The holiday reading list

Recently we were asked for some holiday reading recommendations. Since Tihar holidays are just around the corner, we thought we’d do a roundup of some great reads that are perfect if you want to curl up with a book and spend a lazy day at home during this festival season. We know Tihar is all about family and friends but give yourself a break, and treat yourself to one of these gems and have a hearty laugh. The good news is that we are recommending light reads so you’ll have enough time to do both: enjoy gatherings, and some time alone with a good book.

Sushi for Beginners
by Marian Keyes

You won’t know where time flew with this book in your hands. Keyes is a brilliant comic writer and laden with plot twists, and lots of humor this energetic and well-constructed prose delivers life and people in satisfyingly various shades of grey. A perfect combination of love story or stories with comic charm, Sushi for Beginners will have you hooked from page one. This is a story about three women, whose lives are linked, living in one city. Every character will intrigue you and you won’t be able to stop reading. Keyes is a great storyteller and her books, in general, are snarky, witty, and sexy and this one hits all those notes and more. It is a light read, one that will make you happy nonetheless. A warning though: Don’t start it in the evening for you’ll be reading late into the night. It’s a real page turner, this one.

The Undomestic Goddess
by Sophie Kinsella

Attorney Samantha Sweeting has a meltdown and walks out of her office in London, gets on a train and ends up in the middle of nowhere. Asking for directions at a big, beautiful house, she’s mistaken for an interviewee and finds herself being offered a job as housekeeper. Her employers have no idea they’ve hired a lawyer and Samantha has no idea how to work the oven. She can’t even bake a potato, sew on a button or get the ironing board to open. How she begins to cope is a story as delicious as the bread she learns to bake. Will her old life ever catch up with her and will she want it back? You’ll be roaring at the hilarity of it all, especially if you are like Samantha and can’t cook to save your life. A little secret: We know someone who didn’t read much but she woke up early to finish this book.

The Prostate Years
by Sue Townsend

The Prostate Years is the last installment in the popular Adrian Mole series. Adrian Mole is 39-and-a-quarter. Unable to afford the mortgage on his riverside apartment, he has been forced to move into a semi-detached converted pigsty next door to his parents. His wife Daisy loathes the countryside, and Adrian is painfully aware that the passion has gone out of their marriage, but doesn’t know how to reignite the flame. Then he has alarming symptoms that lead him to suspect prostate trouble. What we, at The Week, love most about the Adrian Mole books is their humor and how they show all aspects of family life. You’ll love Adrian, no doubt, but you’ll also love his parents: George and Pauline. This is one book where you’ll identify with at least one of the characters depending on who you are. If you have read the other books in the series as well, they are even more delightful.

The Code of the Woosters
by P.G. Wodehouse

P.G. Wodehouse was the quintessential British humorist of the 20th Century, and his legacy lives on in the works of Stephen Fry et al. We could have chosen any of his Jeeves and Wooster novels, but this, his third to feature Bertie Wooster and his valet Jeeves, is arguably the finest – and funniest – of them all. Wooster attempts to solve not one but two misfiring love affairs, has a run-in with a cold cucumber and there’s the strange case of the policeman’s helmet. Jeeves, as ever, is left to tidy up the mess. Classic upper class chortling. The book is populated by a wonderfully motley crew of snooty misfits, each doing their bit to stoke the fires of the story. But the cake is taken by Jeeves and Wooster themselves. However, if you don’t find this particular title at the bookstores around town, pick up any Wodehouse novel. We guarantee you won’t regret it.

Bridget Jones’s Diary
by Helen Fielding

Bridget Jones’s Diary is the devastatingly self-aware, laugh-out-loud daily chronicle of Bridget’s permanent, doomed quest for self-improvement — a year in which she resolves to: reduce the circumference of each thigh by 1.5 inches, visit the gym three times a week not just to buy a sandwich, and form a functional relationship with a responsible adult. Bridget will leave you helpless with laughter. Her issues with weight, smoking, and family will have you shaking your head in bewilderment and saying ‘that’s just like me’ at the same time. This book feels almost autobiographical for single women trying to make a living while going through the process of life and dating. All of Bridget’s insecurities and strengths, mistakes and good choices, joys and sorrows are your own. Everyone either has an element of Bridget in them or knows someone like that and for that, Bridget Jones’s Diary proves to be a good, fun read.

The Innocents Abroad
by Mark Twain

Ok, this isn’t a novel, it’s a travel book. But it’s a travel book penned by Mark Twain, quite possibly the funniest man ever to sit in front of a typewriter. Detailing his holiday to Europe and the Holy Land – famously dubbed his Great Pleasure Excursion – Twain unfolds a series of witty and unfortunate observations and incidents. It was the best-selling of Twain’s works during his lifetime, as well as being one of the best-selling travel books of all time. When you read Twain, you realize he is head and shoulders above other authors, even really good authors. His observations throughout Europe and the Holy Land are hilarious, reflective, multi-layered, derogatory, compassionate, insightful, and at times tediously introspective; in short it looks, feels, and reads like typical Twain. Like all his books, this too is timeless and Twain leaves you wishing The Innocents Abroad would never end. It’s just that good.