SAVE KARYN: One Shopaholic's Journey to Debt and Back

After moving to New York from Chicago for a lucrative position at a new television court show, Bosnak digs herself into a more than $20,000 hole in less than a year. With stars in her eyes, she blindly plunks down $778 on lingerie here and $387 on a cut and color there. She justifies her frivolity as "emergencies" and "investments" in herself. "I was twenty-seven years old and I wasn't going to be a spring chicken much longer. So I needed these nighties to look as sexy as I could because I needed to land a man. So they were kind of like an investment. An investment in my sex life and an investment in my future." Unable to pay her bills while employed, Bosnak's luck takes a turn for the worse when the court show is canceled. She is able to land a job at yet another TV show, but that, too, doesn't last long. When her financial situation is truly desperate, she posts a "help-needed" message on craigslist.org (an interactive classifieds page). When the site administrators remove her posting, Bosnak decides to set up her own Web site: www. savekaryn.com. With financial contributions from strangers, sales from eBay and donations of all kinds, she's able to pay all her bills in five short months. Each chapter opens with a spread of her credit card statements, outlining her month's purchases. This detail would be sufficient, but this self-absorbed book is filled with the overwhelming minutiae of Bosnak's shallow extravagance, making it hard to empathize with her during tough times or celebrate her escape from debt. (Sept.)