From Schlub to Stud: How to Embrace Your Inner Mensch and Conquer the Big City

Most readers will recognize, if only in the unlikely celebrity of Knocked Up's Seth Rogan, Gross's self-applied title, the schlub: ""Someone a little unkempt. A little out of shape. A little clumsy. A little gauche. A little insulated. A little bookish."" Others might just as easily call him a chubby nerd. Regardless, this endearing memoir is less a how-to (or even a success story) and more a genuine, funny series of vignettes from Gross's life in New York City. A writer for the New York Post, Gross can turn a phrase (""Journalism is perhaps the greatest repository of schlubs known to man,"" he notes) but his storytelling finesse belies the usual deadline-driven work. Whether unspooling the tale of bedbugs in his apartment (and their effect on his romance) or his indulgent Jewish mother (""I grew up under the impression that I was of a brand of Semitic royalty""), Gross is a gentle kidder, with himself and others. Though the title's an overstatement-this schlub doesn't transform so much as persevere-Gross's shaggy mensch charm makes for an enjoyable read