In wanting to read a happy book?

[ICantCopeAnymore]

I suffer with PTSD and anxiety and I love reading. I'm really struggling with my mental health which is very up and down and books used to be my happy place.

More recently, I've found that everything I read is miserable. Full of death, cancer, illness, murder etc. Even the women's fiction books like Katie Fforde type literature have started going the same way, always including a young widow, a dreadful car accident, funerals and dying children. I was recommended "The Lido" and I've never sobbed so much through a book. It was supposed to be an uplifting, heartwarming read and it was about dreadful loneliness and death.

These things are all really triggering for me at the moment - AIBU in just wanting an escape from hospitals and death? I feel like I can't read or watch TV any more without being bombarded with misery.

Can anyone recommend anything to read that isn't traumatic please?

Thank you

[MinesaPinot]

A couple of years ago, I had a very traumatic time with a severe bout of health anxiety. I couldn't read or watch anything that might be a trigger. I took comfort in Terry Pratchett, the Tudor series by Philippa Gregory, Harry Potter and also the Cazalet novels by Elizabeth Jane Howard - a good family saga. There are some difficult episodes and death, but it's written in a very solid and comforting way that it doesn't make it so difficult to read.

[Thecrabbypatty]

The Keeper of Lost Things is such a warm and lovely read. Amanda's Wedding always makes me laugh. Also The Hobbit... Classic.

[AllFakeFurCoatAndNoSpanx]

Another vote for Enchanted April!

Barbara Pym books are gentle and funny (no dead children)

A Room With A View is my go to for gorgeous comfort reading. As is any Austen!

[emsmum79]

**And a wildcard... Christopher Brookmyre. Very dark humour but laugh out loud funny. Farce. A Big Boy Did It And Ran Away would be the best starter.

Totally agree. His early books are laugh-out-loud funny. Recent crime books are not!

'A Tale Etched in Blood and Hard Black Pencil' and 'One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night' and 'Sacred Art of Stealing' are particularly good

Jennifer Weiner 'In Her Shoes' and 'Good in Bed' (not how it sounds at all!) are also very good

[GloveWorldLooksLikeFun]

I sometimes all the time read my DDs books...she's 14 and some are a bit crap but I'm like you, If I've had a long hard day I need to unwind and too many books for adults are just too depressing

[Flaskfan]

A man called Ove. I'm not really one for heartwarming, but loved this.

[CristalTipps]

My comfort reading go-to is Marian Keyes. Her style is warm and friendly, she makes me feel a funny and cherished friend is telling me a story about people she knows. But there are a couple which go a bit dark. This Charming Man is one, and her new one The Break deals with some heavy subject matter. Rachel's Holiday is my favourite, it's the second in her Walsh family series (first one is Watermelon, then Rachel's Holiday, then Angels, and a few more after that. I love them all!)

I just finished The Lido too. I wasn't a fan either. I felt the book could have been more tightly edited, it was all a bit bloated and very predictable, and at some points miserable for the sake of being miserable. I won't go further into it - because spoilers - but I wouldn't recommend it either. The only thing I enjoyed was the cover...

[stayathomer]

Aimee Horton or Fiona Gibson if you'd like 'mum lit'!

[Buzzing54]

@beccatheboo thank you, I will work my way up to it!

Loads of great recommendations on here. Pure escapism without being fluffy nothing is just what I want!

[Shoutylady]

I’d recommend anything by eva rice, her books are set in the 50s/60s and are pure escapism and fun without being fluffy nothing books.

[Cheerymom]

Anyone I recommended Call the Midwife to loved it, for its ultimate life affirming writing.

[MatildaTheCat]

Laurie Graham is a vastly under recognised writer and one of the wittiest I’ve ever read. She frequently fictionalises historical events in a very highly readable way.

Can’t recommend highly enough and luckily she’s written quite a few books.

[PersisFord]

buzzing I agree about Harold Fry. Just finished it, and I thought it was terribly sad, and has left me a little melancholy. Am having to back-to-back some Georgette Heyer to cheer myself up!

[PrivateParkin]

Thanks brownpurse - I recognised the name straight away as I used to love Rentaghost as a kid! I've just been reading about her. She sounds amazing. Thanks for the tip off, looking forward to reading that one.

[NotCitrus]

Bill Bryson, Christopher Brookmyre (but not Rubber Ducks as it toys with the idea of being depressing).
Linda Hoy and Gordon Korman for really funny YA.

As a rule, avoid anything with the word 'heartwarming' as it appears to be code for "Protagonist's life was shit, but then something not shit happened".

[brownpurse]

Yes that's her, but she had a long career as a radio artist many years before that. Her books are lovely and radiate her joy of life ,even though it was really hard for her family.. It's nice to know I'm not alone in enjoying them so much!

[PrivateParkin]

Molly Weir as in Hazel McWitch?? Same person?! Just bought the first book on Kindle based on this thread!

[Pollaidh]

5foot5

I was trying to warn the OP off Call the Midwife as someone above had recommended it without comment. OP avoid Call the Midwife it is harrowing. I've still got some scenes imprinted on my mind after 5 years.

[Pollaidh]

Rosamund Pilcher's "Under Gemini" is my secret go-to when feeling rough.

[Loonoon]

I love Molly Weir too. I used to get them out of the school library over and over again. The first one is now available on Kindle and I am hoping the others will follow. It was just as life affirming as I remember. Her enthusiasm and positivity shine out of the pages (or screen).

[Turnitupdrhill]

Pete McCarthy wrote some brilliant books - McCarthy's Bar is hilarious.

Tony Hawkes' 'Round Ireland With a Fridge' is another one I can read and read. In a similar vein, 'Free Country: A Penniless Adventure the Length of Britain' by George Mahood is lovely light reading. Marie Browne's 'Narrow Margins' is about starting a new life on a canal boat, and had me properly laughing out loud.

[Clionba]

The Rosamund Pilcher books are good, set in Cornwall. I always think short stories are a good idea when you're feeling bad, such as Daphne du Maurier ones or Agatha Christie. Not such an emotional investment.

[TheBestSpoon]

Favouriting this thread! Love many of the above. Also, Lark Rise to Candleford by Flora Thompson is great - her biography of growing up in a rural village and moving to the nearest town. Perhaps Douglas Adams if you like more sci-fi? And both Playing the Moldovans at Tennis by Tony Hawk and Scoop by Evelyn Waugh makes me laugh til I get hiccups...

[PersisFord]

Verdad YES!!!!!! That’s it!!!!! Thank you!!!!

[annandale]

Oh brown purse! I've never met anyone who has read Molly Weir's autobiography. They were in the library at my school, I loved them.