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These sassy ladies are an
inspiration. These novels and memoirs will
have you laughing and crying right along with many
fabulous and single girls! I couldn't possibly put together a list all
the
fantastic "chick lit" out there, but these selections are guaranteed to
keep you entertained and inspired. If you have a book
to recommend, let me know!
 
Asking
for Trouble: A Novel
At thirty, Sophy is unmarried, and aside from her mother's
near-constant hectoring, in no hurry to march down the aisle. To quiet
the maternal angst, Sophy invents a boyfriend named Dominic and all is
well—that is, until her sister's wedding when she must
produce the real thing. At the eleventh hour and in utter desperation,
Sophy contacts an escort service. Attending the wedding with "Dominic,"
Sophy quickly realizes that there is no such thing as one little
lie...and the fabrications escalate. When the bubbles from the wedding
champagne evaporate, she discovers that she likes her escort as more
than a convenient arm decoration. What to do? Turn lies into
sighs...and a happily ever after.
 
Bookends:
A Novel
Catherine Warner and Simon Nelson are best friends: total opposites,
always together, and both unlucky in love. Cath is scatterbrained,
messy, and - since she had her heart broken a few years back -
emotionally closed off. Si is impossibly tidy, bitchy, and desperate
for a man of his own. They live in London's West Hampstead along with
their lifelong friends Josh and Lucy, who are happily married with a
devil-spawn child and a terrifying Swedish nanny, Ingrid. All's well
(sort of) until the sudden arrival of a college friend - the stunningly
beautiful Portia, who's known for breaking hearts. Though they've grown
up and grown apart from Portia, the four friends welcome her back into
the fold. But does Portia have a hidden agenda or is she merely looking
to reconnect with old friends? Her reappearance soon unleashes a
rollicking series of events that tests the foursome's friendships to
the limit and leaves them wondering if a happy ending is in store.
 
Bridget
Jones's Diary
Follow the fortunes of a single girl on an optimistic but doomed quest
for self-improvement. Cheered by feminist ranting with her friends
Jude, Shazzer, and 'hag-fag' Tom, humiliated at Smug Marrieds' dinner
parties, crazed by parental attempts to fix her up with a rich divorcee
in a diamond-patterned sweater, Bridget lurches from torrid affair to
pregnancy-scare convinced that if she could just get down to a size 8,
stop smoking and develop Inner Poise, all would be resolved.
 
Bridget
Jones's Guide to Life
She'll help you get your life in order. She'll help you get your home
in order. Or she'll at least help you place a take-out order. In this
elegant and practical handbook, Bridget Jones — the intrepid
thirty-something Singleton on a permanent but doomed quest for
self-improvement — offers a road to perfection in the fields
of
cooking, streamlined inner thighs and poise, spiritual and romantic
nirvana, accounting, an understanding of Feng Shui, what men think they
might feel they want, and creating a fragrant home. She's read the
self-help books — all of them. And committed most of them to
memory. Now Bridget breaks out on her own to give readers the
"benefit" of her rich experience.
 
Bridget
Jones: The Edge of Reason
Another laugh-out-loud look at the life of 90's "Everywoman," Bridget
Jones. Picking up where the Bridget
Jones's Diary
left off, we find Bridget ensconced in an up and down
relationship with Mark Darcy. Bridget's best Singleton pals, Jude and
Shaz, are on hand to dispense advise about men and relationships with
unfortunate results. And Bridget's Smug Married friend Magda still
mixes phone calls with friends with instructions shouted at her kids:
"Bridget, hi! I was just ringing to say in the potty! Do it in the
potty!" It has all the charm and hearty laughs that made the
original Bridget Jones tale
such a smash.
 
Confessions
of an Ex-Girlfriend
Ex-Girlfriend Emma Carter has a lot on her mind. Her boyfriend got a
life — in L.A. Her hairdresser found God. And that extra ten
pounds of "relationship flab" she acquired while falling in love with a
commitmentphobe has just put her out of the running for new romance
— or so she thinks. But before Emma can get on with her life,
she's got to face a few startling truths about being single in New York
City.
 
