I don't know who came up with the phrase chick lit, nor do I like spelling "chick" with a k. It's a bit too barnyard for my tastes. However, "chick lit" has come to mean: "books for women about women, and usually by women" and since nobody has thought up a better name for the genre, that's what I'll call them. This summer, I've read several books with female characters and they all amused me or surprised me in one way or another. Here they are -- maybe you'll enjoy them, too... ALICE, I THINK by Susan Juby Fifteen-year-old Alice has spent the last ten years being sheltered by her supportive, loving family... and being home-schooled. Now, unfortunately, she's a bit of a freak... and totally clueless about how you should act in the real world. But this year, she wants things to change. She decides to face her fears and to start going to public school for the first time since a highly unfortunate incident in her elementary school years. She's also set a bunch of goals for herself. She wants to have some kind of interaction with a boy. She wants to dress differently. She wants to learn to drive a car. Thus begins one of the funniest, and yet most painful, novels I've ever read. Painful because Alice is SO clueless. It's like how most kids are during their early teenage years, only in Alice's case the awkwardness is multiplied by 150. However, as she learns new things and meets new people, Alice's cluelessness begins to make way for a brand-new, more socially-sophisticated Alice. Alice gets into the funniest situations, and her observations are laugh-out-loud hilarious, making the painful moments seem like raisins in cookie dough. Alice sees the world like a true innocent, and she's totally honest about everything. And she tries SO hard. You might feel sorry for her, but at the same time, you can't help but love her. CONFESSION OF A TEEN SLEUTH by Chelsea Cain If you ever read and loved Nancy Drew as a kid, you must read this book... it's a parody of the old Nancy Drew books, as told in memoir form by "Nancy Drew" herself. The stuff in the old books? Not all truthful, says this Nancy. She'll set you straight, once and for all. Read about Nancy's love affair with Frank Hardy, her determination to be a spunky detective despite her ever-advancing age, her disdain for her boring boyfriend-turned-husband Ned Nickerson, and more. Readers of the original Nancy Drew series will likely catch the numerous in-jokes... plus the word and style choices that mimick the older books (and that make this book side-stitchingly comical.) If you've never picked up a Nancy Drew book in your life, you may just want to skip this one. The in-jokes are what make it so fun. SLOPPY FIRSTS by Megan McCafferty In this first novel in what is now a series, moody loner Jessica Darling narrates (via diary) a year of her teenage life. At the beginning of the story, Jessica's best friend, Hope, has recently moved away, and Jessica just isn't the same without her. Having no other real friends, she chooses to hang out with the "Clueless Crew," a group of girls she basically can't stand, but who she associates with just so she doesn't have to be alone. There are many boys who capture Jessica's interest this year -- a star athlete, a junkie, a cute little guy in her French class -- and in the midst of trying to understand herself (her moodswings, the weird things her body is currently doing, her insomnia), she's busy trying to understand what makes boys tick. Not an easy feat. Sloppy Firsts is about being brave enough to be honest with people. It's about our secrets and fears and the parts of ourselves we choose to share and to hide from the world. It's about dealing with parents who you're convinced don't appreciate you for who you are. I love the character of Jessica. I love her moodiness. She's not just cynical and funny like some book characters... she really is kind of a bitch, and she knows it! Sometimes she likes the way she is, other times she wishes she wasn't that way. It's how I felt as a teenager, and still do, sometimes. It's always fun to read about someone you relate to. 8/30/2005 (c) 2005 AlligatorJuice.com Back to Books Back to Main