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Original poster

Please recommend me a light hearted read.

28 replies

EastWestWhosBest · 30/08/2021 22:43

I’ve really enjoyed the last few books I’ve read but they’ve all be crime thrillers and I need a break from all the murder!

I’d like a nice, light hearted, cheery book but not some ‘chick-lit’ or anything too fluffy.

Does any one have any suggestions?

Thank you.

OP posts:
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BrozTito · 01/09/2021 23:05

James Anderson, there are murders but done in a Agatha Christie/Wodehouse pastiche way

sequin2000 · 01/09/2021 23:03

I can't recommend George Mahood enough. Free country is his first. It's a travelogue in which he and a friend attempt to cycle from Lands End to John o Groats but set off with nothing but the shorts they are wearing and have to rely on the kindness of strangers. Easy reading, funny and life enhancing with great reviews. His other books are great too and if you follow him on Facebook he sends offers regularly.

Mydogdoesntlisten · 01/09/2021 22:56

I liked The Diary of a Nobody too.
Also like The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim

TwoLeftSocksWithHoles · 01/09/2021 20:38

Noddy's Magic Rubber (don't be rude) it's a great read. Well, it was when I was seven.

MartyHart · 01/09/2021 20:32

The Diary of a Nobody, I reckon Sue Townsend read this and it was part of her inspiration for Adrian Mole.
The Card by Arnold Bennett.

Ideologicalissues · 31/08/2021 19:23

Third the Rosie Project! It's brilliant 🙂

JaninaDuszejko · 31/08/2021 18:55

I like short story anthologies when I'm a bit "thrillered out". Annie Proulx has a couple of good ones.

Annie Proulx is a fab writer but I'd never describe her short stories as 'light hearted'. Bleakly comic is as good as it gets.

I think it's hard to top PG Wodehouse or Nancy Mitford or Stella Gibbons or Muriel Spark for comic novels.

Original poster
EastWestWhosBest · 31/08/2021 16:46

I’ve read Thursday Murder Club and I love the St Mary’s books but I’ve got into the habit of listening to them.

OP posts:
LifeInAHamsterWheel · 31/08/2021 16:31

The Thursday Murder Club, I absolutely loved it!

Also Maggie O'Farrell's "I am I am I am" which is a sort of memoir, but recounting various times in her life where she's had a brush with danger. Brilliant.

StMarysKettle · 31/08/2021 15:03

Jodi Taylor St Mary's series - I love them, very inventive and funny

TossieFleacake · 31/08/2021 15:01

Also early Lisa Jewel such as Ralph's Party, The Making of Us, Before I Met You, Vince and Joy ... all of these are easy, light, feel good books.

PennyWus · 31/08/2021 14:46

I've been revisiting Discworld by Terry Pratchett, really good!

FollowYourOwnNorthStar · 31/08/2021 14:34

A second vote for The Rosie Project, and it’s sequel. Lovely, uplifting book. Or the Gurnesey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I think the tag line to that was ‘when did you last read a book that made you feel good?’ And it fits that bill :)

TossieFleacake · 31/08/2021 14:28

This must be the place - Maggie o'farrell

The engagements - Courtney sullivan

The Kingdom - Jo nesbo

And a second vote for The hearts invisible furies, one of the best books I've read recently, as is Ladder to the sky also by John boyne

GravityMaze · 31/08/2021 14:27

My go-to when I need light hearted laughter and nostalgia are the Adrian Mole books

Never tire of them

elkiedee · 31/08/2021 14:25

And Bernardine Evaristo, Mr Loverman - there are some quite sad moments but this is a very readable and funny novel about turning points in the characters' lives.

elkiedee · 31/08/2021 14:23

Bookworm by Lucy Mangan is a memoir of her childhood reading - a terrific read and lots of reading/rereading ideas. Though I don't know if it's as much fun if you're much, much younger than the author or me - she was born in 1974 and I'm a few years older but we seem to have read quite a lot of the same books.

Nina Stibbe, Love, Nina - letters home from to Nina's sister while Nina was an uncoventional nanny in a rather quirky household on what must have been the most literary street in London in the early 1990s - her boss was editor of the London Review of Books, and neighbours include Alan Bennett, a regular visitor, Claire Tomalin and Michael Frayn. Very funny She's also written a series of 3 novels which draw on her own experiences growing up in Leicestershire.

Original poster
EastWestWhosBest · 31/08/2021 08:41

Thanks for the suggestions. I’ll look into them all.
I love Bill Bryson. I remembered finding Notes From A Small Island in a holiday cottage in the 90s and reading the whole thing over the course of the holiday. I’ve read all his other books since.

OP posts:
MargotMoon · 31/08/2021 07:34

I second The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson.

Or anything by Dave Gorman.

The Tent, the Bucket and Me by Emma Kennedy is the funniest book I've read in years

peppapigfangirl · 31/08/2021 07:01

City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert

TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross · 31/08/2021 07:00

Depending on how much of a break you need from the crime, have you tried Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series, beginning with One For The Money? Stephanie is a bounty hunter but a hilariously inept one, and the books are laugh out loud funny. There are also A LOT of them if you like the first one and want more - she's up to about 25 or 26 now, I think!

CaptainDaisy · 31/08/2021 06:52

This. It's witty, well paced and thoroughly entertaining.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08X2TWFC2/ref=cmswwrcppawdb6A02TYZ8PX2FX3ZTECNX??_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

bert3400 · 31/08/2021 06:29

My DH is obsessed with the Bill Byson books, often laughing out loud. Not fiction but definitely a change from a crime thriller

Palavah · 31/08/2021 06:23

The Rosie Project

Toddlerteaplease · 31/08/2021 02:09

Road to little Dribbling. It's hilarious.