By Jennifer Marie Lin on Aug 20th, 2021 (Last Updated Aug 20th, 2021)
If you’re in the mood for some light reading, this is a list of Light, Easy and Breezy Books to Read.
As gratifying as it can be to read a hardcore literary novel, there’s something nice about a quick and lighthearted read that you can finish in one afternoon — and hopefully it’ll make you laugh or lift your spirits in the process.
So, for some great casual but good reading, be sure to take a look at these titles for some light reads. Also, feel free to drop a comment if you have a suggestion for this list!
General Fiction
Romance/Chick Lit
Mystery/Thriller
Historical Fiction
Young Adult
Other
General Fiction Light Reads
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Taylor Jenkins ReidWhat It’s About: Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now?
Monique is not exactly on top of the world…
See the Full Summary and Review of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo Publication Date: June 13, 2017
4.45 out of 5 on Goodreads
historical fiction romance lgbtq Malibu Rising
Taylor Jenkins ReidWhat It’s About: Malibu 1983. Four famous siblings throw an epic party to celebrate the end of the summer. But over the course of one night, each of their lives will be changed forever in this propulsive novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Daisy Jones & The Six .
Malibu is buzzing with anticipation for Nina Riva’s annual party…
See the Full Summary and Review of Malibu Rising Publication Date: May 27, 2021
4.11 out of 5 on Goodreads
historical fiction read in 2021 2021 reads The Midnight Library
Matt HaigWhat It’s About: The New York Times bestselling WORLDWIDE phenomenon
Winner of the Goodreads Choice Award for Fiction | A Good Morning America Book Club Pick
“A feel-good book guaranteed to lift your spirits.”—The Washington Post
The dazzling reader-favorite about the choices that go into a life well lived, from the acclaimed author of How To Stop Time and The Comfort Book…
See the Full Summary and Review of The Midnight Library Publication Date: August 13, 2020
4.09 out of 5 on Goodreads
fantasy book club read in 2021
A Man Called Ove
Fredrik BackmanWhat It’s About: A grumpy yet loveable man finds his solitary world turned on its head when a boisterous young family moves in next door.
Meet Ove. He’s a curmudgeon, the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse…
See the Full Summary and Review of A Man Called Ove Publication Date: August 27, 2012
4.35 out of 5 on Goodreads
book club contemporary audiobook
The Rosie Project
Graeme SimsionWhat It’s About: An international sensation, this hilarious, feel-good novel is narrated by an oddly charming and socially challenged genetics professor on an unusual quest: to find out if he is capable of true love.
Don Tillman, professor of genetics, has never been on a second date. He is a man who can count all his friends on the fingers of one hand, whose lifelong difficulty with social rituals has convinced him that he is simply not wired for romance…
See the Full Summary and Review of The Rosie Project Publication Date: January 30, 2013
4.01 out of 5 on Goodreads
romance book club contemporary What Alice Forgot
Liane MoriartyWhat It’s About: Alice Love is twenty-nine, crazy about her husband, and pregnant with her first child. So imagine Alice’s surprise when she comes to on the floor of a gym (a gym! She HATES the gym) and is whisked off to the hospital where she discovers the honeymoon is truly over — she’s getting divorced, she has three kids, and she’s actually 39 years old…Publication Date: May 1, 2009
4.07 out of 5 on Goodreads
book club chick lit contemporary The House in the Cerulean Sea
TJ KluneWhat It’s About: An Alternative Cover Edition can be found here
A magical island. A dangerous task. A burning secret.
