Light but heavy reads?

[SheShines]

My reading tastes are very mixed. However, I'm after something light, with a plot, possibly thought provoking, without being vacuous.
This is a tougher ask than it sounds!

Side bar -^^ why is it that Marian Keyes writes a novel and it is chick-lit, whereas David Nicholls novels are simply fiction?

The sort of thing I have enjoyed:
This Charming Man - Marian Keyes
Sweet Sorrow - David Nicholls
Can You Keep A Secret - Sophie Kinsella
The Cows - Dawn O Porter
A Long Way Down - Nick Hornby
The Commitments - Roddy Doyle
Big Little Lies - Liane Moriarty
Just My Luck - Adele Parks

There are lots more, but I'm after lighter reads with an edge.

Not what I'm after:
Bridget Jones
Anything Shopaholic

Warning - I have a Masters in Lit, so I have read a lot of the classics. My average is 200 books a year, though I don't usually read light books so maybe not as difficult as it sounds?

Secret History - Donna Tartt
Saint Maybe - Anne Tyler
Stolen - Deborah Moggach
Crooked Heart - Lissa Evans
When God Was a Rabbit - Sarah Winman
One Day - David Nicholls
The Carer - Deborah Moggach
Remarkable Creatures - Tracey Chevalier
High Fidelity - Nick Hornby
Eight Months on Ghazza Street - Hilary Mantel
Black Water Rising - Attica Locke

I agree so much with the comment regarding the difference in the way female and male writers are categorised/reviewed. Male writers such as Nick Hornby, Tony Parsons, David Nicholls, etc, etc, write character-driven, easy to read stories but their writing still seems to be taken more seriously than female writers who have a similar style and who cover the same sort of ground.

I am absolutely convinced that if Marian Keyes was a man she'd have a clutch of awards by now. Roddy Doyle has won the bloody Booker FFS and yet Marian Keyes covering very similar ground has got nothing.

As far as light but with a bit of something extra, how much foreign literature do you read?

I've loved the following recently:
The Cost of Sugar by Cynthia McLeod. Very readable story about the sugar trade in Suriname.
The Ten Loves of Mr Nishino by Hiromi Kawakami. Ten linked short stores that describe Nishino's love life.
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. Gentle time travelling tales.
Claudia Piñeiro's crime fiction is suppose to be very good but I've not read it.
The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey won the Costa and is fabulous.
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi is a graphic memoir which is well worth a read.
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende is a sprawling family saga with magic realism.
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata. Novella about a woman who works in a convenience store who probably has autism.

Thank you for taking the time to share the books/authors you have enjoyed.

I know that this is frustrating... I have read most of them . Yes, even The Eighth Life.

I did say that I'm a tough crowd, not because I'm a reluctant reader, but because I am a voracious one. As a general rule; if I enjoy one book by an author I read everything that I can find by them.

The one I haven't ever read is Jonathan Harvey. I don't know how he slipped past me! So he's definitely on the tbr list.

A hangover from my years of studying is; for light reading I have a preference for contemporary fiction. Love In The Time Of Cholera is not an experience that I want to repeat the Cholera was the good bit .----

Yes to British, Irish, Australian and U.S. fiction.

I could go through all of your posts and say yes and liked it, yes and loved it, yes and meh etc. but that makes me sound even more obnoxious than I probably already do. Your suggestions are very much appreciated.

JaninaDuszejko there are a few on your list that I haven't read and I do agree that there is a huge double standard when awarding male vs female authors.

As much as I love Roddy Doyle, to compare Paula Spencer vs Marian Keyes' This Charming Man, because they share a similar theme, even when I read it I thought that RD confused PS's lack of education with an inability to express herself fluently. Whereas MK's characters are more rounded, she trusts the intellect of her characters, whether they are traditionally educated or not.

... I can't cross through on my phone though, clearly .

I know everyone saw the TV adaptation, but Normal People was a great read.

French and German fiction? I’m really enjoying Jenny Erpenbeck’s Going, Went, Gone. Annie Ernaux’s L’histoire d’une file? All my friends rave about Fred Vargas, but it’s not my genre.

If you like Sally Rooney, she has a new novel out next month. Ditto Colm Toibín, about Thomas Mann.

