Light but interesting reading - any recommendations?

[Abcd3]

I love meaty reads at times but I’m in the process of moving house and with all that there is to do I don’t have the headspace for anything too heavy. It would be great to have some things to read that are easy-reading while also being well written and interesting (i.e. not just a thriller). Could be fiction or non-fiction. Examples of things I’ve read in the past that fit this description:

• The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency Series (I tried a couple of other series by Alexander McCall Smith but was less keen, though loved “My Italian Bulldozer”)
• “State of Wonder” and “Commonwealth” by Ann Patchett (don’t know whether her other novels are about rather heavy topics?)
• “Three Daughters of Eve”
• All Elizabeth Gilbert’s books

There must be loads of others but I can’t think of them right now! Ideally looking for things set in nice places and that don’t involve terrible things happening to people!

Just thought of another example of the type of book I’m looking for: “I Capture the Castle”.

Anyone?!

Lucy Mangan.....Bookworm. The books she read as a child; I've just started it. Full of humour, and brings back memories of books I have read and read to my children and grandchildren.

Faith Martin's Jenny Starling series is very light and enjoyable. A travelling cook who solves murder mysteries...

I'd go straight to Terry Pratchett!

Thanks for the suggestions!

The Seven Sisters series by Lucinda Riley.

I think these would fit the bill, if you haven't already read them:

• Cold Comfort Farm
• Where'd You Go, Bernadette
• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
• The Casual Vacancy
• The Corfu Trilogy by Gerard Durrell

Laurie Colwin exactly fits your brief, OP. Died very young in the 90s, American, not well-known outside of the US, but she left five funny, witty, intelligent novels, mostly of upper-class New Yorkers’ lives and loves, with happy endings. She’s been compared to Jane Austen. You won’t find them in bookshops here, but they’re available on Amazon in paperback.

Start with Family Happiness, which is an unconventional account of an affair and family life, set in a series of ravishing Upper East Side apartments, galleries and shops. Or A Big Storm Knocked It Over, which is set partly in rural Maine, partly in well-heeled bohemian NY.

They pull off ‘light-hearted’, and basically about nice people living in nice places (and being rich) while being very well-written.

In the Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford, followed by Love in a Cold Climate

The Mobile Library series by Ian Samson. They are similar in style to Alexander Mccall Smith.

www.goodreads.com/series/41306-mobile-library-mystery

Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard?

The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan