Man Repeller: Seeking Love, Finding Overalls

If you can accept the idea of a 23-year-old blogger writing a memoir, then you’ll find plenty of life, love, and fashion advice in Medine’s candid debut. The budding fashionista provides the backstories to many sartorially questionable ensembles featured on her Man Repeller blog, dishes on her lifelong attraction to oddball outfits, and tells “the tale of the Repeller who landed a Man” (she recently married her on-again, off-again boyfriend of five years). The skeletons in Medine’s closet wear some hilarious get-ups: there’s the burgundy tent dress with a Peter Pan collar she wore when she had her first kiss in kindergarten (which gave her chicken pox); the mandatory, ubiquitous black maxi-skirt from her time at a Jewish school; and the outfit she wore the night she lost her virginity. Another incident involves a much-coveted Hermes ostrich-skin clutch belonging to Medine’s grandmother, which was horribly defiled after a night of binge drinking in Paris. Then there are the “violently offensive” gray harem pants that ultimately led to a rekindling of her relationship with the man she would marry, and a pair of shorts that inspired her to create her blog. These essays establish Medine as not just a fashion wunderkind, but a clever and engaging storyteller who’s not afraid to laugh at herself. Agent: Michael Klein, Maxx Sports and Entertainment. (Sept.)