I Don't Care About Your Band - Julie Klausner

Let’s face it – dating is tough. If you type in “dating” in the amazon.com search bar, you’ll receive 18,907 results. The Millionaire Matchmaker is just one a dozens of dating shows on TV. Carrie Bradshaw wrote a column about sex and dating, {which some how managed to afford her MANY expensive shoes on a freelance writers’ salary...and designer dresses...and a brownstone on the Upper East Side with closet space most 20-something New York ladies would kill for. The mind boggles). We all want to find mister (or misses) right. As much as dating can be rough...it can also be brutally hilarious. Enter Julie Klausner. Miss Klausner (who, after reading this book, should be my new best drinking buddy) details her loves, losses, and one-night stands all while being a 20-something in NYC. I must say, Ms. Klausner is willing to put it all out there, with stories that will make you think - heck, at least it's never been that bad! If you appreciate the ridiculous antics of the Sex and the City ladies: Charlotte’s date who licks her face, Carrie’s politician boyfriend who wants her to pee on him, and Samantha’s...well...everything, this book is right up your alley. It is a bit of a slow start (although that could have been just me reading at 10:30 at night, cozy in bed, eye’s shut...zzzz), but once it picked up, I was totally on-board. Here are my highlights:

• The book contains an analysis on the dynamics of Kermit and Miss Piggy’s relationship in the first few chapters. Muppets = win.
• Told in memoir style, Klausner adopts a tone that’s more self-awareness, less self-helpy. She tells each story in such a way that makes you think: “Oh, girl. Yes. Been there.” She recognizes that, as she puts it “...shitty guys. I dated them in college like it was my major.” Hilarity ensues.
• The stories...oh, the stories. There’s the NYU student with bedbugs, the vegan who only liked the taste of his own semen, and the dude who genuinely believed Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was pure cinematic genius (if anyone can explain to me HOW that movie had a single redeeming quality, I'll give you a quarter).

After reading Klausners trials and tribulations, there’s a good chance you’ll feel a bit better about your own.The goal of Klausner re-visiting her disastrous dating past, despite first appearances, is not to parade these dudes out for public humiliation, as snort-inducing as it is. The point is to encourage us women to focus our attention on our interests and desires, and being the center of our own universe - rather than focusing all our attention on that random dude that you met at [fill-in bar here] you probably don't even care that much about, or wished you didn't. So, I would like to raise a glass to Julie Klausner: who was willing to reveal embarrassing moments most would shove back into the deep recesses of their memories, in the name of female empowerment! Here's looking forward to book #2.

*Side Note* If you’re on Twitter, follow Julie Klausner (julieklausner). Her musings on wanting to engage a gyno waiting room of women in a conversation about Sex and the City was outstanding.