Chicks and their lits

I have waaaaay too much time on my hand. Unemployed status is a very funny thing. Coz then, you are bored out of your wits. But, you also get a lot of time to read all kinds of trash! :D Good times, methinks!! :D Best thing about it is that I can totally pass it off as my "research" for PhD proposal! :P

• Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary and Edge of the Reason: I worship these books. Nothing can be said in their praise that hasn't already been said. They are examples of excellence and nothing said against them will be tolerated. Okay, 'nuff said. 
• Varsha Dixit's Right Fit, Wrong Shoe: Funny, Bollywoodesque story of Nandini and the love of her life, Aditya. Totally feels like a script of a Bollywood film (or, even a Hollywood rom-com - I don't know why only Bollywood is so badnaam for making melodramatic rom-coms.) It has it's typical moments of hate (and lust) at first sight which later converts into love, a misunderstanding, a heart-broken break-up, a sacrifice for the greater good, a revenge plan, lavish celebration functions, a twist and a happily-ever-after. 
• Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan's You are here: I had read this one about 2 years ago. But borrowed it again to re-read for the proposal bit. It is very chick lit-ish. And funny as well. But, it could definitely have been better. Arshi is 25, just broken-up with a serious boyfriend, her job sucks and her best friend is getting married. It is a very funny quick read for the most parts. But, Madhavan has this tendency of going into long-winded philosophical insights, which though funny, are sometimes tedious and out-of-way. However, Arshi's room-mate, Topsy makes brilliant cocktails and Madhavan has provided us with some of her recipes, which I totally intend to use very very soon! ;)
• Anjali Banerjee's Imaginary Men: "Lina is a single, 28 year old match-maker, who has come down to Calcutta from America for her sister's wedding. Of course, all the aunts descend on her like hungry crows with their advices and their knowledge of so-and-so's son/ nephew/ grandson/ neighbour's son - all eligible bachelors. Cornered and in a panic mode, Lina lies and says she's engaged. But what she didn't expect was her eldest aunt telling her that she'll be coming to America soon to check out the boy herself. Now, Lina has to find the perfect guy and convince him to fall in love with her and get engaged in three months. Except, she already sort-of has the hots for this one guy, who is totally wrong for her." Obviously. Hmmm, I write brilliant blurbs. Somebody should hire me to do this. 
• Rekha Waheed's The A-Z guide to Arranged Marriage: This one is oh-so-filmy, it makes me nauseous! Maya is a Bangladeshi British in love with this other guy. But they keep having their on-moments and off-moments. She keeps swinging between "He is so great, only he gets me" to "Such a bastard, why did I ever fall for him?!!" Meanwhile, her parents are going berserk and falling over each other while trying to line up a series of failed "alaaps" (men who come to 'see' the girl for marriage) for her. She starts getting irritated, resulting in her parents carting her off to Bangladesh, in the hopes of finding her someone and then, send her to some obscure village to live with her nan. What's more, she "finds" herself there! And of course, the end is so silly and filmy! Even if the plot doesn't bother you, the obvious grammatical errors will! I don't think the publishing agency got this one edited or proof-read at all. Such a big putt-off! Not recommended. Obviously.
• Monica Pradhan's The Hindi-Bindi Club: Very interesting. Kiran, Priety and Rani are all first generation American Indians. Their mums are best friends. A very, very interesting tale of how three women find their relationships with each other as well as with their mothers. One of the few good ones. :)

Okay, that's all that I've done in the last few days. Am reading a few different books (not chick lit though :P) at the moment. Will put up the reviews or at least blurbs soon enough. :)

PS: Since we are talking about chick lit and all, here is a brilliant project taken up by Moon of writing a chick lit: http://girl-uniterrupted.blogspot.com/ and it promises to be as sassy as Moon herself! :D Go read, and enjoy!! :D