Chick Lit
"Chick lit" is a term used to describe a type of popular fiction targeted at women. Widely used in the 1990s and 2000s, the term has fallen out of fashion with publishers, with numerous writers and critics rejecting it as inherently sexist. Novels identified as chick lit typically address romantic relationships, female friendships, and workplace struggles in humorous and lighthearted ways. Typical protagonists are urban, heterosexual women in their late twenties and early thirties: the 1990s chick lit heroine represented an evolution of the traditional romantic heroine in her assertiveness, financial independence and enthusiasm for conspicuous consumption. The format developed through the early 1990s on both sides of the Atlantic with books such as Terry McMillan's '' Waiting to Exhale'' (1992, US) and Catherine Alliott's ''The Old Girl Network'' (1994, UK). Helen Fielding's '' Bridget Jones's Diary'' (1996, UK), wildly popular globally, is the "Ur-text" of chick lit, while Ca ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Terry McMillan
Terry McMillan (born October 18, 1951) is an American novelist known for her vivid portrayals of African American women's lives, relationships, and journeys of self-discovery. Her best-selling works, including ''Waiting to Exhale'' and ''How Stella Got Her Groove Back'', have resonated widely for their humor, authenticity, and emotional insight. McMillan's contributions have influenced contemporary fiction and continue to shape the representation of Black women in literature and film. Early life and education The oldest of five children, McMillan was born in Port Huron, Michigan. Her father died when she was a teenager, and McMillan was raised by her single mother, who worked for Ford Motor Co. and who stressed the importance of education. McMillan was introduced to literature while working at the local Port Huron library at age 16–previously, she had only had access to assigned school readings and the Bible. After high school, she moved to Los Angeles where she stayed with ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Cris Mazza
Cris Mazza (born 1956) is an American novelist, short story writer, and non-fiction author. Early life and education A native of Southern California, Mazza earned her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees from San Diego State University and her Master of Fine Arts in writing at Brooklyn College. Career Mazza has published 10 novels, six collections, and two memoirs. She is widely anthologized as an example of post-feminist, formalist, or contemporary experimental fiction. Her work often deals with second and third-wave feminist concerns as well as sexuality. Along with Jeffrey DeShell, Mazza used the term "chick lit" for the edited anthology ''Chick Lit Postfeminist Fiction'' (1995) and the follow-up anthology ''Chick Lit 2: No Chick Vics'' (1996). While originally meant to be ironic, the term was co-opted to define a very different sort of work. In 2007, Gretchen Kalwinsky of ''Time Out Chicago'' called Mazza "an award-winning author who has waged a one-woman war agains ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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New Millennium
In contemporary history, the third millennium is the current millennium in the ''Anno Domini'' or Common Era, under the Gregorian calendar. It began on 1 January 2001 ( MMI) and will end on 31 December 3000 ( MMM), spanning the 21st to 30th centuries. Ongoing futures studies seek to understand what will likely continue and what could plausibly change in this period and beyond. Predictions and forecasts not included on this timeline * Climate change * Extinction * List of dates predicted for apocalyptic events * List of future astronomical events ** List of lunar eclipses in the 21st century ** List of solar eclipses in the 21st century * List of time capsules * Near future centennial (bi, tri, etc.) events. * Near future in fiction * Predictions and claims for the Second Coming * Projections of population growth ** Representative Concentration Pathway ** Shared Socioeconomic Pathways 21st century 2000s * See: 2000 * 2001 * 2002 * 2003 * 2004 * 2005 * 2006 * 2007 * 200 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Cosmopolitan (drink)
A cosmopolitan, or, informally, a cosmo, is a cocktail made with vodka, Cointreau, cranberry juice, and freshly squeezed or sweetened lime juice. The cosmopolitan is a member of the Gimlet family of cocktails. Though often presented far differently, the cosmopolitan also bears a likeness in composition to the kamikaze shooter. Preparation and serving The International Bartenders Association recipe is based on vodka citron, a lemon- flavored vodka. The use of citrus-flavored vodka as the basis for this cocktail appears to have been widely popularized in the mid-1990s by cocktail expert Dale DeGroff and is used in the IBA-approved recipe. Many bartenders, however, continue to use a standard unflavored vodka — this alternative would undoubtedly be historically consistent with any of the supposed predecessors of this drink that were popular in Ohio, Provincetown, or Minneapolis during the 1970s, or in San Francisco during the 1980s. A lemon twist is sometimes used to garnish ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Manolo Blahnik
Manuel "Manolo" Blahnik Rodríguez (; born 27 November 1942) is a Spanish fashion designer and founder of the eponymous high-end shoe brand. Biography Blahnik was born in Santa Cruz de la Palma, in the Canary Islands (Spain), to a Czech father and Spanish mother. His father left Prague in the 1930s to avoid rising fascism; his grandparents disappeared in the 1950s after the Communists took charge. His mother's family owned a banana plantation in the La Palma, island city of Santa Cruz de la Palma, where he grew up alongside his sister, Evangelina. He was homeschooled as a child before eventually attending a Swiss boarding school. Later, his parents wanted him to be a diplomat and enrolled him at the University of Geneva majoring in Politics and Law. However, Blahnik changed his majors to Literature and Architecture. In 1965, he got his degree and moved to Paris to study art at the École des Beaux-Arts and Stage Set Design at the Louvre Art School, all while working at a vintage ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Project
