In praise of bubblegum fiction.

[saffronhare]

I have -- gasp! -- been reading for fun these past several weeks. See, there's a wall of bookshelves outside my office, and we (meaning the Creative Department) encourage book-sharing there. The company is heavy on...um, Johnson County beige women (and I say this as a woman who resides in JoCo and sort of hates that generalization)...so there's an awful lot of Sophie Kinsella and Nicholas Sparks and the sorts of fiction one picks up in the airport when one travels a lot to see clients and feels desperate for *something* to read. I also think somebody belongs to a book club, maybe.

Anyway. I've been picking up some of these books lately. They're the sort of thing I can read two or three pages at a time, or indulge in while I watch a bit of TV. Very recreational stuff -- sort of a BRAT diet for my overworked psyche -- little paperbacks that fit well into my purse and don't take up a lot of RAM. This isn't literature by any stretch of the imagination, and neither is it great fiction. But I'm liking the humor and lightness, the catchy phrasing and witty pace of it all. Yes, even a bit of Sophie Kinsella.

You're all reading (and writing) some great words these days, so there's no shortage of good influence and recommendations. I'll look forward to reading stuff toward the other end of the bell curve, when I'm up to it, but this is just about right for now.

Something Borrowed, by Emily Giffin
Kushiel's Justice, by Jaqueline Carey (okay, not so bubblegum)
A Cook's Tour, by Anthony Bourdain (almost done)
Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany, by Bill Buford (next up)

Comments

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

I just finished Marie Phillips' debut novel Gods Behaving Badly, which involves most of the Olympians stuck for 300 years in a dilapidated flat in London. Quick read, very funny, and apparently optioned for the BBC already.

[saffronhare.livejournal.com]

That sounds really good! Is it a book you own, or one you borrowed from the library?

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

Own, but I just gave it to kittenpants as an early birthday gift. I expect you can borrow it after she gets done... (I wanted to read it first to see if it was complete tripe)

[saffronhare.livejournal.com]

Cool. YAY!

[celticwhistlin.livejournal.com]

I saw that in the book store and almost got it. Is it good?