Anyone who professes to hate the Daily Mail while being addicted to its "sidebar of shame" (the celebrity-packed right-hand feed on its website) will feel very at home with this book. The Nora Ephron opening quote, "Be the heroine of your life not the victim", sums up the style and the theme.

Like Ephron's non-fiction books, it's a series of anecdotes dressed up as a survival guide: "Sex tips for smart ladies; Every dating guide you'll ever need; But do you like him?" It's packed with cultural references: Nancy Mitford, The Devil Wears Prada, Nina Simone, Miss Piggy, The Princess Bride. New York-born Freeman manages to get away with a lot: she can be both scathing and serious about being "awesome" in a way no British writer could.

Obviously this book is aimed firmly at fans of Caitlin Moran, but there are shades of Tina Fey's Bossypants here, another memoir that isn't really a memoir. Freeman only opens up when she writes about eating disorders: "I lost a lot of important years in hospital and even after I finally left for good, I lost more time to my two full-time jobs: being anorexic and trying to cover up being anorexic."

Like her columns, the writing is fresh, original, in-your-face. It's tempting to gorge on this collection at breakneck speed. But it works just as well – possibly better – if you read it as a series of separate witty polemics on women's place in society (basically, Daily Mail-style, in the wrong). Recommended, especially to fans of How to be a Woman.