# Reading > General Literature >  Chick Novels

## ajoe

Yes, shoot me, I'm currently addicted to junk novels that are probably worthless in the history of American literature.

But before that, I beg people who know to tell me more fun chick novels that are similar to any of Meg Cabot's books and the Shopaholic Trilogy by Sophie Kinsella. Thanks.

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## nome1486

It depends on what you mean by similar; my sister liked the Shopaholic Trilogy but she said she doesn't think the other books she's read are very similar. To me they seem similar anyway  :Smile: , so I'll give you some titles to look at: _The Dominant Blonde_  (or other books) by Alisa Kwitney; Sisterchicks books by Robin Jones Gunn; _How To Meet Cute Boys_  by Deanna Kizis (this one was my suggestion after I saw it at the library; she hasn't finished it but she liked how it started). Also, maybe _Bridget Jones's Diary_? Okay, so this is getting too in-depth but I'm a research freak. I noticed when I got on Amazon to look up those authors that there's another Shopaholic book coming out called _Shopaholic & Sister_, and that Amazon offers suggestions of other similar books you might like, so you can check there for more titles.

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## amuse

no clue, but i did check out a  :Blush:  barbara taylor bradford book from the local library last week.

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## subterranean

oh i've been there long time ago...addicted to chick literature...then one day i realized reading these things is such a waste!!
i recall some titles..can u keep a secret, guys next door, the diary of a mad bride, jemima j, 
i did enjoyed a little watchin the movie version of briget jones' diary (esp cause Hugh grant played in this movie)..

but i suppose Harlequins are still the worst !!!

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## papayahed

The Devil wears Prada was pretty good, I also liked the Bridget Jones books.

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## amuse

love the bridget jones books. am happy to report i couldn't make it past the prologue and first page of b.t.b.'s book. pretty cruddy - she gets paid?

ok  :Biggrin:  so i did like a _woman of substance_ years ago. except for the way the author fawned over her main char.

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## Koa

A friend of mine loved that Kinsella stuff, she advised me to read it... Should be nice, I'm not against reading junk if it's funny junk (I'm only against useless romance novels  :Wink: ).
Relevant post, isn't it?

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## ajoe

^ Which reminds me. WHO on earth reads those paperback romance novels with naked people on the cover picture? I know I shouldn't judge a book by its cover and I can't say bad things about them since I've never read any of them, but I'm still against them anyway. Sue me.

By the way, I'm starting to get sick of the Shopaholic main character. She's somewhat... dumb?

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## subterranean

what paperback novels..?!!
yeah she's dumb indeed yet author "gave" her good looki, smart, rich guy as a bf..or is he dumb too since he's in love with her..

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## Koa

> ^ Which reminds me. WHO on earth reads those paperback romance novels with naked people on the cover picture? I know I shouldn't judge a book by its cover and I can't say bad things about them since I've never read any of them, but I'm still against them anyway. Sue me.


That was exactly the point of my parenthesis... 

Once, still when I used to read everything I found, I read a novel by Danielle Steel, which is like the literate equivalent of those things, in a way... It was so pathetic! It was about this girl who was always taken advantage of cos she was too beautiful, and she doesnt want to be judged only one her beauty but anyway all the bad things happen to her cos of that, like her father abusing her, then he kills him and noone believes he abused of her cos he was arespected lawyer so she goes to jail and all the lesbians around abuse of her... then she works for a model agency but not as a model but at the end I think she does but then someone takes photos of her naked (cos all her bfs anyway take advantage of her) and sells them to the magazines later when she's in politics after having married a politician, sort of... Sorry for spoiling it for all those who wnated to read it ( ! ) but it was too funny... How comes I remember it so well after many years, and I dont remember this well the books I want to remember for life?

sub, those we are referring to are thise obscure books (here in Italy the series is called 'Harmony', they can be found at newspapers' kiosks too...or maybe only there) thatusually have pastel covers and the covers inevitably shows some passionate couple and if you still have doubts the title reveals it must be some romantic story... They must be much worse than the one I described here, all about some veeeeery deeeeeeep loooove and probably some jealousy or whatever...

