This summer has been a bit crazy for me. Between cheerleading camp and an AP conference, I haven’t been home much, and the times that I have been home have been mostly dedicated to cleaning and organizing everything I ignored for the past school year. Add that to the pressure to read six summer reading books for school, book club picks, and challenge books, I just really haven’t had the chance to pick up a book that I wanted to read for myself.
And it doesn’t help that the books that I find myself gravitating to are fluff books.
Why Read Fluff Books?
Don’t get me wrong. Some of these books are not chick lit rom-coms (although some of them are that, which I don’t mind). Some have death and deal with some painful themes. But overall, they end. Not with a cliffhanger, but with a nice, neat ending that is generally hopeful and positive. And that is what I need right now.
With Instagram and Facebook being flooded with images of children being separated from parents and held in cages (!!!), my normal sanctuaries aren’t there. Every cute kitten video in my feed is followed by a political rant that I don’t really have the stomach for. So I find myself turning to my books.
While at my AP conference last week, I read A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray. This book started with her mother’s death and ended with… something not great (no spoilers, even if this book is 15 years old). It’s the first in a series, which means it didn’t really end, but mostly just set up the next book. These girls were dealing with some messed up stuff, but… it still felt light.
Maybe because it’s not 1895 anymore, and women aren’t controlled by their parents and society (at the moment… I see you Handmaid’s Tale). Maybe it’s because it was mostly-privileged white girls at a wealthy boarding school whose sole purpose was to prepare them to be wives. Maybe it’s because I love magic? I just thought that this book was a delightful escape from reality when Instagram (and AP Economics) just weren’t cutting it.
There’s a time and a place for the big, heavy, important books. I’ve read a few of those this year, and I’m glad I did. But there’s also a place for the fluffy books that just transport you out of the current world for a bit. And at this moment, in the 100 degree heat of Louisiana, in the scary and uncertain political times, in the I’m-avoiding-all-mention-of-school phase of summer, “fluffy with a positive ending” seems to be exactly what I need.
My Favorite Fluff Books
- The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
- A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
- Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal
- The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
- Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen (or anything by her, really)
- Small Admissions by Amy Poppel
- Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld
