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Category Archives: Light Fiction
Deadly lizards, delinquent boys, a sinister warden and a whole lot of HOLES feature in Louis Sachar’s acclaimed YA novel
When Stanley Yelnats gets caught holding a celebrity’s stolen sneakers which have just fallen on him out of the sky, he knows that it’s because of the family curse acquired by his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather. Stanley is sent to Camp Green Lake, … Continue reading
Posted in 10 years and up, 20th Century, 20th Century YA, Adventure, American, Coming of Age/Rites of Passage, Family Drama, Fiction, Light Fiction, Novel, YA Classic, Young Adult
Tagged boys, camping, friendship, good out loud, growing up, hardship, history, Louis Sachar, overcoming adversity, resourcefulness, summer camp, survival, Texas, well written
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Bucketlists and marriages of convenience: The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery uses a bunch of tropes before they were popular
The Blue Castle was L.M. Montgomery’s only book written for adults and my favourite of her non-Anne books. Really the only difference between it and her young adult novels is that the heroine is 29 and unmarried teen pregnancy is … Continue reading
Posted in 20th Century, 20th Century Light Fiction, Canadian, Fiction, General adult audience, Light Fiction, Novel, Romance, Young Adult
Tagged Canada, cats, classic tropes, death, drunkness, family, fiction, individualism, L.M. Montgomery, lighthearted read, marriage of convenience, romance, spinsterhood, teen pregnancy
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Pleasant, light reading that leaves me with a warm feeling towards my fellow-human beings: The 44 Scotland Street series by Alexander McCall Smith
The 44 Scotland Street series by Alexander McCall Smith is a modern serial novel published daily in the Scotsman and subsequently in book form. It follows a number of characters in Edinburgh as they drink coffee, negotiate childhood with a … Continue reading
Posted in British, Contemporary, General adult audience, Light Fiction, Scottish, Serial Novel
Tagged Alexander McCall Smith, character-driven, child-raising, dogs, fiction, gap year, gentrification, good out loud, growing up, humour, lighthearted read, men and women, mild romance, modern life, music, narcissism, neighbours, poetry, Scotland, Scottish, social class, society, uni student life
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Light a Single Candle by Beverley Butler
Light A Single Candle by Beverley Butler is a great book written in the early 60s that I discovered in high school. Cathy Wheeler becomes completely blind in her early teens when surgery to treat glaucoma goes seriously wrong. As … Continue reading
Posted in 11 years and up, 20th Century YA, American, Coming of Age/Rites of Passage, Light Fiction, Novel, YA Realism, Young Adult
Tagged 1960s, 20th Century, American, animals, blindness, coming-of-age, disability, dogs, fiction, guide dogs, high school, instituationalisation, society, young adult
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Henrietta’s War and Henrietta Sees It Through by Joyce Dennys
Henrietta’s War by Joyce Dennys and its sequel, Henrietta Sees it Through, are a series of letters to a childhood friend during WWII. They document the small and amusing indignities and challenges of life in a “safe part of England” … Continue reading
Posted in 20th Century Light Fiction, British, Comedy, Episodic Novel, Epistolary Novel, General adult audience, Light Fiction, Novel, Social Novel, War Story
Tagged 20th Century, British, epistolary, fiction, good out loud, home front, humour, illustrated, overcoming adversity, semi-autobiographical, war novel, wartime, WWII
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I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith begins “I write this sitting in the kitchen sink” and is the delightful story of an impoverished family living in a crumbling castle in the early 20th century. It has a delightful cast … Continue reading
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is a delightful book set just after WWII and featuring an unlikely group of people who learn to love reading under the Nazi occupation of the British Channel Isles. It is an … Continue reading
Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome
Three Men in a Boat (to Say Nothing of the Dog) by Jerome K. Jerome is an amusing account of a boating trip up the Thames. Rich in hypochondria, satire and altercations with tents and pineapple tins, it is a … Continue reading
Posted in British, Comedy, Fiction, General adult audience, Light Fiction, Novel, Travel Fiction, Victorian
Tagged animals, boats, British, classic, fiction, good out loud, humour, travel
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