Of course, “fluffy” is not incompatible with “important”.
- The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet – Becky Chambers. Such a lovely, hopeful book: hopeful about our ability to live with each other, to treat each other with kindness and respect, to accommodate each other’s strangenesses. Like a warm hug in a post-Brexit world.
- Going Postal – Terry Pratchett. Like all Pratchett’s Discworld books, Going Postal‘s humorous hijinks conceal a core of humanity and quiet rage.
- Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason – Helen Fielding. I don’t own the first Bridget Jones book, which is the only reason I list its sequel here: I’m much more familiar with it, and it still makes me laugh out loud. I think Bridget makes me feel a little less out of place, with her honest accounts of her mishaps and her embarrassments.
- Notes from a Big Country – Bill Bryson. This is a book of columns about Bryson’s move home to America; alongside Bridget, it’s one of those rare books guaranteed to make me laugh like a drain.
- Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging – Louise Rennison. …yes, I still go back to these occasionally.
- Northanger Abbey – Val McDermid. A retelling of Austen’s classic of the same name, it doesn’t quite ring true as a novel, but Cat’s adventures in Edinburgh are the literary equivalent of a box of Christmas chocolates – sweet and moreish.
- Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen. I rank this below McDermid’s Northanger only because, obviously, it’s far less easy to read. But I really do love P&P; I love its evocation of female life and romance; I love its wit and its sparkle. How does it fit in the “fluff” category? I’m not sure, but I find it comforting.
- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society – Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. Like Chambers’ book, this little novel is very much a hymn to the power of community. It’s just lovely.
- The Fault in Our Stars – John Green. I’ve gone off this quite significantly recently, mainly because of my increased scepticism around the Green brothers’ online personae, as well as the personae of famous Youtubers in general. But Hazel’s rather precocious voice and her dry wit does draw me in.
- Marked – P.C. and Kristin Cast. I’ve actually only read this first in the House of Night series; I go back to it occasionally when I just need some undemanding fantasy. It’s another confessional teenage drama, only with vampires. Something about that appeals to me.
(The theme for this post was suggested by the Broke and the Bookish’s weekly meme Top Ten Tuesday.)
The English Student 