Overbooked Book Lists

Chicklit Booklist

Page Modified: June 19, 2009

Chicklit Genre Books - Fiction for Bridget Jones wannabes and BJ's older counterparts. Books about flawed heroines contending with thwarted romance, sex, shopping, eating, drinking, friendship, family & irritating jobs - usually served up with a twist of humor. As Bridget would note, vg fun . . .

• Every Woman for Herself
  Author: Ashley, Trisha
  Publisher: St Martins $ 22.95 ISBN: 0312313721 Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  A funny new novelist for fans of Marian Keyes, Rebecca Wells, and Melissa Banks. Charlotte ("Charlie") Rhymer's husband wants a divorce. Charlie isn't sure what she wants, but after the incident with the frying pan, even she has to concede "irreconcilable" is the operative word.
  Updated 3.27.03
• The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing
  Author: Banks, Melissa
  Publisher: Viking List Price: $ 23.95 ISBN: 067088300x Date: 1999
  PWKirkusBL
  As it explores the life lessons of Jane, the contemporary American Everywoman - who combines the charm of Bridget Jones, the vulnerability of Ally McBeal, and the wit of Lorrie Morre - The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing offers wise, poignant, and laugh-out-loud insight.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars
• Thin Pink LIne
  Author: Baratz-Logsted, Lauren
  Publisher: Mira $ 21.95 ISBN: 0373250304
  Kirkus
  Jane Taylor gets so blissfully caught up in the fact she's pregnant that she can't live up to the truth when, mere days later, she finds out that there's no proverbial bun in the oven. But she is only human, and what woman doesn't want the kind of attention that comes with pregnancy?
  Updated 5.9.03
• Princess Izzy and the E Street Shuffle
  Author: Bartlett, Beverly
  Publisher: Warner $ 12.95 ISBN: 0446695599 Date: 2006
  Kirkus
  Styled as a royal biography, this clever and witty debut follows a fictitious princess whose svengali is a mechanic who takes his advice from Bruce Springsteen.
  Suggested Reading: Debuts
  Updated 1.10.06
• Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman
  Author: Buchan, Elizabeth
  Publisher: Viking $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670032069 Date: 2003
  PW
  Full of humor, clever insight, and a whimsical sense of the absurd, Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman is an irresistible and finely written fantasy for anyone who ever wondered what a certain age would look like from beyond the looking-glass--and who will find it ripe with promise that the best days are yet to come.
  Updated 12.23.02
• A Clean Slate
  Author: Caldwell, Laura
  Publisher: Red Dress $ 12.95 (paper) ISBN: 037325038x Date: 2003
  Booklist
  A Chicago woman suddenly can''t remember the past five months of her life and begins to realize she has a clean slate. She can do anything she wants, but what, exactly, "does" she want?
  Updated 10.23.03
• Spin Doctor
  Author: Carroll, Leslie
  Publisher: Avon $ 12.95 ISBN: 0060596139 Date: 2006
  LJ
  Susan knows that all of life's problems eventually come out in the wash, but while the washers keep breaking down, she helps her female friends take control. - Publisher Marketing.
  Updated 1.18.06
• Faking It
  Author: Crusie, Jennifer
  Publisher: St Martins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312284683 Date: 2002
  Kirkus
  Matilda "Tilda" Goodnight and Davy Dempsey both want something gorgeous gold-digger Clea Lewis has. When they cross paths in Clea's bedroom, Tilda and Davy reluctantly join forces to battle with a determined femme fatale, an inept art collector, a disgruntled heir, false identities, and worst of all, real love.
  Updated 6.29.02
• Wanderlust
  Author: Dyer, Chris
  Publisher: Penguin $ 13 (paper) ISBN: 0452283795 Date: 2003
  Library Journal
  Writing a low-budget travel column for a New York newspaper is a dream for young Kate Bogart, but as she soon finds, the travel fulfills her--but the distance it kills her. A saucy and lighthearted novel that will leave readers happy to be along for the ride.
  Updated 12.23.02
• Wild Designs
  Author: Fforde, Katie
  Publisher: St Martin's List Price: $ 22.95 ISBN: 0312156936 Date: 1997
  Booklist
  A modern comedy of manners by one of England's most promising young novelists. Attempting to alleviate her financial woes, 38-year-old Althea decides to turn her passion for gardening into a business of her own. In the process, she unearths not only the roots of a new career but the distinct possibility of a new man in her life.
• Second Thyme Around
  Author: Fforde, Katie
  Publisher: St Martins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312273045 Date: 2001
  Library Journal
  British bestseller Fford serves up a delicious romantic comedy about cherished friends, despised ex-husbands and life's greatest joys--sex and cooking.
  Updated 6/13/01
• Bridget Jones's Diary
  Author: Fielding, Helen
  Publisher: Viking List Price: $ 22.95 ISBN: 0670880728 Date: 1998
  PWKirkusBooklist
  LJ Best First Novel, Booklist Notable First Novel, NYTBR Notable List
  This laugh-out-loud chronicle charts a year in the life of Bridget Jones, a single thirty-something on a permanent doomed quest for self-improvement. Caught between her Singleton friends, who are all convinced they will end up dying alone and found three weeks later half-eaten by an Alsatian, and the Smug Marrieds, whose dinner parties offer ever new opportunities for humiliation, Bridget struggles to keep her life on an even keel (or at least afloat). - From the Advance Uncorrected Proofs.
  Suggested Reading: All Stars | Humorous Fiction
• Something Borrowed
  Author: Griffin, Emily
  Publisher: St Martins $ 21.95 ISBN: 031232118x Date: 2004
  Booklist
  Griffin presents her first novel about falling in love with the one guy you shouldn't.
  Suggested Reading: Debuts
  Updated 6.1.04
• Something Blue
  Author: Giffin, Emily
  Publisher: St Martins $ 22.95 ISBN: 0312323859 Date: 2005
  Booklist
  From the "New York Times" bestselling author of Something Borrowed comes a novel that shows how someone with a "perfect life" can lose it all--and then find everything.
  Updated 5.20.05
• What Was She Thinking? Notes on a Scandal
  Author: Heller, Zoe
  Publisher: Holt $ 23 ISBN: 0805073337 Date: 2003
  LJBooklist
  A lonely schoolteacher reveals more than she intends when she records the story of her best friend's affair with a pupil in this sly, insightful novel. "Heller writes with a precision that stirs the blood and an uncommon insight into the darker sides of love."--Nuala O'Faolain.
  Updated 8.13.03
• Getting Over Jack Wagner
  Author: Juska, Elise
  Publisher: Pocket $ 12 (paper) ISBN: 0743464672 Date: 2003
  Kirkus
  Eliza has spent her entire life trying to find a passionate relationship and has been consistently disappointed. A child of the eighties, she assumes early in life that "rock stars" are the only answer to a "deep" boyfriend. With the help of her mother and friends, Eliza must reevaluate her aspirations for love and the very way she defines herself.
  Updated 2.10.03
• How to Meet Cute Boys
  Author: Kizis, Deanna
  Publisher: Warner $ 21.95 ISBN: 0446530727 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  This hilarious work of women's fiction is about a young woman writing for a women's magazine who's experiencing the L.A. dating scene. This book depicts itself as a "novelzine," where the protagonist's magazine articles are relevantly interspersed throughout the novel.
  Updated 9.22.03
• The Pursuit of Alice Thrift
  Author: Lipman, Elinor
  Publisher: Random $ 23.95 ISBN: 0679463135 Date: 2003
  Library JournalPW
  Poor Alice Thrift is book-smart but people-hopeless. When Ray Russo, social-climbing purveyor of carnival fudge, decides to pursue her romantically, Alice reluctantly follows. The Pursuit of Alice Thrift brings the socially tone-deaf Alice out from under the burden of her clueless and beautiful mind.
  Updated 3.13.03
• A Girl's Guide to Vampires
  Author: Macalister, Katie
  Publisher: Love Spell $6.99 (paper) ISBN: 0505525305 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  Armed with only a bag of rune stones and her wicked sense of humor, an American woman untangles the threads connecting a serial killer, vampires, and the handsome man who may not be as he appears.
  Updated 10.23.03
• Playing James
  Author: Mason, Sarah
  Publisher: Ballantine $ 12.95 (paper) ISBN: 0345469550 Date: 2004
  LJ
  A hilarious and charming debut novel, Playing James follows an adorable rookie crime reporter as she takes on love, loot, and a certain boy in blue.
  Suggested Reading: Debuts
  Updated 4.5.04
• Fishbowl
  Author: Mlynowski, Sarah
  Publisher: Red Dress Ink $ 12.95 (paper)ISBN: 0373250207 Date: 2002
  Booklist
  Three women newly rooming together discover the meaning of living in a fishbowl after a small fire leads to a big repair bill and a big realization about insurance, bonding, and friendship.
  Updated 10.15.02
• I Don't Know How She Does It: The Life of Kate Reddy, Working Mother
  Author: Pearson, Allison
  Publisher: Knopf $ 23 ISBN: 0375414053 Date: 2002
  PWBooklist
  In a novel that is at once uproariously funny and achingly sad, Pearson captures the guilty secret lives of working women--the self-recrimination, the comic deceptions, the giddy exhaustion, and the despair.
  Updated 9.7.02
• The Evolution of Jane
  Author: Schine, Cathleen
  Publisher: Houghton Mifflin List Price: $ 24 ISBN: 0395826578 Date: 1998
  PWKirkus
  From the bestselling author of The Love Letter and Rameau's Niece comes of comedy of natural selection. When two cousins - who once were best friends - are reunited unexpectedly on a tour of the Galapagos Islands, the result is an antic mating of family saga and natural history that forever changes their lives.
  Read-alike suggestion: Animal Husbandry by Laura Zigman.
  
