The Skinny: How to Fit into Your Little Black Dress Forever [Hardcover]

Melissa Clark (Author), Robin Aronson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 26, 2006

Eat what you love and love how you look! Let the girls show you how it's done.

If your two favorite girlfriends wrote a hilarious, insightful book about how to look and feel fabulous without denying yourself the pleasure of great food, it would look just like this! The authors bring their unique perspectives (girl-about-town and mother of twins) to show how, whatever your lifestyle, you can balance eating smart and eating rich, and still look amazing in that little black dress. No strict rules, no boring talk about glycemic index, just savvy advice, complete meal plans, and more than 75 amazing recipes, plus an emergencies-only The Little Black Dress Diet-how to eat when you absolutely must fit into your dress by the weekend.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The brilliance of this fun-to-read munching manifesto is its ability to adapt itself to the vagaries of real-world eating; the writer-editor authors understand the temptations of workaday life and lazy weekends and provide practical tips that allow even dieting dropouts a bit of the leeway they crave. Underscoring the importance of portion size, the duo explains how to avoid recreational eating. In light-hearted prose aimed at women, the authors suggest eating "like a food writer"-sampling favorite foods and discarding the rest. Convinced that the lion's share of overeating stems from boredom, they explain how "breaking a food rut at home" can jump-start dieting results. "The Skinny on Drinks" may be the most valuable chapter, as it reminds readers just how many pounds those Cosmos and Frappuccinos can pack on. Packed with little black dress-friendly recipes that are simple to whip up, this upbeat guide is fun enough to bring any veteran calorie counter back from the dieting doldrums.
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About the Author

Melissa and Robin are food lovers whose unique perspectives and hilarious insights make The Skinny relevant to any woman who's ever wanted to look and feel fabulous without denying herself the pleasures of food. Brooklyn resident Melissa Clark adores her out-on-the-town life in New York City, including cocktails and late-night dinners, and still fits sleekly into her favorite little (size 2!) black dress. She's spent her entire professional life associated with food. After working as a cook and professional caterer, she earned an M.F.A. in writing from Columbia University and launched a career in food writing. Her writing appears in The New York Times, Food & Wine, Travel & Leisure, Town & Country, Real Simple, and more. She has also collaborated on 17 cookbooks, one of which received both a James Beard award and the Julia Child Cookbook award in 2000. Robin Aronson likes to write about what she knows. This high-energy mother of twins loves good food, yet has lost her baby weight and still looks great in her little black dress. Before and during her own pregnancy she wrote The Whole Pregnancy Handbook: A doctor's guide to the wise use of conventional and alternative medicine before, during and after pregnancy, with Joel M. Evans, M.D. (Gotham: 2005). She's been editor in chief of the web site for Parents magazine, associate publisher of Tikkun magazine, and managing editor of a website devoted to food and dining. She lives in New York City with her husband and (adorable) twins.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Meredith Books; First edition. edition (December 26, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0696232421
• ISBN-13: 978-0696232428
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #286,288 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Melissa Clark writes about cuisine and other products of appetite. After brief forays working as a cook in a restaurant kitchen, and as a caterer out of her fifth floor walk-up, Clark decided upon a more sedentary path. She earned an M.F.A. in writing from Columbia University, and began a freelance food writing career. Currently, she is a food columnist for the New York Times, and has written for Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, Every Day with Rachel Ray, and Martha Stewart, amongst others.

Her acclaimed cookbook,In the Kitchen with A Good Appetite, came out in the fall of 2010 with essays and recipes based on her popular New York Times Dining section column, A Good Appetite.

Clark's most recent book, Cook This Now, a personal collection of seasonally driven, inventive comfort food, came out in October 2011, published by Hyperion.
All told, Clark has written 32 other cookbooks, many of them in collaboration with some of New York's most celebrated chefs including Daniel Boulud (Braise), David Bouley (East of Paris), Claudia Fleming (The Last Course), and Bruce and Eric Bromberg (The Blue Ribbon). A book of dessert recipes, The Perfect Finish, written with White House pastry chef Bill Yosses, came out in June 2010. Her collaboration with chef Peter Berley, The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen, received both a James Beard award and Julia Child Cookbook award in 2000.

