I read a lot. A lot. And I reread a lot, so I like to own books rather than borrowing them from the library. But after many years of cleaning out every bookstore I could find, and a few more placing enormous orders at Amazon, I stumbled across PaperBackSwap, which is pretty much the best […]
Straight Talking
Jane Green’s first book, Straight Talking, is not her best. Tasha is both shallow and selfish, and I couldn’t root for her no matter how hard I tried. At one point she found out something hurtful and I actually thought “serves you right!” (She said as much to herself, too, but that still wasn’t enough […]
Coffee and Kung Fu
Though I don’t care at all about Kung Fu, I loved Karen Brichoux’s Coffee and Kung Fu. The (brief) comparisons to martial arts movies are fun and even interesting, but it’s the author’s descriptions and dialogues that really make this book stand out. One line in particular, which I can’t remember exactly so I won’t […]
Getting Over It
If you like books with a mix of comedy and tragedy, then Anna Maxted’s Getting Over It is just the ticket. Helen has a terrible track record with men, and at first the death of her father barely fazes her. But as the story unfolds, she develops closer relationships with a few different people and […]
Melissa Nathan Award for Comedy Romance
If you think chick lit is dead, think again – the Melissa Nathan Award for Comedy Romance, held for the first time in 2007 and the second just a few days ago, could almost be called the Chick Lit Award. I think it’s great – tons of people (women and men) read these books, and […]
Living Dangerously
I really liked parts of Katie Fforde’s Living Dangerously, and because of that I’ve read it several times. Polly, the protagonist, is 35 and happy to live on her own. She seems like a perfectly pleasant person. However, the implausability of it all eventually gets to me. SPOILERS
Talking to Addison
I love wacky books, and Talking to Addison, by Jenny Colgan, doesn’t disappoint. The narrator lives with a bunch of misfits, one of whom she is determined to befriend, despite his evident lack of interest in talking to her. The whole book is very funny, but there are a few truly hilarious, tears-rolling-down-your-face moments, and […]
Mameve Medwed’s first novel, Mail, is a great example of intelligent chick wit. The heroine spends her days writing short stories, sending them off in the hopes of publication, and dreaming about the mail man. It’s well-written and fairly funny, but I was a bit bothered by the class conflict – I just couldn’t relate […]
Romance novels
There are a few characteristics of Harlequin Romance-type novels that I always seem to notice. Some of these are pretty minor or subtle, but because I read so much I see them over and over and they begin to take on a much bigger importance and distract me from the actual story. First, the sex […]
Honeymoon
Honeymoon, by Amy Jenkins, is one of my very favorite chick lit novels. It’s both funny and clever, and I felt a strong connection with the heroine and several other characters. She’s about to get married, even though she hasn’t seen the Love of Her Life in years. Her fiancé is a good guy but […]