Dating
Without Novocaine
For twenty-nine-year-old Hannah O'Dowd, finding a decent man in
Portland, Oregon, is like pulling teeth. Luckily, the self-employed
seamstress has work she loves and friends to ease the pain. But as she
nears the big 3-0, she begins to realize that dating according to an
organized plan may truly be the only way to find Mr. Right. Nothing
could be worse than what she experiences on her quest, except maybe
having to go to the dentist.
 
Girls
Night In
The USA Today bestselling collection from 21 of the hottest female
writers around. In this must-have short-story anthology, Jennifer
Weiner revisits one of her Good
in Bed characters
(and tells the story
from, ahem, his point of view), Jill A. Davis (Girls'
Poker Night )
offers a darkly humorous take on starting over in New York and working
with "the Elizabeths," Sarah Miynowski (Milkrun ) tempts fate
(and an
on-again-off-again boyfriend) and Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez (The
Dirty Girls Social Club ) considers
how different the words lady and woman are
when paired with cat. This book features stories about growing
up, growing out of, moving out, moving on, falling apart and getting it
all together. So turn off your cell phone and curl up on the couch;
this is one "girls' night in" you won't want to miss.
 
Girls'
Night Out
25 stories from the hottest female writers on the scene. Too tired to
doll up and head out for a night on the town? (It happens to the best
of us.) Just dip into this year's must-read collection for a "girls'
night out" to remember and indulge in tales of reunions and weddings,
sisters and friends, endings and beginnings...No waiting in line,
no wardrobe malfunctions, no jockeying for position as you try to catch
the bartender's eye. With a lineup of fantastic writers like Meg Cabot
(The
Boy Next Door ), Emily
Giffin (Something
Borrowed), Kristin Gore
(Sammy's
Hill ), Emma
McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus (The
Nanny Diaries ), Alisa
Valdes-Rodriguez (The
Dirty Girls Social Club) and
Lolly Winston (Good
Grief ), you'll be
hanging with the VIPS all night
long!
Good
in Bed
Pop culture reporter Cannie Shapiro writes about other people in the Philadelphia
Examiner. One day she opens a women's magazine and finds her
ex-boyfriend has chronicled their ex-sex life together. She had not
known Bruce thought her a "larger woman," or that he felt loving her
had been an act of courage. Life wasn't always easy.
 
High
Maintenance
This book is set in the manic world of Manhattan real estate, it tells
the story of Liv Kellerman, freshly independent, having just left her
husband and - more sadly - their fabulous duplex apartment with its
Empire State Building views. On her own for the first time in her life,
Liv relocates to a crumbling Greenwich Village hovel and contemplates
her next move. After an ill-starred stint as a reader for a blind
judge, Liv stumbles into her true calling: selling real estate. With
her native eye for prime properties and an effective blend of empathy
and contempt for her clients, Liv finds success and soon is swimming
with the sharks - hardcore brokers who'll do absolutely anything to
close a deal. Along the way she picks up a maniacally ardent architect
who likes to bite her, a lovesick androgynous mentor, strange and
exasperating clients, and a gun, and brings them along on her search
for the one thing she's really after - a home.
 
Inappropriate
Men
With her marriage
spiraling toward divorce, sexually confident and unapologetically
sized-24 Sidney Stein finds herself drawn into an illicit affair with
Geoffrey Fahl — not only married and twenty years her senior,
but also her father's business partner. Perilously close to falling in
love with this man who is so very wrong for her and knowing there's no
future in the relationship, Sidney decides it's time to turn her life
around. Newly separated from her husband, Sidney dives into the dating
pool. And after more than a dozen dates, a disastrous transitional guy
and reconnecting with a high school crush, she can't help but wonder if
it might not just be easier to let herself drown. But just as she stops
looking for the ideal man, someone else arrives...and he might just be
everything she never knew she always wanted.
Just Friends
 
Last
Chance Saloon
Best friends since the days when legwarmers were cool, Tara, Katherine,
and Fintan have survived small-town ennui, big-city heartbreak, and
endless giddy nights out on the town. But now that they've graduated to
their slightly more serious thirties, only Fintan has what can honestly
be called a "love life." With Tara struggling daily with her eternal
diet — and her dreadful, penny-pinching boyfriend —
and Katherine keeping her single existence as ordered as her drawer
full of matching bra and panty sets, it seems they'll never locate the
exit door out of the "last chance saloon." But it's always when you are
least ready for change that fate insists on one. And when catastrophe
inevitably follows crisis, the lives of three best friends are sure to
change in unexpected ways...and not necessarily for the worse.
 
