Bridget Jones: Mad about the boy, by Helen Fielding

After the spirited Bridget finally finds happiness in the arms of Mr. Darcy in her second outing, what’s left for the author to write about in the third, Bridget Jones and the PTA (or whatever the British equivalent is)? Fielding solves this problem by killing off poor Mr. Darcy (in a most heroic way) and leaving Bridget now fifteen years older, but perhaps not a lot wiser, to cope with two small children on her own.  Five years after his death, she has dipped a toe back into the world of dating and has to decide whether to attend her best friend’s 60^th birthday, or her new boyfriend’s 30^th.  Her trials as a single mother are hilarious and although the book is touched with sadness, not surprisingly, in the end Bridget triumphs again.  400 pp.