If you’re one of those people starting out the new year with the latest diet craze, put down the celery sticks and pick up Kelsey Miller’s memoir instead. Miller, a senior features writer for Refinery29, has battled weight issues since childhood and chronicles decades of yo-yo dieting in her debut book, Big Girl: How I Gave Up Dieting and Got a Life (Grand Central Publishing). At 29, Miller decided to give up dieting and change her negative relationship with food for good; to do so, she embraced Intuitive Eating, a process in which she learned how to eat based on her body’s instincts and exercise sustainably, without focusing on calories burned.

Over the course of 10 months, and with the help of an eating coach and personal trainer, Miller faced her troubled past and was able to start living her life in the present, rather than waiting for her next diet to reset her life. Miller’s journey into Intuitive Eating was filled with ups and downs, and there’s no “after” picture, because, as she writes, “Changing your life means you’re never done changing it.” Intuitive Eating as a mindset, not a diet, was something Miller struggled with – and one of the biggest lessons in her story.

Miller also created the award-winning Anti-Diet Project, an ongoing series about Intuitive Eating, sustainable fitness and body positivity. The Project and more of Miller’s humorous and honest writing can be found at refinery29.com.

All books have the ability to change a reader’s life – something most bookworms already know. Katarina Bivald’s debut novel, The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend (Sourcebooks Landmark), is a testament to the power of books and a heartwarming tale of hope, love and friendship. Sara Lindqvist has lived a quiet, uneventful life vicariously through books until she decides to embark on her first big adventure – leaving her homeland of Sweden to visit her pen pal (and fellow book-lover) Amy Harris in Broken Wheel, Iowa. However, when Sara arrives in the small, rundown town, she is greeted by Amy’s funeral guests. Members of the town quickly step in to take care of their “tourist” and make her feel welcome. To repay them for their kindness and hospitality, Sara decides to open a bookstore to share the joys of reading. Like Amy before her, Sara quickly becomes a force that brings the citizens of Broken Wheel together, her optimism awakening a town that has seemingly lost all hope.

Before her death, Amy writes in a letter to Sara, “I’ve always thought that books have some kind of healing power and that they can, if nothing else, provide a distraction.” Bivald eloquently uses her novel to tell the story of how books not only save those who live in Broken Wheel – and the town itself – but also Sara, who finally finds a place to belong.

By Kimberly Dunbar