This Is Chick-Lit

I agree with many of the other reviewers: If you already read chick lit, you'll like this. It provides a selection of interesting stories, lets you get to know a little about the authors, and may introduce you to the work of authors you don't already know. If you don't read chick lit, or don't think you want to, you'll be pleasantly surprised, I think. It's a quick read, and it can't hurt, so why not?

It's time to get mad, make a stand, and buy a copy of This is Chick Lit Earlier this year, This is Not Chick Lit: Original Stories by America's Best Women Writer's hit the stands. As the title suggests, this book wants to set itself apart from chick lit writing. In the introduction, editor Elizabeth Merrick claims that the huge popularity of "bubbly" and "fluffy" chick lit novels is obscuring the writing of "some our country's most gifted women." She goes on to say that chick lit "numbs our senses" and "reduces the complexity of human experience." When Lauren Baratz-Logsted, a seasoned chick lit author, heard about this collection she got angry. And then she got motivated! Baratz-Logsted without delay rallied the troops, quickly compiled eighteen stories by loud and proud chick lit writers, and This is Chick Lit was born. Straight off the bat, the book proves that chick lit and its authors are far from mind-numbing or fluffy. In her fantastic introduction, Baratz-Logsted hits the nail on the head when she considers the publication of Merrick's This is Not Chick Lit and wonders, "What next: These Are Not Mysteries? This is Not Science Fiction? This is Not a Literary Coming of Age Novel?" What Baratz-Logsted understands - unlike so many literary critics, book reviewers, and many supposedly smart writers - is that chick lit is a genre. And thus like all genres - mystery, sci-fi, literary fiction - chick lit has its own features and style and concerns. It is not better or worse than any other genre, it is just different. Baratz-Logsted demonstrates how it is basically sexist to single out chick lit, a hugely popular genre by and for women, as the one genre to attack and malign. Baratz-Logsted's smart introduction is followed by a whole host of intelligent, funny, sad, ironic, entertaining, and very real tales about women. Jennifer Coburn's "Two Literary Chicks" wryly captures the whole standoff between a literary chick and her chick lit writing enemy. Deanne Carlyle's "Dead Man Don't Eat Quiche" is a mystery set in France and is as hilarious as its title suggests. Heather Swain deals beautifully with the trials and tribulations of postpartum life in "Café con Leche Crush." Baratz-Logsted's own story, an eloquent satire called "Shell Game," is a must for any successful and independent career girl heading for marriage, the suburbs, and potentially the loss of identity. Many people are going to love This is Chick Lit. However, true to form, the literary world and the press are putting the boot in. In its review of the book, Publisher's Weekly says the stories in the collection are marred by "ho-hum dialogue" (and you're telling me Hemingway never wrote a ho-hum exchange?), "clichéd characters" (uh, and Dickens didn't have a few stock villains?) and "may pander to female audiences" (oh my god, what a crime!). The Village Voice described the stories as "glib and goal-oriented and focus on well-dressed women afraid of being 30" (hell

This Is Chick Lit was inspired by another collection recently out called This Is Not Chick Lit. I preferred to check out TICL and I'm glad I did-the writing here is smart,funny and at times,very moving. Some of my favorite stories include Cafe Con Leche Crush By Heather Swain(about a new mother getting her caffeine groove back on),Dead Friends and Other Dating Dilemmas by Julie Kenner(I love her Demon Hunting Soccer Mom books,Carpe Demon and California Demon!),Shell Game by Lauren Baratz-Logsted(also the editor of TICL)and Two Literary Chicks by Jennifer Coburn. TICL makes a great add-on to your chick lit library and a good way to introduce someone to this delightful genre.

For anyone who didn't know that Chick Lit was still Lit, that writing by, about, and for women, could hold it's own, Lauren Baratz-Logsted has put together an anthology of fabulous and diverse writing. The stories are uniformly excellent, they're entertaining, thought-provoking, and always well-written. There's even a list of Literary works suggested for those who love Chick Lit. None of these writers is apologetic, and none is denying their Chick Lit label. These women are valuing that label and those readers, and thanking us for the honor. This isn't some sort of literary cat fight, either. These writers themselves read widely, and are capable of appreciating Literary efforts, even if reviewers don't. Settle in and sample the varied delights. "Cafe con Leche Crush" by Heather Swain looks at being a new mother in a different way. "Meeting Cute" by Andrea Schicke Hirsch takes a modern convention and shows the dark side. "The Ring" by Rachel Pine is sad, while "Shell Game" by Lauren Baratz-Logsted is both funny and fierce. Really, they're all great. Buy a copy for yourself, and at least one to give away. You'll be passing it on, I promise.

There are few sub-genres, if any, more suited to the short story format than chick-lit as this superb anthology proves. Each of the eighteen entries are fun with no duds as female protagonists struggle with everyday relationships while providing "wisdom" in asides to the audience. All the tales are new having been written in 2005 and as far as this reviewer knows never published before. How can fans not enjoy tales like "Secret Agent Chick" starring a woman who enjoys girl fights or the satirical "How To Be a Millionaire". Fans of the sub-genre will appreciate this entertaining anthology that is unabashedly pleasant reading as each entry showcases the sub-genre at its strongest. To be honest, I believe this is the format (more so than the novel) where chick-lit is at its best; where one finds humor, jabs, irony and satire like a woman dreaming of becoming a pumpkin wife in a "Shell Game". Ladies - you have done a great job with THIS IS CHICK-LIT anthology that requires no further defense of the maligned sub-genre because of the contributions. Harriet Klausner