Thin Is the New Happy [Audiobook, CD, Unabridged] [Audio CD]

Valerie Frankel (Author), Marie Caliendo (Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2008

Like so many women in today’s society, Valerie Frankel’s world was dictated by her weight, from starvation and binge eating to her self-loathing and total preoccupation with her weight. Not wanting to pass this legacy on to her own daughters, Valerie set out to cleanse herself of these painful and damaging cycles. Yes, she lost twenty pounds and two dress sizes along the way – without dieting a single day. But more than that, she’s come out on the other side, loving her body, herself, and finally being free. Thin Is the New Happy is a hilarious, unflinching, self-deprecating, and joy-filled memoir for every woman who has ever felt good or bad about herself based on how she looks. “[A] poignant…hilarious memoir – As Frankel diets through good times and bad, she skewers her own weight-loss foibles and a society that teaches women that thin is all that matters.” – Lucy S. Danziger, editor-in-chief, Self Magazine “Riotously funny…always thought-provoking…down-right inspiring.” – Meg Cabot, author of The Princess Diaries “It made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me think.” – Jennifer Cruise, author of Agnes and the Hitman

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Prolific author Frankel (most recently, I Take This Man) was only 11 when her mother put her on a diet. She went from 100 to 88 pounds in six weeks, making her mother ecstatic, although she gained back four pounds right away. Frankel learned a basic lesson: she could enjoy eating or have approval, but not both. Although she blamed her mother's fatphobia for her unhappy childhood, from middle school on her peers were her cruelest tormenters. As she got older, her bad body image translated to anorgasmia; research shows that women who feel unattractive often develop sexual dysfunction. Later, working at Mademoiselle, where so many co-workers had eating disorders, she realized that an obsession with diet was one way of avoiding life's thornier issues. In her 40s, Frankel decided to jettison all the emotional baggage she was carrying about her weight, to free herself, finally, from dieting. After hiring a photographer to shoot a portfolio of her nude, having a friend help her find her personal style in clothing and coming to terms with her husband and her mother over fat issues, Frankel finally got rid of her body-image negativity. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Valerie Frankel has been an editor for Mademoiselle magazine and is a contributor to Self, Glamour and Parenting magazine. She has written nine novels and this is her first memoir. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two daughters.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio on CD Unabridged Lib Ed; Library edition (September 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1423370538
• ISBN-13: 978-1423370536
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,260,778 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Valerie Frankel has written twenty-five books, and hopes to write many more. For more info about her books, magazine articles, cats, kids, life in Brooklyn, reviews of other people's books, go to www.valeriefrankel.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Horrible and self-hating, October 14, 2008

By 

Eating disorder professional - See all my reviews

This review is from: Thin Is the New Happy (Hardcover)

I was really disappointed by this book. I am a eating disorder psychologist and I thought this book would offer some perspective, as in, the title is ironic and thin really is not the new happy. Instead this superficial book means exactly what the title says. Thin does equal happiness for her. As a child she was teased and abused, mostly by her mother, for being chubby. As an adult, she abuses herself in every way possible - diets, body hatred, drugs, alcohol. It seems her only redemption was losing a small amound of weight as an adult (appox 15 pounds) and becoming "thin enough" to like herself. The ultimate low in this book is a revenge fantasy where she imagines a former high school tormenter as now obese and stupid. For this author fat = stupid and a whole range of other negative stereotypes. I wish this woman had therapy instead of writing this book.

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Frankel Digs Deep to Unpack the Weight, Real and Mental, She's Carried Since Childhood, September 5, 2008

By 

Rachel Kramer Bussel "Cupcakes Take the Cake ... (New York City) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Thin Is the New Happy (Hardcover)

As someone who has struggled with my weight, dieted, and mainly, worried about my appearance, I've read plenty of weight loss memoirs, and will continue to do so, I'm sure. I can safely say that while Frankel's overall message (don't diet, eat what you want) isn't new, her approach, humor, frankness and willingness to dig deep are something unexpected.

