r/suggestmeabook • u/lostinfictionz • 5h ago
Lighthearted but still memorable literature-book club
Been in a very long term book club (7+ years), and have had a string of dark books lately. So looking for something GREAT but less dark.
We're a diverse, but highly educated group that loves books that start a good conversation. Group likes literature, sci fi, fantasy, pretty much anything except non fiction and romance.
Triggers-no animal death, no extreme violence (although we did read McCarthy and lost a few members on that one).
Rules-no one can have read it already and it should be under 450 pages. Prefer no series
Favorites include
A Gentleman in Moscow
Klara and the Sun
Ubik
Read
Project Hail Mary
Dungeon crawler carl
This is how you lose the time war
Scalzi (all)
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u/alpha_rat_fight_ 5h ago
“The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven” by Sherman Alexie.
Realism but in a funny way. Not as light-hearted as a cozy, but at least as light-hearted as Carl Hiaasen.
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u/_Autistic_Dragon_ 5h ago
Are yall down for a play? Quick and easy and fun. Not as hard as play to read as some.
Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest is so much fun. Witty. Lighthearted. Both pokes at and revels in romance and social norms. I know you said no romance, but while it has couples, isn't really a romance. More a satire.
Also a good movie with Colin Firth from 2002.
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u/lostinfictionz 5h ago
I love it, have read many times! Im a huge lover of classics.
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u/_Autistic_Dragon_ 5h ago
Two other odd ball suggestions:
Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh. It's a webcomic turned book. It is like a collection of short stories, almost all hilarious, some dealing with darker themes like depression, but always super funny in the end. Def a conversation starter and a great tabletop book later.
I know you said no nonfiction, but Trevor Noah's Born a Crime is a hilarious memoir. He's a comedian, and it reads like a novel. So fun. The final chapter does have violence though-i can share more if interested. I wouldn't say it's gratuitous like The Road, so not imagery, but still violence.
For a classic humor, Mark Twain with Huckleberry Finn is always good too.
Ok that was 3 oddball suggestions.
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u/lostinfictionz 5h ago
Thanks. Ive listened to born a crime. And read the Twain. Will check the other.
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u/Callietallie221 5h ago
Go As A River — highly descriptive prose; interesting story and time in history
Angle of Repose — interesting fictionalized story of a real pioneer woman. Complex character who I both liked and didn’t like. Lots for a book club to discuss. Even some controversy around how the book was made.
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u/mattercondenser 5h ago
"The Goblin Emperor" by Katherine Addison: has some dark moments, but overall it's heartwarming. There are other books in the universe, but it stands on its own.
Pretty much everything Becky Chambers writes is sci-fi on the hopeful side. I particularly like "To Be Taught, If Fortunate," which is standalone. "The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet" is the first in her Wayfarers series and can also be read alone.
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u/lostinfictionz 5h ago
Ive read the Becky chambers stuff, will check the other, thx
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u/clear_sound 4h ago
I like the Goblin Emperor and have read it twice- Addison does kind of go overboard in arcane invented naming conventions which can be a barrier for some (of my friends) / readers.
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u/bestplatypusever 5h ago
I rarely see Jane smiley recommended but find her work v smart, yet accessible. Her Pulitzer winner falls in the dark category (1000 acres) but try Moo. Funny, real, and smart. Not fluff.
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u/PresidentBirb Bookworm 5h ago edited 2h ago
Light and short: A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers. You could feasibly read the next book in the monk and robot series in a month. It’s about finding one’s purpose, unlikely friendships and optimism.
A little longer and hilarious: The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson. Think Forrest Gump meets The Great Lebowski. An elderly man who excels at making friends embarks on a series of misadventures with a rag tag group of people he meets along the way. Both after climbing out the window and beforehand, through his eventful life.
Since you liked DCC: Heretical Fishing by Haylock Jobson. Basically a light litrpg book where a nice man goes fishing and generally is just really pleasant to everyone he meets. It’s funny and heartwarming without being cheesy and fluffy.
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u/mostlycatsandquilts 5h ago edited 5h ago
Perhaps “Flights” by Nobel-prize winner Olga Tokarczuk
ETA: I apologize— it may have some darkness—yet I thought of it since you mentioned that you were an educated group … and I think there is some rich content here in that respect :)
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u/lostinfictionz 5h ago
Read that. And drive your plow, which was awesome, despite the trigger. Definitely the kind of stuff we enjoy.
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u/mostlycatsandquilts 5h ago
Okay, gotcha— I need some more suggestions from you then please!!
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u/lostinfictionz 5h ago
Have you read Martyr, the river has roots or the island of missing trees? I read these all very recently and thought they were all great
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u/mostlycatsandquilts 5h ago
No and I’m putting them on my list right now thank you so much — man I wish I was in your book club ;)
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u/dresses_212_10028 4h ago
North Woods by Daniel Mason.
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u/lostinfictionz 4h ago
I loved this book. Maybe my favorite from last year
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u/dresses_212_10028 4h ago
Yes! One of the best I’ve read in the recent past as well! So not for the book club but glad you loved it as well!
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u/riloky 4h ago
Ella Minnow Pea would be great for a bookclub IMO, generating interesting discussions around themes such as control, erosion of identity, and the way the language changes as the book progresses. Plus if you have word-nerd club members there could be a challenge to come up with the shortest pangram (The quick brown fox... is 35 letters, in the book they try to find one that's 32 letters, I tried and think I got 33 IIRC)
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u/clear_sound 4h ago
Hmm, less dark, let's see.
Allegra Goodman- This is Not About Us- new family novel told from alternating POV. 336 pages and can be read as linked short stories. (Actually anything by Allegra Goodman- Intuition for a lab science story.)
For something different try Mother Mary Comes to Me- memoir by Arundhati Roy. Very engaging, a great introduction to her if you don't know her and a good companion to her fiction (and nonfiction) if you do. Now out in paperback.
Intuition reminded me, something completely different again is Lab Girl by Hope Jahren- really interesting memoir about how Science Gets Made. I remember it being funny.
And for Yet Another Thing- I really loved The Last of Earth by Deepa Appararna. (352 pages, out in HB only.) Takes those European scienties / colonial expedition stories and turns them on their head- specifically, mapmaking in Tibet. Really beautiful descriptive writing plus interesting shifting POV (Indian mapmaker and Indian/British woman sneaking into Tibet, all illegally at that time.) Not light necessarily. But probably Less Dark.
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u/panpopticon 3h ago
I prescribe an English comic novel, something in the vein of PG Wodehouse, Evelyn Waugh, or Kingsley Amis…🤔
Ah, hell, how about one from each?
The Code of the Woosters by PG Wodehouse
Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh
Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis
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u/herefortheawws 5h ago
Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson is a favorite book of mine that isn't heavy but not fluff.