Here are 78 books that Bridget Jones fans have personally recommended once you finish the Bridget Jones series.
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I love stories so much I majored in English at UVa. Though I showed up in New York with only reading and waitressing skills, Iâve somehow enjoyed the privilege of working in the arts at some of the greatest institutions (Paul Taylor, Cooper Union, ABT). I respond to art, people and especially art-people. Encountering their deep love (and glorious dysfunction) in books enables me to extend the special communion that grows around audiences and artists. This is central to me. It reminds me that beauty is important. It helps me hold on.
This is such an insightful glimpse into what happens when an artistâin this case, an architectâstops creating, thatâs both hilarious and heartbreaking.
Describing the price of privilege, but without preciousness, Maria Semple illustrates the decline of a mother and professional, doing what seem like the right things while producing disastrous results that really ring true.
Fatigued by the priorities of high-tech Seattle, Bernadette loses her confidence and misplaces her trust. Then itâs her daughter who has to pull her back from the brink. Their love withstands the tests of culture, community, and commodity, reminding us of the remarkable symbiosis between mothers and daughters while showcasing Sempleâs irrepressible, satiric wit.
A misanthropic matriarch leaves her eccentric family in crisis when she mysteriously disappears in this "whip-smart and divinely funny" novel that inspired the movie starring Cate Blanchett (New York Times).
Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she's a disgrace; to design mavens, she's a revolutionary architect; and to 15-year-old Bee, she is her best friend and, simply, Mom.
Then Bernadette vanishes. It all began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette's intensifying allergy to Seattle --âŠ
As a writer, wife, and mom, I love reading novels and memoirs about women who are navigating parenting, relationships, and careers simultaneously. My favorites are those that make me laugh out loud while presenting a relatable picture of all this juggling act entails. Smart and witty heroines who approach life with a can-do spirit and the ability to laugh at themselves as the world tosses one curveball after another their way capture my heart every time.
Itâs hard to match Nora Ephronâs wit and wisdom. In this novel, which mirrors events from the novelist and screenwriterâs real life, cookbook writer Rachel Samstat learns that her husband is cheating on her while sheâs pregnant. Even as her life is falling apart, Rachel maintains her sense of humor while dropping the âeverything is perfectâ routine and speaking her mind.
In this tale of love and loss, Ephron serves up hilarious and heartbreaking moments in equal portions alongside mouthwatering recipes.
If I had to do it over again, I would have made a different kind of pie. The pie I threw at Mark made a terrific mess, but a blueberry pie would have been even better, since it would have permanently ruined his new blazer, the one he bought with Thelma ... I picked up the pie, thanked God for linoleum floor, and threw it' Rachel Samstat is smart, successful, married to a high-flying Washington journalist... and devastated. She has discovered that her husband is having an affair with Thelma Rice, 'a fairly tall person with a neck as longâŠ
I grew up reading the kind of books I could relate to, and 24 years ago, I felt ready to write my own book. I tried for a literary style at first but then soon realized that my natural voice suited novels that are warm, funny, and all about the ups and downs of ordinary peopleâs lives. These are the kind of books I still readâfor inspiration and escape. They inspire me, lift me up, and stay with me long after Iâve read the last page. For me, nothing is more fascinating than human emotions and the way we relate to each other and navigate our lives.
This isnât a novel but a collection of Ninaâs letters back home to her sister in Leicester when she was thrown into the thick of literary north London in the 1980s. Young Nina has taken a job as a nanny and is suddenly expected to create edible meals (thereâs a lot of turkey mince) and fit into a very different household to the one she grew up in.
IÂ love how Nina is shocked and delighted by how much garlic they use while cooking, and her relationship with the two boys she looks after had me chuckling throughout. The fact that Alan Bennett lives over the road, and is forever popping in, is the icing on the cake of this fabulous memoir.Â
* * * WINNER OF THE 2014 NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS POPULAR NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR * * *
'I adored this book, and I could quote from it forever. It's real, odd, life-affirming, sharp, loving, and contains more than one reference to Arsenal FC' Nick Hornby,The Believer
'Adrian Mole meets Mary Poppins mashed up in literary north London . . . Enormous fun' Bookseller
'What a beady eye she has for domestic life, and how deliciously fresh and funny she is' Deborah Moggach, author of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Nina Stibbe's Love, Nina: Despatches from Family Life isâŠ
I have been writing fiction since an early age, and I naturally create central female characters that I hope are warm, funny, and in some way flawed. Modules of my university degree dealt with psychology and sociology, and I automatically studied other people to inspire elements of my character. Lee Child is quoted as saying readers remember characters more than the plot, so when compiling my list, I recalled five female leads that have made me laugh, cringe, and relate to in equal measure. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!