edit: found the italian site at www.eharmony.it
Some titles to give you an idea:
Blonde Seduction
Prohibited Contact 
(you should see the covers of these if you click on that link - featuring naked legs, underwear and hands... now don't imagine a porn, just in a romantic way  :Brow: )
Browsing further I found
Two hearts and a camper (LOL!)
By chance or forever? (cover features a bench and a couple on a romantic night)
A spark called love
A pure love
Welcome Dr Wonderful (????)
A surgeon to kiss (!!!!!!!!!)
Our cruise
An endless smile

Ok I'd better stop wasting my time (thus avoiding to let you know about the plots...ask if you want transaltions of those  :Wink: )...Sadly, I think my mum would read those. But maybe not even her...

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## subterranean

> That was exactly the point of my parenthesis... 
> 
> sub, those we are referring to are thise obscure books (here in Italy the series is called 'Harmony', they can be found at newspapers' kiosks too...or maybe only there) thatusually have pastel covers and the covers inevitably shows some passionate couple and if you still have doubts the title reveals it must be some romantic story... They must be much worse than the one I described here, all about some veeeeery deeeeeeep loooove and probably some jealousy or whatever...
> 
> edit: found the italian site at www.eharmony.it
> Some titles to give you an idea:
> Blonde Seduction
> Prohibited Contact 
> (you should see the covers of these if you click on that link - featuring naked legs, underwear and hands... now don't imagine a porn, just in a romantic way )
> ...


Oh, there things like those in my place also....seductive covers with funny titels..i suppose this thing is a world wide product 

Cheers

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## Pinky Baby

I think sappy love storys are fine just as long as you dont 4get where fantasy ends and reality begins

but what do i know im only 14

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## subterranean

Hi Pink Baby...welcome on board...

Cheers

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## ajoe

> but what do i know im only 14


You're lucky. You can enjoy Princess Diaries series without shame. Me, whenever I check out one of those books from the local library, I need to pretend it's for the little sister I never have. Of course, when I was 16 I also still read The Baby-Sitters Club.

What the heck is wrong with me? My hormones develop in all the wrong timing.

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## Koa

Lol ajoe, I'm out of timing too for many things... But once, when I was like 15 or 16 maybe, my mum came home with a book (she often bought me book cos she knew I liked them and I think she felt pity in seeing me reading the same things several times - even if I was doing it for fun) of a dreadful series... Something about girls growing up, and 'oh I'm fat-I have spots-my friend is cooler than me' etc... Well I don't classify that book as literature... There are much clever ways of writing about that stuf without sounding like your brain has ran away from you long ago... 
Of course I read it anyway, I was bored and at that time I read everything anyway...

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## subterranean

> You're lucky. You can enjoy Princess Diaries series without shame. Me, whenever I check out one of those books from the local library, I need to pretend it's for the little sister I never have. Of course, when I was 16 I also still read The Baby-Sitters Club.
> 
> What the heck is wrong with me? My hormones develop in all the wrong timing.


you're a female...right?!

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## andrea

I am guilty of reading those books *hangs head in shame* but I do enjoy them. They're good summer reads. 

Last summer I read PS I love you, by Cecilia Ahern and I really liked it. It's about a young woman whose husband dies. The husband leaves a list of things she has to do, one for each month of the year. These things are the kind of stuff she couldn't have brought herself to do without that letter. I really liked it  :Smile: 

Also, the 2nd Bridget Jones book is better than the first. Oh and I enjoy Marian Keyes books *blushes*

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## amuse

is that the book that means palm springs i love you, but more romantically, p &s are her honey's initials (though am not sure, or have forgotten, thought he was her bf). i read it too, years ago, if that's the same one.

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## ajoe

Yea, The Nanny Diaries is also pretty good if a little depressing. 

Seriously, I can't wait to find a chick novel where the main character is somewhat above intelligent and is not all obsessed about shopping and guys and whatever it is a typical "chick" is obsessed with. And also where the word "Oh my God" is eliminated.

