HarperCollins $16.99, 256 pgs.

Imagine if your mother wrote about the struggles of your teenage years - the insecurities, the loneliness, the dreams of something more -- in a local newspaper and a book.

Phil Cannon, 27, knows what that's like, but doesn't mind. His mom, Ann Cannon, perhaps best known for her weekly humor column in the Deseret News, often writes about him and his four brothers and loosely based her new book on the summer he spent working at Hollywood Video in 1998.

Besides, he never reads her stuff anyway, joked Phil, who is now married and a second year medical student at the University of Utah.

Cannon, 52, brings wit and humor to her new book, The Loser's Guide to Life and Love (HarperCollins, $16.99), as she explores the life of 16-year-old Ed, his boring job at the fictional Reel Life video, and the friends and girls in his life.

The book explores the insecurities and interest of Ed's friends, the adorable soccer-playing, curly-haired Scout and his nerdy friend Quark.

Written as a modern twist on Shakespeare's Misummer Night's Dream, the characters "don't know who they are and are all in love the wrong person," Ann Cannon said.

Ed considers himself too short, too boring and too nerdy to be cool but he dreams of making movies, so he lands his first job at the fictional Reel Life movie rental store.

Reel Life is a place where his uniform requires a red bow tie, a white frilly shirt and a cumberbun and he wears the name tag of a former employee named "Sergio."

When blonde bombshell Ellie walks into Reel Life, Ed thinks he'll have no shot with her as his boring self and he spontaneously takes on the life of Brazilian Sergio.

Ed's lying drives the action of the plot and with the chapters written from the perspective of the different characters, the novel is a light but fun summer read.

The lovable and easy-to-relate-to characters prove hilarious for any teenager or adult, or those who find themselves somewhere in between.

emiller@sltrib.com