Shantaram

I think The Elegance of the Hedgehog fits your description. It is translated from the original French (L’elegance du Herisson).

I enjoyed the Friday Night Knitting Club.

I really enjoyed The Essex Serpent, set in Victorian England with a bronte/Hawthorne writing style. Read it twice in a row.

The most recent two books I read were from my moms house and not super-smart chick lit, but not dumb, either: The Second Mrs Darcy (ok maybe a little dumb) and Daughter of Fortine, by Isabel Allende.

I'm never sure what exactly qualifies as Chick Lit, but each of these feature women as main characters.

They all explore women's inner lives in various ways (i.e. are "smart" rather than "superficial"), and though some are lighter than others, I wouldn't consider any of them a heavy read:

The Mothers - Brit Bennett

Do Not Become Alarmed - Maile Meloy

I Liked My Life - Abby Fabiaschi

Today Will Be Different - Maria Semple

Queen of Hearts - Kimmery Martin

The Confusion of Languages - Siobhan Fallon (and her collection of short stories: You Know When the Men are Gone)

The Power - Naomi Alderman

The Flight Attendant - Chris Bohjalian

Everything I Never Told You - Celeste Ng

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I liked Eligible, the Pride and Prejudice remake.

I really ended up disliking this book. It got smarmy in the end when they got the California, I thought.

I've tried three of her novels and never liked them enough to finish them. I think I get tired of the author's voice or POV. That said, I thought her recent collection of short stories was fantastic!

You Think It, I'll Say It: https://www.amazon.com/You-Think-Ill-Say-Stories/dp/0399592865/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=QKF614G3T8XCG6M19H7S

http://danabate.com/?page_id=101

Girls Guide to Love and Supper Clubs - set in DC!

Many great suggestions here. Also:

My Dear Hamilton (historical but very readable)

How hard can it be (Allison Pearson’s follow up to I don’t know how she does it)

All we ever wanted (Emily Griffith)

Also loved Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win and Fitness Junkie by Jo Piazza.

I like Catherine McKenzie and Laura Dave. Also recommend "Watch me Disappear" by Janelle Brown. But ditto to other posters, if you haven't read Crazy Rich Asians, start there.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the vein of Crazy Rich Asians (what I call "ethnic chick lit") there's Dirty Girls Social Club and the sequel, and anything by Terry McMillan.

So regular old chick lit is just about white women? Got it. ?

Yeah, I caught that too.

Ridiculous. Grow up, "ethnic chick lit PP."