The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted
Elizabeth Berg’s Delightful, Humorous New Short Story Collection
May 30, 2008
Who doesn’t feel the urge sometimes to break free and forget anyone is looking, and do whatever you wanted? To ditch a Weight Watchers meeting and instead spend the day eating everything you had ever craved – and then some?
The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted
Elizabeth Berg’s second published collection of short stories explores what happens when women put society’s pressures on the back burner and just do what feels right. The title story, where the character, an unsurprisingly unsuccessful dieter, throws in the towel and spends the day on a food eating spree. From a box of Dunkin’ Donuts for breakfast to a steak topped with mushrooms and butter and paired with a loaded baked potato, finished with not one but two desserts, apple crisp and crumb-topped cherry pie, she eats her way through the day with no regrets, then attends her Weight Watchers meeting the next day and shrugs off the four pounds she gained since the last weigh in.
Returns and Exchanges
In “Returns and Exchanges,” fifty eight year old Agnes Miller, owner of a dating service for people over 50, has a chance encounter with a former love, who fails to recognize her. After the meeting, she finds a new appreciation for her long time husband and her comfortable, if lacking in razzle dazzle, marriage.
Thirteen Stories
There are 13 stories in the collection, each one as relatable and charming as the previous. The stories tell of events that are heartbreaking and humorous, some at the same time, and all include events that nearly every reader will relate to. The 13 stories in the collection are:
1. The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted
2. Returns and Exchanges
3. The Party
4. Over the Hill and into the Woods
5. Full Count
6. Rain
7. The Day I Ate Nothing I Even Remotely Wanted
8. Mrs. Ethel Menafee and Mrs. Birdie Stoltz
9. Double Diet
10. The Only One of Millions Just Like Him
11. Truth or Dare
12. How to Make an Apple Pie
13. Sin City
Each of the witty and uplifting stories is be savored bit by bit, or devoured in a single sitting.
About the Author
Elizabeth Berg is the New York Times bestselling author of many novels, including Dream When You're Feeling Blue, We Are All Welcome Here, The Year of Pleasures, The Art of Mending, Say When, True to Form, Never Change, and Open House, which was an Oprah’s Book Club selection in 2000.
She has two daughters and two grandchildren, and lives with her partner Bill and dog Homer outside of Chicago and in Wisconsin.
Berg, Elizabeth
The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted
New York, Random House, April 15, 2008
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