16 books to read if you need something fun.

My list of quality reads that are also a good time.

I see so many of my friends get stuck in reading slumps. Sometimes going even years without reading a book. Then when they decide they will get back into reading and they will pick up like Dostoyevsky or some non-fiction tome on the Nazis or something. Eyes get heavy first few pages in. Never make it past page 30. They stay in their slump.

The trick to getting back into reading when you haven’t in awhile is you have to start with something fun. Your brain has been filled with dopamine from your noisy and colorful phone and it is going to be hard to make a sudden switch to the books you consider to be the most intellectual and worthy of your time. You’re probably not going to go on your beach vacation and crank out Paradise Lost between TikToks, I’m sorry.

But also, I am not here to recommend you read AI written romantasy smut of misunderstood small town Disney adults getting ravaged by gay hockey playing dragons.

The books I am going to suggest are still smart, well written books but most importantly they are fun to read!

The Guest by Emma Cline

The quintessential beach read of 2023. Messy messy girl makes her way through the Hamptons making every decision that a normal sane person wouldn’t even consider. Stressful? Yes. Fun? Definitely.

Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson

A young woman is hired by a rich couple to babysit their children and keep them out of the public eye as the husband runs for public office. Why does he want his kids out of the public eye? Because they have a condition where when they get upset they burst into flames (but for some reason are not hurt).

How to Murder Your Life by Cat Marnell

A rare non-fiction book that made the list, but hey, memoirs can definitely be fun. Cat Marnell was a beauty editor at Lucky magazine which was a Conde Naste publication, and this is early 00’s when magazines were big business. She was basically Anne Hathaways character from Devil Wears Prada but snorting adderall, popping xanax, and smoking PCP before she went into work each day. It’s wild and so fun to read.

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Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

I think a lot of sci fi is fun to read but it also suffers from the fact that it was written by nerds. Nerds love to world build which can be tough for when you haven’t read a book in awhile. You dont want to read about how “The United Blargon’s consulate was ruled over by three lords each hailing from a different Zorlac galaxy. But all was not well amongst the Zorlacian triumvirate ever since the Conclerian Jihad of the moon year 13,765” See? You probably fell asleep already. Project Hail Mary isn’t like that. Its about a human. From Earth. On a space mission that goes awry. He’s smart and witty and relatable. People who don’t like sci fi will like it.

Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

Taffy is the queen of the smart, good, but very fun book. You may think she is my friend because I call her Taffy. But I’ve never met her. I just have trouble writing her last name.

Anyways, she is a TV writer which maybe explains why she really knows how to pace things and create suspense/drama. Fleishman is in Trouble is partly a satire of wealthy Upper West Siders and partly a mystery. A recently separated doctor has his kids for the week but then when its time to give them back over to their mother (a successful talent manager) she is nowhere to be found. Could not put this book down. Super funny. Super good. Lots of good twists.

The Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

Another banger from my girl T (I don’t even write her full first name because were such good friends). This one starts out with a guy kidnapping but is more about how the children and wife are effected by the event and the rest of their lives. Okay that doesn’t make it sound fun, but I swear it is. I can’t explain this one well but it really skewers rich Long Island Jews. Taffy must have grown up around these people because she hits the nail on the head through and through with each character.

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Good Material by Dolly Alderton

Okay first of all can we just appreciate that her name is Dolly and that is already fun? Like the only other Dolly’s I can think of are Dolly Parton and Dolly the sheep who was cloned in 1996. My dad is a scientist so Dolly the sheep may have been a bigger part of my childhood than it was for the average 5-year-old at the time.

Back to the book.

Its about a breakup. Told from both sides of it. Super cringe. Super funny. Dolly Alderton rose to fame as an advice columnist (like me!) so she knows ball when it comes to breakups. You will laugh out loud reading this book, I promise.

Ghosts by Dolly Alderton

Dolly makes the list again! This one is about a girl who goes on several amazing dates with the guy of her dreams. Things seem to be going super well and then he ghosts her. Like way later in than it would seem appropriate to ghost someone. The book follows her spiral and eventual recovery. Also funny.

