After Hunger Games Trilogy - need some respite and not-too-light relief!

[betterwhenthesunshines]

I've been reading these concurrently with DS but now I need something a bit lighter - my kindle list has some thrillers and classics on it (don't feel like any if them). My book stack has Cormac McCarthy Blood Meridien which looks good, but also fairly heavy going... don't really want any more death and destruction.

But not chick-lit either. I have Tracy Chevalier Falling Angels and The Virgin Blue... any other suggestions?

The Virgin Blue is very good but I wouldn't say a lighter read. Are you looking for more adult fiction? If you've not read The No1 Ladies Dectective Agency that's a good, light series everyone would enjoy, I think.

I quite like books with a bit of 'edge' so I'm not looking for anything too fluffy. I suppose something more about relationships in a slightly positive life -affirming way. Everything I've picked up recently seems to be about missing children, abuse and even the classics I want to re-read are pretty dark (Orwell, Lord of the Flies etc!).

I'll look at No1 Ladies.

I'm trying to find something on kindle as I can't get to my 2nd hand bookshop and I've damaged my thumb so it hurts to hold a chunky book, but everything I look at is £6.99 and for that I'd rather buy the actual book...

OK

Lesley Pearce on Amazon - worried about the series cover designs - look a bit Catherine Cookson :o

But have just gone with Remember Me on your recommendation, and the reviews. And got a sample of No1 Ladies which I shall read tonight... any others?

Read 'Paula' by Isabel Allende - it's not 'light' but it is easy to read. It will probably make you cry though.

If you liked The Hunger Games, you could try the 'Gone' series by Michael Grant. I've read the first two so far - the dialogue is appallingly clunky but other than that, I think they are better written and more interestingly plotted/less cliched than The Hunger Games.

Also The Knife Of Never Letting Go and follow ups, by Patrick Ness.

Ladies Detective ones are cute - but you'll probably think they are a bit fluffy. I am horribly difficult to please but I rather like them as bathtime reading when I don't want to think.

Can only think of bleak reads at the mo but from the things you've mentioned I bet you'd enjoy:
A Clockwork Orange
A Handful Of Dust
All Quiet On The Western Front
Lolita

Struggling to think of 'lighter' ones that aren't hideous -
Allende has done a teenage series which begins (iirc) with City Of Beasts which are okay - reasonably well written but simple and nothing too bleak in them.

Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day is v lightweight but not chick lit - it's about an older woman having a day v different to usual and there's a sweet film version of it too.

Have you read The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie?

Or some Agatha Christie/Conan Doyle maybe?

Hmmm, relationships, on Kindle. If you're up for another young adultish read you could try Journey Between Worlds by Sylvia Engdahl. She writes people-focussed relationshippy sci fi and I like her a lot. Or the first of her two parter Stewards of the Flame - it is dystopic again but I think a bit more upbeat.

Ok, some interesting sci-fi alternative reality ones that I have tagged.

I suppose maybe I was looking for something like Iris Murdoch or maybe even John Updike. Ok maybe not uplifting as such, but stories about real people and their foibles. But hopefully a bit more contemporary?

Saw the film of Miss Pettigrew, which was sweet as you say, but I think the book would irritate me a bit! I did read an Agatha Christie again recently which was good for a day's read, but doesn't really keep you hooked - you're more in it for getting to the end of the story rather than because you care about the characters.

A Handful of Dust looks good too. I read A Family History by Vita Sackville West last year and enjoyed that much more than I was expecting too.

Love books :o when you find one you just can't put down.

No 1 Ladies is good but I preferred the 44 Scotland Street series by the same author - was obsessed by it for a while - fantastic characters and a lovely romance between older lady and young man.

Do you like thrillers/murder mystery. I have just finished reading the Matthew Shardlake series by CJ Sansom, 5 wonderful books set in Tudor england. Easy to read, exciting and absorbing, good characters.

I have been recommended to read Josephine Tay - apparently she's similar to Agatha Christie so maybe worth a look?

You could try Jude Magdalen by LM Pruitt on the Kindle. They aren't anywhere near classic, but they aren't too fluffy and are exciting. I just finished one called Graves' End that was good too - like a Skulduggery Pleasant but for grownups

Shardlake = great.

Will watch this with interest as I have just finished the hunger games. I'm obsessed with it, and was reading it myself not a child! I thought it was a great love story along with all the action. I normally read crime/thrillers so this was something totally different for me.

I have returned to trusty Karin Slaughter as don't like anything fluffy, but I'm longing for the fantasy on The Hunger Games!