Love
at First Site: A Novel
Spunky, sweet-natured Jessica Monroe is 34 years old and perfectly
happy being single. A producer at a top-rated morning show with a
coterie of fun friends and a busy nightlife, she isn't in any rush to
meet a man. Her girlfriends, however, disapprove. And when they
secretly place a personal ad on a hot singles Web site on her behalf,
Jess is reluctantly hurtled into the topsy-turvy world of online
dating, where frogs masquerade as princes — but your soul
mate might be just one click away. A laugh-out-loud whirlwind of
disastrous dates ensues, from Simon, who seems dreamy over e-mail but
ditches her at the dinner table, leaving her with the bill, to Graham,
a self-described "Ferrari driver" who turns out to be a car salesman
— with several (old, fat, bald, creepy, cheap, stuck-up) men
in between. Then along comes Ben, a sensitive cutie with a heart of
gold, who quickly becomes Jess's confidante for her dating exploits
but—alas—is just too sweet to be sexy. When an
unforeseen event turns her world upside down, Jess starts to wonder if
the qualities she thinks she wants in a man—gorgeous, wildly
successful, with a taste for fun and the finer things—really
are what she ultimately needs. And whether, as a new mystery suitor
appears in her e-mail in-box, Cupid has other possibilities up his
sleeve...
 
Matchbook:
The Diary of a Modern-Day Matchmaker
Anyone who loves to date vicariously will fall in love with Matchbook.
In this irresistible read, America's hippest Matchmaker borrows from
her real-life experiences to create an urban love story about searching
for "The One." The author is actually a matchmaker. Young,
ambitious, and, yes, single. She's the founder of Samantha's
Table, an introduction service that caters to singles in New
York and Los Angeles. After handpicking their matches, she works with
her clients as their cheerleader, part-time therapist, dating coach,
voice of reason, and closest confidante as she helps them down the road
to happily ever after. Readers learn how Daniels started her
Matchmaking business and get to know the colorful cast of characters
whom she fondly refers to as her "Desperados." Readers are introduced
to another lively cast of characters — the men that Daniels
herself dates. Even a celebrated Matchmaker can be a Desperado herself.
Throughout the book, Daniels also offers real dating advice and secrets
of the trade. This book is a wild ride through the flirty,
unpredictable world of urban dating, with a wise and witty guide at the
helm.
 
Mr.
Maybe: A Novel
To Libby Mason, Mr. Right has always meant Mr. Rich. A twenty
seven-year-old publicist, she's barely able to afford her fashionable
and fabulous lifestyle and often has to foot the bill for dates with
Struggling Writer Nick, a sexy but perpetually strapped-for-cash guy
she's dating (no commitments – really).
 
On
the Loose: Big-City Days and Nights of Three Single Women
Everyone is fascinated with the plight of the single girl -- look at
the success of Bridget
Jones's Diary,
unforgettable "Elaine" of Seinfeld
fame, and the Sex
and the City series. On
the page and the
screen, these women make dates, pursue careers, and wonder about their
ticking biological clock, all with humor and tenacity. But does this
reflect women's lives today in the real world? Journalist Melissa Roth
followed three young women for one year, to find out the truth. They
are of the "Free to Be" generation but the mantra of The Rules hums
through their daily lives. Roth gathers together their tales of the
wrong men and near-perfect romances, promotions and unemployment, sushi
lessons and the New Year's Eve flu to skillfully create a three-pronged
narrative that reads like a lively novel. Smart, enormously witty, and
candid, the women reveal that single life offers the most amazing sense
of freedom they've ever known.
 
Online
Dating: Intimate Conversations and Encounters
This book is a romantic, yet humor-filled novel. The story is set in
Palm Beach, Florida, and is targeted for the adult fiction reader. HOT
CHOCOLATE is the online name used by the story's main character who is
a well-educated African-American lady in her early forties. HOT
CHOCOLATE is writing a candid letter to her best friend back home in
Denver, revealing her experiences with online dating. HOT CHOCOLATE
discovers quickly, and to her surprise, that the majority of the guys
who contacted her were white.
 
