Life-affirming novels: what do you recommend

We loved it Flame although I have heard some people say it is too touristy?

I picked that book up the other day Quattro but couldn't make up my mind, I'll look out for it at the library. It explains how to make links shorter next to the "add your message here box" (I tried to explain it but gave up - I was making it more complicated than it needed to be!).

There are so many aren't there? The most lifeaffirming novel I've read this year is Random Acts of Heroic Love - worth a try - see what you think

www.amazon.co.uk/Random-Acts-Heroic-Danny-Scheinmann/dp/0552774227/ref=pd_ts_b_11/026-0854881-359080 3?ie=UTF8&s=books

Also Empire of the Sun I think is life-affirming, though not in the traditional sense

I went to Sorrento when I was 14 - have always wanted to go back, it was beautiful

I second Danny Wallace - The Yes Man
Ron McLarty - The Memory of Running here
Might have helped that I read these both on holiday in Sorrento where we celebrated our first wedding anniversary .

The Grapes of Wrath- John Steinbeck

+1 vote for This Book Will Save Your Life - AM Homes. Brilliant, and really uplifting.

Jean-Dominique Bauby - The Diving Bell & The Butterfly. Extraordinary writing, all the more so when you remind yourself how he wrote it.

Alice In Bed, by Cathleen Schine, made me realise that you can face serious, painful situations and still be a smart-mouthed, sarcastic woman with a thriving sex life Alice is a brilliant heroine, and the book is very moving without being in the slightest bit sentimental.

Dublin. Stayed in a B&B in Clontarf owned by a lady named Carmel Drain.

jAYSUZZ, you didn't go to 'Barrytown' for your honeymoon didya?

I don't know about life affirming as such but I could re-read Memoirs of a Geisha every year and still enjoy it.

THE VAN by Roddy Doyle. Tis so funny. Also THE SNAPPER. And THE COMMITMENTS, too. The Barrytown (Barrowtown?) Trilogy.

I read THE VAN just before going on honeymoon to Dublin. One of my all time fave books ever.

Ooh, redbird Christmas is brilliant.
Makes you feell all warm insdie.

Mr Maybe

Babyville

both by
Jane Young

also just read a really pick-me-up book called a redbird christmas. i googled to see who it was by and guess what, fannie flagg. must read more by her....

84 Charing cross road, helene hanff anyone? John Irving owen meany and others.

Oh crikey, have forgotton to write down the very bestest most life affirming novel ever, I don't think I went out for a week while I was reading it.

The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexander Dumas

Hi Kitkat9 - shall have to swap other titles as I'm always on the lookout. Loved Fannie Flagg too. I have tried Bill Bryson but just didn't get on with him, maybe I have to be in the right mood? I'm always too tired these days!
Have you read David Sedaris 'Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim'? I kept seeing it recommended here and its laugh out loud funny.
Other life changing books are Kahil Gibran 'The Prophet' and any Richard Bach books.
I've recently discovered Sally Beauman and all her books are a joy - not life affirming, just a bloomin good read - awful titles and covers but hey who's judging!

barking, we have the same taste in books, I think. Have also just read both those Wally Lamb ones too - especially loved She's Come Undone. Quite life-affirming!

Also adore Fannie Flagg for a pick-me-up. All her books are wonderful.

Bill Bryson for laugh-out-loud fun to cheer you up.

Littlerach, I must get on with reading that book! My friend will have expected me to have read it by the time I see her next. My life is apparently all up in the air with nowhere to land, just like the character from that book.

ps, just thought of another book by a geezer that I read recently and REALLY enjoyed "how to talk to a widower". Very good. Bit life-affirming I thinkl.

Love Hexagon wasn't his true style I thought. He was trying to do chiclit to make tons of money I suppose. Who can blame him for trying. But there is good shite and there is bad shite. I will happily admit to reading good shite....

I read the review of this new book and it sounds much better. THe three protags are women in their 60s who all have difficult relationships with their sons, or are slightly disappointed by them. Sounds interesting.

Actually, a man writing as a woman...hmmmm I said before I'm not keen on that. We'll see. I will buy the book though.

ElizaboethBeresford, eat, Pray Love is a really good book.

It really stayed with me for agesa fter I'd read it.

Sutcliffe: I liked "are you experienced" but "The love hexagon" was annoying - read as if it had been dashed-off in a few weeks and as if it was an adapted screenplay. Full of facelessly interchangeable London 20somethings all angsting about nothing in particular.

Douglas Copeland. I had forgotten about him. He was really good. I think he was (and presumably still IS) my age so he wrote about people in their early 20s when I was that age and so on. That's why I liked him so much I think.

William Sutcliffe has another book out. Anybody like him? Not life-affirming, mind you. Are you experienced was so cynical, but so, so funny.

Funnily enough, "Miss Wyoming" is the only Coupland I've just not got on with.

Try "A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters" by Julian Barnes. Not a conventional novel at all and it has some dark bits, but it makes you feel sort of intellectually refreshed.