Iâve never read a book as quickly as I read this one. Our eponymous lead character is quirky and odd, but the story is written with so much empathy, depth, and humor that I was rooting for her from the start.
I loved how the relationship between Eleanor and Raymond plays out and avoids the predictable âboy meets girlâ ending. It doesnât surprise me that the book is âin developmentâ as a movie, as the story plays out like a film when you read it. Definitely read this one first before you see the film! (It probably wonât take long as I couldnât put this book down.)
"Beautifully written and incredibly funny, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is about the importance of friendship and human connection. I fell in love with Eleanor, an eccentric and regimented loner whose life beautifully unfolds after a chance encounter with a stranger; I think you will fall in love, too!" -Reese Witherspoon
No one's ever told Eleanor that life should be better than fine.
Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she's thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life ofâŠ
Iâve spent my life in music and the creative industries, having worked in major record companies in London (among other places), and have loved every minute of it. Over the past 20 years, I've also studied it academically and run courses on entertainment management in colleges and Universities. It is rewarding to work with people who want to make a career in the creative industries. A colleague once said to me, âIf you can give me a graduate who can have a conversation with a Chief Financial Officer and not freak them out, and then have a conversation with an artist and not freak them out, then you will be doing the world a great favor, because this is comparatively rare.âÂ
I loved this fictitious expose of the New York fashion industry because it asks what we would sacrifice for âa job a million girls/boys would die for?â Sometimes, in the creative industries, power can be concentrated in the hands of people for whom âthe meaning of their lifeâ is about a creative project being successful.
This can lead them to make the lives of people around them miserable. How much abuse, poor pay, lack of credit, âself-exploitationâ, being absent for loved ones, how much of this would you tolerate? What if you had to sell your soul to fulfill your dream? This might seem academic, but for many in the creative industries, it has been painfully real.
High fashion, low cunning - and the boss from hell
When Andrea first sets foot in the plush Manhattan offices of Runway she knows nothing. She's never heard of the world's most fashionable magazine, or its feared and fawned-over editor, Miranda Priestly - her new boss.
A year later, she knows altogether too much:
That it's a sacking offence to wear anything lower than a three-inch heel to work.
That you can charge cars, manicures, anything at all to the Runway account, but you must never, ever, leave your desk, or let Miranda's coffee get cold.
As a writer, wife, and mom, I love reading novels and memoirs about women who are navigating parenting, relationships, and careers simultaneously. My favorites are those that make me laugh out loud while presenting a relatable picture of all this juggling act entails. Smart and witty heroines who approach life with a can-do spirit and the ability to laugh at themselves as the world tosses one curveball after another their way capture my heart every time.
Hedge fund manager Kate Reddy is keeping plenty of plates spinning while struggling to maintain her sanity as a mom and make it in âa manâs world.â For some, a day in Kateâs life might be anxiety-inducing (hence the title!), but for those whoâve lived it, itâs maddeningly accurate.
I read this novel before work-life balance became a popular catchphrase, and as much as we may think society has evolved, Kateâs day-to-day is probably still far more relatable than it should be.
A victim of time famine, thirty-five-year-old Kate counts seconds like other women count calories. As she runs between appointments, through her head spools the crazy tape-loop of every high-flying mother's life- client reports, bouncy castles, Bob The Builder, transatlantic phone calls, dental appointments, pelvic floor exercises, flights to New York, sex (too knackered), and stress-busting massages she always has to cancel (too busy). Factor in a controlling nanny, a chauvinist Australian boss, a long-suffering husband, two demanding children and an e-mail lover, and you have a woman juggling so many balls that some day soon something's going to hit theâŠ
I grew up reading the kind of books I could relate to, and 24 years ago, I felt ready to write my own book. I tried for a literary style at first but then soon realized that my natural voice suited novels that are warm, funny, and all about the ups and downs of ordinary peopleâs lives. These are the kind of books I still readâfor inspiration and escape. They inspire me, lift me up, and stay with me long after Iâve read the last page. For me, nothing is more fascinating than human emotions and the way we relate to each other and navigate our lives.
In recent years, Lisa Jewell has moved into psychological thriller, which I also love. But she started off writing warm, gorgeously relatable, and touching stories about young people falling in love, sharing houses, and getting to grips with adult life.
They are all beautifully told, but this one stands out to me. A chance meeting at a caravan park as teenagers see Vince and Joy peeling off into their separate lives and navigating their own joys and heartbreaks⊠I wonât spoil it, but the ending is just as youâd want it to be.Â
Remember falling in love for the first time? Remember thinking, This is The One? Remember life getting in the way? From adolescent snogging to apartment shares, relationships, career crises, and children, Vince & Joy is the unforgettable story of two lives lived separately but forever entwined.
