Top Ten Chick Lit Authors
These feisty ladies will have you turning pages faster than Britney’s descent into madness
Curtis Sittenfeld, a New York Times best-selling author who’s written two poignant, funny novels about women, resents the term “chick lit.”
“To suggest that another woman's ostensibly literary novel is chick lit feels catty, not unlike calling another woman a *** – doesn't the term basically bring down all of us?” she said in the New York Times.
Chick lit gets a bad rap for being trashy fluff (sometimes it is, and that’s quite all right), but it could be argued that some of the last few centuries’ finest pieces of literary art are chick lit. Take Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar or any of Jane Austen’s romantic classics. The Bell Jar‘s Esther is the original tortured magazine intern – of course her demons ran much deeper than The Devil Wears Prada’s Andy – and Plath explored depression and spoke to readers as only a woman could. And Austen’s Emma had enough drama and soap opera themes to inspire director Amy Heckerling to create the 1994 teen flick, Clueless.
Keeping in mind that this is in no way an insult, choose your next novel based on this list of writers.
10. Louisa May Alcott: The author of Little Women portrayed a little of herself in her character, Jo, who wrote “blood-and-thunder” tales (meaning dramatic romantic thrillers) in the 19th century under a pseudonym. Alcott first started out writing exciting, indulgent stories of murder and betrayal.
9. Helen Fielding: She wrote Bridget Jones, ‘nuff said.
8. Terry McMillan: How can you forget Taye Diggs portrayal of Stella’s hot much-younger Jamaican lover in the film based on McMillan’s book, How Stella Got Her Groove Back?
7. Candace Bushnell: Sure, the show was fantastic but Sex and the City and Bushnell’s other modern classics like Lipstick Jungle and Four Blondes deserve an actual read.
6. Sophie Kinsella: You may hate her Shopaholic character’s flighty attitude and perpetual problems, but you have to admit that the books are addictive.
5. Marian Keyes: Set in London or Ireland, Keye’s books are laugh-out-loud funny and there’s always a character you can relate to.
4. Curtis Sittenfeld: Prep, a coming of age story of a shy teen in a New England private school, is a horrifyingly accurate presentation of adolescence everyone can relate to.
3. Penny Vincenzi: Vincenzi’s novels are often massive books with exciting titles like Something Dangerous and Forbidden Places. She depicts the romance and turmoil behind important historical events with care and precision.
2. Lauren Weisberger: Her book, The Devil Wears Prada, stirred up the fashion industry and fashion editor wannabes everywhere and the subsequent movie made the world of fashion magazines mainstream.
1. Jane Austen: She inspired Bridget Jones’ character, Mark Darcy, with Pride and Prejudice’s Mr. Darcy, all of her major works have been made into movies and the themes she explores continue to be current almost 200 years after being written.
Written by: Vanessa Grant
This article was great, we know, but there’s more where that came from. Sign up for the slice.ca newsletter for a hunka hunka burnin’ articles.