Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

Original poster

come educate me about chick-lit ....

31 replies

lilolilmanchester · 19/07/2009 19:39

... I'd always thought it meant books which generally appealed more to women than men. But have just been told that Anita Shreve and Anne Tyler are not chick-lit. So I've clearly got it completely wrong ....... please spare my future embarrassment with a definition. Thanks,

OP posts:
MovingOutOfBlighty · 19/07/2009 19:41

They often have pastel covers and silver bits.

Usually there is a martini glass on the front somewhere. And really bad puns in the title.

Flamesparrow · 19/07/2009 19:41

wiki saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaays

MovingOutOfBlighty · 19/07/2009 19:42

Anita Shreve and Anne Tyler are defo not. They are womens lit I think.

janeite · 19/07/2009 19:43

Shreve and Tyler are generally considered 'better fiction' than chick-lit (can't be doing with either of them personally).

The title Chick-lit is decreed based on multiplying the number of references to Jimmy Choos, divided by the number of pages in which the heroine does something scatty, added to the litres of cocktails drunk and subtracted from the sum total of clunky adjectives times by the amount of hyperbole and references to Prada.

itchyandscratchy · 19/07/2009 19:43

search it on amazon - you'll soon see plenty of what Moving mentions.

Some are more like Shit Lit.
The only ones I can stand of the genre are Marian Keyes and occasionally Wendy Holden.

Lisa Jewell also good.

Original poster
lilolilmanchester · 19/07/2009 19:43

ah, so there is an age element then

OP posts:
MovingOutOfBlighty · 19/07/2009 19:46

With itchy. Sometimes I like those two who write together as well.

You should be able to read them on a beach having drunk 5 pina coladas and the plot still make sense.

freyski · 19/07/2009 20:01

Janeite i think wiki should just use your definition- spot on! must confess a liking for Marion Keyes when on holiday though!

janeite · 19/07/2009 20:28

See I have never read her but she irritates the hell out of me in interviews I've read. AND she stole a Smiths title.

itchyandscratchy · 20/07/2009 14:16

ah now you see, MK gets put with the chick lit lot but I do think there's a bit more to her than some of the fluff out there. This Charming Man is about an abusive series of relationships and was a very good read: not brain-hurting, but just enjoyable and quite thought-provoking. I read her for a bit of escapism but I think she always writes about crises and quite dark subjects with humour and 'real' characters.

Her one before last 'Is Anybody Out There' had me crying my heart out in places as she dealt with bereavement so realistically, imo.

faeriemummy · 20/07/2009 14:28

Jane green and catherine alliot are good- slightly more 'grown-up' chick-lit! Green is amazing story teller and quite emotional at times and Alliot is really funny

freyski · 20/07/2009 18:31

Dont get me wrong I have enjoyed all the MK books I have read (watermelon,Rachel's holiday and Anybody out there?). After Watermelon, I think she was crowned the queen of chick lit. However this has'nt stopped her covering subjects such as death, depression and addiction. But she does this with a fair smattering of Jimmy choos, prada and scattiness!

Tortington · 20/07/2009 18:39

you can usually tell by the cartoonesq cover and sparkley title.

they are mostly pants i think but occasionally i find a gem which is mind numbingly brilliant - a bit like reading a trashy mag- sometimes you can really get into it

yama · 20/07/2009 18:56

I have only ever read one chick-lit book. It was on holiday last year and it was the only think on the bookshelf vaguely readable.

Anyway - I liked it.

It was about a woman who's husband left her. She moved next door to a woman in a wheelchair who ended up falling for the man we were meant to think the protagonist was going to fall for. Oh, and she was an agony aunt!! The irony .

Anyone recognise this book?

If so can you tell me who the author is please? I'm going to give chick-lit another bash.

yama · 20/07/2009 18:57

thing not think on the bookshelf

SkaterGrrrrl · 03/08/2009 18:40

Yama that book is called Rescuing Rose!

I read a lot of chick lit but then I read a lot, full stop. I belong to a library and a book club and probably read one chick lit novel for every 4 serious books. It's fun and light and in between reading Disgrace and Dave Eggers it's nice to chill out with a trashy book!

Some good (funny) chick lit authors to try are:

Lisa Jewel
Jill Mansell
Anna Maxtead
Sophie Kinsella

Maria2007 · 04/08/2009 16:39

I have to confess, I had a secret soft-spot for chick lit, used to read quite a lot of it (well not so secret since I'm announcing it on MN ). Like SkaterGrrrl, I used to read one chick-lit book for about every 4 other more 'serious' books. In time, I started to get tired of chick-lit (they tend to be very repetitive). However, Sophie Kinsella still makes me laugh, as does Marian Keyes. I think Marian Keyes is very much chick lit, just quite a nice version of it.

whosturnisit · 04/08/2009 18:34

I always think of Sophie(?) Kinsella as standard chic lit. Only managed one chapter of a Shopperholic book.

I have enjoyed Erica James and Katie Fforde.....are they officially chic lit?

Quattrocento · 04/08/2009 18:42

Think Bridgit Jones

And lots of pink/silver books with similar sounding titles

Where the heroine is unmarried, working for a living in a dippy job, gets drunk a lot and ends up with the bloke at the end of the novel.

Anne Tyler is a proper writer, I think.

FickleFairy · 04/08/2009 18:48

Freya North is good for a bit of Chick Lit too. Quite grown up with a smattering of sexy thrown in too.

I LOVE Chick Lit. Easy to read after a busy day without having to give it too much thought and usually a feel good ending. Basically a Chick Flick in writing.

My favourites are Marian Keyes, Jane Green, Sophie Kinsella and another one not mentioned on here is Belinda Jones. If you like all the others I've mentoned you'll like her too.

IdrisTheDragon · 04/08/2009 18:53

Ooh I haven't read any Belinda Jones

FickleFairy · 04/08/2009 19:01

Idris - I really think she is excellent. I love Capri sticks out to me as one of her best if you wanted to try one but to be honest they are all great. I am anxiously awaiting her next one.

I read all sorts and occasionally love quite a deep read but I am not ashamed to admit that if I could only read one genre ever again it would be Chick Lit all the way.

goingincognito · 04/08/2009 19:01

Lisa Jewell is rubbish!
Chicklit started with Bridget Jones and then the formula was:
1 x media job + fancying the boss + gay best friend + group of girlfriends x permanently in wine bar where barman always knows names = ending up with annoying man from p.3 dismissed as arrogant.
It now has evolved to Janeite's formula.

goingincognito · 04/08/2009 19:02

(Forgot to add; always written by female with previous job history as journalist/ editor/ publishing assistant - suspect ease of contract due to connections as lots of crap published)

IdrisTheDragon · 04/08/2009 21:23

I have looked and see there are lots .

Will get reserving at the library