Chick Lit

[ownlife]

The Hazards of Sleeping Alone was a good read. The mother, Charlotte, needed to develop a backbone and set some boundaries with her irritating daughter, Emily, and annoying ex. The daughter's boyfriend was a gem and I liked the way he subtly defended Charlotte in interactions with her family. I kinda hoped he would ditch Emily and take up with Charlotte. I know, ew.

[tinyshoes]

ownlife said:

The Hazards of Sleeping Alone was a good read. The mother, Charlotte, needed to develop a backbone and set some boundaries with her irritating daughter, Emily, and annoying ex. The daughter's boyfriend was a gem and I liked the way he subtly defended Charlotte in interactions with her family. I kinda hoped he would ditch Emily and take up with Charlotte. I know, ew.

I think that was part of Charlotte's character. She needed to grow out of her fear and spinelessness. Usually, I can't stand a main character like that, but Elise Juska really made it work.

I liked Walter's character as well. I bawled my eyes out when Emily dumped him. I could understand her reasons, but still, it made me cry. I was just glad Mr. Tinyshoes wasn't home when I was reading that part.

Prior to that their big books were See Jane Date and Milk Run which were both pretty good.

I only read Milk Run and I couldn't get past the first third of it. She kept going off on a bunch of tangents that failed to even be interesting/unique/insightful. Plus in the beginning when the main character was replaying her ex's answering machine message, she literally repeated it in print. She could have easily summarized it and saved me the boredom.

Speaking of Red Dress Ink, someone recommended Carrie Pilby to me, and said it's a good example of anti-chick lit. Sounds interesting, but since it's RDI, I'm a little gun-shy. Anybody read it?

[Deleted]

I just finished Sophie Kinsella's newest, "Undomestic Goddess," which wasn't very good. Hardly any plot, and what there was of it was totally predictable. Her main character, Samantha, was very bland and kind of boring. I guess she was trying to get away from the Becky Bloomwood type, but Samantha just wasn't much fun to read about. It should've been in paperback, at least that way I wouldn't feel like it was such a waste of money. I'll wait for her next book to come into the library.

[Deleted]

I just read Goodnight Steve McQueen by Louise Wener (lead singer of the band Sleeper) and really liked it. The main character was a male but he was very likeable, nice, neurotic, paranoid and shiftless enough to fill almost any Chick Lit heroine's shoes.

It wasn't quite a romance as such, but it was about a guy trying to get his life together as he approaches 30. It was British and full of British references (words, bands, pop culture figures etc...) so if you are into that, it is an added bonus.

[Deleted]

I have recently discovered Jane Green. I LOVED Jemima J and just finished Mr. Maybe. I've read two of the Shopaholic books, and I agree with Maddiemoo, the girl is just driving me nuts with her spending.....

What Do You Say To A Naked Elf? by Cheryl Sterling was pretty good too.....

[Deleted]

I really enjoyed Jemima J and passed it around. I have Mr Maybe to read, and I also liked Babyville and The Other Woman. I was pleasantly surprised by Good in Bed and Little Earthquakes. I don't find myself liking much Chick lit that I read, they aren't living lives that I find too believable or the women are SO FREAKING ANNOYING.

[dnt]

Wendy sums up my objections to Jemima J pretty succinctly. I did like Good in Bed, but I find myself wondering why it is that every fat chick seems to be a frustrated writer. Maybe it's just because I've read too much chick lit this summer, but that, along with the man-hungry single woman who never even considers that her hot best friend (who is secretly in love with her) is really Mr. Right are the two cliches that have been making me abandon books halfway through more than anything else.

[tinyshoes]

dnt said:

Wendy I did like Good in Bed, but I find myself wondering why it is that every fat chick seems to be a frustrated writer.

Maybe it's because writing doesn't require that you keep up on your stomach crunches (yeah, I'm being facetious). I liked Good in Bed too, although her going to LA and having her movie star friend pay for everything was a little over the top. But hey, if you don't risk being garish in your writing, you risk being bland (cribbed that from Monica Wood in her how-to book The Pocket Muse).

Maybe it's just because I've read too much chick lit this summer, but that, along with the man-hungry single woman who never even considers that her hot best friend (who is secretly in love with her) is really Mr. Right are the two cliches that have been making me abandon books halfway through more than anything else.

In Getting Over Jack Wagner, Elise Juska takes this cliche and flips it on its head pretty well.

Speaking of bad chick lit, I picked up Fishbowl by Sarah Mylnowski at Half Price books the other day. As much as I hated Milkrun, I thought I'd give her another chance. It was on dollar clearance, so I thought why not. Why not indeed. . . Her characters aren't very likeable in this one, and if you're going to make your protagonists unlikeable, you'd darn well better make them awsomely cringeworthy in a Baby Jane Hudson way. She manages to make them simultaneously bland and grating. I've given up on her.

[dnt]

Maybe I'll have to check out Getting Over Jack Wagner. I read Last Chance Saloon this summer and I reserved all of Marion Keyes' books at the library because they sounded funny, but Lucy Sullivan Gets Married sucked so hard, I came close to cancelling them all. I've read Angels since then and that was a pretty good beach read, though.

I just started to read The Thin Pink Line. Anyone else read it and liked/hated it? I have a bad feeling about it, so I've put it aside temporarily.

[Deleted]

Must Love Dogs by Claire Cook has just been released in a movie version. I read the book when it first came out; I thought it had a clever premise, but it turned out to be poorly written and really boring.