How To Be Cool
Johanna Edwards
Berkley, Jun 2007, $21.95
ISBN: 0425213846

Nearly thirty years old, Kylie Chase feels she has come a long way since high school in Chicago. In her teens, she was reticent and obese. Now she dropped a ton of weight and kept it off, and provides in her seminar helping those like she was "How to Be Cool." However, when Kylie inadvertently overhears some high school peers deride her, she realizes her self esteem remains in negative numbers just like it was over a decade ago.

Reporter Ty Benedict thinks otherwise as he sees her as a great success; he is doing a story on her butterfly metamorphosis. He asks to escort her to her high school reunion, which she agrees because she is attracted to the handsome journalist. However, how will she react when she learns he is not quite the altruistic reporter he pretends to be?

As with the insightful THE NEXT BIG THING, HOW TO BE COOL is a superb look at a plus size person, who in this case is no longer a plus size, but her psyche is imprinted with the belief that she still remains too big in spite of the statistical evidence (waistline and weight, etc) and anecdotal proof (male second looks) to the contrary. The character driven tale focuses on the likable Kyle who though successful still struggles to convince herself that she is cool inside. Her uncool words of wisdom aside, this is delightful tale of the importance of believing in oneself especially when your history is otherwise.

Harriet Klausner