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A review of The Broke Diaries

by Angela Nissel

The Completely True and Hilarious Misadventures of a Good Girl Gone Broke

Reviewed by: Liz Smith
About Liz Smith

The Broke Diaries Any girl who has ever seriously considered selling her ovaries to buy groceries will find a sister in the voice of the author of this book, Angela Nissel, as she struggles valiantly, wittily, and often hysterically against the confines of her $77.12 monthly paycheck.

What began as a web diary from a Medical Anthropology major at Penn State (i.e. a thoroughly uemployable, although extremely intelligent liberal arts major) who found that broke could easily equal bored, is now a fast-paced, witty, and savagely true, memoir of the ludicrous schemes one girl resorted to navigate the phase as a second- (maybe even seventh)-class starving student.

From racking up almost $400 in overdraft fees from $12 in pay phone calls, to posing as a professor to score free textbooks, to dating a "lunatic chicken farmer" in hopes of a free meal, The real-life heroine of this book combats education-induced poverty with street smarts, articulate angst, and an unquenchable sense of humor and hope. For anyone who has ever writhed in the pyre between self-betterment and actual (or lucrative) employment, this book one I would definitely recommend buying - even with your last $9.99!

Click here to buy this book, or read more about it at Amazon.com: The Broke Diaries

Copyright © by Liz Smith, 2002

Reviewed by Liz Smith:
--The Broke Diaries - by Angela Nissel
--The Poetry & Short Stories of Dorothy Parker - Random House
--Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood - by Rebecca Wells









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