It’s not a sudden, miraculous overnight change, and once the pounds started coming off, she begins to come out of her shell. And when she starts losing weight she starts feeling better about herself… a little at a time. She starts drinking diet shakes exclusively, starts exercising, enrolls in an experiment to study the short-term effects of counseling on weight loss. And he smiles at her - which is the first little step she needs to get off her bum and do something about her habits. Well, “meet” is pretty strong: she reads about him in the school paper - he’s a jock - and he’s in her study hall. But, because this is the South - and the book’s voice perfectly captures Southern charm and determination - Rosemary just puts a happy face on, and goes through life the best she can. She’s really close to her sister, Mary, and spends most of her free time with her, instead of with Rosemary. She’s worked hard all her life: to be a successful businesswoman, to be a “good” mom, to be happy. She’s a single mom who got pregnant with Rosemary when she was 17. Rosemary’s mom, Rose Warren Goode, is the owner of Heavenly Hair in Spring Hill, Tennessee.

Rosemary could kind of handle being fat if it weren’t for her mom and aunt constantly harping about it. Which is a problem in and of itself, but is also a symptom of a larger problem: her mom. Rosemary Goode is overweight: she’s got 200 pounds on her 5-foot-6 frame. It’s a curse of today’s media-saturated age. Weight is always a tricky subject: Writing about it, talking about it, thinking about it … everyone seems to have an opinion on it, obsess over it (or say they don’t obsess over it), or compare themselves to others.

Artichoke's Heart by Suzanne Supplee