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 , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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 , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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 , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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 , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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

Posted in 13 years and up, 20th Century YA, Comedy, Coming of Age/Rites of Passage, Diarial, Fiction, Light Fiction, Novel, Romance, YA Classic, Young Adult | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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

Posted in American, Contemporary, Epistolary Novel, Fiction, General adult audience, Historical Fiction, Light Fiction, Novel, War Story | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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 , , , , , , , | Leave a comment