In A Book Rut - Need Something Light!

I am stalled.

I hate this feeling. I love when I am deeply involved in a book and can't wait to get home to read it, or to have a few extra minutes in a waiting room or during my kids' ballet class so that I can finish just a few more pages. Right now, however, I am stalled.

I just finished a very depressing book - A Thousand Splendid Suns - so I am in need of something light. Desperately. Wench, which I started a few weeks ago and like quite a bit, is too heavy. I am reading Bossypants but not loving it. Perhaps because it's non-fiction, I just can't get into it. It's funny and light, but it's entirely forgettable. So this weekend, I am vowing to start something and lose myself in it so that I can get back on track. I was averaging 4-5 books a month this year, but that pace has slowed considerably in the past week, due to this darn rut.

Books I am considering: 29 by Adena Halpern, I Think I Love You by Alison Pearson. Anyone got a light, fiction recommendation for me?

Comments

[Melissa]

Just glanced through the ones you've finished (always amazed at how many books we have in common) to get some ideas. What about Talking to Girls About Duran Duran? Or, even lighter ...perhaps Sarah Addison Allen or Cecelia Ahern? (I'd go for their older books, rather than the most recent ones.)

I hate when ruts like these happen. Hope you get out of this one soon!

[OolooKitty]

I just read "I Think I Love You" and really enjoyed it...! It was light but well-written and one of those books you just kind of race through. Lots of fun.

[Susan B]

Last summer I got bogged down while reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. It was making me very depressed and I needed a diversion. I picked up The Heights by Peter Hedges, which a friend had loaned me, and that was perfect.

[Mike Licht]

If you're still looking on Sunday, try the Bookfest at Eastern Market.

See http://bit.ly/lW2fhv

[bermudaonion (Kathy)]

Do you read chick lit at all? How about one of the Shopaholic books?

[Miriam]

Two of my fave quick, sharp, good reads:

ELECTION, Tom Perrotta
GIRL, Blake Nelson

The first is funny. The second is less funny, but super incisive. Neither is dark but both are substantive in their own ways.

I hate book ruts! I found myself in one for a long time after FREEDOM. As ambivalent about that book as I ended up being, still nothing compared afterward.

[Sarah]

Your post caused me to go through my book list to try to come up with some suggestions for you, and I am amazed at how dark almost all of the books I read are! I had no idea that I was in such a pattern of reading depressing fiction. I do have one suggestion, though (you may have already read, but in case you haven't:): "Digging to America" by Anne Tyler. In general, I find Anne Tyler a good novelist after a particularly dark read, and this one was one of my favorites. It's not overly light, and leaves you with a lot to think about. But it is also breezy, pleasant, and quick. Knowing you, you've already read it, though....

[TheBookGirl]

How about Georgia Bottoms by Mark Childress, or Lucia Lucia by Adriana Trigiani?

[Gayle]

Thanks, everyone, for the comments! I read 29 by Adena Halpern this weekend and I think it did the trick! Very light.

@Melissa - I want to read Talking to Girls about Duran Duran!

@Miriam - I am a big Tom Perrotta fan and have read lots of his books - love them.

@Sarah - I agree that Anne Tyler is a good palate cleanser. I have read Digging to America - a few years ago - and liked it.

Thanks for all the other suggestions!

[Ti]

I chose Wench for my book club to read so I'm glad you said it was a bit heavy. I think it would make a good discussion book but can see why it doesn't fit with you right now.

Purely fun read... Bryson's A Walk in the Woods. I keep waiting for them to make it a movie with Jack Black as Bryson.

There is not one person I've suggested it to that didn't enjoy it and I've suggested it to dozens of people.