Linus Baker leads a quiet, solitary life. At forty, he lives in a tiny house with a devious cat and his old records. As a Case Worker at the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth, he spends his days overseeing the well-being of children in government-sanctioned orphanages…
See the Full Summary and Review of The House in the Cerulean Sea Publication Date: March 16, 2020
4.47 out of 5 on Goodreads
lgbtq romance fantasy The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared
Jonas JonassonWhat It’s About: It all starts on the one-hundredth birthday of Allan Karlsson. Sitting quietly in his room in an old people’s home, he is waiting for the party he-never-wanted-anyway to begin. The Mayor is going to be there. The press is going to be there. But, as it turns out, Allan is not… Slowly but surely Allan climbs out of his bedroom window, into the flowerbed (in his slippers) and makes his getaway…See the Full Summary and Review of The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared Publication Date: September 9, 2009
3.81 out of 5 on Goodreads
humor book club contemporary
Romance/Chick-Lit Light Reads
Evvie Drake Starts Over
Linda HolmesWhat It’s About: In a sleepy seaside town in Maine, recently widowed Eveleth “Evvie” Drake rarely leaves her large, painfully empty house nearly a year after her husband’s death in a car crash. Everyone in town, even her best friend, Andy, thinks grief keeps her locked inside, and Evvie doesn’t correct them.
Meanwhile, in New York City, Dean Tenney, former Major League pitcher and Andy’s childhood best friend, is wrestling with what miserable athletes living out their worst nightmares call the “yips”: he can’t throw straight anymore, and, even worse, he can’t figure out why…
Publication Date: June 25, 2019
3.84 out of 5 on Goodreads
romance contemporary chick lit
I’ve Got Your Number
Sophie KinsellaWhat It’s About: I’ve lost it. 🙁 The only thing in the world I wasn’t supposed to lose. My engagement ring. It’s been in Magnus’s family for three generations. And now the very same day his parents are coming, I’ve lost it. The very same day! Do not hyperventilate, Poppy. Stay positive 🙂 !!
Poppy Wyatt has never felt luckier…Publication Date: October 31, 2011
3.94 out of 5 on Goodreads
chick lit romance contemporary
The Wedding Date
Jasmine GuilloryWhat It’s About: A groomsman and his last-minute guest are about to discover if a fake date can go the distance in a fun and flirty debut novel.
Agreeing to go to a wedding with a guy she gets stuck with in an elevator is something Alexa Monroe wouldn’t normally do. But there’s something about Drew Nichols that’s too hard to resist…
Publication Date: January 30, 2018
3.60 out of 5 on Goodreads
romance contemporary chick lit Something Borrowed
Emily GiffinWhat It’s About: Something Borrowed tells the story of Rachel, a young attorney living and working in Manhattan.
Rachel has always been the consummate good girl—until her thirtieth birthday, when her best friend, Darcy, throws her a party. That night, after too many drinks, Rachel ends up in bed with Darcy’s fiancé…
Publication Date: June 1, 2004
3.86 out of 5 on Goodreads
chick lit romance books i own People We Meet on Vacation
Emily HenryWhat It’s About: Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love.
Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends…
See the Full Summary and Review of People We Meet on Vacation Publication Date: May 11, 2021
4.10 out of 5 on Goodreads
romance romance contemporary
The Unhoneymooners
Christina LaurenWhat It’s About: An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.
Olive Torres is used to being the unlucky twin: from inexplicable mishaps to a recent layoff, her life seems to be almost comically jinxed. By contrast, her sister, Ami, is an eternal champion . . . she even managed to finance her entire wedding by winning a slew of contests…
Publication Date: May 14, 2019
4.02 out of 5 on Goodreads
romance contemporary enemies to lovers
Mystery/Thriller Light Reads
The Last Thing He Told Me
Laura DaveWhat It’s About: Alternate cover editions for this ISBN can be found here and here.
We all have stories we never tell.
Before Owen Michaels disappears, he manages to smuggle a note to his beloved wife of one year: Protect her.
Despite her confusion and fear, Hannah Hall knows exactly to whom the note refers: Owen’s sixteen-year-old daughter, Bailey…
See the Full Summary and Review of The Last Thing He Told Me Publication Date: May 4, 2021
3.96 out of 5 on Goodreads
mystery thriller 2021 books
The Thursday Murder Club
Richard OsmanWhat It’s About: Four septuagenarians with a few tricks up their sleeves
A female cop with her first big case
A brutal murder
Welcome to…
THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB
In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet weekly in the Jigsaw Room to discuss unsolved crimes; together they call themselves The Thursday Murder Club…
Publication Date: September 3, 2020
3.96 out of 5 on Goodreads
mystery crime read in 2021
The Good Sister
Sally HepworthWhat It’s About: There’s only been one time that Rose couldn’t stop me from doing the wrong thing and that was a mistake that will haunt me for the rest of my life.