Back in the 1980s, teenagers Vince and Joy met, fell desperately in love, and never quite said good-bye. Now nearly twenty years later they've both begun to ask themselves if that long-ago romance was the enduring love that they've been searching for.
If one of the main reasons we marry is to raise a family, what happens to the couple once the children grow up and no longer need daily care?Â
A few years ago, I completed an MSc in Psychology, and my dissertation explored exactly this question. After interviewing many couples, it became clear that unless parents are emotionally prepared for life after children, the sense of loss can be overwhelming. That research raised deeper questions about why we commitâand what keeps us committed.
This starts with such a great premise: Douglas Petersen, a devoted but socially awkward biochemist, is blindsided when his wife announces she might leave him, but first, theyâll go on a "Grand Tour of Europe" with their 17-year-old son.
Douglas hopes this is his chance to fix the marriage, connect with his son, and rediscover the man he was supposed to be. But as the trip goes on, we start to realise that so often our vision of how life should be is based on fear of change and habit.
David Nicholls brings to bear all the wit and intelligence that graced ONE DAY in this brilliant, bittersweet novel about love and family, husbands and wives, parents and children. Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2014.
'I was looking forward to us growing old together. Me and you, growing old and dying together.'
'Douglas, who in their right mind would look forward to that?'
Douglas Petersen understands his wife's need to 'rediscover herself' now that their son is leaving home.
He just thought they'd be doing their rediscovering together.
So when Connie announces that she will be leaving,âŠ
I have always been a romantic at heart, although it took time for me to realize and act on this as I was conditioned from an early age to be scholarly and rational (life-allowing). One of my favorite silent films as a teenager was a love story that focuses on a forbidden relationship between a British girl and a Chinese man at the turn of the twentieth century, called Broken Blossoms; it left an indelible impression. Eventually, I myself became involved in a life-changing romantic relationship with a Chinese man. I now love exploring the vicissitudes of the human heart at the crossroads of cultural differences in my writing.
Stylistically, Erich Segal is my idol because he has a distinct, crisp, clean writing style that he could leverage for dramatic effect. I was intrigued by the fact that he was a classicist by profession; I myself minored in Latin and Greek at the university.
Segal wrote successfully not only for scholarly readers but also for the general public, which is not an easy feat. Segal claimed that Love Story ruined his academic career, but this is actually the book people remember him for today. As a young woman, I enjoyed his novel Love Story, but as a middle-aged woman, I prefer Man, Woman, and Child because it is more nuanced and deals with post-marital responsibilities and challenges that a couple must navigate together if they want their marriage to survive.
From Erich Segal comes an unforgettable story of love: the drama of a father and the son he never knew . . . and a marriage that must stand the greatest test of all.
Bob and Sheila Beckwith had everything: rewarding careers, two wonderful daughters, and a perfect marriage . . . almost perfect. For what Sheila didnât know was that Bob has once been unfaithfulâonly once, ten years ago during a business trip to France. What Bob didnât know was that his brief affair produced a son. Now a tragic accidentâand one fateful phone callâwill change Bob and SheilaâsâŠ
I have always been a romantic at heart, although it took time for me to realize and act on this as I was conditioned from an early age to be scholarly and rational (life-allowing). One of my favorite silent films as a teenager was a love story that focuses on a forbidden relationship between a British girl and a Chinese man at the turn of the twentieth century, called Broken Blossoms; it left an indelible impression. Eventually, I myself became involved in a life-changing romantic relationship with a Chinese man. I now love exploring the vicissitudes of the human heart at the crossroads of cultural differences in my writing.
This is a bittersweet novel that actually made me cry, and there are not a lot of books that have this effect on me. It is a story about a chance encounter between an American woman and a South African man that touches both for a lifetime.
Both struggle against the practicalities of life to make their relationship work, but despite the obstacles and other love interests they encounter, they are unable to forget each other. Sparks, as a male author, is an absolute master at capturing a female protagonistâs thoughts and emotions and at describing moods and landscapes (especially North Carolina). As a reader, I found myself deeply empathizing with Hope and Tru and rooting for a happy ending.
There are times when destiny and love collide. This story is one of them.
From the number one bestselling author of The Notebook and Two by Two comes an unforgettable tale of enduring love . . .
Hope Anderson is at a crossroads. After six years with her boyfriend, she is no longer sure what she wants, and when her father becomes ill she heads to her family's cottage at Sunset Beach in North Carolina to make some difficult decisions.
Tru Walls has been summoned across an ocean from where he was born and raised in Zimbabwe by a letterâŠ
