It's Hard Not to Hate You

From the author of Thin Is the New Happy comes a hilarious memoir about embracing your Inner Hater

“The hate in you has got to come out.” The day her doctor gave her this advice, Valerie Frankel realized the biggest source of pressure in her life was maintaining an unflappable easygoing persona. So she decides to go on a mission of emotional honesty, vowing to let herself feel and express all the toxic emotions she’d long suppressed or denied: jealousy, rage, greed, envy, impatience, regret. She reveals her personal History of Hate, from mean girls in junior high to selfish boyfriends in her twenties and old professional rivals. Hate stomps through her life, too, with snobby neighbors, rude cell phone talkers, scary doctors, and helicopter moms. Regarding her husband, she asks, “How Do I Hate You? Let Me Count The Ways.” (FYI: There are three.) Can it be that toxic emotions are actually good for you? That the positive thinkers, aka The Secret crowd, have it backward? It’s Hard Not To Hate You explores the concept that there are no wrong emotions—only wrong ways of dealing with them.

VALERIE FRANKEL is the author of Thin Is the New Happy and such chick lit favorites as The Accidental Virgin, The Girlfriend Curse, and Hex and the Single Girl. The former articles editor at Mademoiselle, Frankel has contributed to The New York Times, O, Glamour, Allure, Self, and Good Housekeeping, among many other publications.