Fern Castle works in her local library. She has dinner with her twin sister Rose three nights a week. And she avoids crowds, bright lights and loud noises as much as possible…
See the Full Summary and Review of The Good Sister Publication Date: April 13, 2021
4.19 out of 5 on Goodreads
thriller mystery mystery thriller
Historical Fiction Light Reads
The Giver of Stars
Jojo MoyesWhat It’s About: From the author of Me Before You, set in Depression-era America, a breathtaking story of five extraordinary women and their remarkable journey through the mountains of Kentucky and beyond.
Alice Wright marries handsome American Bennett Van Cleve hoping to escape her stifling life in England…
See the Full Summary and Review of The Giver of Stars Publication Date: October 3, 2019
4.27 out of 5 on Goodreads
historical fiction book club audiobook
The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue
Mackenzi LeeWhat It’s About: Henry “Monty” Montague was born and bred to be a gentleman, but he was never one to be tamed. The finest boarding schools in England and the constant disapproval of his father haven’t been able to curb any of his roguish passions—not for gambling halls, late nights spent with a bottle of spirits, or waking up in the arms of women or men…Publication Date: June 27, 2017
4.06 out of 5 on Goodreads
historical fiction young adult lgbtq
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society
Mary Ann ShafferWhat It’s About: A remarkable tale of the island of Guernsey during the German Occupation, and of a society as extraordinary as its name.
“Treat yourself to this book, please – I can’t recommend it highly enough.” (Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love)
“I wonder how the book got to Guernsey? Perhaps there is some sort of secret homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers…
Publication Date: July 29, 2008
4.17 out of 5 on Goodreads
historical fiction book club historical
Young Adult Light Reads
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before
Jenny HanWhat It’s About: Lara Jean’s love life gets complicated in this New York Times bestselling “lovely, lighthearted romance” from the New York Times bestselling author of The Summer I Turned Pretty series.
What if all the crushes you ever had found out how you felt about them… all at once?
Sixteen-year-old Lara Jean Song keeps her love letters in a hatbox her mother gave her…
Publication Date: April 15, 2014
4.10 out of 5 on Goodreads
young adult romance contemporary
Anna and the French Kiss
Stephanie PerkinsWhat It’s About: Anna has everything figured out – she was about to start senior year with her best friend, she had a great weekend job, and her huge work crush looked as if it might finally be going somewhere… Until her dad decides to send her 4383 miles away to Paris. On her own.
But despite not speaking a word of French, Anna finds herself making new friends, including Etienne, the smart, beautiful boy from the floor above…
Publication Date: December 2, 2010
4.00 out of 5 on Goodreads
young adult romance contemporary
Fangirl
Rainbow RowellWhat It’s About: Cath is a Simon Snow fan. Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan… But for Cath, being a fan is her life — and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.
Reading…
Publication Date: September 10, 2013
4.00 out of 5 on Goodreads
young adult contemporary romance
Other Light Reads
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)
Mindy KalingWhat It’s About: Length – 4 hrs and 37 mins
Mindy Kaling has lived many lives: the obedient child of immigrant professionals, a timid chubster afraid of her own bike, a Ben Affleck – impersonating Off-Broadway performer and playwright, and, finally, a comedy writer and actress prone to starting fights with her friends and coworkers with the sentence “Can I just say one last thing about this, and then I swear I’ll shut up about it?”
Perhaps you want to know what Mindy thinks makes a great best friend (someone who will fill your prescription in the middle of the night), or what makes a great guy (one who is aware of all elderly people in any room at any time and acts accordingly), or what is the perfect amount of fame (so famous you can never get convicted of murder in a court of law), or how to maintain a trim figure (you will not find that information in these pages)…
See the Full Summary and Review of Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) Publication Date: November 1, 2011
3.85 out of 5 on Goodreads
non fiction memoir humor
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