It's my best friend's birthday next week. She mentioned a couple of weeks ago that she wants to get back into reading - she hasn't done much since her dd was born, but is going back to work and will have time on the train.

Now, I love reading, and read all sorts of things, but she has very specific requirements, and my brain has gone blank.

- the book cannot be sad. In any way. I think Pride and Prejudice would be fine. Jane Eyre probably would not be.

- the book cannot contain any violence, or anything she would consider unpleasant.

- it will not be chick lit or "light weight". Despite her deep seated aversion to any of the themes that I would say characterise most great novels (family breakdown, death and loss, loneliness), she doesn't want to dumb down too much.

- contemporary (ideally) though I reckon I could get away with a couple of classics if they weren't too well known - she does in fact have a degree in English Literature, so has read most of the obvious stuff.

I feel I should be able to conjure up hundreds of ideas, but am drawing a complete blank.