Bridget Jones's Diary
In the course of the year recorded inBridget Jones's Diary, Bridget  confides her hopes, her dreams, and her monstrously fluctuating poundage, not to  mention her consumption of 5277 cigarettes and "Fat units 3457 (approx.) (hideous  in every way)." In 365 days, she gains 74 pounds. On the other hand, she loses 72!  There is also the unspoken New Year's resolution--the quest for the right man. Alas, here  Bridget goes severely off course when she has an affair with her charming cad of a boss.  But who would be without their e-mail flirtation focused on a short black skirt? The boss  even contends that it is so short as to be nonexistent.At the beginning of Helen Fielding's exceptionally funny second novel, the thirtyish  publishing puffette is suffering from postholiday stress syndrome but determined to find  Inner Peace and poise. Bridgetwill, for instance, "get up straight away  when wake up in mornings." Now if only she can survive the party her mother has  tricked her into--a suburban fest full of "Smug Marrieds" professing concern  for her and her fellow "Singletons"--she'll have made a good start. As far as  she's concerned, "We wouldn't rush up tothemand roar, 'How's your  marriage going? Still having sex?'"This is only the first of many disgraces Bridget will suffer in her year of performance  anxiety (at work and at play, though less often in bed) and living through other people's  "emotional fuckwittage." Her twin-set-wearing suburban mother, for  instance, suddenly becomes a chat-show hostess and unrepentant adulteress, while our  heroine herself spends half the time overdosing on Chardonnay and feeling like "a  tragic freak."Bridget Jones's Diarybegan as a column in the LondonIndependentand struck a chord with readers of all sexes and sizes. In strokes  simultaneously broad and subtle, Helen Fielding reveals the lighter side of despair,  self-doubt, and obsession, and also satirizes everything from self-help books (they don't sound  half as sensible to Bridget when she's sober) to feng shui,Cosmopolitan-style.  She is theNancy  Mitfordof the 1990s, and it's impossible not to root for her endearing heroine. On  the other hand, one can only hope that Bridget will continue to screw up and tell us all  about it for years and books to come.--Kerry Fried