McClure, Wendy 1972(?)–

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McClure, Wendy 1972(?)–

PERSONAL: Born c. 1972. Education: University of Iowa, M.F.A.

ADDRESSES: Home and office—4064 N. Lincoln Ave. No. 18, Chicago, IL 60618. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Editor and writer. Children's book editor for a publishing company; author of pop-culture column for Bust magazine. Creator of online journal Pound, and of Candyboots.com.

WRITINGS:

I'm Not the New Me (nonfiction), Riverhead Books (New York, NY), 2005.

Contributor to Television without Pity Web site; contributor to literary journals and magazines, including New American Writing and Australian Style.

SIDELIGHTS: Wendy McClure has written about her battle with weight on her Web sites for several years, and she continues with this theme in her first book, I'm Not the New Me. In her memoir, the author uses the style of a diary—including excerpts from her online diary about her weight—chronicle her battle with overeating and her on-again, off-again relationship with the diet program promoted by Weight Watchers. The first half of the book focuses primarily on McClure's life, and the second half features Weight Watcher diet recipe cards from the early 1970s, with McClure offering up a mocking commentary. The book also includes some of the e-mails McClure has received from readers of her Web long Poundy.com.

In a review in Library Journal, Dale Raben called I'm Not the New Me "inspiring, heartwarming, and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time," while a Publishers Weekly contributor commented that "those who read this work are likely to applaud its author for writing such an encouraging, spirited book." Writing in Time magazine, contributors Lev Grossman, Belinda Luscombe, Carolina A. Miranda, and Michele Orecklin cited the title as part of a new wave of books detailing people's battles with weight problems and classified as "Chunk Lit." The reviewers went on to describe the book as a "wicked, paradoxically lean example" of the genre. "Most touching are glimpses of her mother, a sympathetic presence at over 300 pounds," wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor who went on to call I'm Not the New Me a "Bridget Jones—style endearing self-deprecation."