“45 pounds (more or less)” by K.A. Barson

In a glut of YA books about eating disorders this one stands out.  Take Mackler’s “The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things” and mix it with a little “Modern Family” and you have a thoroughly enjoyable story.  Ann is overweight and not just a by a little.  As a bridesmaid in her aunt’s upcoming wedding, Ann is determined to shed the unwanted weight.  Problem is … eating issues aren’t always about the food.  As Ann discovers, a healthy lifestyle is about a lot of things – including how you think about food and how you think about yourself.  Despite some dark threads this is not a “heavy” novel (pun not intended) and there is a good deal of humor mixed in beautifully with pathos for a heart-warming “dramedy.”  What I like about it is how real it is.  Ann’s path to an improved viewpoint is not simple and none of the characters are perfect.  The grandmother who has the best insight into life is a chain smoker and the thin, beautiful mother who is seemingly in control of all things has her own issues with food and self-image.  The family dynamic is complex and contemporary with layers that make it feel genuine.  As someone who has also struggled with food issues I really related to Ann, even when she got a little whiney.  There are also a few parallels that were achingly familiar:  a philandering biological father, an insightful and gentle step-dad and a controlling mom who internalizes anger and lives on salad.  The fact that I could see myself in the book is part of why it struck a chord with me.  The writing is also clean, direct and accessible.  The lessons learned aren’t preachy but do make an impact.  One of the biggest ones is something I figured out a few years back … eating issues are eating issues, no matter what your size is.  Just a great book throughout.

“MILA 2.0” by Debra Driza

If I were the type of person to stop reading a book I didn’t like, this would have been it.  I wish I were that kind of person, as I slogged through this whole thing more and more regretful with every page that I just couldn’t walk away.  It started out “okay” and quickly became lame, followed by ridiculous.  ***SPOILER ALERT***  The premise isn’t that bad.  Teenage girl discovers she isn’t really a teenage girl, but an android, created by the military and then “taken” by a researcher who wants her to have a chance at a real life.  There are echoes of “Cinder” here  (Marissa Meyer has a comment on the back) with the whole human/not human thing and a drop-off ending whose only purpose is to set up the sequel, but the difference is stark … “Cinder” has real literary quality.  This book does not.  “MILA 2.0” falls into every YA book trap I hate.  1)  It’s poorly written.  Sentence structure is weak and repetitive, with the kind of prose I see from students who are just starting out in their high-school level writing.  2)  It’s very poorly edited.  Typos and grammar issues abound throughout.  Incorrect words are sometimes in place, there are sentences which aren’t sentences and at one point, a character’s name is simply truncated, with the end left off.  Did no one notice?  3)  The cover art, as usual, does not match the character.  Described as a “stocky” 16 year-old girl with brown hair and eyes (“like her father”) on page 10, she suddenly has green eyes by page 95.  Then, she dyes her hair black and cuts it short and “spiky” later in the tale … but never, in my imagination, looks similar to the ballerina-like portrait of a young woman with porcelain skin on the cover.  4)  The structure is poor.  Chapter breaks seem to be dictated by length rather than need and the four section breaks don’t seem to have any reason at all.  Each new section picks up seconds after the old one with no significant change or break in the narrative.  The story is a paradox … it is simultaneously all over the place and goes nowhere.  Mila falls for every young man she meets (two of them) within five minutes, but the romance aspect just seems stuffed into the story to make the tale appeal to teens.  Mila’s “big dilemma” in the novel is to reconcile who she is with, well, who she is.  But it takes 470 pages.  And near the end, she is still as whiney and un-accepting of her “new reality” as she was on page 50.  Ms. Driza also gets caught up in her own compulsion for details.  She describes two bullets entering (someone’s) body.  “Both bullets entered the left side” but inexplicably, one hits the liver … which is on the right side.  As a casual viewer of TV medical shows like “Grey’s Anatomy,” even I know that.  When describing a car chase around DC, the description of roads used was so ridiculous that I started laughing out loud (not the heart-pounding exhilaration I was supposed to be feeling, methinks?)  As a resident of this area, I’m used to media getting it wrong, but in books, I expect better research.  There obviously was some … Driza mentions the “Kutz” bridge, which she pretty much would have had to look up – but describes it as “looming over the Potomac” when it is, in fact, a small causeway that lives a scant three feet above the Tidal Basin.  Most people who drive on it would not even consider it a “bridge.”  It was this kind of consistent sloppiness that made the book distracting and silly.  Obviously, not a fan and not waiting for the “next” book in the series.  Sorry.

“A Tangle of Knots” by Lisa Graff

Best book ever.  Unlike the dark, depressing, dystopian novels dominating the landscape these days, this one harkens back to an earlier era of children’s books by being delightful, clever, smart and fun.  In a world not too different from our own, most people have a “Talent.”  This can be anything from spitting to knitting, baking cakes to playing an oboe.  The tales of ten people interweave in this mysterious yarn (yes, all puns intended, in honor of our author’s great writing style) to show us that we are all part of something greater.  A mysterious man in gray has a talent for tying knots.  He travels through this world with echoes of L. Frank Baum’s “Wizard of Oz” helping each character make connections with their past and with each other.  The chapters are short and jump from one person’s point of view to the other (much like Fleischman’s "Seedfolks").  There is a palpable sense to the story – made even stronger by repeated “sounds” articulated in the text.  As a reader, I loved the many moments where I exclaimed “Oh!” because another facet of the story was becoming clear.  The characters, ranging from four young people to their parents and the adults around them, are nicely realistic and a good mix of hopeful and flawed.  There isn’t great drama here, just enough of life to draw you in with a sense of cozy familiarity.  Recipes for the most delicious cakes are sprinkled throughout the book and I simply had to copy them for future baking efforts.  The only downside to this book is that I really wanted to read it in one or two sittings.  Since my reading tends to be fairly fractured I had to really focus on the storyline each time I started to read it or run the risk of being mightily confused.  No fear.  Within minutes of picking it up I was drawn in.  This book is “highly” relatable … which of us doesn’t dream of having that one thing that helps us stand out in the world?  Brava to Ms. Graff for writing something I looked forward to reading and something that didn’t leave me reaching for a Rom/Com DVD after finishing it because I had to lift my mood.  (Without too much of a spoiler, I’m happy to report that the pet does NOT die!  In fact, no one dies!)  If you are looking for something fresh, amusing and "just right" check out this book.