Bookle reading guide: Contemporary fiction
⏱️ 4 min read
Love stories about people, relationships, family and all the messy bits of everyday life? You’ll find plenty to choose from here.
Contemporary fiction is about the world we know. Families, friendships, work, love, loss, identity, big life changes and all the little things that somehow become big things.
Some books are funny and easy-going. Some will completely break your heart. Others are the kind you finish and then find yourself thinking about three days later.
And there’s something worth remembering when you’re browsing secondhand books: contemporary doesn’t necessarily mean recent.
A novel written in the 1980s or 1990s was contemporary fiction when it was published, even if the world in it feels very different to us now. That’s one of the lovely things about secondhand books. You get to see not only what people were reading, but how different generations imagined relationships, families and everyday life.
Contemporary fiction is a wonderfully broad category, and the boundaries between the different types can get a little blurry. On Bookle, you’ll find women’s fiction, chick lit, family dramas and feel-good fiction grouped together under General Fiction.
So whether you want something funny, something emotional, something thought-provoking or simply a good story about people being people, there’s probably a corner of contemporary fiction for you.
In this guide you'll discover:
- The different types of contemporary fiction
- What makes each one different
- Authors and books to look out for
- Where to find them on Bookle
📚 Where to find it on Bookle: You’ll find contemporary fiction, women’s fiction and chick lit in our General fiction category.
1. Women's fiction
Women’s fiction puts women’s lives and experiences at the centre of the story. That might mean relationships, family, friendship, work, identity, motherhood, ageing or simply trying to work out what comes next.
Romance can certainly be part of the story, but it doesn’t have to be. The relationship with a partner might be important, or the really important relationship might be with a sister, a friend, a parent — or yourself.
If you enjoy character-driven stories about relationships, family and the changes life throws at us, start here.
Look out for: Jojo Moyes, Maeve Binchy, Jodi Picoult, Kristin Hannah, Diane Chamberlain, Liane Moriarty and Taylor Jenkins Reid.
Try:
- Jojo Moyes – Me Before You; The Giver of Stars
- Maeve Binchy – Circle of Friends; Tara Road; Evening Class
- Jodi Picoult – My Sister’s Keeper; Nineteen Minutes
- Kristin Hannah – Firefly Lane; Someone Like You
- Diane Chamberlain – The Good Father; Big Lies in a Small Town
- Liane Moriarty – Big Little Lies; Apples Never Fall
- Taylor Jenkins Reid – The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo; Malibu Rising
2. Chick lit
Dating disasters, friendship dramas, questionable decisions, work problems and the occasional romantic complication. Usually with a healthy dose of humour.
Chick lit follows women navigating modern life, often with plenty of laughs along the way. The stories tend to be light-hearted and entertaining, although the best ones know how to sneak a serious subject in when you aren’t looking.
If you enjoy funny, romantic and fast-moving stories about women trying to figure life out, this is your corner of the shelf.
Look out for: Helen Fielding, Sophie Kinsella, Marian Keyes, Mhairi McFarlane and Jane Green.
Try:
- Helen Fielding – Bridget Jones’s Diary
- Sophie Kinsella – The Shopaholic series; Can You Keep a Secret?
- Marian Keyes – The Walsh Family novels
- Mhairi McFarlane – If I Never Met You; Mad About You
- Jane Green – Jemima J; Mr Maybe
- Jennifer Weiner – Good in Bed; In Her Shoes
3. Family drama
Families. You love them. You’re stuck with them. And sometimes they have secrets.
Family dramas explore the relationships between parents, children, siblings and extended family, including all the love, loyalty, resentment and old arguments that come with them.
Some stories stay close to home. Others stretch across generations, revealing how something that happened years ago can still affect the family today.
If you enjoy complicated relationships, family secrets and characters carrying more emotional baggage than they’d like to admit, start here.
Look out for: Lisa Jewell, Liane Moriarty, Anne Tyler, Elizabeth Strout, Barbara Kingsolver and Ann Patchett.
Try:
- Lisa Jewell – The Family Upstairs, Then She Was Gone
- Liane Moriarty – Big Little Lies, Apples Never Fall
- Anne Tyler – The Accidental Tourist, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant
- Elizabeth Strout – Olive Kitteridge
- Barbara Kingsolver – The Poisonwood Bible, Demon Copperhead
- Ann Patchett – Commonwealth, The Dutch House
4. Book club fiction
Some books are made for arguing about afterwards.
Book club fiction tends to give you plenty to talk about: relationships, family, difficult choices, social issues, secrets, moral dilemmas and characters you may love, dislike or completely disagree with.
There’s no strict formula. It can be funny, heartbreaking, serious or thought-provoking. The important thing is that when you close the book, you have something to say about it.
