Advanced "Chick Lit"

There is nothing better for summer beach reading than a good "chick lit" book. If you haven't read anything by Sophie Kinsella or Jennifer Weiner please check out two of the best. Before reading them however, try this first novel by Francesca Delbanco, Ask me Anything: A Novel.

Rosalie and her recently graduated Harvard friends are a close theatre clique working on their big breaks in New York. Between play rehearsals and auditions, Rosalie fills her days working for a teen magazine as their advice columnist, whose questions and answers actually make up short chapters of the book. Rosalie's steamy romantic affair with a friend's wealthy father spices up the pages, making parts of it read like a Sex in the City episode--funny, sexy and intelligent.

This novel is about the coming of age, late twenties exploration, that is many young woman's journey these days. This first novel is not quite Wharton's Age of Innocence, but a good advanced version of a "chick lit" novel.