Not completely Chick-Lit !

Originally published in my intranet site.

I have never read Mills and Boon. I have heard that it is a staple for most girls, especially teen-agers, and that is probably the reason why I have never tried reading any. I have heard of some books branded as Chick Literature and some movies as Chick flicks. But I have found couple of them actually quite good and funny.

Two series that I would highly recommend are Helen Fielding’s ‘Bridget Jones Diary’ and the Shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella. Incidentally, both authors are British ! Just goes to show that when it comes to humour, no one can beat the Brits !!

The common thing between the heroines of both novels - Bridget Jones in the former and Becky Bloomwood in the latter, is that both of them are not perfect individuals. They have as many flaws as anybody else and are damsels in distress due to their own mistakes !!

Bridget Jones is a single woman in London, a little over the ‘marriageable age’, envying the so-called smugly married friends ! One of her favourite entries in her diary is about her ever increasing weight ! She smokes, drinks and generally does nothing worthwhile. Her entries in her diary are unintentionally (for her) hilarious!

A decent movie by the same name was made with Renee Zellwager, Hugh Grant and Colin Firth. The book is obviously way better, thanks to Helen Fielding’s witty writing.

Sophie Kinsella’s ‘Confessions of a Shopaholic’ centers around Becky Bloomwood, a financial journalist who is , you guessed it, a Shopaholic! The novel itself is written in first person, with the chapters interspersed with letters from the banks to Becky warning her about her exceeding the overdraft etc. You will end up laughing out aloud in a lot of places in the book. Becky knows nothing about financial journalism. Every attempt and resolution of Becky to stay away from shopping ends up in a disaster. As is to be expected, there is a rich ‘Darcy’ like character - Luke Brandon. Although you know what will happen in the end, it is still good clean fun.

I read the sequel to the book - Shopaholic Abroad (or Shopaholic takes on Manhattan) and found that funny too, but a little repetitive. I don’t think I will read the other sequels, not in the immediate future at least. But I guess I will be ready for them after a year or so.

Good reads for a weekend. There is nothing serious about the books, just fluffy, feel-good stuff, a lot of fun and a little bit of old-fashioned romance.