More by Molly Roden Winter

Another non-fiction one. This isn’t like “ha ha” funny, but its fun in like the way hearing gossip is funny. I think it was written as a bit of a raw yet inspirational story of how this Park Slope mother made polyamory work for her marriage. But I read it as kind of a train wreck that you can’t look away from. I felt so bad for her kids who by the end are old enough to understand what is going on. But very interesting to read if you like other people’s DrAmAaA!

Confessions by Kanae Minato

This is also not a funny book by any stretch. But it is fun. It’s a thriller with a twist every chapter. Sort of like those Gone Girl/Girl on the Train books that were popular but this one is about a middle school teacher who gets revenge on her students who are responsible for the death of her daughter. You never know who’s in the right, each page reveals new angles to the whole thing. Very fun book. Might be a bit on YA side of things. But whatever, don’t act above it.

Bright Lights Big City by Jay McInerny

You don’t read a lot of books told in the second person. See what I did there? Clever. But this is a super fun and super fast classic. New York in the 80s. Cocaine. Girls. Working as a fact checker for the NY Times. It really has it all. And its all told in the second person so it feels like its happening to you!

Im Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom by Jason Pargin

Great satire of modern day culture from streaming, to anxiety, to loneliness epidemic, to political polarization, to phone addiction. You know, all the things that everyone is always talking about on substack all the time. But this is super funny and super clever. Most recent book where I felt glued to it. Like wanted to read it while walking down the street without regard for if I got flattened at a crosswalk. It is that engaging. If you haven’t read a book in awhile and want to knock one out, you can definitely do this one.

Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash

This book was very similar to “Black Box” (the book I described a few inches above) but probably not as good. Really eclectic and fun characters and kind of like a modern day American Beauty in how it lampoons the mundane weirdness and angst of the American suburbs. I didn’t love all of the plot but then my friend told me to just think of it like an episode of Bob’s Burgers and it clicked. This book is exactly like a Bob’s Burgers movie in terms of its style of humor and plot and everything. Like Bob’s Burgers meets American Beauty. Its fun. You will like it. Not my top pick on this list though.

Ingram by Louis CK

I think Louis CK is a brilliant polymath. I know. You don’t hear people say that much. Obviously a great standup comic, but also he made Horace and Pete which is both a television show and kind of a play. You have to see it. Its like nothing I’ve seen and its perfect. So when I heard he wrote a novel I was of course interested. Ingram is a story about a poor uneducated boy in middle of nowhere Texas who doesn’t know a single thing about the world who has to leave his home at like age 7 because his mom can’t feed him anymore. Its an journey type book. A bit Demon Copperhead, a bit the Odyssey, a bit something else. He almost seems like a martian the way he describes the world he encounters because of how foreign it is to him. Its funny and sad and confusing and also brief. Will this one win any awards? Probably not. But its a great paced book for if you haven’t read in awhile and want to put down a fast one.

Rejection by Ton Tulathimute

Super vulgar and super funny book. I didn’t want to include any short story collections in this list and this one kind of straddles the line between novel and short story collection but I will let it slide. Technically all the short stories connect to each other and therefore form a cohesive singular story by the end. This is funny send up of modern internet culture and loneliness and weirdness and sex. Very of-the-times book, but laugh out liud funny and cringe. He has another book called Private Citizens thats worth checking out too but its much more specific to San Francisco 2010s tropes.

Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolf

The absolute classic. 80s NYC. Upper East Side financier hit and runs a kid in the Bronx. It causes a city wide scandal as the walls of justice slowly close in on him. Long but fast paced. You will be sweating and gritting your teeth the whole time. Really really fun book. Everyone who lives in NYC should read at some point.

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I’m not supposed to talk about this but the president said that he will resign if I get 1,000 paid subscribers. He also said my 1,000th subscriber can pick who the next president is. I looked it up and its weirdly legal.

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Alright that’s all. I hope you enjoyed this list. Give your suggestions in the comments. Criteria is that it has to be good, fun, and easy to read.

bye! 🫶