Recommend some easy but well-written reads

[Redleavesfalling289]

I love reading (did an English Lit degree), but find with working life I'm usually too knackered to delve into anything too taxing come the evening.

Can anyone recommend any books that are well-written/thought-provoking, but not too hard on the old brain To give you examples of books I've enjoyed recently 'The Midnight Library,' 'Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine', Susan Hill's Simon Serrailler series, 'The Thursday Murder Club.'

In terms of themes, anything with intrigue, or concerning human relationships/character examination is of interest to me (sorry to be so vague.)

Hit me with your favourite bedtime/evening recommendations

The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt
All the light we cannot see - Anthony Doerr

Some light, some not so light - anything by:
Julian Barnes
Sally Rooney
William Boyd
Ruth Jones
Rachel Joyce
Maggie O'Farrell
Anne Tyler
Anita Shreve
Colm Toibin
Jojo Moyes
Lianne Moriarty

Lissa Evans is good, easy to read but intelligent and character driven books. Old Baggage has a wonderful main character and is part of a loosely connected trilogy.
The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey won the Costa last year and is incredible. A mermaid is caught by fishermen and begins to return to her human form.
The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré. A young girl in Nigeria fights to be educated.
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. Gentle time travelling tales. There's a sequel as well.

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant is good

The Silence Of The Girls by Pat Barker
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
Leonard And Hungry Paul by Ronan Hessian

Elizabeth is Missing is good.
Anything by Patrick Gale
Kate Atkinson is brilliant if you haven't read her books yet.

Moving by Jenny Eclair

How to Stop time by Matt Haig is v good. And the Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffeneger

Grown Ups by Marian Keyes
A man called Ove by Fredrik Blackman

I have recently read and enjoyed
The Beekeeper of Aleppo
The doll factory - quite dark but entertaining and an easy read.
2nd recommendation for all the Graham Norton books.
The minaturist - similar to the doll factory bit dark. (Was made into a TV series a couple of years ago).
Ruth Jones has written a few books too. I've read one if hers and enjoyed it got another ones to try now.

A couple of really enjoyable reading memoirs which might also give you seem reading ideas

• Lucy Mangan, Bookworm - is about children's books and especially 1970s Puffins. I'm about 5 years older than her but we seem to have had quite a lot of the same books in our collections
• Cathy Rentzenbrink, Dear Reader - a memoir of reading as a child, teenager and adult and of her career in books. She's also just published a new novel (debut novel but 3rd or 4th book) which I have wishlisted to remind me to look out for it.

Clare Chambers, Small Pleasures - and her earlier novels seem to be being reissued Amor Towles, Rules of Civilisation (his first novel) Suggestions for Anne Tyler, Maggie O'Farrell, Patrick Gale, Sally Rooney all sound worth a try. Colm Toibin - ones I liked especially include Brooklyn, Nora Webster, The Blackwater Lightship and The South. Sarah Moss Elly Griffiths has 3 crime fiction series - so far 20 books in total (13 _ 5 + 2), with #6 in her historical 1960s Sussex series due in the autumn, and a series of 3 stories for girls about an aspriing female detective at a 1930s Sussex boarding school, Justice Jones, and 4 novels written under her real name, Domenica da Rosa Rowan Coleman

Any thing from

Georgette Heyer
Alexander McCall Smith

Enjoy.

The Sealwoman's Gift Sally Magnusson
This Lovely City Louise Hare
Florence Adler Swims Forever Rachel Beanland
The Most Fun We Ever Had Claire Lombardo
Love After Love Ingrid Persaud
The Words In My Hand Guinevere Glasfud

Easy-read crime: JD Robb, SR Garrae, Tess Gerritsen, Dorothy Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Kerry Greenwood. Alex Gray, LJ Ross.
Terry Pratchett's Discworld, Lois McMaster Bujold, Nalini Singh.
Second Alexander McCall Smith, Georgette Heyer.

You might like Clare Chambers books, she has written quite a few.
Also, not a current author but Monica Dickens.

Liane Moriarty - Big Little Lies, The Last Anniversary, The Hypnotist’s Love Story

Agree anything by Maggie O'Farrell ditto Margaret Forster
Heft is wonderful as is the unseen world
Not Lianne Moriarty. I liked big little lies but very neat and unfeasible. I read The husbands secret. What a pile of unlikely rubbish. All her books are too neat and unlikely and she stats with the same formula

@elkiedee Ooh I love Elly Griffiths - particularly the Ruth Galloway series. I didn't know she wrote under a different name - I shall have to give them a try!

I echo the recommendations for Elizabeth is Missing. I loved it so much that I had to lend it to a few people. They've all loved it too.

I've just finished The Other Bennett Sister which is about Mary Bennett (Pride and Prejudice).I was a bit daunted because I'd got out of the reading habit and it's a very fat book but it was so engrossing that I finished it in 2 days.

Magpie Lane

Anthony Horowitz crime / detective novels are also really good. Magpie Murders, The Word is Murder, The Sentence is death.

When I want something interesting, simple and thoughtful my go-to author is Anne Tyler.
No big plots, just normal people with their own take on the world.

I have similar taste and concentration issues and recently enjoyed Convenience Store Woman and Daisy Jones and the Six. They were both easy reads but very thought-provoking. I'm still thinking about them weeks later!

I also really like Donna Leon's detective series set in Venice (Inspector Brunetti). They're all good, but Friends in High Places is excellent.

I also really like Dorothy Sayers. One of the best is Murder Must Advertise.

Basically I like crime, sex, drugs and rock and roll but without anything too graphic!

If I really can't focus, I love all Neil McGregor's books that started as radio series. There's one about world history, one about German history and one about Shakespeare's times.

I also just read Three Women and a Boat which was excellent - the author had researched her subject thoroughly and the characters were believable. It was very funny in places.

I've also read Midnight Library lately and have an English degree. Others that would meet your criteria:

American Dirt
The Four Winds
All The Light We Cannot See
Hearts Invisible Furies

I read All the Light We Cannot See (already mentioned by pp) when I had covid last year and suffering from brain fog. The chapters are very short and manageable.

Also placemarking

I forgot about Piranesi mentioned upthread. That was a fantastic book and so unlike anything i'd read before.

Would also recommend Mythos by Stephen Fry