ve read at least ten chick-lit books in the name of 'research,' and what I’ve discovered is that there is no rubrick for character development, plot, or even number of protagonists. It seems that chick-lit, for all the pigeon-holing it falls victim to, is as wide and varied a genre as literary fiction. Well, maybe not literary fiction. But any other genre besides that. Anyway, in the past week I’ve read three very different novels, and had very different reactions to them. So I’ve sort of been walking around (well, loafing around) with book reviews in my head and no-one to share them with, save my poor boyfriend, who’s beginning to roll his eyes a bit too much for my taste. But then I thought about you all, and how long I’ve left you pining for another installment of My Oh-so-fascinating Life, and I figured I could subject you to a bit of book review! The three novels I’ve read most recently have been, in chronological order:...

I spent all morning cruising the internet for publishing jobs, newspaper opportunities, and magazine internships. I was so excited to really sink my teeth into writing, and specifically I decided I was going to apply (when I’m back in the US) for any and all openings at Cosmo, Marie Claire, Glamour, what have you. But just now I was reading Marie Claire, and all I could think was how I couldn’t afford the beautiful clothes in the pages, and how sickening it is that one article of clothing can even cost that much in the first place. And of course, I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about how I’d never fit into them anyway. Worse, when I tried to talk to my boyfriend about it, when I thought I was opening up about how sick my mind is, how I used to (and sometimes still do) wish I could be anorexic instead of fat, I realized he wasn’t listening. And he doesn’t see how it’s hurtful, because he doesn’t understand that I was talking about something so important. Because he wasn’t list...