See
Jane Date
See Jane Date will speak to singles everywhere. At once warm and witty,
this look into the life of 28-year-old assistant editor Jane Gregg,
screams, "You are not alone!" Case in point: See Jane endure two months
of bridesmaid hell for her younger cousin's wedding, brilliantly dodge
being fixed up with Grammy's next-door neighbor by fibbing that she,
um, already has a boyfriend, and date...like crazy to find one suitable
guy to bring to said wedding. Okay, find one suitable guy to love. Was
that so much to ask?
 
Sex
and the City
The book that brought us the infamous HBO series. Equal parts soap
opera, gossip page, sociological study, and dating manual, The author's
regular New York Observer column "Sex and the City" has attracted a
cult following, propelling her to her own star-status. This collection
brings her pieces together for the first time, where they read as a
twisted nineties society novel in serial format. A chronicle of the
mating habits of our cultural elite, this book makes a stage of the
various launch parties, openings, and celebrity affairs that keep New
York's high society amused. It has long since been proven that the
later she stays out at night, the better the stories she comes home
with. In addition to banging on kitchen doors for more champagne, her
stunts include shedding her clothes to infiltrate a sex club, plying a
roomful of men with rum and marijuana as a prelude to a discussion of
menage a trois, and venturing to the most posh of all suburbs to
interview married women about their sex lives (only to return to
Manhattan and forget her sordid findings with the aid of several
cocktails). This book is a modern-day comedy of errors, a fantastic and
sometimes terrifying foray into the hearts and minds of city dwellers.
Traveling in packs from parties to bars to clubs, the characters carry
on the never-ending search for the perfect marriage partner, the most
coveted piece of gossip, and, when the night is done, someone to go
home with.
 
The
Bachelorette Party
After being left at the altar by her soap star fiancé, L.A.
high school teacher Zadie Roberts wants nothing to do with love and
romance. Still, with the help of her best buddy, Grey, she may somehow
overcome the wedding that wasn't. That is, until Grey gets engaged to
Zadie's prim and proper cousin Helen, and Zadie is dragged back into
wedding festivity hell. The coup de grâce is Helen's
bachelorette party, thrown by her clique of prissy friends and certain
to be a day of torture. But when the Pino Grigio goes down and the
sweater sets come off, things get out of control. Helen turns into a
girl gone wild and manages to get herself into a sticky situation that
just might sink the happy couple for good. And meanwhile, Zadie's own
love life takes a most unexpected turn. Karen Lutz throws one
bachelorette party you won't soon forget.
The
Dirty Girls Social Club
In this heartfelt and absorbing novel, the author opens up the lives of
six upwardly mobile Latina friends in their late 20's. These women, who
come from widely varied backgrounds, meet at Boston University and,
after graduating, meet every six months to share their stories. Facing
the complications and pressures of everyday lives, the Social Club
offers a chance to meet regularly, dish, dine, and help each other over
the bumpy course of life and love. Filled with humor, drama, and the
redemptive power of friendship, this book promises to be one of the
most talked about books of the year.
 
The
Curse of the Singles Table: A True Story of 1001 Nights Without Sex
The author tackles husband-hunting in this often side-splitting,
occasionally poignant memoir. Humiliated by being seated at the dreaded
"Singles Table" at weddings and pressured by crossing the "Great
Divide" from "single" to "still single," She embarks on a
quest, not necessarily for "Mr. Right," but at least "Mr. Remote
Possibility." To celebrate her 1,001 days without sex, she sets
off on a mountain-bike trip to Deadhorse, Alaska, unexpectedly
finding herself stranded in the dying town of Provideniya, Russia,
where, finally giving up hope, her spirits improve. It's only then, of
course, that Schlosberg finally meets her future husband, bringing her
story to a sentimental but satisfying conclusion. Singles in their 30s
will get the most out of this book, but anyone can appreciate her wacky
humor.
 
