To ask you to recommend a good novel?

[Ansumpasty]

I’m going through a bad time health wise at the moment and it’s triggering awful anxiety.

Having a hard time switching off and looking for a good book to read to escape from my own mind for a bit!

I don’t like crime/murder mystery or sci-fi.

Thanks

I loved life after life, highly thought provoking and beautifully told.

Try : the one hundred year old man who climbed out the window.

It’s funny, silly and pure escapism. My favourite ever novel.

Get well soon.

I second Life after Life.

Hmmmm if I want a bit of escapism I like maeve binchy and Lucy diamond?
Hope you feel better soon x

Eleanor oliphant is light and entertaining.

I read Gone Girl And was gripped. Disliked ending but many people liked it.

Oh bloody hell, sorry, it is crime!

I really enjoyed A Man Called Ove. Easy and amusing read.

When I'm feeling low or anxious or under the weather, I love reverting to comfy children's books. Not the toddler kind, but nice classic comforting chapter books, like Anne of Green Gables, or the Little House series, or Chalet School, that kind of thing.

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob decided Zoet. It's not light reading but I found it totally immersive in a setting I thought would be of no interest.

My go to when I want something feelgood, not too demanding and lighthearted is one of Georgette Heyer’s regency novels. Bill Bryson, though not fiction, also lifts my spirits, and gives me a giggle.

I read My Not So Perfect Life this week and really enjoyed it. No brain power required.

Also recommend Kate Atkinson, but Behind the Scenes at the Museum :)

It's a few years old now, but I just loved water for elephants.

Second for Eleanor Oliphant - loved it

The last one I read that completely gripped me was A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel.

Miss pettigrew lives for a day - it's a lovely light cinderElla story about a middle aged lady. Marianne - described by one reviewer as a perfect example of a hot water bottle novel. Both of these are published by persephone. I'd seco d the georgette heyer. I've also just discovered kristan higgens and really enjoyedher novels.

Lucinda Riley-Seven Sisters series. Really hooked me.

Anything by Penelope Lively is usually well observed and not too harrowing - a bit meatier than Georgette Heyer, but doesn't lead you into gloomy thoughts. I'm enjoying Family Album at the moment. A mother creating a "perfect" family home and childhood for her 6 children, a family secret slowly emerging, told through an interleaving of reports by all involved, with all their different viewpoints and memories, and a satisfactory ending.

Lovely, thank you, everyone! Off to the library and Waterstones

Lottery by Patricia Wood is a feel good book.
www.goodreads.com/book/show/759175.Lottery?from_search=true

I have always found James Herriott's books very comforting, and they're funny too. I always go back to them when I'm not having a good time.

For pure fun I love the “why mummy drinks” series.
But I also love the kingmaker series, the colour of bee larkhams murder (yes it’s a crime fiction but it’s more about how the protagonist sees the world when he’s blind)
And another really good one I adore is the alternative Disney collection (2 for £7 at most supermarkets at the moment) they are brilliantly written.
Anything by Jenny colgan, the stravaganza series by Mary Hoffman and it started with a tweet are all good escapism options too!

Jilly Cooper are my go to 'pick me up books'

Agree with Eleanor Oliphant suggestions.