Macho Men and Chick Lit

Hello all,

Did you miss me?  Does anybody even know that I haven't posted a blog for 10 days?  Now that you know that, do you care?  Okay, moving on:  I want to cover what I think is a very interesting topic.  How do we get the male gender of our species, who usually only read about macho men (e.g. Mitch Rapp, Gabriel Allon, or John Wells), to read chick lit?  In fact, what exactly is chick lit?  Beats me.  But I can certainly tell you what it's not.  It's not cheesy romances.  There are a number of female authors who have written excellent novels about relationships (with both male and female protagonists) that I have enjoyed immensely.  Yes, perhaps it can be said that I'm a bit girlie.  But I like to think of it as getting in touch with my feminine side (my metrosexualism, if you will).

Here are some recommendations.*  These are all books that I have read.

Lolly Winston (2) - Good Grief and Happiness Sold Separately
Deborah Wolf (the daughter of someone who worked for Rich for many years) (2) - With You and Without You and When I'm Not Myself
Billie Letts (3) - The Honk and Holler, Opening Soon (the sleeper hit of the year a few years back for Bob and me), Made in the U.S.A., Where the Heart Is
Anna Quindlan (4) - Rise and Shine, Black and Blue, Every Last One, and One True Thing
Jodi Picoult (millions) - her books are either good, really good, or excellent
Alice Sebold (1) - The Lovely Bones
Ann Patchett (3) - Bel Canto, The Magician's Assistant, and Run - very good stuff
Kathryn Stockett (1) - The Help
Sara Gruen (1) - Water for Elephants

That should hold you macho man readers for awhile.  In fact, the first man that tells me he's read at least one book from each of these authors will receive a novel of his choice free, from me.  He can have it in hardcover, softcover, or in ereader form.  I have to say that I feel pretty safe on this one but will be happy
to pay up.

*P.S.  Women will like these books too.

Here are a couple of upcoming author events that might be interesting to some of you:

at "M" Is for Mystery, in San Mateo:
3/7 - Randy Wayne White - 7:00
3/17 - Keith Thomson - 7:00 - his book from last year, Once A Spy, was very good - now he's promoting his next book in the series, Twice A Spy
at Keplers, in Menlo Park:
Cara Black - 7:00
at Book Passage - Corte Madera (and the big one):
Jodi Picoult - at Dominican College, San Rafael - 7:00 - Joni and I are going with Donna and Phil - it's a Wednesday night, but we are huge fans of hers - anyone else?