Finding time to read for fun when you’re a full-time student can be very difficult. Maybe you’re the kind of person who has no trouble picking up (and actually finishing) A Little Life in the midst of coursework or research, but personally I often need something a lot shorter and a lot less intense. Regardless of what you’re studying, academic life can be stressful, and reading for fun is a really healthy way to cope with some of that stress. The books I’ve listed here are ones I’ve read in the past few months that are entertaining and easy to get hooked into quickly.

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

The Guardian’s review of Convenience Store Woman describes this “deadpan Japanese tale of an oddball shop assistant” as “sublimely weird.” The novel’s main character Keiko is a woman in her mid-30s who has felt acutely different from other people her entire life. After a series of incidents in her childhood Keiko comes to the realization that other people view her reactions to situations as abnormal. On one occasion she and other children find a dead bird at the playground - the other children start crying because they feel bad for the bird, but Keiko picks it up and brings it to her mother and suggests they eat it for dinner. Keiko can’t understand why people react the way they do, but she realizes adults and other children find her behavior upsetting and unusual, so she attempts to mimic the actions of other “normal” people.

When Keiko gets a job at a convenience store at age 18, a job she still has when we’re introduced to her in her mid-30s, she finds refuge in the store’s clear rules and expectations. Every day in the convenience store unfolds roughly as expected, and Keiko learns the rhythm of the store - which items sell when it’s raining or when it’s cold, when and how to restock the shelves, exactly the phrases to use to greet customers. Keiko’s peers, family, and colleagues cannot understand why she is unmarried in her 30s and still working a dead-end job, and all of the sudden Keiko starts to see the ruse of “normality” she has built fray at the edges.

Convenience Store Woman is a somewhat irreverent complement to a larger genre of books dealing with the particular pressures placed on women of reproductive age to be mothers (and to mother in certain ways). Other books I’ve reviewed that deal with similar themes are Deborah Levy’s The Cost of Living, Ariel Levy’s The Rules Do Not Apply, Yūko Tsushima’s Territory of Light, Sheila Heti’s Motherhood, and all of the books in this post on mothers. Sally Rooney’s Normal People isn’t specifically about motherhood, but it does complement Convenience Store Woman in addressing feelings of abnormality and social inadequacy.

Heartburn by Nora Ephron

To be honest, I picked up the Virago Modern Classics edition of Nora Ephron’s 1983 semi-autobiographical novel mostly because of the cover design. Loosely based on the dissolution of Ephron’s marriage to Carl Bernstein (of Watergate reporting fame), the novel is an incisive and comedic examination of love, marriage, and gender roles among the Washington, D.C. political elite in the late '70s. Most of what I’ve read for fun in the past few years has been very recent, and it was interesting to read a book written in and about a different era. Ephron approaches the social milieu 1970s DC with a wry sense of humor. Though Heartburn is about her husband’s affair during her pregnancy their second child, it’s not a book I would describe as “sad,” and an approach to love and loss that doesn’t solely foreground despair is refreshing.

We are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby

We are Never Meeting in Real Life is one of the funniest books I’ve read in a long time, and I was hooked immediately. It’s written as a series of short, humorous essays, which I think is the ideal kind of book to read when you’re busy. Though the book is funny, don’t expect it to be entirely lighthearted. Irby writes about heavy themes, and though she does dark humor flawlessly, this may not be the book to read if you’re particularly stressed.

I liked We are Never Meeting in Real Life so much that the first thing I did after finishing it was buy Irby’s other book of essays Meaty (review forthcoming). Irby is also one of the few authors I follow on Instagram, and I really enjoy her posts (especially her reading lists - if you’re looking for recommendations check her out at @bitchesgottaeat).

Promising Young Women by Caroline O’Donoghue

Promising Young Women is a millennial dating novel with a twist. Jane Peters, the book’s protagonist, is a bored 20-something who works at an advertising agency in London, hangs out with her “work wife,” and has a secret advice blog where she doles out life advice under the alter ego “Jolly Politely.” The story centers around the end of Jane’s long-term relationship with her reliable but boring ex-boyfriend, and the start of a tumultuous affair with her superior at work.

I have mixed feelings about this book. I picked it up hoping it would be similar to Sally Rooney’s Conversations with Friends, but found I much prefer Rooney’s storytelling. Without giving too much away, I think I can summarize my critique of Promising Young Women by saying I didn’t like the “twist.” The second half of the book just felt wildly unbelievable and the characters were too one-dimensional to make me buy the story (Renata, Luddy, Darla, etc.). Even Clem felt like a caricature. The themes O’Donoghue is working with in the book (power, consent, gender, coming-of-age, etc.) are interesting, but I personally felt it was too heavy-handed.

I am still including the book in this list of recommended reads though! It was a total page-turner, was entertaining, and had a lot of funny one-liners, so if you’re looking for something in the genre of Sally Rooney it is worth a read. If anyone has any recommendations for books by women in their twenties about women in their twenties (that take place in the real world) please send them my way. Preferably books with protagonists who don’t completely fall apart every time some man does something nasty to them.