What are your favorite Chicklit books?

Alice Hoffman.  Good writing and storytelling with a bit of fairytale magic.

Me too, MrsPink! She's one of my all-time favourites. I'm more into women't lit as well, though.

I'm more into women't lit as well, though.

Do you mean more like Jane Austen as opposed to Helen Fielding, or...?

Thank you for all the answers; I'm realizing just how ignorant I am in this 'genre', and I didn't think I was.

I just read an article stating that Bridget Jones was the beginning of the modern genre of chicklit.. do you think this is true?

I just read an article stating that Bridget Jones was the beginning of the modern genre of chicklit.. do you think this is true?

Yes and no.  I think saying that Bridget Jones made chick lit more popular is a better assesment.  The genre never really went away so much as lost favor with the general public.

Do you mean more like Jane Austen as opposed to Helen Fielding, or...?

Thank you for all the answers; I'm realizing just how ignorant I am in this 'genre', and I didn't think I was.

I guess i mean more women-centered literature rather than the fluff chick-lit.  I like strong female characters and good storytelling. 

And T&C, great minds...   

Yes and no.  I think saying that Bridget Jones made chick lit more popular is a better assesment.  The genre never really went away so much as lost favor with the general public.

I think though that chick lit used to have a connotation of the supermarket harlequin paperback.  It has become so much more than that.  You can have something in between Mrs Dalloway and harlequin romances. 

I guess i mean more women-centered literature rather than the fluff chick-lit.  I like strong female characters and good storytelling. 

And T&C, great minds...   

I think though that chick lit used to have a connotation of the supermarket harlequin paperback.  It has become so much more than that.  You can have something in between Mrs Dalloway and harlequin romances. 

Amen to that!  Mrs. Dalloway makes my head hurt, and Harlequins make my stomach hurt.

Do you mean more like Jane Austen as opposed to Helen Fielding, or...?

Well, the term "chicklit" denotes a genre that is, mostly, fluffy and light. It's good, fun reading but not especially deep. Don't get me wrong, it's a good genre with some good authors, but  a decidedly different genre than women's lit which would, yes, certainly include Austen. Certainly there is overlap as Helen Fielding has been compared to a modern-day Austen. It's all in the eye of the beholder in the end, isn't it?

Hey, is there a genre of "guylit" as opposed to "men's lit"? Maybe that's just Nuts vs FHM? 

I'd tend to agree.  Austen was the Helen Fielding of her day.  Love Austen...not as convoluted as Woolfe, but still stimulating.

Does nobody like Virginia Woolf?!?!?!   

but  a decidedly different genre than women's lit which would, yes, certainly include Austen.

I agree completely.

It seems to me that "chick-lit" is a pretty disposable genre, judging by the literally thousands of books by Sophie Kinsella, Judy Astley, et al. at the car boot sale this morning.

It just all makes me sort of grumpy, to be honest. I need more than a pink book cover with a cartoon of a lipstick kiss and a shopping bag on it. Much more.

I pretty much agree with this anonymous blogger:

The only issue here is the one that the chick literati never address but instead try to obfuscate with the red herrings of feminism and elitism, which is that their writing is hackneyed and boring and bad. Point out to a chick-lit author that her writing is inferior and formulaic, and she will call you a vengeful, misogynistic stone-thrower.

But while the work may not hold up under scrutiny, the sales do. Beyond adding to the cultural cesspool, what’s dangerous about chick lit is that it fills trade slots at publishing companies that used to be given to literary fiction. Unlike romance or sci-fi, chick lit is a genre that is in direct competition with literature because of its price point and packaging. Romance novels look like romance novels. I know not to buy a book with a longhaired, bare-chested hunk monkey on the cover if I don’t want to read one. But chick lit premiered in hardcover and then moved to trade paperback. And though they’re all about boys, there are seldom any boys on the cover. Brilliant! The genre succeeded exactly because it looked more literary than its embarrassing romance counterpart. You could take Bridget Jones’s Diary on the T and not look like a dateless loser. And while this meant huge sales, it also meant that forever after, serious women’s literature was either overlooked for chick lit, or worse, made to look like chick lit.

The truth is that chick lit is bad for America because it’s bad for ambitious, literary writers, male or female. And that means it’s bad for all of us. As America increasingly devalues intellectual rigor, education and compassion, it becomes harder and harder to find a good book. And believe me—the ex-fiction editor—it’s not because they’re not out there. It’s because the market is saturated by bad writers claiming to rep for all women, crowding the bookshelves, making sure their one marginal, vapid story is produced ten million times over, like some pretty pink version of hell.

Mrs. Dalloway makes my head hurt...

Why?

I find the narrative hard to follow, to be honest.

Hey, is there a genre of "guylit" as opposed to "men's lit"? Maybe that's just Nuts vs FHM? 

Yep there is "lad lit!!" Tony Parsons, Nick Hornby, Mike Gayle, David Nicholls et al

I think the "chick lit" label first started popping up around the time the Bridget Jones Diary books became popular ... at least that's when I became aware of it but it seems to me whilst BJD was quite well written and very witty, "chick lit" has really come to mean those pulpy looking books with brightly coloured covers and large-ish type and not noted for any having any great literary merit.  I have read a few but can't remember a whole lot about them ... that's the kind of book they are. In the 80s we used to call them "bonkbusters" - authors like Jackie Collins and Shirely Conran.

I wouldn't classify authors of denser work, like Jane Austen or Virginia Wolfe as "chick lit." I do like to read a lot of female authors, people like Margaret Forster and Nina Bawden, but again, I don't think they fall under the "chick lit" banner because there is usually a deeper, analytical, aspect to their books than the Bridget Jones type of story.

In the 80s we used to call them "bonkbusters"

LOL!! I've never heard that one!! 

Does nobody like Virginia Woolf?!?!?!   

I certainly do.

(. . . ) Point out to a chick-lit author that her writing is inferior and formulaic, and she will call you a vengeful, misogynistic stone-thrower.

Excellent point. While it's understandable that every author desires literary credibility, using the marginalization-by-patrionic-phallocentric-forces as the fulcrum for debate only detracts from their merit.

The truth is that chick lit is bad for America because it’s bad for ambitious, literary writers, male or female. And that means it’s bad for all of us.

I'm not as strongly behind this argument, though. Assertions on valid and non-valid literature is always suspect and leaves me wondering about vested interests. 

The rise of chicklit isn't the cause of  America's dumbing down - if anything it is a symptom of the disease. 

And linking this all to the "Why can't twenty percent of Americans find America on a map?" thread . . . survey says! "Because they're reading chicklet!"
 

Yep there is "lad lit!!" Tony Parsons, Nick Hornby, Mike Gayle, David Nicholls et al

 I have read a few but can't remember a whole lot about them ... that's the kind of book they are. In the 80s we used to call them "bonkbusters" - authors like Jackie Collins and Shirely Conran.

I forgot about those! I used to devour those in highschool. I read a Judith Krantz novel a few years ago just to be able to read it through adult eyes rather than highschool eyes and it was dreadful!  By the third sex scene, it was just boring. 

I love Nick Hornby too.  How to be Good is definitely not lad lit!  Not chick-lit either but he does a pretty darn good job of writing about a woman.

I love Nick Hornby too.  How to be Good is definitely not lad lit!  Not chick-lit either but he does a pretty darn good job of writing about a woman.

I'm a huge Nick Hornby fan!