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

A book that I’ve returned to often is The Rosie Project. It’s about a guy called Don, who is very literal who wants to meet someone and get married. It’s first person narration so you see his perspective (and huge misunderstandings of social situations). It’s hilarious and really sweet.

I didn’t read it but listened to it on audio book and I was on a long plane journey laughing my head off! I’m not sure what people around me thought!

Bah! Got interupted before posting. See the Rosie project has already been recommended.

Just a warning about Elinor Olliphant. Is sweet and I really enjoyed it, but very dark in places and is about loneliness and confronting issues from the past.

Miss Pettigrew lives for a day, the Guernsey literary and potato peel society, Austen, a room with a view,

Oops, should have RTT before leaping in with Miss Pettigrew !

I love a good autobiography when I’m a bit down. Loved Julie Walters’ one, plus Billie Piper’s, Martine McCutcheon’s (spelling?), Patti LuPone’s, Geri Halliwell’s etc.

Also An Abundance of Katherines was lovely- v uplifting.

And agree with pps that oldies are goodies: I adore Enid Blyton books-The Famous Five are delightfully old school! And ANYTHING by Roald Dahl....

The Agatha Raisin books are charming and light hearted and anything by Milly Johnson is good.

If you like autobiography type things I'd recommend Miranda Hart's 'Is it me?' And Sarah Millican's 'How to be champion'. Very funny, kind hearted books.

Have you read Cold Comfort Farm? I love reading that when I'm not feeling great. I had an audiobook with Prunella Scales
reading it just perfectly and although that was abridged, the whole thing appears in her voice in my head when I read the book now. It's probably not readily available any more though; my copy is on a cassette!

The first grown up books I read were Sheila Hocken's books about her life with her guide dog, Emma. I found them fascinating and don't remember there being anything upsetting really in them. I was only seven, so don't think DM would have shared them if there had been. I think that is probably out of print but there are quite a few second hand copies on Amazon/eBay.

I agree with you, OP - my book group keeps on picking heavyweight novels about suffering or some such and I just can't bear to read them!

I agree with the previous poster with regards Terry Pratchett - the Witches series are my go-to (start with Equal Rites, then Wyrd Sisters, Witches Abroad, Lords & Ladies, Masquerade and Carpe Jugulum). Theres no bad mood that Nanny Ogg and The Hedgehog Song can't improve! (n.b. Nanny Ogg appears in Wyrd Sisters onwards).

Other books I love:

• Love in a Cold Climate/The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford: vaguely and highly entertaining (if rather snobbish!) autobiography of the Mitford family.
• The Dalai Lama's Cat: the teachings of Buddha through the eyes of a cat rescued by the Dalai Lama. It's beautiful and peaceful and funny all at once.
• An Enchanted April: as above

If you like His Dark Materials (don't forget there's the first Book of Dust out!) then maybe have a look at the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy by Laini Taylor - it's not always very light but they're really good books.

I quite like a good autobiography too; Sue Perkins' is brilliant, as is Stephen Fry's series (Moab is my Washpot, The Fry Chronicles, More Fool Me). Other non-fiction books I've loved recently were The Button Box (the story of women's fashion through a family's button box) and The Secret Lives of Colour - they're interesting and engaging but in a neutral way which is good for those "I really just need to be distracted" days :)

Anything by georgette heyer is lovely. I particularly like Venetia. Arabella is also good, as is The Toll Gate. Other recommendations I would make of books I've loved:

The Night Circus

The bride quartet novels by Nora Roberts - pure, pure fluff and escapism

Eat Pray Love - I know this one is controversial and some people find the author egocentric but I really loved it

A walk in the woods by bill Bryson - very funny and gentle and uplifting

Any Sherlock Homes - just good stories and very little heartache

The no 1 ladies detective agency - a gentle joy from start to finish!

Prodigal summer by Barbara kingsolver - just a lovely book

Feel better OP

@Cineraria oh my god, you've just reminded me of the books about Emma - haven't read them since I was a child and had forgotten completely! Thank you for reminding me! Also love your recommendation of Cold Comfort Farm - one of the few books that made me laugh out loud.

The whole of Maya Angelou's autobiographical series is very uplifting/ spirited. Also Anthony Burgess' autobiography.

A Walk in the Woods has one very dark chapter in that it would be best to miss.

As much as I love them, I would be careful with Maya Angelou's autobiographical books if you have ptsd - some possible triggers.

Marking place as I need happy reading.

Only one I can think of that hasn't been mentioned is Catherine Alliott - her books are lighthearted and laugh out loud funny.

I read and re read anything by the late great Sir Terry Pratchett.
He was an absolute genius and his work is uplifting, funny and thought provoking..
Reading TP makes me feel like I’m having a great big warm 🤗
I read every night then snuggle up with Discworld thoughts

Oh yes, Stephen Fry's autobiography and some of his novels too.

I capture the castle

The Alexander McCall Smith Scotland Street series is light and lovely.

But I once read Chicken Soup for the Soul, on a long coach journey. Don't. It was just awful.

Most things by Fannie Flagg are wonderful. I’d start with Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man, or maybe Standing in the Rainbow. I genuinely love them for their feelgoodness if that makes sense! They make me feel so much better when I’ve binged too much end of the world stuff!

Another vote for the Rosie project - really well done chick lit. But skip the sequel, not nearly as good.

A couple of my recent reads have been mentioned, Neverwhere and Equal Rites. On a similar theme I'll add Neil Gaiman's Stardust (film based on it which I hadn't realised) and Good Omens (Gaiman & Pratchet)

Douglas Adams- Hitchhikers books and Dirk Gently's Detective Agency.

My favourite genre is fantasy of a more light hearted teen/ quirky humour variety. I can not get through The Hobbit for love nor money.

Currently on a re-read of Eragon (Christopher Paolini) much better than the film adaptation. I like a good quest. Reading Narnia to the kids at present too.

Another vote for Mapp and Lucia. Always get me out of a blue mood.

I capture the castle

Ooh yes, definitely this! And, of course, Jeeves and Wooster.

I don't gt the love of misery memoires and depressing fiction, same re depressing films and plays. I know some people have crap lives, I don't need to have them inflicted on me. I get enough of the dementor effect through my work. I like my leisure time to be more enjoyable, Reading miserable stuff and talking to miserable people makes you miserable. I need a balance in my life to stay sane. I do like Lionel Shriver though and at the moment am going through a nonfiction phase except for listening to iplayer crime and drama stuff on downloads in the car.

The Blue Castle by LM Montgomery. A lovely book.

I like this thread :)

A couple of people have mentioned autobiographies. Clare Balding's book Walking Home is lovely and she just sounds a top person. I read the Sue Perkins one too, didn't enjoy it quite so much but still a good read.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry is a very warm hearted book.