• The Solomon Sisters Wise Up
  Author: Senate, Melissa
  Publisher: Red Dress $ 12.95 (paper) ISBN: 037325041x Date: 2003
  Booklist
  The Solomon sisters are all totally different and are dealing with their own life issues, but have found themselves living under one roof after too many years. Thanks to a little help from each other--and some unexpected allies--the Solomon sisters are about to wise up.
  Updated 12.15.03
• In Her Shoes
  Author: Weiner, Jennifer
  Publisher: Atria $ 25 ISBN: 0743418190 Date: 2002
  PW
  As she did in Good in Bed, Weiner has created a story that is by turns poignant and comical as she unfolds the tale of how three women who have nothing in common but their shoe size find each other--and themselves.
  Updated 8.27.02
• Animal Husbandry
  Author: Zigman, Laura
  Publisher: Dial Price: $ 22.95 ISBN: 0385319002 Date: 1998
  PWKirkus
  LJ Best First Novel
  A hilariously funny and wonderfully wise debut. In her spare time, late-night TV producer Jane Goodall- not the Jane Goodall- studies animal behavior to try to understand how and why the man she loves has so suddenly, inexplicalby jilted her. Turning to Freud, Darwin, her own lovelorn friends, and a cabinet full of theories, Jane begins a safari of sorts to track down the strange lair of the human heart.
  

Also . . . Ladlit

The Adrian Mole Diaries by Sue Townsend

Nick Hornby's books

Links:

Authors on the Web Chicklit forum