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## Kirsty

> But once, when I was like 15 or 16 maybe, my mum came home with a book (she often bought me book cos she knew I liked them and I think she felt pity in seeing me reading the same things several times - even if I was doing it for fun) of a dreadful series.....


My mum, cheeky women, gave me this book for christmas last year. She got it because I have not had a boyfriend for years and she always makes comments/jokes about it. Anyway, she found this book by Elizabeth Berg, which has a wedding dress hanging in a doorway, with the line, What's so wrong with waiting? Until the real thing comes along. 
I tried to read it, but it was terrible, about a women who keeps trying it on with her gay friend because he is so wonderful, and she is obsessed with her eggs and losing her chance to have kids. 
I just couldn't even get quarter of the way through it!!

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## amuse

it sounds sort of funny.  :Biggrin:

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## genoveva

Ha, ha! So Chick Lit is really a genre! Here's a list I recently came across. Some of these I have read, some not:

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
Recollections of My Life as a Woman by Diane Di Prima
White Oleander by Janet Fitch
The Saskiad by Brian Hall
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb
Pure by Rebecca Ray
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
A Do Right Man by Omar Tyree
The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells

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## Your Worship

When it comes to romance novels, I generally only read the trashiest ones. They are the funniest and the most lurid, so it's the best of both worlds. However, if you're looking for something new, but still hovering on the edge of the old romance standard, I recommend Dead and Unwed and the sequel Dead and Unemployed. It's an amusing little series full of pop-culture references and the kind of off-the-cuff, Buffy the Vampire Slayer-esque humor that entertains without bogging you down with metaphors and political parallels. 

Be warned, it is a vampire-themed novel, so if you want realism, this series isn't for you.

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## simon

For those that cater to whim and fancy, or general hysteria in life, torn between the hot Italian cop and the mysterious bounty hunter, try reading about Stephanie Plum who screws up her job as bounty hunter in numerous ways, gets her car blown up every week, can eat massive amounts of doughnuts and still manages to do such things as capture her man, be it in handcuffs or in bed. The author is Janet Evanovich, if anyone wants an all night, chocolate fest readout.

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## Scheherazade

> For those that cater to whim and fancy, or general hysteria in life, torn between the hot Italian cop and the mysterious bounty hunter, try reading about Stephanie Plum who screws up her job as bounty hunter in numerous ways, gets her car blown up every week, can eat massive amounts of doughnuts and still manages to do such things as capture her man, be it in handcuffs or in bed. The author is Janet Evanovich, if anyone wants an all night, chocolate fest readout.


Hear, hear!

_Love_ Stephanie and _Plum collection_. Evanovich redefines so called chick novels!

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## Vedrana

I had no patience with "Handbags and Gladrags" by Maggie Alderston, but I did end up reading the first of the Shopaholic series. I thought the main character was a bit of a ditz, though. "The Devil Wears Prada" was okay. "Girl With a Pearl Earring" was great though. "Three Wishes" by Lianne Moriarty was good too. 

I like classic "Chick Literature" as well. My favourites are Austen (of course), who is a master of romantic comedy and Anne Bronte. Of course, one can get away with it, asserting that they are 'classics', but they are very much a part of the women's reading lists. (Austen at least, I don't know if Anne Bronte is as popular as her sisters)

I don't know about Georgette Heyer, I just don't think I'd really enjoy her books. As for all those sequels to Jane Austen books, don't go there! I can't stand them. They just don't work, because usually their writing style doesn't sound at all like the original, and anyway, I don't think Jane Austen would approve at all. 

I hear from people who have read the really trashy novels, that they are addictive and quite entertaining. I haven't tried any before, but I think they sound pretty funny.

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## Nightshade

> ^ Which reminds me. WHO on earth reads those paperback romance novels with naked people on the cover picture? I know I shouldn't judge a book by its cover and I can't say bad things about them since I've never read any of them, but I'm still against them anyway. Sue me.
> 
> By the way, I'm starting to get sick of the Shopaholic main character. She's somewhat... dumb?