If you read short stories, Louise Kennedy’s The End of the World is a Cul de Sac is an excellent new Irish collection.

Second the Silent Patient. Shuggie Bain. All the Light We Cannot See (I recommend that to everyone) . Any Patrick Gale. Monica Lewicka - Short History of Tractors tickled me.

The Colour of Bee Larkham’s Murder by Sarah J Harris is excellent, intriguing but not specifically a whodunnit.

I also recently enjoyed How to Kill Your Family, by Bella Mackie.

The Impossible Girl, by Lydia Kang, was also good, but set in 1800s America so doesn’t fit the brief of contemporary.

Expectation by Anna Hope reminded me of Marian Keyes.

Oh and The Girl with the Louding Voice.

@Nearlyadoctor I come on just say: you must read Lucinda Riley! The whole Seven Sisters series was just miraculous. And in answer to your thought - I've just finished reading all of her other novels, and every one is just better than the last. I'm now bereft!

I’d say your brief is what I’m constantly looking for too, books I’ve loved are -

All of Lucinda Riley - maybe except the love letter, the rest were excellent.

Taylor Jenkins Read - especially Daisy Jones and the six

Home going - Yaa Gyasi

The idea of you - Robinne Lee

Small Pleasures - Clare Chambers

I also like a bit of crime now and again and love John Marrs’ books.

The Essex Serpent.

Rachel's Holiday is absolutely my favourite Marian Keyes - I've re-read it so often.

Beyond the Ruins by Victoria Gosling

The Secret River - Kate Grenville

The Dictionary of Lost Words - Pip Williams

The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Mohsin Hamid

Girl, Woman, Other - Bernardine Evaristo

The Memory Police - Yoko Ogawa

The Shadow King - Maaza Mengiste

How Much of These Hills is Gold - C Pam Zhang

Klara and the Sun - Kazuo Ishiguro

Have you read any of Milly Johnson? Fab reads.

Not all of mine are light but they are very readable!

@Luckingfovely - good to hear to you enjoyed all her other novels as I’ve just ordered 2 after finishing the 7 sisters series.
I just didn’t want them to end and have started another thread looking for similar recommendations.

I've been pleasantly surprised by Amanda Prowse and working my way through her books, after finishing the Six Wives series by Alison Weir (you may like those to as they seem to be well-researched and bring the Tudor period to life really well.)

I echo the pp who suggested Barbara Kingsolver, but also Kristen Hannah and Harriet Evans. I know that Harriet Evans has a new book coming out in about a week but her last one the Butterfly summer was excellent..

The End of Men - Christina Sweeny Baird

We Begin at the End - Chris Whitaker

The Memory Police - Yoko Ogawa

This is one of the best books I read last year. Dystopic and dream like it still haunts me.

Alice Munro
Joyce Carol Oates
Good to see people recommending Barbara Trapido
Catherine Fox
Alice Hoffman
Elinor Lipman
Rose Tremain
Penelope Lively
Barbara Pym
Mary Wesley
Norah Lofts
CJ Sansom
Anita Brooker - I know she's a bit marmite but Hotel du Lac is a book I go back to time after time.
Lillian Beckwith
Muriel Spark
Ruth Park - NZ writer of the 1920s and 30s
Armistad Maupin

Queenie by Candice Carty Williams.
Such an easy read but really thought provoking with respect to issues around race.

I really enjoyed Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny (recommended on here) - amazing characterisation, very funny but also thought provoking re: autism.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

We are all completely beside ourselves (really brilliant twist)

I also recently read an Irish detective series by Tana French - might not quite meet the brief but I enjoyed them.

Last but not least - Julian Clary’s autobiography.

(JC’s autobiography is called a young mans passage - not last but not least!)

Don't think anyone's mentioned Jane Fallon yet? I think she's very much in the Keyes/McFarlane/Jewell mode.

I've just done a Scottish trilogy: Scabby Queen by Kristin Innes, Shuggie Bain (me and the rest of the world) and The Young Team by Graeme Armstrong. All very different but all excellent.

Other recent successes were The Queen of Bloody Everything and I'll second The Girl with the Louding Voice which is a beautiful book.