Light but not too light books for the summer

[FineSallyFineSally]

Hello all

Can anyone suggest light but not too light books for the summer holidays please?

Authors such as Rachel Joyce, Elizabeth Strout, Fannie Flagg.

Something to read whilst relaxing but not mired in tragedy which do seem to be a lot of the books I have read recently.

Something like: The Husbands, The Artist, The Impossible Thing and The Party (but doesn't have to start with 'The! )

Thanks

Dinner at the homesick restaurant by Anne Tyler, or anything by Anne Tyler.

The stone diaries by Carol Shields

Life after Life by Kate Atkinson

The Feast by Margaret Kennedy (1950) which is set during the summer holidays at a seaside hotel.

Still life Sarah winman
swimming lessons Claire fuller

Anything by Jane Fallon. My favourite is Just Got Real.

Thanks. I don't love Anne Tyler actually and have read that Katie Atkinson but will check out the Stone Diaries. That looks good.

This looks good, thanks. Will add to list.

Thanks. Lovef Still Life and yhe Claire Fuller one looks great.

Thanks for the recommendation- think I have read most of them.

You are Here by David Nichols, Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

The Summer Book - Tove Jansson. Absolutely wonderful.

A Month in the Country - J. L. Carr.

Both actually quite short and very evocative of summer days. Not at all tragic but with a little note of melancholy or nostalgia while also being very healing.

Moving or Life Death and Vanilla Slices by Jenny Eclair

All My Mothers by Joanna Glen

Quartet in Autumn, Barbara Pym
The Darling Buds of May and the others in the series, H.E Bates

Something by Kristin Hannah.

Really enjoying Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke just now.

Also, The Observations, and Gillespie and I by Jane Harris are both fabulous.

If you like non fiction, Entitled by Andrew Lownie is great - and also pretty long so it'll keep you going for a bit!

I've been working my way through Kristen Hannah and Tracey Chevalier for that sort of thing. Ready to read but not insipid.

Ann Patchett? Tom Lake and Bel Canto are probably my favourites.

Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey
Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali
Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao
The Searcher by Tana French
Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
What you are looking for is in the library by Michiko Aoyama

Any Clare Chambers books, In A Good Light and Small Pleasures are two.

Colm Toibin Brooklyn.

If you like period books then MJ Farrell (Molly Keane), good behaviour, time after time are her more recent ones. Taking Chances, Mad Puppetstown, full house, treasure hunt, the rising tide. I’ve given a couple of spares to friends when younger and they were swapped around and reread a lot by them.

Kent Haruf Plainsong.

I love Barbara Pym, but Quartet in Autumn is very bleak. I'd suggest Excellent Women instead.

True, it's not the cheeriest!