I know who, youd be supurised at the demand they are in (and the silly head office keeps sending us duplicates!) 
MOstly and Im sorry to have to do this a resort to generlisation but mostly its little old ladies. we have a lady who gets sent 12 every fortnight because she cant ge out of the house. Even Ive ended up reading a few to get an idea of what she wants so I can look for less ( ah clourful covered ones becasue often as not you have romances masking as somhing else.)
As for chick lit a lot of it can be great mnd you I wouldnt say Wuthering heights is chick lit it lacks the oh most important of features "feel good"ness 
And as for Jane eyre if there was ever a sloppy R in disguise that is it. 
Idid nt like the plum books though found I was just too detached mndou in a similler genre I love the Joanna fluke ones.

 :Biggrin:

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## simon

Ah genoveva, I'm glad someone else enjoyed How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accent, I thought it was a light and enjoyable escape from all worries of the world. As for the Bronte's, the main female characters always ellicited the most throat strangling responses from my cerebral cortex.

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## Nightshade

THankyou thankyou someone else who cant stand bronte and yet, somehow we are reading Charlotte in the book club?? *glare*  :Mad: 
(suffering at temporary losss of other smilies)

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## simon

Some of the chick lit and romance novels can be pretty hilarious, especially the romance ones when read aloud. In high school the girls volleyball team while dressing for a game would read aloud from bad romance novels and act out the parts to everyones, all the stupid, "she looked at his lush lips and batted her eyes", "she placed her hand on his thigh", it was your general giggling extravaganza.

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## Nightshade

eeeee hummm well I dont know Im the type that would be cringing if I had to actualy lisen to one of them. But I like to laugh and that is the thing about romances they take themselves soo seriously you just want to sit there and laugh.

 :Biggrin:  anyway see yu simon nice talking but work calls
 :Wave:   :Biggrin:

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## simon

I have never read one by myself, if anything else that incident in volleyball put me off them, but at the time you could do nothing but laugh.

Enjoy the real world Nightshade.

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## EAP

_She's Come Undone_ is straight up mainstream and a bloody brilliant book at that. I never thought I'd hear someone refer to _A Farewell To Arms_ as chick-lit, wonders never cease. Amy Tan writes immigrant fiction and the Bronte's lie squarely in the Victorian category. 


Chick-lit is no better or worse then the other romance sub-genres.

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## Theshizznigg

> You're lucky. You can enjoy Princess Diaries series without shame. Me, whenever I check out one of those books from the local library, I need to pretend it's for the little sister I never have. Of course, when I was 16 I also still read The Baby-Sitters Club.
> 
> What the heck is wrong with me? My hormones develop in all the wrong timing.



Don't feel bad, I read modern romance novel by Julia Garwood, (some very good works in there  :Nod:  ) and I feel no shame. 
In my mental outlook a book is meant to be read, and can be read by anyone.
Yes some books will target certain age groups, and members of a singular sex, but it doesn't mean any pleasure cannot be derived from a book, from anyone regardless. 
Hence the reason, I have my Artemis Foul collection right next to my Grimms fairy tales, and War and Peace.  :Biggrin:  

Be Brave and continue the good fight. 

The Authors gathered on the battlefield, standing defiantly, gainst their Censorship/Publisist foes. 
Forward a book was thrown with the outward cry.
"Literature!"

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## bootlegger

> Of course, when I was 16 I also still read The Baby-Sitters Club.


haha i was in the library the other day and i kinda was pondering in my own little world, and i thought "would it be sooo bad to take out a babysitters club book? NO, DAMMIT NO, STEP AWAY FROM THE BOOKSHELF" and then i kept trying to convince myself "its about broadening your orizens, refinding your youth, market research". its like an addiction. chick lit is like those old worn socks you cant quite throw away. you know novelty socks went out with glitter and hair crimpers in the '90s, but you cant help but love em.

