Chick Literate » Isabel Wolff

Out of the Blue

lklawless — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 09:34:08 +0000

Isabel Wolff will always remain one of my favorite chick lit authors, even though I was incredibly disappointed by her third book, Out of the Blue. It’s the story of a woman whose husband has an affair and leaves her, sort of, but never manages to completely make the break – and she doesn’t really help him much either. The reason I was so disappointed was that SPOILERS her husband never, not once, regretted the long-term affair, and yet in the end she took him back in what was supposed to be a romantic finish but I just found ridiculous. I kept thinking “any minute now, she’ll realize what a loser he is,” but it never happened.

The Trials of Tiffany Trott

lklawless — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 11:33:31 +0000

One of the earliest chick lit books, The Trials of Tiffany Trott, by Isabel Wolff, is also one of the most fun. Tiffany is 37 and still looking for Mr. Right in a quest that leads her to classified ads, blind dates, Club Med, and pretty much anywhere else single men might conceivably hang out. Very funny and a pleasure to read!

The Making of Minty Malone

lklawless — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 05:48:22 +0000

Once I’d read Bridget Jones’s Diary I was dying for similar novels, but the term “chick lit” didn’t exist yet and I had no way of searching for them. (There were of course other books out there, but they were pretty much all in England, and I didn’t discover them until later.) So it was pure luck that led me to find a copy of The Making of Minty Malone, by Isabel Wolff, in a tiny bookstore in Spain of all places. The book begins with the internal monologue of a rather hyperactive bride-to-be, who gives a great deal of background information about herself and her fiancé before heading to the church, where he states emphatically that he can’t marry her. Minty goes through expected and unexpected stages of grief and recovery, and the whole thing is very funny and sweet. It’s another of my favorites, and I’ve read it dozens of times. (It’s also Ms. Wolff’s second book, so you can see how behind I was. Not to worry, though, I quickly made up for lost time.)