© 2026 All Rights reserved WUSF
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Our daily newsletter, delivered first thing weekdays, keeps you connected to your community with news, culture, national NPR headlines, and more.

'Chick Lit': Beach Read Sub-Genres

Brooke Gladstone, co-host of NPR's On the Media, explores the booming business of "chick lit" -- all those trashy beach reads with the pastel-colored covers. They've become so popular, there are sub-categories now: African-American chick lit, Christian chick-lit, and now even a more "manly" version known as "lad lit." Can a gal spend an evening reading chick lit and still respect herself in the morning? And will lad lit be an economic success?

Copyright 2004 NPR

Brooke Gladstone
Brooke Gladstone started out in print journalism, writing on defense policy, strip-mining, broadcasting and cable TV. Her freelance pieces (on topics ranging from orgasmic Russian faith healers to the aesthetics of Pampers to NPR's near fiscal crash) have appeared in the London Observer, the Boston Globe, the Washington Post and The American Journalism Review among others. She also covered public broadcasting for Current, wrote and edited theater, film and music reviews for The Washington Weekly.
Thanks to you, WUSF is here — delivering fact-based news and stories that reflect our community.⁠ Your support powers everything we do.