My Fair Lazy: One Reality Television Addict’s Attempt to Discover If Not Being a Dumb Ass Is the New Black, or a Culture-Up Manifesto By: Jen Lancaster

Synopsis:

Readers have followed Jen Lancaster through job loss, sucky city living, weight loss attempts, and 1980s nostalgia. Now Jen chronicles her efforts to achieve cultural enlightenment, with some hilarious missteps and genuine moments of inspiration along the way. And she does so by any means necessary: reading canonical literature, viewing classic films, attending the opera, researching artisan cheeses, and even enrolling in etiquette classes to improve her social graces. In Jen’s corner is a crack team of experts, including Page Six socialites, gourmet chefs, an opera aficionado, and a master sommelier. She may discover that well-regarded, high-priced stinky cheese tastes exactly as bad as it smells, and that her love for Kraft American Singles is forever. But one thing’s for certain: Eliza Doolittle’s got nothing on Jen Lancaster-and failure is an option.

Review:

It took me a while to get into My Fair Lazy, I read The Tao of Marth fairly recently so it was difficult to get back into reading another memoir by the same person, but once I did I really enjoyed it. I got to see how much Lancaster has changed since she first started writing. This book was published in 2010 but feels like it’s older, possibly because she hadn’t yet moved to the big house in the suburbs.

Lancaster makes me want to be a better person. Not like give to charity or volunteer, but make myself better by expanding my knowledge and trying new things. While reading this I made a mental note to really tackle my non-fiction backlog and learn something new, maybe even become an expert in something.

Recently I found an old document with goals written four years ago. I felt smug when I opened it because surely I’d get to cross something off and—I didn’t. I felt deflated and couldn’t help asking what was I doing with my life? The things on the list weren’t all difficult and were things I still want to do, so why am I not doing them?

Anyway, I really enjoyed My Fair Lazy and I could relate more to his Jen than the one from Tao of Martha. The only other memoir by Lancaster I have yet to read is Jeneration X and for obvious reasons I’m not in a rush to read it.

4/5