Light Fiction

My latest request for recommendations was for books that are light and not too depressing.  Erika asked me for recommendations falling into this category after spin class and I was so tired and sweaty I seriously couldn't think.  But even once I cooled off, it actually took longer to think of what books fall into this category than I thought it would.  I read plenty of light fiction, the question is how to define "not too depressing."

For example, I usually recommend Liane Moriarty and Jojo Moyes to people looking for light reading as I did in my post on vacation reading, but though they write with a light touch, there are also lots of heavy topics addressed in their books - death of loved ones, domestic abuse, etc.  Every book has to have some dramatic conflict to make it interesting, so all too often books involve some element of sadness either in the plot or the main character's backstory.  And I for one love a good cathartic fiction-inspired cry, so I don't mind some sadness even in a light book.  So, I kept considering and rejecting books, but ultimately came up with a few that seem light and charming and, hopefully, not too depressing!

• The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion - Featured on my 2013 Top 10 list, this is one of the most charming books I've ever read.  It's a novel about a man with undiagnosed Asperger's, who embarks on a project to scientifically find the perfect mate.  You really root for the main character and it's also just really interesting to see life from a different perspective.  There's also a sequel which is almost as charming.

• Attachments by Rainbow Rowell - Another charmer, this novel, told mostly in e-mails, is about an IT guy whose job it is to monitor the e-mails of workers at his company, and starts to fall in love, sight unseen, with a woman whose e-mail keeps getting flagged for monitoring.  So sweet and funny.  I love all of Rainbow Rowell books, but this is probably the most "light."

• The Impossible Fortress by Jason Rekulak - This is a funny, charming, coming of age novel set in the 1980s about a group of dorky guys in New Jersey scheming to get their hands on the Vanna White issue of Playboy, which leads to an unexpected friendship with a girl who shares the narrator's love of computer programming

• Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu - This young adult novel is about a teenage girl in a conservative, football-crazy small town in Texas who, inspired by her mother's Riot Grrrl past, starts distributing a zine in the school bathroom speaking up against the sexist stuff going on at school. Sometimes funny (and sometimes sad, I admit) but definitely inspirational, this was a fast and entertaining read.

• Modern Lovers by Emma Straub - This one was on my 2016 Top 10 list, a really enjoyable novel about two couples in Brooklyn, and their teenage children, all going through various life and relationship issues.  Also recommend "The Vacationers" by the same author.

• The Smart One by Jennifer Close - A really enjoyable contemporary novel which was on my 2014 Top 10 list, switching perspectives of multiple people in a family - a mother, two adult daughters, and their brother's girlfriend.

In addition, from my top 10 of 2017 list, I think about half of the books arguably could fall into the light but not too depressing category, depending on your definition of "not too depressing."  But I caution that some of them do touch on some deeper stuff, and I did cry at some of them!

• The Arrangement by Sarah Dunn - A novel about a married couple with a kid who decide to try a 6 month experiment with open marriage.  The book is funny but also poignant and thought-provoking.  It would be a great book club choice.

• Maybe in Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid - A light book that I probably would characterize as chick lit, but definitely has some sad moments too.  It's a "Sliding Doors" type story about a 29 year old woman who moves to Los Angeles, and depending on one decision she makes on her first night back, we see two totally different futures unfold for her in alternating chapters. 

• Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum - This was a laugh and cry book, a young adult novel about a 16 year old girl whose mom died a few years ago, who has to move from Chicago to Los Angeles when her dad remarries, and adjust to a fancy new school.  This definitely has the depressing angle of the dead mother, as well as what it's like to be a high school semi-outcast, but it also was a really sweet book.

• Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman -  This book definitely sounds slightly depressing, since it's about a woman widowed at a young age with two young kids.  But it's such a sweet book, basically about how she comes back to life after joining a gardening group filled with quirky characters, and was one of my 2 most favorites of 2017.

• Young Jane Young by Gabrielle Zevin - This novel switches perspectives from several different characters all of whom were tangentially related in one way or another to a scandal where a congressman had an affair with a young intern.  But it's really just a portrait of wonderful quirky characters.