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 Some take offense at the label chick lit. I know. I know. I do too. At times. Depending who and how it’s being said.  The tone can be demeaning and dismissive.

Chick lit has been described as trashy, fluffy, frivolous, lacking substance,  mind-numbing all about shoes and hair styles and martinis … ohh…martinis!

Sure not every chick lit novel is great but you can say that of any genre, can’t you?

And not all chick lit is trashy. Far from it.

Take Anna Quindlan’s latest novel  Still Life With Bread Crumbs which is posted as chick lit.

Still Life with Bread Crumbs is a deeply moving and often very funny story of unexpected love, and a stunningly crafted journey into the life of a woman, her heart, her mind, her days, as she discovers that life is a story with many levels, a story that is longer and more exciting than she ever imagined.

Doesn’t sound like shoes and hair styles to me.

And let’s not forget that Quindlan earned a Pulitzer Prize for her journalistic commentaries.

Or take Marian Keyes.

Her novels often deal with such subjects as domestic violence, drug addiction and bereavement. Yet her books are labeled chick-lit. Nothing frivolous about that.

“Chick Lit uses humor to reflect life back to us. It’s a very comforting genre, and it’s the first time our generation has had a voice. It’s a very important genre for all of those reasons.”

Erin Enders gives 7 reasons why we shouldn’t write off chick lit. The article is worth reading. She ends it by saying this:

If you read women writers, you read chick lit or women’s fiction. And because women matter, we should be reading books about them and books by them, regardless of the ridiculous label.

 So, go ahead and leave a review on a chick lit book as part of your participation in chick lit appreciation month.