I Regret Nothing: A Memoir
By Jen Lancaster
ISBN13: 9780451471079
Author website: http://www.jenlancaster.com/
Brought to you by OBS reviewer Kayt
Synopsis
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
New York Times bestselling author Jen Lancaster has lived a life based on re-invention and self-improvement. From Bitter Is the New Black to The Tao of Martha, she’s managed to document her (and her generations) attempts to shape up, grow up, and have it all—sometimes with disastrous results…
Sure Jen has made mistakes. She spent all her money from a high-paying job on shoes, clothes, and spa treatments. She then carried a Prada bag to the unemployment office. She wrote a whole memoir about dieting…but didn’t lose weight. She embarked on a quest for cultural enlightenment that only cemented her love for John Hughes movies and Kraft American Singles. She tried to embrace everything Martha Stewart, while living with a menagerie of rescue cats and dogs. (Glitter…everywhere.)
Mistakes are one thing; regrets are another.
After a girls’ weekend in Savannah makes her realize that she is—yikes!—middle-aged (binge watching is so the new binge drinking), Jen decides to make a bucket list and seize the day, even if that means having her tattoo removed at one hundred times the cost of putting it on.
From attempting a juice cleanse to studying Italian, from learning to ride a bike to starting a new business, and from sampling pasta in Rome to training for a 5K, Jen is turning a mid-life crisis into a mid-life opportunity, sharing her sometimes bumpy—but always hilarious—attempts to better her life…again.
Review
I have never read a book by author Jen Lancaster and now I regret that fact. I Regret Nothing is a laugh out loud, fun ride of a memoir. As Jen Lancaster reaches the dreaded “middle age”, she starts to rethink some of her choices and decides to make a bucket list. And oh boy what a fun list it is. After a planned ladies get away, she realizes she needs to grab life by the horns and enjoy this time of her life. Her bucket list is filled with a wide array of life points, some simple and some exciting. I could so relate to a lot that she discussed in this funny novel. Being close to the same age, it helped me to see the humor in some of those things I dreaded thinking about.
Jen’s bucket list is made in an attempt to better her life and from what I read about her other books, she has tried this before with no so good results. This time she has some pretty amazing things to accomplish, sampling real pasta in Rome, learning Italian, starting a new business. And while I think some of her accomplishments were achieved by a bit of luck and happenstance. Still what a way to change your life. Her addition of learning to ride a bike had humorous results and the reason why she actually had to “learn to ride a bike” was pretty funny. Photos included in this book are funny and offer a closer perspective of the content. I did enjoy them a lot. Loved her new business too. Jen is an amazing person, writer and middle ages.
Since I came to this book knowing nothing of Jen Lancaster, her writing style or her other books, I do not have the same criticisms as some reviewers I have read. I loved the “sidebars” and have to say that is how my brain and mouth work most of the time. With so many of us Gen X’s turning 50 or close or beyond, finding someone with our voice was absolutely awesome. Am I creating my bucket list, probably not. Do I look back and regret choices I made in my life, no I do not, that is what got me here and made me who I am. Do I want to have my tats removed, definitely not. That said, do I relate to Jen Lancaster and her I Regret Nothing memoir, yes I surely do. And I also see I may have to add one thing to my list of “to dos” – read more Jen Lancaster books. Oh and maybe finally get to Italy.
