Pregnant lady needs mindless trash to read
March 20, 2015 5:44 PM Subscribe
I'm currently pregnant and going through the first trimester from hell. Literally the only thing that has kept me sane is reading these two amazing trashy novels I discovered in this AskMe thread.
Recommend me some more?
I devoured Labels; it was great. Scruples: right up there. I've already read Valley of the Dolls and Shadow of the Dolls.
I need more sexy escapist trashy glamorous dreck that has absolutely nothing to do with real life. Please recommend away!
(I know Scruples has sequels. It's already ordered...)
I devoured Labels; it was great. Scruples: right up there. I've already read Valley of the Dolls and Shadow of the Dolls.
I need more sexy escapist trashy glamorous dreck that has absolutely nothing to do with real life. Please recommend away!
(I know Scruples has sequels. It's already ordered...)
How about Lace? I am not even sure if I read it, but somehow know that it falls into this category.
posted by Neely O'Hara at 5:55 PM on March 20, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by Neely O'Hara at 5:55 PM on March 20, 2015 [3 favorites]
Jacqueline Susann wrote two other novels that are good, Once is Not Enough and The Love Machine. (She also wrote a few others that are very not good, so I'd read those two and then move on to other things.)
posted by decathecting at 6:01 PM on March 20, 2015
posted by decathecting at 6:01 PM on March 20, 2015
I got sucked into the Outlander series. The smut: words ratio isn't quite as good as some of the other books mentioned, but the relationship between the principal characters is compelling. And between the novels and the novellas, it could carry you right on through to delivery day.
posted by Jane Austen at 6:07 PM on March 20, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by Jane Austen at 6:07 PM on March 20, 2015 [3 favorites]
Penny Vincenzi is my favourite trashy novelist. They're about upper crust British people, so they don't seem quite as trashy as Valley of the Dolls, but they're really just trash with a posh accent.
posted by jacquilynne at 6:08 PM on March 20, 2015
posted by jacquilynne at 6:08 PM on March 20, 2015
nthing the Sookie Stackhouse. It's the epitome of junk food reading.
posted by erst at 6:09 PM on March 20, 2015
posted by erst at 6:09 PM on March 20, 2015
Jilly Cooper
posted by brujita at 6:11 PM on March 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by brujita at 6:11 PM on March 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
You should read Julia Quinn historical romance novels. They are the perfect happy ending mindless fun.
posted by that girl at 6:18 PM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by that girl at 6:18 PM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
You need to read Bertrice Small. The Love Slave is one of my all-time favorite trashy novels. : )
posted by SisterHavana at 6:29 PM on March 20, 2015
posted by SisterHavana at 6:29 PM on March 20, 2015
According to my mother's official "book report" she gave me a few months after I handed her the book as a joke, " 'The Very Virile Viking' is the best romance novel [she has] ever read."
posted by Mizu at 7:15 PM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Mizu at 7:15 PM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
Black Lace Omnibus.
And if you want to go for full-on sexy, there's the Herotica series.
posted by bunderful at 7:21 PM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
And if you want to go for full-on sexy, there's the Herotica series.
posted by bunderful at 7:21 PM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
Tyra Banks' Modelland is a trashy and wtf YA novel.
If you want literary & trashy, The Secret History.
posted by betweenthebars at 7:22 PM on March 20, 2015
If you want literary & trashy, The Secret History.
posted by betweenthebars at 7:22 PM on March 20, 2015
If you REALLY want trashy (and hilarious), may I recommend dinosaur erotica.
posted by chickenmagazine at 7:54 PM on March 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by chickenmagazine at 7:54 PM on March 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
Oldie, but classics:
Sins by Judith Gould.
Wifey by Judy Blume.
Family Album by Danielle Steele
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 8:15 PM on March 20, 2015
Sins by Judith Gould.
Wifey by Judy Blume.
Family Album by Danielle Steele
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 8:15 PM on March 20, 2015
For sexy escapist trashy glamorous dreck, you can't do better than:
I'll Take Manhattan, Judith Krantz, every bit as good as Scruples
Satisfaction, first (and much better) book by Rae Lawrence, who wrote Shadow of the Dolls
Tinsel, by William Goldman. As far as I know, the only really trashy book he ever wrote, but it's a great one.
posted by still_wears_a_hat at 8:22 PM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
I'll Take Manhattan, Judith Krantz, every bit as good as Scruples
Satisfaction, first (and much better) book by Rae Lawrence, who wrote Shadow of the Dolls
Tinsel, by William Goldman. As far as I know, the only really trashy book he ever wrote, but it's a great one.
posted by still_wears_a_hat at 8:22 PM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
Not of all Jennifer Cruisie is especially glamorous, but man, they are fun.
posted by WidgetAlley at 8:53 PM on March 20, 2015
posted by WidgetAlley at 8:53 PM on March 20, 2015
There is little better than early Susan Elizabeth Phillips romance novels. Her newer stuff I haven't liked, but her 90's/00's stuff is like heavenly crack. And just about anything by Lisa Kleypas is amazing as well.
posted by cecic at 9:20 PM on March 20, 2015
posted by cecic at 9:20 PM on March 20, 2015
The Outlander series by Diane gabaldon are great for what you are looking for and the cable series is fantastic!
posted by bluesky43 at 9:26 PM on March 20, 2015
posted by bluesky43 at 9:26 PM on March 20, 2015
Jinn and Juice for $2.99 was worth every penny as it was engaging enough to get me through a really miserable flight.
posted by HMSSM at 9:53 PM on March 20, 2015
posted by HMSSM at 9:53 PM on March 20, 2015
No seriously, Jilly Cooper. Riders, Rivals, and Polo are without parallel. I mean, look at the cover for Riders. LOOK AT IT.
posted by kickingthecrap at 11:05 PM on March 20, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by kickingthecrap at 11:05 PM on March 20, 2015 [5 favorites]
I am horrified that nobody has yet recommended the wondrous world created by The Master of Dreck Sidney Sheldon.
posted by kinetic at 4:50 AM on March 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by kinetic at 4:50 AM on March 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
I agree with Sidney Sheldon-- specifically, The Other Side of Midnight.
