Upcoming Chick Lit

As some of you know, I'm a huge chick lit reader, and I was fortunate enough to receive advanced reader copies of two upcoming titles by some big authors: Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner and Love the One You're With by Emily Giffin. I'll be talking about these in the next ABC Book Reviews podcast, but I'll briefly review them here as well.

Love the One You're With
Emily Giffin is in her usual excellent form--she's such a good writer, and I was easily wrapped into the story. However, I wasn't as satisfied at the end as I was with her previous books. I hate to say she's playing it safe, because I love her so much, but I definitely didn't get the same warm fuzzy feeling from this title. I recommend it for Giffin's dedicated readers, but for those who are new to Giffin's work, I'd start with Something Borrowed and Something Blue, which are both exemplary. This title comes out May 13th, 2008, and you can place your reserve in our catalog now.

Certain Girls
It's been a while since Jennifer Weiner released a title that was as punchy as this one. It takes place thirteen years after Good in Bed, her breakout novel, and it's a sequel of sorts. Cannie Shapiro and her daughter, Joy, alternate points of view throughout the novel. I was amazed that Weiner could narrate from a thirteen-year-old's point of view so easily, although it didn't seem entirely realistic (Joy is very mature for her age). I loved the way the plot unraveled the story of Cannie's life over the past thirteen years, without getting away with what was happening in the immediate present. This one's a must-read for Weiner fans. It comes out April 8th, 2008, and you can place your reserve now for this one as well!