The
Grrl Genius Guide to Sex (with Other People): A Self-Help Novel
Who better to advise you on sex and relationships than a woman who has
consistently failed at both? In this laugh out loud funny "self-help
novel", self proclaimed genius and author provides a how not
to
guide for anyone tackling the daunting task of finding romance in
today's world (or at the local fire station.) Chock full of instructive
relationship tips - such as the Pros and "Cons" of dating a man in
prison - this book is hilarious and right on the money both as an
instructional guide and an endearingly romantic story about a woman and
her four best friends who form The
Grrl Genius Club. Armed with the
information from author's Wild Sexual Animal Kingdom research and her
"Love is Important but Chocolate is Essential" Chocolate Fun Facts, her
posse of Grrl Geniuses struggle with singlehood, married life, sexual
preferences, widowhood, and friendship. Her journey veers from a
"nails-on-chalkboard-
scratchingly-awful" divorce and the botched
kidnapping of her own dog, to pretending to be a lesbian, seeing her
old lingerie sold on her old front lawn by her ex-husband's girlfriend,
losing her job, and a tragic industrial accident-level bikini wax. And
through everything, Cathryn searches for the answer to the most
important relationship question of all: why are all the best men gay?
If you've ever been tempted to have sex with another person, this is an
essential read. If you've ever felt inadequate to a task or a failure
at love or in any way anything less than a genius and you've sunk so
low that even a new pair of cute shoes won't help, this book can show
you the way to relationship happiness-all you have to do is learn from
her very funny mistakes. However badly you think you've done anything,
the author has done it even worse, and reveals lessons learned in the
wryly witty and devastatingly honest style that has made her the
favorite of aspiring geniuses everywhere!
 
The
Last Year of Being Single
He Proposed. She has her doubts. She said yes. Now what?
Everyone tells Sarah Giles how lucky she is to be engaged to Paul
O'Brian - a handsome hotshot who's financially secure, knows how to
throw the perfect dinner party...And taught Sarah how to, uh, take care
of herself. Everyone thinks he's great. Except for Sarah. But she has
too much on her plate trying to become career woman of the year and
hiding the fact that her seemingly blissful relationship is all but
celibate (those lessons he gave her should come in handy) to figure out
what's wrong with Mr. Right, let alone qualify for the role of perfect
fiancee. Meanwhile, what started as an innocent office flirtation with
a man named John Wayne (really), has now moved beyond illicit lunches
and harmless text messaging, and is fast turning into erotic obsession.
Sarah can't get John out of her head and she's plunging deeper into a
double life. But which life is the lie? Torn between two men, and
trying not to lose sight of her own dreams, Sarah writes a scandalously
honest diary of one life-changing year, and faces the challenge of
writing her own happy ending...
 
The
Single Life
Meet Lauren Wilt, Chicago's newest hot thirty-something. She's making a
splash Carrie Bradshaw-style with a sex column in the Chicago Gazette
that has singles in the city craving more. Meet Lauren Gard, the
fifty-something writer once loved by the literati, dealing with an
empty nest, a new life alone and a tangle of leaky pipes. And no one
can know they're one and the same. So when readers clamor to see their
relationship diva in the flesh, Lauren and her friends must perpetrate
some fancy slight of hand a la Cyrano de Bergerac to keep the paper
from finding out the truth...and they find out being single requires a
lot of solidarity.
 
Trials
of Tiffany Trott
Tiffany Trott is attractive and eligible. So why is she "a complete
failure" with men? She begins a search for Mr. Right...no matter where
he is, what he does, or whether or not he speaks English! In this
hilarious novel of dates and disasters, friendships and fix-ups, she's
going to do her best to find her knight in shining armor. Or at least a
knight who wears men's underwear! The character is taken from the
author's popular newspaper column in London.
 
You
Have To Kiss A Lot Of Frogs
Karrie Kline had heard it all. But her search for the perfect man had
never been all that pressing until her laugh lines became more
noticeable, she attended one too many bridal showers and woke up next
to far too many never-gonna-commit men. Suddenly, she realized that
finding someone to love (and who actually loved her back) was
important. Karrie wanted more. But knowing what she wanted, and
actually getting what she wanted...well, that was a lot to think about.
Through her wry, witty and sometimes wrenching recollections, join
Karrie as she looks back at over fifteen years of dating vignettes
involving disastrous fix-ups, strange chance encounters and missed
opportunities. From the shortest date in Manhattan history, to "Mr.
Famous Hollywood Television Actor" who was more bark than bite, these
are tales for every woman — whether she's found her Prince
Charming, or her lips are incredibly chapped from kissing her own share
of frogs.
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