A project is a type of assignment, typically involving research or design, that is carefully planned to achieve a specific objective. An alternative view sees a project managerially as a sequence of events: a "set of interrelated tasks to be executed over a fixed period and within certain cost and other limitations". A project may be a temporary (rather than a permanent) social system (work system), possibly staffed by teams (within or across organizations) to accomplish particular tasks under time constraints. A project may form a part of wider programme management or function as an ''ad hoc'' system. Open-source software "projects" or artists' musical "projects" (for example) may lack defined team-membership, precise planning and/or time-limited durations. Overview The word ''project'' comes from the Latin word ''projectum'' from the Latin verb ''proicere'', "before an action", which in turn comes from ''pro-'', which denotes precedence, something that comes before ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Elizabeth Merrick
Elizabeth Merrick (born 1970) is an American author, best known as the founder and director of the ''Grace Reading Series'' and as editor of the Random House anthology ''This is not chick lit''. Merrick received a BA from Yale University, an MFA from Cornell University, and an MA in Creativity and Art Education from San Francisco State University. She has taught at New York University and Cornell and has received fellowships from the Saltonstall Foundation, the Ragdale Foundation, and VCCA. Merrick is also responsible for the independent publishing house Demimonde Books, which published ''Girly'', Merrick's first novel, released in December 2005. She currently lives in New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ..., where she works as a writing coach and ru ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Maureen Dowd
Maureen Brigid Dowd (; born January 14, 1952) is an American columnist for ''The New York Times'' and an author. During the 1970s and early 1980s, Dowd worked for ''The Washington Star'' and ''Time'', writing news, sports and feature articles. She joined ''The New York Times'' in 1983 as a metropolitan reporter, and became an op-ed writer in 1995. Dowd became a staff writer for ''The New York Times Magazine'' in 2014. In 1999, Dowd received a Pulitzer Prize for her series of columns on the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal. Dowd's columns often explore politics, Hollywood, and gender-related topics. Her writing style has been compared to political cartoons in its exaggerated satire of politics and culture. Some have criticized her writings on female public figures, particularly Monica Lewinsky and Hillary Clinton, as sexist. During the 2016 presidential election, Dowd penned a ''New York Times'' op-ed, titled "Donald the Dove, Hillary the Hawk", which was frequently referenced by cr ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jenny Colgan
Jenny Colgan (born 14 September 1971, Prestwick, Ayrshire) is a Scottish writer of romantic comedy fiction and science fiction. She has written for the ''Doctor Who'' line of stories. She writes under her own name and also using the pseudonyms Jane Beaton and J. T. Colgan. She won the Romantic Novel of the Year award in 2013 for ''Welcome to Rosie Hopkins' Sweetshop of Dreams'' and the Romantic Novelists' Association award for Comedy Novel of the Year in 2018 for ''The Summer Seaside Kitchen''. Biography Jenny Colgan studied at the University of Edinburgh and worked for six years in the health service. She is married to Andrew Beaton, a marine engineer, and has three children. She splits her time between France and London. In 2000, she published her first novel, the romantic comedy ''Amanda's Wedding''. In 2004 one of her stories was included in ''Scottish Girls About Town''. In 2013, her novel ''Welcome to Rosie Hopkins' Sweetshop of Dreams'' won the Romantic Novel of the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Beryl Bainbridge
Dame Beryl Margaret Bainbridge (21 November 1932 – 2 July 2010) was an English writer. She was primarily known for her works of psychological fiction, often macabre tales set among the English working class. She won the Whitbread Awards prize for best novel in 1977 and 1996, and was nominated five times for the Booker Prize. She was described in 2007 as a national treasure. In 2008, ''The Times'' named Bainbridge on their list of the "50 greatest British writers since 1945". Biography Early life Beryl Margaret Bainbridge was born in Liverpool's Allerton suburb on 21 November 1932, the daughter of Winifred Baines and Richard Bainbridge. She grew up in the nearby town of Formby. Although she often gave her date of birth as 21 November 1934, she was born in 1932 and her birth was registered in the first quarter of 1933. When German former prisoner of war Harry Arno Franz wrote to her in November 1947, he mentioned her 15th birthday. Bainbridge enjoyed writing, and by the age ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Doris Lessing
Doris May Lessing ( Tayler; 22 October 1919 – 17 November 2013) was a British novelist. She was born to British parents in Qajar Iran, Persia, where she lived until 1925. Her family then moved to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where she remained until moving in 1949 to London, England. Her novels include ''The Grass Is Singing'' (1950), the sequence of five novels collectively called ''Children of Violence'' (1952–1969), ''The Golden Notebook'' (1962), ''The Good Terrorist'' (1985), and five novels collectively known as ''Canopus in Argos, Canopus in Argos: Archives'' (1979–1983). Lessing was awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature. In awarding the prize, the Swedish Academy described her as "that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny". Lessing was the oldest person ever to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, at age 87.Marchand, Philip"Doris Lessing oldest to win liter ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of the longest-running newspapers in the United States, the ''Times'' serves as one of the country's Newspaper of record, newspapers of record. , ''The New York Times'' had 9.13 million total and 8.83 million online subscribers, both by significant margins the List of newspapers in the United States, highest numbers for any newspaper in the United States; the total also included 296,330 print subscribers, making the ''Times'' the second-largest newspaper by print circulation in the United States, following ''The Wall Street Journal'', also based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' is published by the New York Times Company; since 1896, the company has been chaired by the Ochs-Sulzberger family, whose current chairman and the paper's publ ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |