Looking for fiction - light reading

[karen3w]

I love reading but at the moment am so tired that I only really get to read for 30 mins at bedtime so although I have a pile of books at my bedside, I think most of them are a bit heavy for me at the moment.

Can anyone recommend a good book or two? I like something amusing, can't deal with very sad books, to do with ill or dying children. I'm in my late 40s and quite like books that I can relate to, so maybe either about people of a similar age to me (just not into chick lit about 20 something year olds finding love anymore!) or set in the 70s/80s?

I loved Growing Up Again and One Day and Starter for Ten. Also read some Andrew Collins, all Joanna Trollope, just finished one by Madeleine Wickham.

Grateful for any suggestions really ..... thanks :)

There's just been a similar thread so you'll find lots of ideas on that, but in the interim I've heard good reports of Emma Kennedy's 'The Tent, the Bucket and Me', and also the sequel to it, whose name escapes me at the moment . Funny, light, memoir of her childhood holidays.

What about Dawn French's novel A Tiny Bit Marvellous?

Me Before You - Jo Jo Moyes.

Have you tried Mavis Cheek? I like these and find them literate but easy and funny.

Jasper Fforde "The Eyre Affair" and sequels
Light
modern
literate
hilarious

I suggested Susan Howatch and the Starbridge novels on the other thread. Which made me go off to and re-read them. I enjoyed them just as much this time round.

James Hamilton Paterson "Cooking with Fernet Branca"

Very light reading, but I've recently read Temeraire by Naomi Novik and enjoyed it. Its set in the Napoleonic wars with the addition of dragons but is much better than it sounds, & very engaging characters.

I love Joan Jonker - she writes "Liverpool sagas" but unlike Helen thing, Joan's are much more lighthearted and have some laughs in them. She always has a happy ending too, even if there's a few wee tears along the way. I can read some of hers over and over again, I love them, although I like some more than others. Some of them are a series, the "Molly and Nellie" books, and the first one is Stay in Your Own Back Yard. Because it was her first book, some of it lacks a bit of polish, and you can start with any of them and enjoy them, but reading them in order lets you really get to know, and move through life with the characters. In the first one for example, Ruthie is about 5, and by the last one she's 16, working, and "going out with" the boy next door.
Of her stand alone books, my favourites are Sadie was a Lady, Stay as sweet as you are, and Try a Little Tenderness.
They are very easy to read, and don't require any concentration at all, perfect for half an hour before bed and those "odd minutes" when you suddenly get ten minutes peace in a busy day.

Or if you want to laugh out loud, try Gervaise Phinn - but get the autobiography ones. I made the mistake of getting one of his called "All the Lonely People" and it was absolutely heart rending, I sobbed my eyes out, and I had only started it because his are usually so hilarious. He was a schools inspector in the Yorkshire Dales and wrote about it - they are really funny

Other People's Marriages by Rosie Thomas is one of the best relationship-type books I've read (and I usually go for more literary fiction). About a few couples - a group of friends - and seemed very true to life to me.

Adriana Trigiani is light reading too.

You could try Pear Shaped? Light hearted, and does mention love but definitely in the 30+ category!

Would highly recommend Me Before You by JoJo Moyes too or how about Dirk Gently's Holistic Dectective Agency which is currently a series on BBC4?

Just reread your post and perhaps Me Before You may not be for you. It is light reading and very good but there is some sadness in it, but no more than in One Day.

I loved Me Before You, have just finished it. Agree that it is sad but no more sad than One Day.

Douglas Kennedy, Kate Morton, Rachel Hore should do it. Start with DK's The Pursuit of Happiness, KM's House at Riverton and RH's The Glass Painter's Daughter and then follow your nose. Enjoy!