I glanced at a copy of Skinny Bitch when it first came out and thought it was a parody. It wasn’t funny so I put it down and forgot about it. I must have been the only one – this “diet book” that proclaims you’re either thin or your a moron is a best-seller. Julie Klausner takes a closer look in Salon, “Hey, skinny bitch! It’s a vegan manifesto masquerading as a diet fad. But the only thing this weight-loss book will help you lose is self-esteem.”

Thanks to “Skinny Bitch,” women who hate their bodies no longer need rely on their own self-loathing to stoke the flames of what seems like motivation but is actually self-flagellation — penance for the sin of being too fat. Now dieters can have the convenience of a former model (Barnouin) and a former modeling agent (Freedman) putting their transgressions in the black-and-white terms of right and wrong. “If you eat crap,” they chirp, “you are crap.”

It’s a disturbing review, but I have to admit that Klausner also gave me a good laugh with this line: “Have you tried to hold a conversation with somebody on a diet? The first 10 pounds they lose are mostly brain.” I’ve already seen it showing up in email signatures.