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SIZE 12 IS NOT FAT
Meg Cabot (Avon, $12.95)
After her mom and manager run off with her money and her boy-band beau dumps her, former teen pop star Heather
Wells takes a job at an NYC college dorm. Source of Angst Wholesome coeds are found dead in an elevator shaft...and Heather
suspects foul play! Meltdown Moment Frazzled Heather barely survives an elevator disaster of her own. Lowdown With predictable plot twists and an annoying recurring joke about dorms
vs. residence halls, chick-lit vet Cabot stumbles with her first
mystery. C — Clarissa Cruz
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO MIMI SMARTYPANTS
Mimi Smartypants (Avon, $12.95)
A real (but pseudonymous) 30-year-old
Chicago publishing exec-cum-blogger muses on sandwich-store anarchy, the
indignities of public transportation, etc. Source of Angst The absurdity of everyday life — she calls a co-worker's Precious Moments
figurines ''hydrocephalic monsters.'' Meltdown Moment Mimi sends an e-mail to upper management titled ''Topic 2: Electric
Boogaloo''...no one gets the joke. Lowdown This blog compilation is predictably rambling, yet often hilarious. B+— CC
THE FRIENDSHIP TEST
Elizabeth Noble (Harper, $14.95)
Four best friends grow from college
innocence to thirtysomething middle-class living in London. Source of Angst Lone American Freddie loses both her father (to cancer) and her husband
(to an affair). Meltdown Moment Reserved-to-the-point-of-coldness Reagan lashes out at Freddie in one of
Test's rawest scenes. Lowdown While her simplistic male characters are either angels or hopeless
emotional nitwits, Noble has a gift for tight plotting and rendering
female friendships. B+ — Leah Greenblatt
THE YEAR OF YES
Maria Dahvana Headley (Hyperion, $22.95)
After one too many bad
relationships, playwright/NYU undergrad Headley decides to just say yes
to any—any—man who asks her out. Source of Angst Said men, whether they're recovering addicts, taxi drivers, or Apple
millionaires. Meltdown Moment An instance of follicular panic leads to one heinous self-made haircut. Lowdown Headley's memoir is charming, hyperliterate (in a pretentious but not
entirely insufferable college-student way) and even laugh-out-loud
funny. A- — LG
