Which lowbrow books do you love?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:ACOTAR.

YES. I binged this as a mid-40 year old. Also loved the Bridgerton series. I read a ton of "real books," but I could never get through them without some brain candy breaks.

I also love light romances with HEA--especially the big city/small town trope. Is the main character the owner of a bakery/coffee shop/bookstore in a small town and the love interest is a CEO/lawyer/surgeon from The Big City passing through who ends up overstaying his/her welcome due to a broken car/snowstorm/sick parent and finds love and peace in the small town? Love it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Jenny Colgan books. Can’t get enough!

Her books are so dumb, and I cannot stop reading them!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sweet Valley High

Let’s be friends forever.

May I join?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love English murder mysteries, set in centuries past. Anna Huber, Charles Finch, C. S. Harris are favorite authors.
Been reading the Outlander books and enjoyed those.

So much research goes into those historical series. I don't see them as low brow at all!

I'm a huge Anna Lee Huber and CS Harris fan. Also love Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs series, Deanna Raybourn's Veronica Speedwell series, and Victoria Thompson's Gilded New York series. Great characters development and fascinating historical detail.

[Anonymous]

Genre fiction is not low brow! I will proudly read romance, his fic, mysteries, thrillers, etc. Anyone who puts genre fiction down needs to reconsider WHY they've bought into that.

Booktok was just on fire over gatekeeping in literature. Check this and this out.

[Anonymous]

Danielle Steele back in the day. I particularly loved the historic ones - the one where the heroine survives the sinking of the Titanic, The Ring, which was set in Nazi Germany and thereafter (and is also a great made for TV movie), Zoya, set in Russia.

And my all-time favorite Summer's End.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Danielle Steele back in the day. I particularly loved the historic ones - the one where the heroine survives the sinking of the Titanic, The Ring, which was set in Nazi Germany and thereafter (and is also a great made for TV movie), Zoya, set in Russia.

And my all-time favorite Summer's End.

I'm predicting Titanic stories are going to be trending next year. I feel like stories about women during WW1 and WW2 were trending for the last couple years and I already see some chatter about authors researching the Titanic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Omg. You are my people. I love Valley of the Dolls with a passion, and IRL I know only one other person who liked Swet Valley High. This is awesome!

SVH was the rage in 8th grade! I haven't gone back to them but just idea makes me happy.

I showed these to my teen and tween and they were blown away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sweet Valley High

Let’s be friends forever.

May I join?

Of course. Pull up in a Porsche with a 1BRUCE1 license plate. Let the fan club commence.

[Anonymous]

Harry Potter, sorry not sorry (I don't like JK Rowling though)
The Royal We books from the Fug Girls
John Scalzi (sci fi writer, his books are pretty light and easy, especially for sci fi, so I categorize this as low brow)
Becky Chambers (more sci fi, similar tone and heft to Scalzi)
Laura Lippman (detective novels set in Baltimore)
Louise Penny (detective novels set in Montreal/Quebec)

Again, maybe some of these wouldn't be considered low brow by some -- I think these are all really well written books (yes, even HP! It is flawed but there is a reason they are so popular), but I mostly read literary fiction and much more dense sci fi and fantasy, but these are the books I reach for when I want something lighter, faster to read, and that won't ask as much of me as a reader. Always grateful for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Danielle Steele back in the day. I particularly loved the historic ones - the one where the heroine survives the sinking of the Titanic, The Ring, which was set in Nazi Germany and thereafter (and is also a great made for TV movie), Zoya, set in Russia.

And my all-time favorite Summer's End.

From about 5th grade to 9th grade, “historical” Danielle Steel was my jam! My favorite was Message From Nam.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:VC Andrews. I am also the poster from the other thread who is currently reading The Perfect Cheerleader. I like basically any book that would make a good Lifetime movie!

+1 I still remember discovering VC Andrews as a young teen at my public library. So many hours of guilty pleasure reading.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Crazy Rich Asians. Not my usual type of book AT ALL. But I loved them.

Lurlene McDaniel was a favorite YA trashy author. The teenage protagonist always had some chronic illness, often terminal, and there would be a soap opera tragedy. Like, two friends on the heart transplant list needed the same organ. Or a girl was in a horrible car accident with her mother and her mother died and she lived but the blood transfusion gave her AIDS. Or the girl with the fatal brain tumor finds her true love, who has cystic fibrosis. Or the other girl with the type 1 diabetes and eating disorder has a huge fight with her hemophiliac boyfriend but then he gets kicked by a horse. Absolutely maudlin garbage and I loved it. My mother bought me the books but I thought her eyes would about roll out of her head every time she did.

These Lurlene McDaniel books sound amazing. I may have to try reading them now.

Someone needs to open a chain of SVH-themed coffee/wine/bookshops where all of us middle-aged women can meet and giggle together.

[Anonymous]

I only enjoy lowbrow lol.. where do I start??

[Anonymous]

Whitney, My Love