Easy to read book that isn't a love story

[Adollop]

I'm looking for a new book. I loved Eleanor Oliphant and also just finished The Lido, great book.

So long for something like that, not keen on love stories these days. I'm in my fifties and find them a bit sickly. I've enjoyed a lot of Marian Keyes books, also Lisa Jewell, although not as much her latest ones. I prefer books set in Britain.

So what have you read recently and enjoyed that fits the bill?

I should add preferably not sad. I love books that make me laugh, can't be doing with crying, life's hard enough as it is! But must be all well written, I get annoyed with formular books, or just cheapy, badly written ones.

I've read a LOT, so apologies if I've already read any suggestions.

Old baggage by Lisa Evans
About a suffragette in 1930s London trying to get a group of girls politically engaged against a backdrop of mosely facists
Really warm hearted, funny and poignant

I’m working through the Rivers of London series at the moment.
Nice, easy reading, nothing to think too deeply about, but entertaining and a good enough storyline for me to be on book 3

They are a bit formulaic though, but in a comfy way rather than an eye rolling way

The Rosie Project
A Man called Ove

Mrs Ffyton's Country Life by Mavis Cheek.
Life and Loves of a She Devil is pretty much the antithesis of a love story.
Anything by Sara Maitland.
The Ocean at the end of the lane by Neil Gaiman.
Nation by Terry Pratchett.

I read The Seven Imperfect Rules of Elvira Carter recently and really enjoyed it.

Thanks

I've read The Rosie Project, A Man Called Ove and The Ocean at the End of the Lane, loved them. I've also read pretty much everything I could find set in Sweden and Denmark, something about them fascinates me.

I'll have a look at the others suggested.

If you can bear a bit of escapism then any other Neil Gaiman or Terry Pratchett would be perfect for you. Or both - Good Omens is amazing!

I'm not a fantasy fan and couldn't get into Terry Pratchett - much to my ex's disgust, as he was a huge fan. It took me many years to get round to reading The Ocean at the End of the Lane for that reason, but I did enjoy it.

Wonder!

Maybe try American Gods by NG. It's not too fantasy. I couldn't put it down.

And capital by John lanchester

I’m really enjoying The Help by Kathryn Stockett - about the black maids employed by white families in Jackson, Mississippi, and the wider racial segregation and tensions.
It’s not sad as such so far (halfway through) but it is shocking. But very easy to read and thought provoking.

The Immortalists - where a group of siblings are told what date they will die on - great read. Or try anything recent by Lisa Jewell or The Breakup by Marian Keyes. Or how about The Testaments by Margaret Atwood ?

Ever the Optimist by Gylisa Jayne

There’s a relationship in it but it’s not sickly, and is an interesting true to life story!

Try Magnus Mills. Short, easy to read, entertaining.
Or Tom Sharpe.
Both laugh out loud but slightly odd/off kilter.

oh sorry just read your OP and can see you've already read Lisa jewell and Marian Keyes .

Ok try Us by David Nicholls part disintegrating marriage part European guide book. I loved it.

Agree with The Help.

Also The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and the sequel The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is also brill although it did make me cry.

Nation isn't fantasy. It is the story of an island, a tsunami and the survivors in a sort of Victorian era.

Yes definitely The Rosie Project

Also Still Missing by Chevy Stevens is one of my favs

Gerald Durrell's Corfu trilogy? The Garden of the Gods was my favourite.

The Keeper Of Lost Things is excellent

The Chronicles of St Mary's series by Jodi Taylor are funny and interesting. I'd thoroughly recommend. First one is Just One Damned Thing After Another. They're dubbed as fantasy as they involve time travel but they travel to real events, observe and get into muddled, no weird stuff.