Hey Derfs!
I'm in the middle of a 100 book challenge for the year. (follow my progress at http://therumblereview.wordpress.com).

I've realized I've read some heavy books in the past few weeks. All good, but a bit heavy.

Does anyone have any recommendations for fun summer reads? I'm looking for anything one can qualify as brain candy, trashy beach read, or chick lit.

Thanks Derfs! I hope everyone is having a great summer!

Fellow Derf Melissa Westemeier's books are great. I guess they are chick lit but she writes intelligent interesting characters. Kicks like a Girl and Whipped Not Beaten. Elin Hilderbrand's books are wonderful beach reads set in Nantucket. I just finished One Plus One by JoJo Moyes and really enjoyed it. None of these are trashy, though!

Oh boy have I got some books for you! The writer is Barbara O'Neal , the books are
" The Lost Recipe for Happiness", "The Secret of Everything", "How to Bake a Perfect Life"
" The Garden of Happy Endings". Strong women, food , love, relationships, strong situations but somehow not depressing. Love these books!

"The Colony" by Anne Rivers Siddon...delightful beach read book about the old seaside Colony's (sp?) focused on one family and the others that summered there....

The Rosie Project, Alex and the Universe and The storied life of A.J. Firky. All nice light reads.

Thanks! Adding these to my lists!

Ok, not exactly light reading, but not difficult either. It you haven't done Reading Lolita in Tehran, I highly recommend it. The author is a very good writer - I understood after 14 pages why this book got so much attention. You, the reader, just float through the writing and the author's experiences on a wave.

What she has to say about the elimination of women as thinking, feeling, unique individuals, with the right to self-determination is important, and food for thought when our own society, in different ways, is trying to push back the progress women have made in the past 40 years.

I'll second The Rosie Project. I also really enjoyed Courting Greta. I've been enjoying Rosamond Pilcher and Maeve Binchy recently too. Loved all 6 books Liane Moriarty has written--really page turners. I have also enjoyed all of Kate Morton's books.

Sarah Addison Allen - lost lake, the girl who chased the moon. Light and whimsical, very well written. Rainbow Rowell - Eleanor and park
Samantha Shannon - the bone season. Kind of YA, sci-fi dystopian future
And I've had fun reading original fiction that became recent movies - warm bodies, world war z (really), and (nonfiction) monuments men.

Enjoy! (I also third The Rosie Project!)