Helen Fielding

Bridget Jones's Diary is one of those mega-successful books, like the Harry Potter series or Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum mysteries, that it's just plain stupid not to at least try. Besides being a requirement for what my mother calls "cultural literacy", reading Bridget Jones's Diary and its sequel, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, is a seriously good time. Loosely based on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion, respectively, these books are alternately funny and cringe-inducing. Yet even as you're snickering over Bridget's cheerfully delusional approach to life or shuddering with sympathetic mortification over her latest disaster, you're sincerely hoping that one day she'll finally achieve self-actualization... whatever that turns out to mean.

Note: While Fielding's heroines do frequently wander into ditz territory, they're never entirely incompetent, which is pretty cool. Even poor Bridget is capable of the occasional ass kicking.

Aftertaste:
None.

Availability:
Everywhere.

Other Recommendations:
Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion, by Jane Austen (if you're going to rip someone off, Austen is an excellent place to start)

The Princess Diaries series, by Meg Cabot (Princess Bridget)

The Georgia Nicholson series, by Louise Rennison (mini-Bridget)

The Adrian Mole series, by Sue Townsend (boy-Bridget)

The Stephanie Plum series, by Janet Evanovich (less self-obsessed, but similar luck with relationships, both romantic and familial, and is just as funny)