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## Idril

My sister talked me into reading the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon by telling me it was historical fiction.  :Rolleyes:  She seemed quite shocked when, after reading them, I suggested they were more romance than historical fiction and I was backed up by Barnes and Noble, they were placed in the romance section but then I was betrayed, last time my sister and I went book shopping, they had been moved to the fiction area. She was not particularly gracious about it either.  :FRlol:

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## Dan_The_Man

> You're lucky. You can enjoy Princess Diaries series without shame. Me, whenever I check out one of those books from the local library, I need to pretend it's for the little sister I never have. Of course, when I was 16 I also still read The Baby-Sitters Club.
> 
> What the heck is wrong with me? My hormones develop in all the wrong timing.


I hear you! I remember walking up to the circulation desk at the library holding _A Walk to Remember_  and _The Notebook_ under my arm. I was comforted by the simple fact that Nickolas Sparks is after all a _guy_! I wasn't able to get more than 25% of the way through The Notebook (probably because I saw the movie, which I didn't feel was any much better), but I did finish the former in a sitting, and took a liking to the movie (Mandy Moore) quite a bit. 

A Walk to Remember is considered a chick flick by many, I guess mostly the people who watched the movie, but never gave the book a chance. I felt there was a nice message behind the story that eliminated the light-heartedness you might be expecting. 

Still, every girl I know has read it. Unless they hated it (1 person!), they look back on it as chick-lit.

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## kathycf

> My sister talked me into reading the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon by telling me it was historical fiction.


Someone did that to me as well, except she told me it was science fiction! I guess because of the time travel. I thought Gabaldon would have benefitted a great deal from pruning those books from 3 to just one. (yes, I ended up reading all the darn things) Not my usual cup of tea, I have to say...

I also enjoyed "A Walk to Remember", I thought it was very touching. The Stephanie Plum novels by Janet Evanovich are hysterical, I love Grandma Mazur! I can't believe a thread about chick lit doesn't mention such notables as Barbara Cartland and V.C. Andrews, queens of the summer beach reading trash type novels.  :Brow:  
/me shudders...

So, is there such a thing as "guy lit"? It seems almost like the prevailing attitude is "guy lit" is the real literature and "chick lit" is fluff. I mean, some of it is genuine fluff, but I can't include literary works by the Brontes and Austen in that category.

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## Idril

> Someone did that to me as well, except she told me it was science fiction! I guess because of the time travel. I thought Gabaldon would have benefitted a great deal from pruning those books from 3 to just one. (yes, I ended up reading all the darn things) Not my usual cup of tea, I have to say...


I read them all too, well, I read the first 5 because my sister gave them to me. She had bought them all in paperback and then loved the series so much that she went back and bought them all again in hardcover so she brought over all the paperbacks to my house and since I had them, I read them but I didn't buy anymore so I haven't read the last 2 or 3. They were weird, the 'love scenes' were so bizarre, graphic yet vague. You knew something sexual was going on but you weren't quite sure about the details, even though they would be described but it was in such a way that you had no idea what they were doing, or better yet, how they could be doing what they were supposedly doing in the positions they were supposedly in. A friend of mine and I would read them over and over again, giggling, "Well, if his leg is over there, how can he be doing that? Wait a minute, wasn't she just over there doing that? How did she get in that posistion?"  :FRlol:   :FRlol:  

On the other hand, that torture scene with Jamie in the first or second book was horrendous. I could only read a sentence or two at a time because it was so intense and unpleasant. You wonder how an Arizona housewife is capable of writing such violence and depravity.

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## kathycf

> I read them all too, well, I read the first 5


You mean there was more than the first 3? I am out of the loop.  :FRlol:  I read them about 10 years ago.





> "Well, if his leg is over there, how can he be doing that? Wait a minute, wasn't she just over there doing that? How did she get in that posistion?"


Agreed.  :Wink:  I had to skip over a lot of that, it was too silly.




> On the other hand, that torture scene with Jamie in the first or second book was horrendous. I could only read a sentence or two at a time because it was so intense and unpleasant. You wonder how an Arizona housewife is capable of writing such violence and depravity.