Kevin Kwan writes the most shameless "shopping and fucking" novels I've read in a long time.
I am very fond of Where'd You Go , Bernadette.
posted by BibiRose at 6:49 AM on March 21, 2015
Kevin Kwan writes the most shameless "shopping and fucking" novels I've read in a long time.
I am very fond of Where'd You Go , Bernadette.
posted by BibiRose at 6:49 AM on March 21, 2015
Jackie Collins, Hollywood Wives. And, wow, she's written 28 other books!
posted by amarynth at 6:53 AM on March 21, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by amarynth at 6:53 AM on March 21, 2015 [2 favorites]
Sidney Sheldon has written some of the best worst books I have ever read.
I read "If Tomorrow Comes" on a road trip through Montana in 2007. I am almost ashamed to say that I could not stop reading it to notice that we were driving through a forest that was literally on fire. I didn't notice until we were stopped by the highway patrol because the fire was about 100 yards ahead and there was a crew actively fighting it. Then I looked up and realized the world was ablaze...and went back to the book.
posted by Elly Vortex at 6:56 AM on March 21, 2015 [3 favorites]
I read "If Tomorrow Comes" on a road trip through Montana in 2007. I am almost ashamed to say that I could not stop reading it to notice that we were driving through a forest that was literally on fire. I didn't notice until we were stopped by the highway patrol because the fire was about 100 yards ahead and there was a crew actively fighting it. Then I looked up and realized the world was ablaze...and went back to the book.
posted by Elly Vortex at 6:56 AM on March 21, 2015 [3 favorites]
And now I've just spent 20 minutes reading descriptions of Jackie Collins books. I read a bunch of them in middle school, but can't really remember them, and they all sound amazing:
In Chances Lucky grew up in a top crime family. In Lucky, she was married three times. And now, in Lady Boss, she takes on Hollywood and wins!
posted by amarynth at 7:15 AM on March 21, 2015
In Chances Lucky grew up in a top crime family. In Lucky, she was married three times. And now, in Lady Boss, she takes on Hollywood and wins!
posted by amarynth at 7:15 AM on March 21, 2015
If vampires and werewolves are cool in your trashy lit, check out Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter (it devolves into Anita Blake vampire layer pretty quickly). There are over 20 novels & novellas, so it gives a lot of trashy pleasure.
And how about fairies? Laurel K. Hamilton has another trashy series: Meredith Gentry.
posted by carrioncomfort at 9:29 AM on March 21, 2015
And how about fairies? Laurel K. Hamilton has another trashy series: Meredith Gentry.
posted by carrioncomfort at 9:29 AM on March 21, 2015
I enjoyed the hell out of Anna Godberson's "The Luxe" series, which I would dub "Gossip Girl in the Gilded Age." They're light, they read fast, there's lots of ridiculously luxurious clothes and furnishings and silly, sexy plots. She has a second series set in the Roaring 20s amongst the flappers which isn't quite as good, but has lots of gangsters and rumrunning and adventuring.
Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor was the best-selling AND most-banned book in the US of the 1940s, a 900-page doorstop of a novel about a 16-year-old peasant girl who sleeps and schemes her way to the top of 1660s Britain, eventually becoming the King's mistress. It is not that raunchy by modern standards but it's a hell of a page-turner and I was hugely entertained. I got through 900 pages and I was like, "DAMMIT! Why am I out of pages??? MOAR!"
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 12:28 PM on March 21, 2015
Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor was the best-selling AND most-banned book in the US of the 1940s, a 900-page doorstop of a novel about a 16-year-old peasant girl who sleeps and schemes her way to the top of 1660s Britain, eventually becoming the King's mistress. It is not that raunchy by modern standards but it's a hell of a page-turner and I was hugely entertained. I got through 900 pages and I was like, "DAMMIT! Why am I out of pages??? MOAR!"
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 12:28 PM on March 21, 2015
Seconding Anita Blake novels. They're pretty decent detective novels until seven and up. That's when the trashy lit starts.
I'd recommend the Private Papers of Eastern Jewel. Not trashy, but lots of sexy parts. Eileen Chang's "Lust, Caution" is good. It's also a movie, but it's nearly pornographic in some parts (the movie).
posted by Ms. Moonlight at 2:29 AM on March 22, 2015
I'd recommend the Private Papers of Eastern Jewel. Not trashy, but lots of sexy parts. Eileen Chang's "Lust, Caution" is good. It's also a movie, but it's nearly pornographic in some parts (the movie).
posted by Ms. Moonlight at 2:29 AM on March 22, 2015
Butterfly by Kathryn Harvey
seconding Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
and of course all the other Judith Krantz books.
posted by exceptinsects at 3:13 PM on March 22, 2015 [2 favorites]
seconding Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
and of course all the other Judith Krantz books.
posted by exceptinsects at 3:13 PM on March 22, 2015 [2 favorites]
Wicked Loving Lies is REAL trashy. To the Ends of the Earth is also embarrassingly trashy. Enjoy!
posted by 2soxy4mypuppet at 5:39 PM on March 22, 2015
posted by 2soxy4mypuppet at 5:39 PM on March 22, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by porpoise at 5:54 PM on March 20, 2015 [7 favorites]