Desperate for a good book. Seriously.

[Anonymous]

Diane Chamberlain is a great author for a Jodi Picoult fan.

I just finished a non-fiction YA book that reads like fiction called I Will Write Back about a pen pal relationship between a girl in America and boy in Africa. It was excellent and I think every teenager should have to read it.

At the Water's Edge by Sara Gruen was really good.

I just read One in a Million Boy for book club and enjoyed it. No violence at all.

All the Winter's After by Seré Prince Halvorsen.

Gray Mountain - John Grisham

One Plus One - Jojo Moyes

The Royal We - Heather Cocks (might be too fluffy for your taste)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Defending Jacob is my favorite book!
You should read Finding Jake and Afterwards.

Ugh I hated that book. But if you liked it you may also like The Dinner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Defending Jacob is my favorite book!
You should read Finding Jake and Afterwards.

Ugh I hated that book. But if you liked it you may also like The Dinner.

Loved Defending Jacob and hated The Dinner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about the Shopaholic books by Sophia Kinsella?

WAY too fluffy for me! I like bestsellers, but they need to be a bit more meaty than that.

It is adorable that you think Jodi Picoult novels are more "meaty" than the Shopaholic books.

Seriously, the PP who asserted you would like books that have been made into movies with familiar actors is correct.

Have you read both? Dr. Seuss is more "meaty" than the Shopaholic books.

Yes, I've read both. Jodi Picoult writes hackneyed, formulaic commercial fiction that is the literary equivalent of a Big Mac. A female Dan Brown, if you will. If you don't notice the bad writing, I can't explain it to you.

My point is that on a scale of fluffy books I think the Shopaholic series is so much more fluffy and empty than Jodi Picoult that it manages to make Picoult's writing seem meaty by comparison. Picoult is entertaining. Shopaholic made me feel like I lost brain cells reading it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Spoiler alert, but Poisonwood Bible has at least one of the things on the OP's "no go" list. I am having a hard time thinking of adult books that have no violence or deaths of children.

If OP reallly wants books with no violence at all, she probably should just stick with fluflfy books like Shopaholic.

I didn't say no violence at all. I said no violence to children.

Such as a nonfiction book about children in African who become soldiers. That's a no go for me.

Are you referring to What is the What? That book made me cry and scream - literally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about the Shopaholic books by Sophia Kinsella?

WAY too fluffy for me! I like bestsellers, but they need to be a bit more meaty than that.

It is adorable that you think Jodi Picoult novels are more "meaty" than the Shopaholic books.

Seriously, the PP who asserted you would like books that have been made into movies with familiar actors is correct.

Have you read both? Dr. Seuss is more "meaty" than the Shopaholic books.

Yes, I've read both. Jodi Picoult writes hackneyed, formulaic commercial fiction that is the literary equivalent of a Big Mac. A female Dan Brown, if you will. If you don't notice the bad writing, I can't explain it to you.

My point is that on a scale of fluffy books I think the Shopaholic series is so much more fluffy and empty than Jodi Picoult that it manages to make Picoult's writing seem meaty by comparison. Picoult is entertaining. Shopaholic made me feel like I lost brain cells reading it.

Shopaholic, though, is unabashed chick lit. It doesn't "pretend" to be anything but fluff. I DO think that Picoult's writing is equally poor in different ways, plus Picoult novels are presented--and accepted!--as "literature" by the morons who don't notice the hackneyed, blatantly formulaic writing. Picoult novels are sheer garbage, and I stand by my assertion that they are the literary equivalent of a Big Mac. (Shopaholic is perhaps the literary equivalent of a McFlurry).

[Anonymous]

I just started Big Little Lies based on this thread. It's pretty good!

[Anonymous]

The Summer Before the War is excellent. Much better than the Major Pettigrew book, which I couldn't finish.

[Anonymous]

OP update. I bought these books (impulse buys, don't tell DH haha):
Luckiest Girl Alive
A Man Called Ove
Silent Sister
My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She's Sorry

I also have several on hold at the library!

[Anonymous]

I don't know if this will be up your alley, but City of Thieves is one of my all-time favorites. I laughed out loud more than once.

[Anonymous]

The Paris Wife
The Rosie Project
American Wife, Prep, anything by Sittenfield

These should be right up your alley OP. You'd also probably enjoy the fault in our stars if you do YA.

[Anonymous]

The new Ann Tyler, "Vinegar Girl", based on The Taming of the Shrew sounds good.
Of course I love anything Ann Tyler, though never read her last book, "The Blue Spool"

The new Laura Lippman also sounds good, "Wilde Lake", set in Columbia, MD

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The new Ann Tyler, "Vinegar Girl", based on The Taming of the Shrew sounds good.
Of course I love anything Ann Tyler, though never read her last book, "The Blue Spool"

The new Laura Lippman also sounds good, "Wilde Lake", set in Columbia, MD

I read that one recently and really enjoyed it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Criteria:
~No violence or torture. Girl on the Train is ok, Unbroken is not.
~No abuse/death of children. My Sister's Keeper is ok, A Child Called It is not ok.
~No series or trilogies. With the exception of Harry Potter, I suck at reading trilogies.

I prefer popular fiction. I like a book where SOMETHING happens: murder mysteries, disappearances, or general suburban life gone wrong.

Favorite include:
~Orphan Train
~Husband's Secret, Big Little Lies, What Alice Forgot
~Calling Me Home
~Help
~Water for Elephants
~We Were Liars
~Little Children
~older Jodi Picoult books: Pact, Sister's Keepers
~Defending Jacob

All time favorites include Time Travelers Wife, World According to Garp, and Gone with the Wind.


I recently tried Cutting for Stone but quit. Also tried Outlander but quit. It wasn't so much the length but that I got bogged down by details and didn't love the characters.

HELP!!!

Defending Jacob was a totally effed up book about child violence wtf lol?

I just really enjoyed The Nightingale and if you haven't read The Goldfinch that one really surprised me. It was on so many 'best' lists I thought it was going to be super literary but it was actually exciting and moving and riveting all at the same time. Very different! I also strongly recommend that one on audible, great narrator for boris.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just started Big Little Lies based on this thread. It's pretty good!

Not only did I rip through this but afterwards read every single one of Liane Moriarty's books. I'm not one for chick lit usually but she really captured something about women and how they interact and live, especially through early marriage and child rearing. They're all really good, I recommend What Alice Forgot next if you really like her, that was my second favorite.