Jocelyn McClurg

USA TODAY

The book publishing industry has gone girl crazy.

You could say girl power has taken over the world (not just the Democratic Party). Look on book shelves this season, and chances are the word Girl or Girls is in the title.

There was a time, not so long ago, when Wife was all the rage in fiction titles (A Reliable Wife, The Paris Wife, The Aviator’s Wife).

Then came Stieg Larsson’s best-selling trilogy about punk hacker Lisbeth Salander, otherwise known as The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. This Girl sold a lot of books.

Larsson's Girl was nearly steamrolled by Gillian Flynn’s bad-girl mega hit, Gone Girl. Barreling down the tracks in hot pursuit of them both: Paula Hawkins’ smash thriller The Girl on the Train.

Has the trend officially gone off the rails?

Lena Dunham, whose HBO show Girls has pretty much defined a generation of twentysomethings, had her own best-selling essay collection, and yes, Girl was in the title (Not That Kind of Girl). Now another comedic actress, Amy Schumer, is offering up her musings in The Girl With the Lower Back Tattoo (arriving in August), whose title riffs on Larsson’s series.

Just a girl in a Manson-like cult

We’re just getting started, though. Among recent or upcoming Girl/Girls novels (everything from historical fiction to murder mysteries) flirting for readers' attention: The Girls by Emma Cline; Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler; Local Girls by Caroline Zancan; The Second Girl by David Swinson; All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda; The Girl In the Ice by Robert Bryndza; Girl In the Afternoon by Serena Burdick; The Girls In the Garden by Lisa Jewell; The Girl Before by Rena Olsen; Little Girl Gone by Gerry Schmitt; Sarong Party Girls by Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan; Radio Girls by Sarah-Jane Stratford; The Lost Girls by Heather Young; Girl In the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse; The Girl In the Red Coat by Kate Hamer; If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo; Nowhere Girl by Susan Strecker; The Girl From the Savoy by Hazel Gaynor; Beware That Girl by Teresa Toten; Girls on Fire by Robin Wasserman; The Crow Girl by Erik Axl Sund; Girl In the Shadows by Gwenda Bond; Girl Against the Universe by Paula Stokes; and Girl About Town by Adam Shankman and Laura L. Sullivan.

Deep breath.

You'd think they’d have run out Girl titles by now, but more are on the way for fall, including Girl In Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow, Girl on a Plane by Miriam Moss and The German Girl by Armando Lucas Correa.

Girl Tired, anyone?