Frankel starts with her mom pressuring her to lose weight as a child (sadly a very common scenario). She does, and immediately reaps the social benefits, but of course once she goes off her diet, the weight comes right back. This started her on her lifelong path of going up and down with her weight, something she only vows to stop when she realizes that her two daughters are approaching the age she was when weight became a central issue in her life.

It's in talking about her first husband's death that Frankel really shines here, not overdramatizing her story but sharing the real issues she dealt with. "Weight loss became my Vicodin, my Prozac. The red jeans were my delivery system. It took the edge off my pain. Shrinking calmed me, pleased me, gave me something to feel good about."

The other chapter that truly stands out is the third one about her mother, where she confronts her with the revelations Frankel's had about the roots of her behavior. The final exchange with her mom about her weight issues is illuminating. Far from seeing herself as part of the problem, her mother feels that she was protecting Valerie from a world that hates the overweight. Her mother's own food issues (she refuses to eat in public alone, even passing up Frankel's offer of $1,000 to sit at Starbucks for five minutes) come through clearly, but are not really the point; Frankel's acceptance of the fact that they will never see eye-to-eye is.

In some ways, what makes Thin is the New Happy so powerful aren't Frankel's tales of her highs and lows, but her relationships with those around her, from her parents to her two husbands to the classmates who teased her mercilessly. Each of them has a different perspective, ones that often clash quite extremely with her own.

Frankel doesn't back down, but she does, when confronting people like her mother or her former classmate, Z., let them have their say. A stray comment from her husband about her belly being big stays with her for five years (!) until she finally asks him about it.

Her adventures with What Not to Wear author Stacy London, who gives Frankel's tame, boring, baggy wardrobe a complete overhaul, are fun, as is her tale of posing nude for Self magazine; these stories are a welcome complement to the heavier material. Though the tone can sometimes be a bit too perky by the end, knowing Frankel's lifelong struggle makes it easy to cheer for her newfound happiness (though one does wonder if she would have the same level of optimism were she not to have dropped two dress sizes and twenty pounds). A fast but intense read, Thin is the New Happy is refreshingly blunt about sex, marriage, mother/daughter relationships, and food. Even if you've read umpteen books about diet and weight loss, this one's worth adding to your list.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining read that hits home., October 10, 2008

By 

L. Rees (Florida) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Thin Is the New Happy (Hardcover)

I mostly liked this book. It was funny, entertaining, and at times, sad. Frankel writes well. This is a book you can breeze through. I could relate to Frankel's body image and self-esteem issues. Her obsession with her weight is something many women can relate to.

While Frankel uses a lot of self-deprecating humor, she also gets a tad preachy at times. Preachy may not be the correct word. Long-winded may be a better term. There is a section where she goes on about how she is a "striver" and has "dreams" (unlike some people she once knew)! I think that's something readers can deduce on their own: She went to Dartmouth, she worked for years at a major woman's magazine, she has written many published novels.

It seemed that Frankel was/is on a quest for self-actualization. For most of the book she seems open, forgiving, and willing to admit her flaws, but she is a tad snobby and self-righteous. When she meets, Z, an acquaintance from junior high that used to tease her unmercifully about her extra poundage, she speaks about him in such a mean-spirited way. She claims that she isn't any better than Z, but you get the overwhelming feeling that she does think she's better. She snottily proclaims him as "just a bundle of skin, a thoughtless consumer of earth's oxygen." I lost all respect for Frankel at this moment. (I wanted to drop the book, but I kept reading.) I can't help to view her as mean-spirited and unforgiving at the moment she trash-talks Z, who is now a 40- something year-old man. This entire section where she speaks about Z was a huge turn-off. Her views of a certain "soulless state", her snobby views that Paris and London are "predictable destinations". I had to laugh near the end when Frankel described a trip to Disney World in Orlando and Fisherman's Wharf. How terribly pedestrian, Frankel! You can almost forgive the author for rudely talking about Z. She was wounded by his words. But, I have to wonder how a person could be so unforgiving to a person that was 12, 13, or 14-years old when the transgressions occurred.

Overall, this was an entertaining read. I wish the author the best of luck with her efforts to be at peace with her body.