Why are these bitches so angry?

SKINNY BITCH was without question the trendy diet book of 2007, last year's Atkins or South Beach or Body For Life. It had caught on long before incredibly skinny woman Victoria Beckham was spotted with a copy, but that certainly didn't hurt. This is also the first diet book I've ever read for which I'm tempted to write a spoiler alert. If you've read any coverage about it, you'll know that there's a particular agenda authors Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin are advancing.

If you don't, well, here's the big secret of SKINNY BITCH: The way you get skinny is by adopting a total vegan diet. To advance this point the authors use a variety of strategies, like quoting a ton of statistics, providing a graphic look into the lives of farmed animals, and regular ol' cursing and abuse.

My mom's a vegetarian so I grew up familiar with meatless main courses like pasta salads and casseroles, things I may not have appreciated as a picky kid but have learned to admire as a cooking-challenged adult. SKINNY BITCH presents a lot of thought-provoking research supporting a vegan diet, but it didn't completely sway me. It's just not a lifestyle I aspire to, and the authors go out of their way to make anything less unacceptable. Hey, I understand they're pushing an agenda, but the book was entertaining and informative enough that I didn't mind the constant "eat dairy if you want to be fat forever" jabs.

They did make one point, though, that really resonated with me as a person who has been on diets and (like many Americans) would like to be thinner, and which is not specific to any diet advice: As part of rejecting the idea that eating vegan is too hard, their defense is, it's all priorities:

Recognize that anything worth having is worth fighting for. Good health, vitality, more energy, more confidence, better sex, great abs, a tight ass--you either want 'em or you don't. You can continue plodding along in your life feeling like you're not living up to your glorious potential or you can dedicate yourself to creating the life you want.

Whether you agree with how Freedman and Barouin define the life you want, there's truth to that. (Note that the chapter this quote is from is called, simply, "Don't Be A Pussy." That encapsulates the tone of this book pretty well.)

A formatting note: I used this book to test out Dailylit's new for-pay subscriptions. I paid $4.95 for it and received it in 42 installments, and I was happy with my purchase. (To compare, the paperback is listed at $13.95, with an Amazon price of $8.37 and an Amazon used price of $6.35 plus shipping.) Next time I would buy a longer book, though; because of SKINNY BITCH's punchy writing style I tore through several installments a day, not exactly maximizing my purchase.