Yesterday’s New York Times featured this article, which explains that recent changes in the genre of chick lit mirror recent changes in the U.S. economy.

No longer are heroines hunting for rich men whilst climbing their own corporate ladders in lovely, designer shoes. No, they’re doing more practical things, like clipping coupons after their white-collar-criminal husbands go to jail. Or getting divorced. Or generally living simple lives fraught with everyday problems, the kind to which readers can relate.

The journeys these women face, the NYT article continues, are emotional journeys, rather than economical ones in which readers see the ambitious heroine rise to the top. I've always preferred a good emotional jouney story, anyway.

The University of Nebraska Press has never been a publisher of mainstream chick lit. But we have consistently published thoughtful books about complicated characters – often women – written by women writers. And if readers are seeking out stories about characters that are at once more complicated and more relatable than the heroines of chick list past, I’d figure I’d make a few suggestions:

Because a Fire was in my Head, by Lynn Stegner: Kate Riley is self-centered and driven from one man to another and one city to the next. When we first encounter her, Kate (or Katherine, or Kate of the Prairie, or Katrina, depending on her mood and time in her life, and who she’s presenting herself to) is about to undergo exploratory brain surgery for a condition she herself has fabricated. Sobered by the gravity of the procedure, she commences a journey of memory that takes us back to the Saskatchewan village where she grew up through her childhood spent with her mad mother, through her adult life, which unfolds as a mesmerizing sequence of men, abandoned children, and perpetual movement, Kate’s story is one of desperation and remarkable invention. It’s also a strangely American tale, told through Stegner’s unique, original voice.

The Plain Sense of Things, by Pamela Carter Joern: This book tells the stories of three generations of a western Nebraska family — tales of sorrow and hope are connected by the sinews of need and flawed love that keep families together. A farm wife struggles to support her children after the death of her second husband; a young woman grapples with the shift from girlhood to motherhood; World War II wreaks havoc on those left behind; and a failing farmstead breaks a family’s heart. Amid hardship and change, these interwoven stories illuminate the resilience and dignity—and the subtle sweetness—of a life lived in clear view of the plain sense of things.

Reconsidering Happiness, by Sherrie Flick: I keep coming back to this book, but it’s brand new this season, and it's good, and it has therefore been on my mind. Two women, a few years apart, leave their jobs at a hip, New England bakery and move west. Margaret moves first to San Francisco and then to Lincoln, and finally to a farmhouse near a nameless town in rural Nebraska; Vivette moves to Nebraska first, and then to Des Moines. This book tells two stories of self-discovery, adventure, exploration and, perhaps most importantly, independence. And Flick’s descriptions of the New England bakery are so warm and vivid one can practically smell the cakes baking.