Chicklit Booklist

Chicklit Genre Books - Fiction for Bridget Jones wannabes and BJ's older counterparts. Books about flawed heroines contending with thwarted romance, sex, shopping, eating, drinking, friendship, family & irritating jobs - usually served up with a twist of humor. As Bridget would note, vg fun . . .

 

Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine, unless noted.
  • Every Woman for Herself
    Author: Ashley, Trisha
    Publisher: St Martins $ 22.95 ISBN: 0312313721 Date: 2003
    starKirkus
    A funny new novelist for fans of Marian Keyes, Rebecca Wells, and Melissa Banks. Charlotte ("Charlie") Rhymer's husband wants a divorce. Charlie isn't sure what she wants, but after the incident with the frying pan, even she has to concede "irreconcilable" is the operative word.
    Updated 3.27.03
  • The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing
    Author: Banks, Melissa
    Publisher: Viking List Price: $ 23.95 ISBN: 067088300x Date: 1999
    starPWstarKirkusstarBL
    As it explores the life lessons of Jane, the contemporary American Everywoman - who combines the charm of Bridget Jones, the vulnerability of Ally McBeal, and the wit of Lorrie Morre - The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing offers wise, poignant, and laugh-out-loud insight.
    Suggested Reading: All Stars
  • Thin Pink LIne
    Author: Baratz-Logsted, Lauren
    Publisher: Mira $ 21.95 ISBN: 0373250304
    starKirkus
    Jane Taylor gets so blissfully caught up in the fact she's pregnant that she can't live up to the truth when, mere days later, she finds out that there's no proverbial bun in the oven. But she is only human, and what woman doesn't want the kind of attention that comes with pregnancy?
    Updated 5.9.03
  • Princess Izzy and the E Street Shuffle
    Author: Bartlett, Beverly
    Publisher: Warner $ 12.95 ISBN: 0446695599 Date: 2006
    starKirkus
    Styled as a royal biography, this clever and witty debut follows a fictitious princess whose svengali is a mechanic who takes his advice from Bruce Springsteen.
    Suggested Reading: Debuts
    Updated 1.10.06
  • Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman
    Author: Buchan, Elizabeth
    Publisher: Viking $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670032069 Date: 2003
    starPW
    Full of humor, clever insight, and a whimsical sense of the absurd, Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman is an irresistible and finely written fantasy for anyone who ever wondered what a certain age would look like from beyond the looking-glass--and who will find it ripe with promise that the best days are yet to come.
    Updated 12.23.02
  • A Clean Slate
    Author: Caldwell, Laura
    Publisher: Red Dress $ 12.95 (paper) ISBN: 037325038x Date: 2003
    starBooklist
    A Chicago woman suddenly can''t remember the past five months of her life and begins to realize she has a clean slate. She can do anything she wants, but what, exactly, "does" she want?
    Updated 10.23.03
  • Spin Doctor
    Author: Carroll, Leslie
    Publisher: Avon $ 12.95 ISBN: 0060596139 Date: 2006
    starLJ
    Susan knows that all of life's problems eventually come out in the wash, but while the washers keep breaking down, she helps her female friends take control. - Publisher Marketing.
    Updated 1.18.06
  • Faking It
    Author: Crusie, Jennifer
    Publisher: St Martins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312284683 Date: 2002
    starKirkus
    Matilda "Tilda" Goodnight and Davy Dempsey both want something gorgeous gold-digger Clea Lewis has. When they cross paths in Clea's bedroom, Tilda and Davy reluctantly join forces to battle with a determined femme fatale, an inept art collector, a disgruntled heir, false identities, and worst of all, real love.
    Updated 6.29.02
  • Wanderlust
    Author: Dyer, Chris
    Publisher: Penguin $ 13 (paper) ISBN: 0452283795 Date: 2003
    starLibrary Journal
    Writing a low-budget travel column for a New York newspaper is a dream for young Kate Bogart, but as she soon finds, the travel fulfills her--but the distance it kills her. A saucy and lighthearted novel that will leave readers happy to be along for the ride.
    Updated 12.23.02
  • Wild Designs
    Author: Fforde, Katie
    Publisher: St Martin's List Price: $ 22.95 ISBN: 0312156936 Date: 1997
    starBooklist
    A modern comedy of manners by one of England's most promising young novelists. Attempting to alleviate her financial woes, 38-year-old Althea decides to turn her passion for gardening into a business of her own. In the process, she unearths not only the roots of a new career but the distinct possibility of a new man in her life.
  • Second Thyme Around
    Author: Fforde, Katie
    Publisher: St Martins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312273045 Date: 2001
    starLibrary Journal
    British bestseller Fford serves up a delicious romantic comedy about cherished friends, despised ex-husbands and life's greatest joys--sex and cooking.
    Updated 6/13/01
  • Bridget Jones's Diary
    Author: Fielding, Helen
    Publisher: Viking List Price: $ 22.95 ISBN: 0670880728 Date: 1998
    starPWstarKirkusstarBooklist
    LJ Best First Novel, Booklist Notable First Novel, NYTBR Notable List
    This laugh-out-loud chronicle charts a year in the life of Bridget Jones, a single thirty-something on a permanent doomed quest for self-improvement. Caught between her Singleton friends, who are all convinced they will end up dying alone and found three weeks later half-eaten by an Alsatian, and the Smug Marrieds, whose dinner parties offer ever new opportunities for humiliation, Bridget struggles to keep her life on an even keel (or at least afloat). - From the Advance Uncorrected Proofs.
    Suggested Reading: All Stars | Humorous Fiction
  • Something Borrowed
    Author: Griffin, Emily
    Publisher: St Martins $ 21.95 ISBN: 031232118x Date: 2004
    starBooklist
    Griffin presents her first novel about falling in love with the one guy you shouldn't.
    Suggested Reading: Debuts
    Updated 6.1.04
  • Something Blue
    Author: Giffin, Emily
    Publisher: St Martins $ 22.95 ISBN: 0312323859 Date: 2005
    starBooklist
    From the "New York Times" bestselling author of Something Borrowed comes a novel that shows how someone with a "perfect life" can lose it all--and then find everything.
    Updated 5.20.05
  • What Was She Thinking? Notes on a Scandal
    Author: Heller, Zoe
    Publisher: Holt $ 23 ISBN: 0805073337 Date: 2003
    starLJstarBooklist
    A lonely schoolteacher reveals more than she intends when she records the story of her best friend's affair with a pupil in this sly, insightful novel. "Heller writes with a precision that stirs the blood and an uncommon insight into the darker sides of love."--Nuala O'Faolain.
    Updated 8.13.03
  • Getting Over Jack Wagner
    Author: Juska, Elise
    Publisher: Pocket $ 12 (paper) ISBN: 0743464672 Date: 2003
    starKirkus
    Eliza has spent her entire life trying to find a passionate relationship and has been consistently disappointed. A child of the eighties, she assumes early in life that "rock stars" are the only answer to a "deep" boyfriend. With the help of her mother and friends, Eliza must reevaluate her aspirations for love and the very way she defines herself.
    Updated 2.10.03
  • How to Meet Cute Boys
    Author: Kizis, Deanna
    Publisher: Warner $ 21.95 ISBN: 0446530727 Date: 2003
    starBooklist
    This hilarious work of women's fiction is about a young woman writing for a women's magazine who's experiencing the L.A. dating scene. This book depicts itself as a "novelzine," where the protagonist's magazine articles are relevantly interspersed throughout the novel.
    Updated 9.22.03
  • The Pursuit of Alice Thrift
    Author: Lipman, Elinor
    Publisher: Random $ 23.95 ISBN: 0679463135 Date: 2003
    starLibrary JournalstarPW
    Poor Alice Thrift is book-smart but people-hopeless. When Ray Russo, social-climbing purveyor of carnival fudge, decides to pursue her romantically, Alice reluctantly follows. The Pursuit of Alice Thrift brings the socially tone-deaf Alice out from under the burden of her clueless and beautiful mind.
    Updated 3.13.03
  • A Girl's Guide to Vampires
    Author: Macalister, Katie
    Publisher: Love Spell $6.99 (paper) ISBN: 0505525305 Date: 2003
    starBooklist
    Armed with only a bag of rune stones and her wicked sense of humor, an American woman untangles the threads connecting a serial killer, vampires, and the handsome man who may not be as he appears.
    Updated 10.23.03
  • Playing James
    Author: Mason, Sarah
    Publisher: Ballantine $ 12.95 (paper) ISBN: 0345469550 Date: 2004
    starLJ
    A hilarious and charming debut novel, Playing James follows an adorable rookie crime reporter as she takes on love, loot, and a certain boy in blue.
    Suggested Reading: Debuts
    Updated 4.5.04
  • Fishbowl
    Author: Mlynowski, Sarah
    Publisher: Red Dress Ink $ 12.95 (paper)ISBN: 0373250207 Date: 2002
    starBooklist
    Three women newly rooming together discover the meaning of living in a fishbowl after a small fire leads to a big repair bill and a big realization about insurance, bonding, and friendship.
    Updated 10.15.02
  • I Don't Know How She Does It: The Life of Kate Reddy, Working Mother
    Author: Pearson, Allison
    Publisher: Knopf $ 23 ISBN: 0375414053 Date: 2002
    starPWstarBooklist
    In a novel that is at once uproariously funny and achingly sad, Pearson captures the guilty secret lives of working women--the self-recrimination, the comic deceptions, the giddy exhaustion, and the despair.
    Updated 9.7.02
  • The Evolution of Jane
    Author: Schine, Cathleen
    Publisher: Houghton Mifflin List Price: $ 24 ISBN: 0395826578 Date: 1998
    starPWstarKirkus
    From the bestselling author of The Love Letter and Rameau's Niece comes of comedy of natural selection. When two cousins - who once were best friends - are reunited unexpectedly on a tour of the Galapagos Islands, the result is an antic mating of family saga and natural history that forever changes their lives.
    Read-alike suggestion: Animal Husbandry by Laura Zigman.
  • The Solomon Sisters Wise Up
    Author: Senate, Melissa
    Publisher: Red Dress $ 12.95 (paper) ISBN: 037325041x Date: 2003
    starBooklist
    The Solomon sisters are all totally different and are dealing with their own life issues, but have found themselves living under one roof after too many years. Thanks to a little help from each other--and some unexpected allies--the Solomon sisters are about to wise up.
    Updated 12.15.03
  • In Her Shoes
    Author: Weiner, Jennifer
    Publisher: Atria $ 25 ISBN: 0743418190 Date: 2002
    starPW
    As she did in Good in Bed, Weiner has created a story that is by turns poignant and comical as she unfolds the tale of how three women who have nothing in common but their shoe size find each other--and themselves.
    Updated 8.27.02
  • Animal Husbandry
    Author: Zigman, Laura
    Publisher: Dial Price: $ 22.95 ISBN: 0385319002 Date: 1998
    starPWstarKirkus
    LJ Best First Novel
    A hilariously funny and wonderfully wise debut. In her spare time, late-night TV producer Jane Goodall- not the Jane Goodall- studies animal behavior to try to understand how and why the man she loves has so suddenly, inexplicalby jilted her. Turning to Freud, Darwin, her own lovelorn friends, and a cabinet full of theories, Jane begins a safari of sorts to track down the strange lair of the human heart.

Also . . . Ladlit

The Adrian Mole Diaries by Sue Townsend

Nick Hornby's books