I need something lighthearted and gripping

[TheoriginalLEM]

Please.

I have just finished "We need to talk about Kevin" and am feeling traumatised.

I don't want to read about murder, i don't want to read about illness or broken hearts, poorly treated children, anything that will make me outraged - i just want to read something naice to put my kilter back on.

I really enjoyed Ready Player One, as have many others on the 50 books threads. There are not-good things that happen (bit difficult to be gripping otherwise . . .), but it's definitely a cheery sort of a book overall.

Alternatively, do you like Georgette Heyer? She's usually my go-to if I need something lighthearted and entertaining to improve my evening.

It's very difficult to get lighthearted and gripping, unless by that you just mean easy to get lost in rather than twisty turny?

My 'comfort' reads are Pride and Prejudice and Emma, PG Wodehouse. James Herriot vet books (though there is shade as well as light in those!) or Terry Pratchett. Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis is funny but also has a 'plot'.

Ooh The Martian is lighthearted and gripping - a bit of science and peril. I'm reading Alan Bennett's The Uncommon Reader and that is easygoing, about the Queen developing a book habit.

Georgette Heyer and Jilly Cooper are my comport reading.

But don't discount the murder mysteries of the Golden Age or in that style, as they're not gritty or disturbing.

If you would consider them, try the Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters, which are OTT and I found addictive, and are as much a mickey take of Victorian lady traveller memoirs as anything else.

A Man Called Ove is wondwrfu and heartwarming.

Don't think you get 'gripping' from a book unless characters are in peril, which is hard to do without anything nasty happening.

Jodi Taylor's series about Time Travelling historians?
Certainly light and I couldn't put them down.

loved the martian. i nearly downloaded a man called ove the other night. might give it a go.

The hundred year old man who climbed out the window and dissapeared. That s lovely and not at all depressing. ;)

At Sea by Laurie Graham.
Really laugh out loud in places

I was just about about recommend Laurie Graham, Crossfire. I might go and reread The Future Homemakers of America.

How about one of the Ben Elton books? I found them very funny but very easy to get immersed in.

I think any one of her books would do the job.
She is fab isn't she QueryQuery?

the 100 year old man is one of my favourite books :)

Theoriginal have you read The girl who saved the king of Sweden yet?

i read the sample but wasn't feeling it .

Rosie Project?

I second A Man called Ove

'The Geurnsey Potatoe peel pie society' is delightful easy read to restore your faith in humanity (and literature )

The Number One Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

Mma Ramotswe never deals with anything as nasty as murder.

Where D'you Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple. It's very funny but also poignant.

Also Buddha Da' by Anne Donovan - the Glasgow dialect may be off putting for non Scots but it's also funny/uplifting but slightly sad in places.

I also love all of Scarlett Thomas' books. They tend to be gripping but in an interesting way rather than traumatising.

You might like to try 'Notwithstanding' by Louis de Bernieres. It's a collection of short stories linked by being about the characters in an English village. It's an easy read, and it's delightful.