Quimby's Purchase = Good, good, good.

I chose a collection of short stories that reads like a journal of sarcastic and witty observations of female sillyness by Claire Zulkey, called “Girls, girls, girls”.

It's rare to find a woman who can really write about women. I don't mean in the way that has become popular in the past few years, showing women as emotional wrecks, sex fiends, marriage hounds, or a number of other stereotypes that women seem to have claimed for themselves (as if to prove that these traits are both normal and admirable). Zulkey can write about women–and she can write about these traits–but instead of glorifying them, she pokes fun at them for the moments of stupidity they actually are. Zulkey isn't anti-woman and she doesn't demean them–she just manages to point out the ridiculous behavior that even the most intelligent women showcase at times. And she does it with great humor.

She makes fun of the way women behave and she does it in a way that can be only be done by a woman who knows how ridiculous we can be. Zulkey's best piece in the book is titled, "Fat: The New Thin." Written as if it were to run in any mainstream fashion magazine, she makes outright jabs at the American female obsession with weight and adoration and admiration held for stick-thin celebs. However, now the weight obsession is reversed, with plump bodies the latest trend and pin thin models hiring “eating trainers” to help them catch up. Said a “John Galliano” in the piece: “It's time to see fabrics stick, pull, grab, and pucker. I'm sick of bare little midriffs; I want stomachs hanging out of shirts. It's time to see rolls, dimples, and flesh squeezing out of hems like sausage spilling out of so many casings.” Hilarity ensues and different “tactics” are described like “liposuction in reverse.” The ending, however, is priceless: "'I’m so goddamn happy,' reads a release from Oprah Winfrey’s press office."

The only downside is that it’s only 60 pages! I read this easily on my way home from Quimby’s and on the way to work the next morning (laughing entirely too loud for a 7am commute). She’s capable of hilarious, longer stories and I started perusing her blog, also equally hilarious. More laughter has ensued on the bus.

All in all, ‘tis a very good read.