Candace Bushnell Books In Order

Publication Order of The Carrie Diaries Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Anthologies

Candace Bushnell is an American television producer and novelist best known for writing a series of chick lit novels. Her best known works are the Sex and the City novels, which were adapted from the columns by the same name that she wrote for the New York Observer between 1994 and 1996. Candace was born to Camile Salonia and Calvin L. Bushnell in 1958 Glastonbury, Connecticut. Her father was something of a celebrity in her town having been an inventor of an innovative Fuel Cell used on NASA’s Apollo II. She can trace her ancestry to Francis Bushnell an immigrant from Berkshire, England that was a signatory to the Guilford Covenant. During her high school years, she dated Mike O’Meara of the host of the The Mike O’Meara Show turned podcast. After graduating from high school, she proceeded to Rice University and then New York University. She decided to move to New York as a 19-year-old, where she spent most of her time at Studio 54. The accomplished relationships writer, got married to Charles Askegard, a man she had met only eight weeks before. Askegard was New York City Ballet dancer, and despite being ten years younger than her, their marriage lasted for 10 years between 2002 and 2012. She currently commutes between her two homes in New York and Roxbury, Connecticut.

Candace got the start in her writing career when Simon & Schuster optioned a children’s story she had written soon after moving to New York City. Even as the publishing house never published the book, she would continue writing for several publications in a freelance capacity for years. Her big break came in 1993 when she got a permanent position with the New York Observer, where she wrote the humorous column “Sex and the City” between 1994 and 1996. Based on the dating experiences of her friends and her own, the column articles were so popular that they were eventually published as an Anthology. The anthology was adapted into two films in 2008 and 2010, and a HBO TV series that ran between 1998 and 2004. Sarah Jessica Parker starred in the lead role of Carrie Bradshaw, a lifestyle columnist that was very active in the social scene in New York.

In 2005, the CBS reality TV show “Wickedly Perfect” appointed the vivacious Bushnell as one of its judges. In 2007, Sirius Satellite Radio engaged Candace as the host of a weekly talk show known as “Sex, Success, and Sensibility”. Soon after, XM Satellite Radio merged with Sirius and she was asked to take a 50% pay cut, which she rejected, resulting in the cancellation of the show. She has won many accolades over her long career, including a 2009 Albert Einstein Spirit of Achievement Award and a Matrix Award in 2006. In 2009, she got involved in writing of comedic series known as “the Broadroom”. The web series starring Jennie Garth was about the workplace issues that women over 40 have to deal with. The series was a collaboration between Candace and Meredith Corporation magazine publishing division. She had even more success with her 2005 novel “Lipstick Jungle” that was later adapted for the small screen, airing that ran on NBC in 2008. The series that lasted for only 20 episodes starred Brooke Shields. Her novels about the lead character Carrie’s high school years had better success and were even made into a TV series “The Carrie Diaries” that aired between 2013 to 2014.

From her biggest success “Sex and the City” right through to the following eight novels, Bushnell has shown an uncanny skill in capturing the ideals, beliefs, and motivations of New York City. With each novel, she goes deeper even as she writes with a light touch that belies her many achievements. Candace Bushnell’s novels address the themes of metropolitan speed, cramped urban life, and materialism set in the background of elusive wealth and fame. With an Austen like mastery, Bushnell is bold in the telling of the futility of chasing fame and wealth in the big city. Writing through the perspectives of the women, she tells of how women convince themselves that they can find equality in Western society, even as all they seem to achieve is a superficial equality. In this regard, her writing is more like that of Dorothy Parker, Edith Wharton or a young Easton Ellis. Bushnell’s novels, the TV series, and the movies have defined and influenced two generations of women.

Candace Bushnell’s first novel “Sex and the City” is a hilarious and oftentimes shocking exposition of the mating habits of the young New York City urbanites from the perspective of an insider. Drawing from her notoriously candid and witty column in the New York observer, Candace writes of beautiful young women that go from clubs to bars to parties in packs. The leader of the pack is a quintessential young newspaper columnist who always seems to be seeking love in the worst of places. There is Mr. Big the wealthy businessmen who cannot seem to hold down a relationship for more than a few months and then there is the successful forty something year old Samantha Jones, a woman full of testosterone whose attitude towards sex is more manly than even that of real men. Then there are the minor characters such as the International Cray Girls, Bicycle Boys, and Psycho Mums who make New York the complex yet exciting city that it is.

“The Carrie Diaries” is another excellent novel offering insights about the early life of the lead character in “Sex and the City”, Carrie Bradshaw. Prior to becoming a big shot New York lifestyle columnist, Carrie had been a regular girl living a quiet life in a Connecticut suburb. The novel starts with the young Carrie as a senior in high school. Among the sea of Jets, Jocks, and Jens, she has formed an inseparable friendship with Mouse, Maggie, Lali, and Walt. With the enigmatic and intriguing Sebastian coming into her life, Carrie finds herself in a relationship she had always wanted. But a heartbreaking betrayal by a friend convinces her that she needs to leave her hometown and go to New York, where she has aspirations for higher things. She evolves from a regular girl into one of the New York’s most insightful and writer as a result of her early relationships, friendships and family background.