Clark was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, where she now lives with her husband, Daniel Gercke, their preschool daughter Dahlia, and their formerly cosseted cat.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy to apply, works great, March 7, 2007

By 

Theresa Reed "The Tarot Lady" (MILWAUKEE, WI USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Skinny: How to Fit into Your Little Black Dress Forever (Hardcover)

"The Skinny" by Melissa Clark and Robin Aronson isn't just a diet book - it is a lifestyle book. Filled with humor, personal anecdotes and recipes, this book is fun and practical at the same time. You're not going to find a lot of facts, numbers, calculations, calorie counting or any mumbo jumbo such as carbs and food combining.

First, the authors encourage the readers to figure out what their 'happy skinny' size is (for Melissa it's a 2, Robin an 8). Then, they have a set of 'rules': eat what you want (and banish the guilt); Don't eat what you don't want; Build a skinny meal around the thing you want (add veggies, fruit, protein and a complex carb); Eat when you're hungry; Eat like a food writer (eat a bit then throw the rest away - which is rather indulgent and wasteful in my opinion); Control your portions; Enjoy your meal; Exercise some; etc. There is info on eating for every situation including dining out. The recipes are marvelous and everyone will find something here to satisfy them.

I've always hated diets as I like having a little sweet every days - and that is a no-no in almost every book you'll read. All in all, it is a nice little book with tips that will help you to stay on track without starving yourself or subsisting on carrot sticks.

42 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is changing my life!!, February 22, 2007

By 

Tina R (LES, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Skinny: How to Fit into Your Little Black Dress Forever (Hardcover)

I was thinking this morning as I drove to work about what it was, exactly, about this book that has me so lit up about losing weight. I figured out that what it is, is, that the authors have every excuse in the world to weigh 900 pounds..Melissa Clark eats in every high end restaurant in New York about 5 nights a week, and she is a size 2. So, of course, I paid close attention. And, there it is...a strategy for every situation, every excuse that I ever thought of, used, and abused. It is the strategy, really, that I was missing. A diet, after all, is nothing more than some version of eat less, exercise more...we all know that already. It's how to deal, that we really get from this book. And, the spirit of the writing is so infectious, I just found it altered how I thought about the whole enterprise of losing weight. Now it is just a fun game. Plus, there are lots of great recipes, many of which I have already tried, and really enjoyed. I love to cook, love to eat, and finally have a book that is teaching me how to have it all. In five weeks, I have lost 6 pounds, effortlessly. I expect the next 20 pounds to come off just as easily.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How to Stay Sane, Have Fun, and Look Good: Read This Book, January 22, 2007

By 

Mazzie (NYC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Skinny: How to Fit into Your Little Black Dress Forever (Hardcover)

The last thing in the world I ever feel like reading is a diet book but I picked the Skinny up at my hairdresser's and I couldn't put it down. Even my lovely but slightly paunchy boyfriend picked up the copy I bought and read a good portion of it in just one sitting. The magic of this book is its wonderful, funny, but quite persuasive writing. It puts out a collection of ideas, some of which may be obvious to you (like portion control), that really sinks in more than, at least for me, other health and dietary advice ever has. I think this is because the book avoids faddish nutritional advice and emphasizes finding real pleasure not in over-consumption but in the joyful appreciation of the food that we love, while learning to really listen to and take care of our bodies in a sane and balanced way. As a New Yorker without a clue how to feed myself or stock my fridge, I found the section on how to stock my fridge and recipes for how to feed myself (for breakfast, lunch, dinner AND snacktime!!) extremely useful. There are no illusions spun here, just great advice based on common sense, good health science, and a real love for food. And it's a fun read!!!