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The literary genre of “chick lit” is growing both in popularity and in the level of respect it receives. The New York Times Bestseller List contains an impressive number of works in the genre, including Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin, Savor the Moment by Nora Roberts, Little Bee by Chris Cleave, Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner, and The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks .
So what exactly is chick lit? According to ChickLitBooks:
Chick lit is a genre comprised of books that are mainly written by women for women. The books range from having main characters in their early 20s to their late 60s. There is usually a personal, light, and humorous tone to the books. Sometimes they are written in first-person narrative; other time they are written from multiple viewpoints. The plots usually consist of women experiencing usual life issues, such as love, marriage, dating, relationships, friendships, roommates, corporate environments, weight issues, addiction, and much more.
Chick lit is told in a confiding, personal tone. It’s like having a best friend tell you about her life. Or watching various characters go through things that you have gone through yourself, or witnessed others going through. Humor is a strong point in chick lit, too. Nearly every chick lit book I have read has had some type of humor in it. THAT is what really separates chick lit from regular woman’s fiction.
Chick lit is also a truly fascinating character study. That is one major factor that keeps me so interested in the genre. A chick lit author takes a character and puts them through a series of mostly realistic ordeals – many that many women can relate to. The end result is usually very interesting, detailed, fun-to-read and satisfying.
Although “chick lit” didn’t become a literary genre per se until Helen Fielding’s 1996 Bridget Jones’s Diary, some argue that it began with the sisters Bronte (you know, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights) and Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice, Emma).
I’m actually a big fan of chick lit. Take Jodi Picoult, for example, to whom I wrote a gushy fan e-mail which she was kind enough to respond to. Her most recent book, House Rules spent some time on the New York Times Bestseller List. It’s about a high school senior with Asperger’s Syndrome and an obsession with forensics accused of murder. Picoult writes about everything from cancer to divorce to single motherhood to school shootings. Although I’ve noticed there’s starting to be something of a sameness to her works, I still eat them up like Bailey’s Irish Cream fudge.
And Jennifer Weiner? She is my friend on Facebook, which means she is automatically cool. Plus, her first book was called Good in Bed. I mean, this lady gets things in a way that many don’t, which is rare … but she’s also able to create fictional characters that allow readers to “get” things as well, which is even rarer.
And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the genre’s male authors. Who among us hasn’t read (or at least seen the movie adaptation of) The Notebook? A Walk to Remember? I mean, Nicholas Sparks is somehow able to capture the chick lit concept over and over again. James Patterson did it as well in Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas, which I thought was an excellent book (in that treacly, chick lit-ty way).
I have a college degree in English, and I consider myself very well read. I love Hemingway, Shakespeare, and Mary Shelley, but I also eat up Faye Kellerman mysteries and fluff by Anne Rivers Siddons and the like. Oh, and every word Stephen King has ever written. I mean, yeah, chick lit is a little light sometimes, but think about the precursors to the genre.
Two words: Danielle Steele. I read one of her books once (we were at our summer beach house, I’d read everything else—including my mother’s Nurse Practitioner journals—at least once, and I was desperate). I realized one thing pretty quickly … I would never have to read another Danielle Steele book. I mean, you read one, you’ve read them all. I like literary escape as much as the next person, but when I can tell exactly what’s going to happen by page two, I just don’t see the point.
So yeah, I embrace chick lit. I do.
What do you think? Brain candy? Quality literature? And, uh, any recommendations within the genre? I’m low on the literature at the moment.
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I’ve never read chick lit, and I’m fairly well-read. I don’t think I would much like it, though. “Real, modern women’s issues” tend to bore the crap out of me.
I’m a major reader, I’ve read books in every genre including chick lit and some were good and funny and others were awful… like Nora Roberts who I would rather sit in the dark and shove pencils up my nose then read again.
You need to try more British/Irish chick lit. Try Marian Keyes (This Charming Man is one of my favourites); Catherine Alliott; Sheila O’Flanagan; Amanda Brookfield, Wendy Holden, Sharon Owens. All write outstanding novels with nice touches of both humour and intelligence.
I read a wide, wide variety of stuff ranging from Stephen King (love!) to the Harry Potter books to Bronte, but I really love (as corny as it might sound to some) the Debbie Macomber books. They’re so terribly cheesed-out and romantic, but I really love them. There’s some kind of good wholesomeness that’s just completely lacking in a lot of today’s writing that I just adore. (Granted, Macomber herself is about 70 years old or something, so I guess that’s part of the reason.) Anyone else read her stuff, or am I going to become the chick lit pariah of the site?
