Light, but not shite fiction needed for an over-emotional pregnant bookworm!

[Laugs]

Last time I was pregnant I read Revolutionary Road Nobody warned me! I have just about recovered.

I am a wee bit weepy at the moment and can't cope with anything sad. I'm looking for something gentle and soothing, but well written - I Capture the Castle would be great if I hadn't already read it.

Any ideas?

The Uncommon reader - Alan Bennet

Thanks FiveGoMadInDorset. I think we have that somewhere!

Any other suggestions?

'Mariana' by Monica Dickens, published by Persephone Books - a lovely read. From the Persephone website: "We chose this book because we wanted to publish a novel like Dusty Answer, I Capture the Castle or The Pursuit of Love, about a girl encountering life and love, which is also funny, readable and perceptive; it is a 'hot-water bottle' novel, one to curl up with on the sofa on a wet Sunday afternoon." Persephone also publish the wonderful 'Miss Pettigrew Lives for A Day' by Winifred Watson, and 'The Making of A Marchioness' by Frances Hodgson Burnett - two of my other favourite comfort reads.
'Miss Pettigrew' and 'Mariana' are both published as slightly cheaper Persephone Classics. www.persephonebooks.co.uk/index.htm

Jane Austen - gentle and soothing by the bucketload.

The Mitfords - the letters of the Mitford sisters should keep you going for a while as well

cold comfort farm

definitely Miss Pettigrew

love in a cold climate

How did it all go right- Andrew Collins
Not fiction- but still milk chocolate-y and normal

No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series. Any of them. They're not grim crime novels at all - just lovely. Alexander McAll Smith, I think.

Thanks so much for all these ideas! I thought I had Miss Pettigrew but can't find it. I definitely have an unread copy of Love in a Cold Climate.

I'm writing my list for the library tomorrow.

44 Scotland Street and the rest of that series by Alexander McCall Smith are fun as well.

William Boyd - Any Human Heart was very entertaining, spoof diaries

Whistling for the Elephants by Sandy Toksvik.

Whimsical, funny, cleverly put together and well written. A good, light read.

Echo everyone's suggestions here, and I also loved reading Georgette Heyer when preg and also when bfing through the night with a newborn.

Great, I haven't read loads of these so I will be well served. I'm getting all emotional about your generosity

I've just remembered I had been reading All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West, which seemed nice and light - can anyone reassure me it will stay that way before I unearth it?

Thanks x

I recommend Melissa Bank "The wonder spot" review and a girl's guide to hunting and fishing.

Thanks Franca, it sounds good and has also just reminded me of Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld, which I loved and may have to revisit.

Oh yes to Georgette Heyer, and suggest P.G. Wodehouse and E.F. Benson too...the Mapp and Lucia novels.

Any particular books that you liked by Georgette Heyer, womblingalong?

And I always second Wodehouse!
Congratulations on your pg btw

Thanks, I only found out today! It does explain a lot though

The Enchanted April - Elizabeth von Arnim
The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets - Eva Rice

I like Frederica, Arabella and Cotillion of Georgette Heyer. Actually, I like most of them...

I haven't read those two either, thank you.

"My Antonia" by Willa Cather is one I pass around.

Collette too. The "Claudine" novels are a good place to start.

Your booklist is getting pretty long now!

The Bolter by Frances Osborne - really interesting biography but not too "academic" a read - bowls along very nicely (but the afterword in the paperback may make you a little sniffly)