can anyone reccomend a good chick lit book please?

[lizandlulu]

or something like chick lit. i am going on holiday soon and want a good book for the beach. i will be child free so want to make the most of my free time
i loved the shopaholic and baby books, ps i love you, that sort of thing.
any reccomendations please?

Funnily enough, I can read unrealistic books about heroines getting off with gorgeous men that I am unlikely ever to get a sniff of, without caring. the spell was just broken by the idyllic description of life as a single parent, lol.

Think Marian Keyes is good - though long!!, read her after a Lisa Jewell and definately much better quality! Have gone off the gene a bit. There are sooo many copy books around. Have read some Mike Gayle & agree, but one book was enough - all the same. Slummy Mummy I found hilarious although it had the things in it that really annoy me about chick lit in general ie - the authors seem to be writing about themselves, for each other. All the heroines work in tv, media, publishing. pr, usually in some trendy part of London, are all obsessed by shoes & labels that I have never heard of!
I just wish a heroine would have a normal job and life that I could relate to a bit more - mind you I suppose that would be a bit boring!
For funny book along man-chick-lit lines try 'Things My Girlfriend and I have Argued About'. Tony Parsons is quite good too.

Casbie, I have the book you mentioned out from the library, I'm reading Divas Don't Knit at the moment, it's great fun - looking forward to sequel in pb in August.

Divas Don't Knit is about the right balance of reality and fantasy for me - some stuff obviously isn't real but main character's not rich or perfect

but i don't read knit-lit for the well-rounded characters, more as a relaxing slice out of my own chaotic life!

I've just finished reading 'Having a lovely time' by Jenny Eclair and really enjoyed it-I like reading her observations!

I love the way all anti-chick lit people on this thread have used the phrase oxymoron for good chick lit. I'm surprised you've all had time to read so many books that you can dismiss the whole genre....but at least you all cribbed from the same 'anti-chick lit' dictionary for your summations. Good for you!

I always hated all things 'romance' oriented and I tire easily of the formulaic novels (I've read 2 or 3 by an author in the past, can't remember her name, and she's just swapped big country house for little revamped cottage; deserted wife for feisty young architect with unrequited love; you get the gist...not dreadfully satisfying and not amongst my recommendations). But the brain moves down a gear occasionally and you just want fluff...so the following are amongst my fave fluffy books:-

I can highly recommend Jennifer Weiner, in her shoes (there was a film with Cameron Diaz which was quite good, but not as good as the book) and Good in Bed was superb too. I love Marian Keyes (not used as doorstops in our house) and a woman called Elizabeth Buchan writes beautiful books about women, definitely not chick lit, but beautiful snapshots of women and relationships (Revenge of a Middle Aged Woman a particular fave of mine).

I have recently read Bitten by Kelley Armstrong, a werewolf chick lit book (sounds repulsive, but is well written and appeals to my middle aged chick lit/teenaged scifantasy background) and lastly, my fave book of the year (so far...and one of the best books I've read for a long time) the 13th Tale by Diane Setterfield, not chick lit by a long chalk, but the most readable book I've picked up in yonks. I'd say it's perfect for hols and would offer to lend it to you, but I've already passed it on.

I also read the Friday Night Knitting Club and loved it. Easy readers for me have also included the Alexander McCall Smith books, particularly the Lady Detective Agency novels and the Isabel Dalhousie books.

Hope you manage to find the perfect read for you for your hols...enjoy.

Can't be doing with book-snobbery, reading should be for fun, and each to their own!

"The Shell Seekers" by Rosamund Pilcher - my favourite book, its fab!!
Like Cathy Kelly and Catherine Alliott aswell, "Rosie Meadows Regrets" creased me up, easy, frothy, perfect for holidays!

I'd forgotten about Catherine Alliott...I love her!

And I think it's Katy Fforde (two ff's in the surname) who's easy to read, but fforumulaic!

Definitely recommend Phillipa Gregory's Tudor series.

What about Nancy E Turner - These is My Words? Fictional diary of pioneers in Arizona, an easy reading, love story with great description of the Old West. Have read it several times!

I enjoy Cathy Kelly Jill Mansell and Katie FForde,,,,,,,,,,

I like Lauren Weisberger's books - she wrote The Devil Wears Prada and Everyone Worth Knowing. She has a new book out called Chasing Harry Winston that I've just bought for my holidays.

Also love Nancy Mitford, but her books are of an age. The Thorn Birds, Gone with the Wind and Valley of the Dolls also all brilliant.