I also enjoy Debbie Macomber’s writing – especially her Cedar Cove Series and her Christmas themed novels.
I LOVE Jennifer Weiner and this is how I started reading Debbie’s work. I stumbled across Jennifer Weiner’s “Good In Bed” at a local Walmart while my mother was in ICU last fall because of the H1N1 virus. I was looking for something to read to my Mom while she was in a coma for the better part of a month. As you can imagine, my mind wasn’t with me – or I would have taken one of Mom’s hundreds of books at her house. Anyway, I found myself completely absorbed in this book and within a couple of days of reading to her, it was finished. Jennifer is a newer author so I borrowed the rest of her books from the library and read them all to Mom over the next couple of weeks.
After exhausting all of Jennifer’s novels, I was looking for something to keep reading to Mom and something that I would enjoy as much as I enjoyed Jennifer’s writings. Checking Mom’s books at her house, I came across the Cedar Cove Series of Debbie Macomber’s. It was the titles that caught my attention – they were all addresses. Debbie’s writings were as captivating as Jennifer’s and again I was lost in another world.
I should mention that I really haven’t read any captivating books since my Judy Bloom days – which was in the 1980’s – until Jennifer Weiner and Debbie Macomber. I just couldn’t find an author that I could get lost in and actually MAKE time to read since my early years. I have read some books by many different authors but none that made me WANT to come back to the book. I am glad that something I picked up to pass the time and wait for Mom to get better without going stir crazy, turned me back to something I tremendously enjoyed when I was a teenager – READING.
Thank you ladies for helping me find my way back.
Awesome! I haven’t read any of the Cedar Cove series, but I do love the Blossom Street books. I’ll have to check out the Jennifer Weiner books!
ayn rand, atlas shrugged. it’s a good eye openening book, a bit long for some yet totally worth it.
I’ve heard its a classic,wish I had the patience for books.
If you can’t stand to just sit and read you can always get audiobooks from your local library to listen to during your commute.
[...] The Growing Merits Of ‘Chick Lit‘ – Zelda Lily [...]
I always said a lot of the classics were trashy girly books and not worth anything more than the modern variety. I am glad to see I’m not alone.
I read a Jodi Picoult book and thought it was very interesting, until the deux ex machina that solved all the problems. I was somewhat annoyed, but thought the quality of writing quite good.
I read a second one, and found the plot identical, complete with the obnoxious ending.
I won’t be reading a third.
I stop reading any author when the books become indistinguishable from each other.
I am unfamiliar with any other authors, but for recognising ‘the notebook’ as a movie. I heard the basic plot and steered far far away from that one.
I tend to prefer more substance to my reading. I understand a desire for some light escape reading sometimes, but I tend to turn to science fiction for that.
This is my favourite book:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_(novel)
Anyone else want to share?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Leaves
Definitely not chick lit, but it’s like masturbation for an English major.
If I had to pick something more chick friendly…maybe ‘The Corrections’ by Jonathan Frazen? Not exactly chick lit, but Oprah liked it (and then unliked it when Frazen asked that it be removed from the Oprah Book Club because it was too good…and he was all sorts of right), so that must qualify in some manner.
Masturbation for an English major,thats funny! I masturbate when I get a new Caterpillar catalogue.
I see where you get the description.
I certainly don’t care if it’s chick stuff. In fact, the concept of chick-friendly suggests that girls can’t hack real books.
But I’ll accept it if ‘chick’ is strictly defined.
Top 5 (since it’s too hard to pick one ;-))
1. The Dark Tower series (Stephen King)
2. To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
3. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
4. The Godfather (Mario Puzo)
5. The Lords of Discipline (Pat Conroy)
1. Slaughterhouse Five (Kurt Vonnegut)
2. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
3.Millennium Trilogy (Steig Larsson)
4. Fourth Realm Trilogy (John Twelve Hawks)
5. To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
Aughh! Life of Pi was amazing.
I read anything I can get my hands on but chick lit is my favorite way to take a break from the “heavier” stuff…
5 fave chick lit books:
1. Come Together (Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees)
2. Last Chance Saloon (Marian Keyes)
3. Vince and Joy (Lisa Jewell)
4. Something Borrowed (Emily Giffin)
5. Watermelon (Marian Keys)
5 fave chick lit authors:
1. Marian Keys
2. Emily Giffin
3. Jane Green
4. Sophie Kinsella
5. Cathy Kelly
[...] Abbey made me a believer), videos like this take a interesting spin on the “grandmother of chick lit.” I am really curious about what kind of people are really loving this idea. Is it men, who [...]