I remember some quite graphic scenes with Jamie and some English soldier. Jamie has flashbacks associated with the scent of lavender. Is that what you were referring to? It was very intense and disturbing. As to how she wrote it; who knows what demons someone may be purging via their writing? Or maybe she just has a vivid imagination...

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## EAP

_A Walk To Remember_ isn't chick-lit - it's a romance (read: quality book), there's a huge difference.  :Tongue:  
_The Notebook_ can be categorized in a smiliar vein without the quality part. 

I am a guy and enjoy dipping into chick-lit now and then. Gabaldon is actually a pretty good writer though the ammount of time Claire spent being banged against the head-board was disturbing! 

I thought the torture scene was pretty run-of-the-mill, romanticized, if you will, to a large extent. 

I suppose you can call Tom Clancy and Dean Knootz 'guy lit', doesn't change the fact that they are as crappy as the majority of chick-lit.

Edit: The only thing worse then chick/guy lit? TEENAGE chick-lit!

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## Idril

> . 
> Gabaldon is actually a pretty good writer though the ammount of time Claire spent being banged against the head-board was disturbing!


Or against a church wall.  :FRlol:  There was one line in that first book that sealed it's "romance novel" title in my mind...I can't repeat it here because it's a little saucy but no legitimate historical fiction would ever contain such a sentence.

The torture scene really was almost too much for me, but then again, I am notoriously thin skinned when it comes to things like that, I'm a serious wuss.  :Blush: 





> Edit: The only thing worse then chick/guy lit? TEENAGE chick-lit!


Agreed!

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## superunknown

This probably isn't what you were expecting in a definition of "chick novels," but I don't think I'm ever going to bother with all the 19th century romantic stuff, as much as classics as they may be said to be. By which I mean all the Jane Austen and Emily Bronte kind of stuff. I've always thought that was much more of a woman's thing.

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## Idril

> This probably isn't what you were expecting in a definition of "chick novels," but I don't think I'm ever going to bother with all the 19th century romantic stuff, as much as classics as they may be said to be. By which I mean all the Jane Austen and Emily Bronte kind of stuff. I've always thought that was much more of a woman's thing.


I've always thought of Jane Austen as essentially romance that just maskerades as literature because of it's age but I do think there is Victorian literature that goes a little deeper and appeals to a broader audience but then again, maybe I just think that because I'm a girl.  :Tongue:

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## Azazello

You should check out the Angelique books by Anne & Serge Golon. 

It has absolutely everything. You would love them.

S.

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## kathycf

> This probably isn't what you were expecting in a definition of "chick novels," but I don't think I'm ever going to bother with all the 19th century romantic stuff, as much as classics as they may be said to be. By which I mean all the Jane Austen and Emily Bronte kind of stuff. I've always thought that was much more of a woman's thing.


While respecting _your_ choices, I am a little taken aback. 



> a woman's thing


It sounds (and I may be wrong here) but it sounds like you are rejecting whole groups of books out of hand _simply_ because they are "a woman's thing"? 

I am a woman and I read books from _all_ types of genres, and I have found many books that I have enjoyed, that some folks (I guess) would consider "masculine". I like science fiction, mysteries, horror, some westerns as well as novels that get lumped in as "chick lit". I am not a fan of romance novels per se (of the Danielle Steel ilk) and I don't bother with that type of thing, because I have read it in the past and thus know for sure I don't like it. I guess I am not a huge fan of "labelling", in the sense of "chick lit" and "guy lit".

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## ennison

I'd never read a book that has mainly pink cover. It's a sign. We need to pay attention to the signs!

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## Melysnl

Jennifer Belle and Candace Bushnell are my favorite chick lit writers at the moment. The last one I read was _The Seven Year *****_ by JB. It was laugh-out-loud hilarious, as was _Trading Up_ by CB. 

The best chick lit writer of all time was Sidney Sheldon though. I read most of his books years ago. 

Some others I've liked over the years are Olivia Goldsmith, Erica Jong, and VC Andrews.

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## Arden Radio

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