If you enjoy memorable characters, complicated situations and books that make you want to ask “But what would you have done?”, this is a good place to look.
Look out for: Liane Moriarty, Celeste Ng, Fredrik Backman, Ann Patchett and Bonnie Garmus.
Try:
- Celeste Ng – Little Fires Everywhere; Everything I Never Told You
- Fredrik Backman – Anxious People; A Man Called Ove
- Ann Patchett – The Dutch House; Commonwealth, Tom Lake
- Bonnie Garmus – Lessons in Chemistry
- Liane Moriarty – Big Little Lies, Apples Never Fall
5. Feel-good fiction
Sometimes you don’t want to be emotionally destroyed by your book.
Feel-good fiction gives you stories about friendship, community, second chances, finding your way again and discovering that things might eventually turn out okay.
That doesn’t mean everything is sunshine and happy endings. The best feel-good novels can deal with grief, loneliness, loss and difficult changes. They just tend to leave you with a little more hope than they started with.
If you’re looking for a warm, uplifting story or simply a book that feels a bit like a hug, start here.
Look out for: Jenny Colgan, Cathy Bramley, Hazel Prior, Matt Haig, Phaedra Patrick and Fannie Flagg.
Try:
- Jenny Colgan – The Bookshop on the Corner; The Little Beach Street Bakery
- Cathy Bramley – The Lemon Tree Café; The Sunrise Sisterhood
- Hazel Prior – Away with the Penguins
- Matt Haig – The Midnight Library
- Phaedra Patrick – The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper
- Fannie Flagg – Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
6. Contemporary literary fiction
Still stories about modern life, but with a little more attention paid to the writing, the characters and the ideas underneath the story.
Contemporary literary fiction often takes its time. You might get beautifully observed characters, complicated questions and endings that don’t neatly tie everything up for you.
These are often the books that make you stop and reread a sentence because it got something exactly right — or finish the last page and sit there for a while.
If you enjoy beautiful prose, layered characters and stories that give you something to think about, literary fiction is worth exploring.
Look out for: Ann Patchett, Elizabeth Strout, David Nicholls, Kazuo Ishiguro, Ian McEwan and Colm Tóibín.
Try:
- Ann Patchett – Bel Canto; The Dutch House; Tom Lake
- Elizabeth Strout – Olive Kitteridge; Lucy by the Sea
- David Nicholls – One Day; Us
- Kazuo Ishiguro – Never Let Me Go; The Remains of the Day
- Ian McEwan – Atonement; Amsterdam
- Colm Tóibín – Brooklyn; Long Island
📚 Where to find it on Bookle: You’ll find contemporary literary fiction in our Literary fiction category.
7. Contemporary romance
Sometimes the whole point is two people falling in love.
Contemporary romance puts a modern love story at the centre, whether that means dating disasters, second chances, complicated relationships or two people who really should have figured out their feelings several chapters ago.
If you’re looking for modern settings, romantic chemistry and a love story at the heart of the book, start here.
Look out for: Emily Henry, Colleen Hoover, Abby Jimenez, Beth O’Leary, Nicholas Sparks and Sophie Kinsella.
Try:
- Colleen Hoover – It Ends with Us; Ugly Love
- Emily Henry – Beach Read, Book Lovers; Funny Story
- Abby Jimenez – Just for the Summer; Yours Truly
- Beth O’Leary – The Flatshare; The Road Trip
- Nicholas Sparks – The Notebook; A Walk to Remember; Dear John
- Sophie Kinsella – Can You Keep a Secret?
- Graeme Simsion – The Rosie Project
📚 Where to find it on Bookle: You’ll find contemporary romance in our Romance category.
Looking for Afrikaans contemporary fiction?
There’s plenty to discover in Afrikaans too, with stories about modern South African life, relationships, families and the things that make life here distinctly our own.
Look out for authors including:
What kind of contemporary fiction reader are you?
Want something funny and light?
Try chick lit or feel-good fiction.
Want family secrets and complicated relationships?
Try women’s fiction or family drama.
Want something to argue about afterwards?
Try book club fiction.
Want romance at the centre of the story?
Try contemporary romance.
Want beautiful writing and something to ponder?
Try contemporary literary fiction.
And don’t worry too much about the labels. A book can be a family drama, a book club favourite and literary fiction all at once. Genres overlap. Books don’t always behave themselves.
Continue exploring
📚 Browse general fiction books on Bookle
Discover preloved contemporary fiction, women’s fiction and chick lit in our General fiction category.
📖 Read another reading guide
Love unforgettable characters and beautifully written stories? Explore our Bookle reading guide: Literary fiction and discover another side of contemporary fiction.
💬 Join the conversation
Which contemporary novel has stayed with you the longest? We’d love to hear your recommendations in the Bookle – Let’s Talk Books Facebook group.